As the costs of running a dental practice continue to rise, it’s important to make sure that your plan fees keep pace. Regional Support Manager (RSM), Josie Hutchings, shares some advice on how best to go about increasing your fees.
These days, seeing an increase in the cost of something is almost a daily occurrence. So, while patients may not like the idea of their fees going up, it shouldn’t come as a big surprise to them.
It’s best not to leave too long a gap between fee increases. Annually is advisable but certainly no less frequently than every other year. It’s much better to adopt a ‘little and often’ approach rather than leave it a few years and then, have to play catch up and implement a big price increase.
Review your plans
When you’re preparing for your fee increase it’s a good idea to audit your plans. Are they still fit for purpose? Do you need to introduce new plans with different timings or frequencies? If you have any full care plans, are you re-banding patients every year?
If you do have full care plans, take some time to review them to make sure they’re still giving you the income you need. These plans may be costing you money, so it could be time to look at moving patients on to your maintenance-based plans. Get in touch with your RSM if you would like help with this.
When it comes to setting the amount of your fee increase don’t just guess on a percentage increase or just do what everyone else does! Take a good look at your expenditure; are there any impending expenses such as practice refurbishment or purchase of new equipment? Any identified should be built into your fee increases. Contact your Relationship Support Advisor (RSA) or RSM if you would like some support.
Something else to consider is whether you have been sticking to the right length of appointment for routine exams and hygiene visits. If your plan fees were built on 15-minute exams, then taking any longer over these appointments will dilute your hourly rate considerably. Be realistic and if your exams really are taking longer than the time you originally envisaged then factor that into your fee review.
Review all fees
At the same as you’re reviewing your plan fees you will also need to have a look at your private treatment charges as well. Your membership plan should always offer the best value for money for your patients. If you increase your plan fees without adjusting your pay-as-you-go charges, there is a danger that your plan may end up being more expensive which would make plan a much less attractive proposition to patients.
Although patients are accustomed to everything going up in price, that doesn’t mean they are happy to hear about something else becoming more expensive. Your team is likely to have to field questions and objections from patients. Although most people will have heard about the increases in the minimum wage and Employer National Insurance, they won’t necessarily have made the connection between them and the running costs of their dental practice. Make sure that you have trained your team on how to answer any questions they may get from patients about your fee increases.
Most people will accept the change without a murmur, whereas others may wish to complain about it. Your team will need to know how to respond when someone challenges the increase.
You can carry out the initial set up of your fee increase through Supportal. If you’re not sure how to go about this, as a Practice Plan customer you can get help from our Fee Increase team (feeincrease@practiceplan.co.uk).
