10 Ways to Help Make It Easier for Patients to Manage Their Dental Care Costs

Dental care isn't just about a bright smile and clean teeth — it's a vital part of maintaining overall health.¹ However, 58% of people surveyed for Synchrony's Dental Lifetime of Care Study, including those with dental insurance, think dental care is not affordable.² Even if emergency dental care was required, 83% of respondents said they would consider holding off due to cost concerns.²

Dental practices can help make it easier for patients to move forward with care in a number of ways. That might be by lowering dental costs for patients or offering patient financing solutions. This can improve the dental payment experience, helping to increase overall patient satisfaction and retention.³

In general, being empathetic to a patient's financial situation can help level up your practice. Connecting with your patients and understanding their concerns may help you stand out from other providers. Read on to learn more about strategies that can help patients better manage their dental costs.

Strategies to Help Patients Manage Their Dental Costs

As a dental provider, there are different ways you can help make it easier for patients to pay for their dental care and possibly lower dental costs. Taking the time to discuss and explore a variety of payment options with a prospective patient in a respectful and authentic manner can help build trust. This trust can create a greater willingness to move forward with oral health treatment.⁴

Here are 10 ideas to consider to help patients manage and potentially lower dental costs:

1. Offer a sliding scale of payment based on their income level to patients who don't have dental insurance.
2. Offer an in-house dental plan, like a monthly subscription model, as an alternative to traditional dental insurance.
3. Prepare a dental discount plan or participate in a dental discount network.
4. Offer in-house payment plans to patients.
5. Offer third-party patient financing options, such as the CareCredit health and wellness credit card, which offers patients financing options without your team having to manage extended payment arrangements.
6. Send email and/or text reminders to patients to use their FSA funds before they expire, and to come in for visits before their deductibles reset.
7. Provide pro bono dental care through community outreach via educational workshops or free services to underserved populations.
8. Help connect patients with government programs or charitable organizations that can subsidize their dental care.
9. Educate patients and send out reminders encouraging them to stay on top of their preventative care to help avoid larger dental care costs down the road.
10. Offer customized treatment plans that present options for different procedures and products that are more aligned with a patient's budget.

Providing one or more of these types of payment options, discounts and financial resources can help make dental care more affordable or manageable and help ensure patients receive the care they need.

Comparing In-House and Third-Party Financing Solutions

There are multiple in-house options to work with when it comes to helping your patients better manage the costs of their dental care. But you should also understand the main differences between in-house and third-party financing solutions so you know which method makes the most sense for your dental practice.

Here is a quick look at the key elements of each financing solution:

• In-house payment plans. With these plans, dental providers assume the financial risk. If a patient falls behind on payments, it can disrupt the provider's revenue flow. To help prevent this, providers often conduct a thorough onboarding process for new patients, which usually includes a payment plan setup, patient credit checks and legal compliance, among others.⁵

• Third-party financing programs. These programs can allow for faster payment to the dental provider. The dental practice typically gets paid upfront by the lender, and the patient repays the lender over time. This can help reduce financial risk for the provider and eliminate the need for the practice to spend so much time handling the logistics of setting up and maintaining patient payment plans because the patient financing company is doing a lot of that work instead.⁶

If you decide to adopt a flexible patient financing solution from a third party like CareCredit, your patients may be able to spread the cost of their dental care over time and gain access to a revolving line of credit — which means they can use their CareCredit credit card again and again and with other health and wellness providers at locations in the CareCredit network.

Providers can also benefit when they accept the CareCredit credit card at their practice. For example, providers will get paid directly within two business days, and there’s no financial recourse if the patient payment is delayed or defaulted.**

Breaking Down Cost Barriers Can Help Patients

Helping patients to move forward with dental care can be challenging due to the perceived prohibitive costs.² Offering patients the power to choose a payment method that best suits their financial circumstances can help build a dental practice that can be recognized for patient-centric care.

A Dental Patient Financing Solution for Your Practice

Want to help more patients move forward with the dental care they want or need? Consider offering the CareCredit credit card as a financing solution. CareCredit allows patients to pay for out-of-pocket dental care costs over time while helping enhance the payments process for your practice.

When you accept CareCredit, patients can see if they prequalify with no impact to their credit score, and those who apply, if approved, can take advantage of special financing on qualifying purchases.* Additionally, you will be paid directly within two business days.

Learn more about the CareCredit credit card as a dental patient financing solution or start the provider enrollment process by filling out this form.

Author Bio

Suchi Rudra is a content writer and journalist with more than 15 years of experience in creating B2B content for small businesses and major brands and writing reported feature articles for consumer and trade publications. Her writing has focused on emerging tech and entrepreneurship, real estate, sustainable building plus design, travel and education.

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