Increasing Practice Value and Revenue with Technology
By: Jeremy Bono, Sr. Technology Product Marketing Manager – ABB Optical Group
Patient satisfaction no longer just pertains to whether the patient was satisfied with their exam. Instead, it is an all-encompassing measurement that pertains to the entire patient experience.
From booking the appointment to how they were greeted at the front desk and from the variety of frame choices to how they perceive the overall value for the money and time spent, all these things and more are critical pieces to the achieving the highest ratings from patients.
Like it or not, patients are consumers. While many practices have difficulty making that connection, for those who do, it opens a new viewpoint from which to manage their practice.
Successful practice owners operating with this mentality often leverage technology to exceed patient expectations and maintain high levels of patient retention. The pleasant byproduct of implementing these systems is improved in-office efficiencies and increased revenue.
For the past six months, ABB has been conducting various surveys to gain valuable insight into the ECP’s thought processes. Consistently, topics of revenue and efficiencies rank at the top of the most pressing operational issues. Yet, the interest level of activating the very technologies that can ease these concerns rank at the bottom of the list. Lack of time, awareness, uncertainty, risk and cost are all very plausible reasons for the disparity between these thoughts, but they shouldn’t prohibit the practice from at least considering these technologies.
There are numerous solutions to help protect your patient base while appealing to their buying preference and addressing some problematic office workflows, but there is no need to overcomplicate things.
Simply start by asking:
- What does your patient base want and need from your practice, so you are their eye care provider for years to come?
- Is it varied communication?
- Ease to schedule an appointment or reorder their contact lenses?
- Maybe they want the option for a virtual visit.
- Maybe it’s as simple as helping them maximize their insurance benefits.
An estimated 20% of patients have unused benefits. And, if they are not on your schedule the likelihood of them maximizing those benefits, which can amount to tens of thousands of incremental practice revenue each and every month, is extremely low.
ABB Verify, powered by Affinity Analytics, solves this issue by target marketing to patients who have remaining insurance benefits and do not currently have an appointment. Each month, practice branded emails and texts are sent to those patients to drive them back to the office so they can make use of their benefits whether it be for clinically necessary specialty contact lenses, a second pair of eyeglasses or exam.
Proper use of technology can provide your patients what they need to hold your practice in high regard. Additionally, this same technology can help bridge any gaps between profitability, process efficiency and patient satisfaction.
If you’re interested in learning how you can exceed patient expectations and your financial goals by making the most of unused benefits and cut the time it takes to pull authorizations in half, please contact us today to schedule a demo on ABB Verify. Your patients and your practice staff will thank you.
