How to offer consultation fees over the phone
What do you say to a patient when they call and ask, how much does it cost for this type of procedure?
How can you be sure what procedure is needed when you’re talking to someone over the phone without a consultation?
Even dentures or implants have lots of variables to treatment.
We need to know are extractions needed before the partial is made? What type of partial are we going to make?
Is a bone graft needed before the implant?
Is a core buildup needed before the crown is done?
We want to give the patient the best information possible, but if we don’t have all the information, we aren’t going to be able to give a good accurate answer about the costs of treatment.
So often it’s better to have a consultation and see what’s needed if the patient really wants to know the costs for dental work.
A consult provides an opportunity to do an exam and explain to the patient the treatment and the fees, which will help the patient to know better what to expect and what’s needed.
How to handle calls about cost
So how do we handle these calls?
Depending on your office philosophy and the circumstances for the call, you may tell the patient, we have great doctors. The doctor does a lot of this type of procedure for many patients.
Many patients are very happy with the results, and the doctor has had this training and experience.
Our office isn’t the cheapest and we aren’t the most expensive. We try to offer quality, caring service and stay priced in the middle with our fees.
There are a lot of variables to treatment, and each patient will need different things. There are lots of different types of partial dentures. There are different steps needed for implants and even additional steps sometimes needed for crowns.
Recommend a consultation for best information
Recommend setting up a consultation so that we can see exactly what the patient needs and
answer any questions about treatment and fees. There may be insurance benefits to help.
And then after you say this to the patient, we want to remove any obstacles they have to coming in for a consultation.
If the patient has insurance, probably there’s a benefit for a limited exam and an x-ray, which
this could be checked.
If the patient is uninsured have a plan on how to handle this.
Some procedures like orthodontic consultations, you may want to just have a free consult.
You may also want to do this for a denture or crown. But if it’s a toothache and you aren’t doing free exams for this, have a set fee that you can tell the patient.
Our emergency consultation fee is X amount of dollars. That includes an exam and an X-ray.
Once we have the X-rays and exam, we can fully explain the treatment and the fees for any treatments such as a filling, crown, root canal, extraction, implant or partial.
Whatever the patient expectations are for the consult- make a note for the clinical staff. If the patient was told it would be a free consult for braces, make sure this expecting noted so there are no surprises for the patient. Or if additional procedures are recommended that appointment- fees can be explained to the patient.
The goal is to help set up a visit for the patient so that they can take their first step to getting the information they need about the treatment and the cost so that we can take care of the patient.