Like many of you, I have been passing my time isolating. A thought I haven’t been able to shake is “how do DSOs recapture the productivity that they’d usually generate if offices were not shuttered.”
Something else bothering me was the realization that a lot fewer patients will qualify for patient financing as the economy slows down.
It took a lot of pondering; however, I eventually came across the idea of seeking out a lender that meets credit challenged borrowers where they are.
I did some digging and came across PrimaHealth Credit®. They may not be a household name — and their goal isn’t to replace CareCredit® — rather serve as an add-on lender for when CareCredit says no (which I often hear is about 50% of the time).
After speaking with their CEO, I realized that PrimaHealth Credit will help DSOs accept more patients, leading to higher treatment plan acceptance and production.
That led me down the rabbit hole of number crunching. One of the easiest ways to make up revenue from temporarily shuttered offices is to work with a lender able to approve more patients, including those with challenged credit or who are underbanked.
With COVID-19, I fully expect that many patient finance companies will be tightening their belts even more, which will lead to fewer approved patients. PrimaHealth Credit assures me that they are actually in the midst of expanding their existing offering to include both the credit-challenged and underbanked patient.
My thinking (as we are in unprecedented times) is that with many Americans being laid off or unable to work full-time due to COVID-19, an increasing number will rely on payment plans to cover their out-of-pocket expenses. Of course, there has to be a lender willing to lend and this is where I think PrimaHealth Credit will shine.
PrimaHealth Credit is a licensed lender. It’s CEO has years of prior experience as a former operator of orthodontic practices where he experienced first-hand how patients struggled to pay for out-of-pocket expenses, particularly credit-challenged and underbanked consumers. He worries that DSOs that offer their own financing plans will struggle to assess patient credit worthiness in this new environment, while lacking the resources to properly collect and service such loans. This is another area the company completely covers for its DSO partners.
Jefferson Dental & Orthodontics, a leading dental support organization with 70 affiliated clinics throughout Texas, is a believer in the platform, saying:
“PrimaHealth Credit has been easy to use for our staff and has helped us serve more patients, increase our production, and contributed to delivering a five-star patient experience,” said Stacey Schmitt, the company’s CFO. “Our first priority is to provide excellent care to our patients, so we’re grateful to have an alternative financing solution for those who need it.”
The DSO provides a broad range of general dentistry, orthodontic, and other specialty dental services.
The backlog of deferred treatment is continuing to grow as operations at DSOs remain limited. The DSOs that have payment solutions for as many of these patients as possible will likely come out ahead.
