How and When to Offer Patient Financing

You're listening to The Dr. Phil Klein Dental Podcast from Viva Learning.com. Thanks for joining us on the show. I'm Dr. Phil Klein. With 40% of Americans unable to cover a surprise, unexpected expense compounded by the tough economic environment we currently face, it's no surprise that the need for patient financing is even greater than ever before. While most offices offer a patient financing solution to overcome cost barriers, many struggle with how and when to bring it up to their patients. Today, we'll be joined by Adrian Valente, Director of Training at Sunbit. Adrian will be sharing his best practices based on thousands of hours of training dental teams across the country. Before we get started, I would like to mention that Adrian's webinar, titled Case Acceptance Essentials, How and When to Offer Patient Financing is now available as an on-demand webinar on VivaLearning.com. Simply type in the search field Valente, V-A-L-E-N-T-E, and you'll see the webinar. It's an excellent program for the entire dental team to watch. Adrian, it's a pleasure to have you on Dental Talk. It's a pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me. So many of us as clinicians and practice owners are aware that there are some challenges when it comes to patient financing. Intuitively, it's fairly obvious why it's important that this is available to the patient. But from your perspective, being a trainer for so long and being in the business of patient financing, what are your thoughts about the importance of patient financing in every dental practice? You know, it's interesting. I often talk to folks that, you know, financing is less about affordability and more about options. You know, you might have folks that are able to pay for all of what they need right now. But how do we know that? They may not be earmarking that for something else. being put at a disadvantage from having to pay for all of that treatment up front so financing has just been so ingrained in our livelihoods whether it's the homes we live in or the cars we drive or even the phones we have in our pockets financing allows people to get what they need now and simply pay over time so when we talk about increasing case acceptance rates or helping broadening the access to care for folks financing is just an additional tool to help folks do that How has the patient financing landscape evolved? And if you would, Adrian, talk about some of the solutions that are available now due to this evolution. Technology has made it a lot easier for people to review their options, apply for financing, and manage their financing. A lot of solutions that have evolved to only do soft credit checks when people apply, you know, a lot of the concerns that folks often have regarding financing are around hard credit checks, which are usually done when people apply for financing. But lately, a lot of solutions have moved away from that, maybe only doing the hard check at the end of a transaction, or perhaps not at all. Sunbit, for example, you know, there's no hard credit checks. So that's something that technology has really enabled a lot of solutions out there to. adapt. Plus, you also have the ability for faster applications while asking less invasive questions. Traditional financing, we picture paperwork in lengthy forms. So what is the definition of a hard credit check? With a soft credit check and a hard credit check. The difference comes down to how it impacts you. You know, a soft credit check doesn't impact your credit score. It doesn't appear on your credit score for other bureaus to see or anything. And soft credit checks often happen when you get like pre-approved for a credit card that's mailed to you. You know, I didn't apply for this. How did I get this soft credit check? So a lot of solutions use that to apply. Now, the scary one is the hard credit check. The hard credit check is the one that dings your credit score a few points. So a lot of traditional financing or older financing, that's what we're used to, you know, a hard check to apply. And folks that have been declined on financing, that's what hurts, you know, wasted their time and it dinged their credit score just for looking, just for seeing if they could get approved. And folks are naturally skeptical of financing applications if they've been declined in the past. They're very worried about that hard check. So that's why a lot of solutions have evolved and they're doing soft checks up front. So it's easier for people to see whether they're approved or declined with no impact either way. But that hard check is the one that dings your score. That's why I think it's important for folks and teams to understand, you know, the options they have. Do they do a heart check? Does it happen up front during the application or at the end? But that's the difference is that heart check will ding you. It's going to show up on your credit report and could impact your credit score. Right. So a patient should know that when they are looking to get some financing to help them get through the dental treatment plan, the tool that the dentist is going to use is going to be either a hard or soft check on their credit. Do you recommend that as a trainer for that communication to occur? Transparency is key. You know, I often think of myself in the shoes of the patient or just as a consumer in general. Like, I want that information disclosed to me, especially if it's a hard check. You know, one of the biggest questions I get in training is, you know, if I have a patient who's in the middle of buying a house, should I still offer them financing? You know, doctor, what do you think that answer is? Oh, you're asking me. Okay. Yeah, I'm curious. You know, if you're in the middle of buying a house and now you're being offered financing for your dental treatment, should you do it? Again, if it's not impacting my credit application, my credit profile, if it doesn't impact it, why not? But if it does, I don't have enough information to know to what extent that would be compromising my mortgage. And this is now touching on some of the biggest objections we hear regarding financing in general. Because now we're getting into murky waters where, you know, there's some variables at play here and I need to understand some things. Because let's say... The financing option doesn't do a hard credit check. Well, that sounds great. I'm in the middle of escrow on a new home. I can apply for this financing because they don't do a hard credit check. But then we also need to understand, does that financing do any credit reporting? Once you've completed that financing transaction, is it now being reported? Because that could impact things as well. And now there's really two things to understand. There's the difference between soft check, hard check. and credit reporting for instance when that process is running through the dental practice and the patient is waiting to find out if they're getting approval is that reported once the patient's approved assuming they are not once they're approved it's only reported once the loan has been opened. So for example, the application process takes a couple of seconds. You know, some of the technology, you just scan an ID and in moments, folks get to see their maximum approval amount and can start reviewing options. So the process of applying, taking out the loan through SEMBA technology only results in a soft credit check, no hard check at any point. But that loan and the payment performance are now getting reported to a major credit bureau. So as you make payments, Those are getting reported. So that's why disclosing that information is so important to folks so they understand, oh, great, no hard credit check, and this loan and my payments are getting reported to a credit bureau. Now, how and when should a dental team make that first proposal to the patient, offering them patient financing? Dental teams should be offering it early and often. You know, I often find that practices and dental teams are waiting. for a patient to ask for it but the reality is a lot of folks don't ask for something they don't know exists so if they don't know what options you have how do we expect them to ask about it or you have practices that don't offer it at all you know it's just there in case they're in a sticky situation with somebody, and as a last resort, they offer financing. And then you also see a lot of practices that simply offer financing when they feel like the patient needs it. Now, all of these scenarios come with some problems. It often sounds like, you know, if you're waiting for a patient to object to your treatment recommendations, now it seems like we're pushing. You know, here's treatment recommendations and a cost. And now the patient's saying no, or I don't want to pay for all that, or it's too expensive. And now you offer financing. It just seems pushy, like a used car salesperson. It never sat comfortably with me. So what I teach and what we often teach at Sunbit is treat it like an amenity. Treat your financing options like a convenience. You know, a good example, you take your car in for service. And as you drop it off, they offer you things. Oh, we got complimentary Wi-Fi, coffee in the lounge, maybe some donuts. And oh, hey, do you need a ride? We have shuttle service or maybe we can call you an Uber or a Lyft. And hey, by the way, we have monthly payment options for whatever you need today. So simple language, treating it like an amenity, offering it up front. These are all strategies to really help ease stress for patients. When I drop my car for service, I don't get offended when they offer me shuttle service or a ride. They're like, how dare you assume I don't have this figured out already? No, I appreciate it. I might not need it now, but maybe next time. So let's take a typical scenario in the dental practice. The patient arrives, they get their x-rays taken, dentist does a comprehensive exam. At what point and how should the patient be presented with patient financing options? And also, is it tacky to have signage in the office or brochures? that the patient could look at throughout the practice on patient financing. Oh, I'm glad you brought that up. It's not tacky at all. In fact, if you try to identify every touch point you have with a patient, there are opportunities to bring it up. So it can happen before they even step foot in the office. You could have information on your website where maybe you have your financing options listed linked to their prequalification. So if they want to explore those options at a time, great. We have practices that often will text message or email appointment reminder templates that include their financing information to get prequalified. We often have people when they're arriving for their appointment, the front office staff will mention the fact that they have options and offer any prequalification links or information. Maybe it's a Sunbit tablet or a link to another financing option. And then the doctor in the exam can also just reinforce the fact like, hey, by the way, we have these options. And then the treatment coordinator at that time now has a much more warmed up conversation. So as we review the doctor's recommendations, it's been mentioned at every touchpoint at this point, so it's not a surprise. And now the treatment coordinator has a much easier time having that conversation to review those options in more detail. So it really is a team effort. And where physically do you recommend having the conversation about financing? In the operatory, in the back office, wherever the billing department is where they meet with these patients, depending on the practice, the front desk, where is the best place to do it? In an office with a treatment coordinator, absolutely. Now, there are some state laws that restrict offering financing or signing off on financing in the chair. And you often hear from many companies that get complaints from patients who feel uncomfortable being offered this in the chair, that they could be under medication, anesthesia, pressure. There's a lot of stress. someone after being in the chair, preferably in an office. And this is a tricky topic because there are, like the state of California, you know, it's illegal, can't do it in the chair. But I do recommend it being done afterwards in an office. Training is very important for every dental team member. How can dental teams be trained to overcome common objections? What's the best way to approach a patient? And is it individualized where the dental team members have to look at each patient? individually and say, I can't use this approach on this patient for whatever reason, but I really need to explain to them that financing is available. But there's variations in the approach. Yeah, I think when you try to cherry pick whom to offer financing to, that puts us in some murky water. There's a law called the Equal Credit Opportunity Act to ensure that businesses don't profile or discriminate against customers for any reason. So if you have dental teams that are sitting there going, well, this person looks like they are pretty wealthy. I'm not going to offer them financing. That's illegal. Or inversely, you know, if they look like they need financing and now you're offering it, that's also you discriminating against folks. So the key is finding simplistic approaches where you can literally offer to everyone. and finding those touch points early and often that are softer and help to alleviate stress. Because if you're only waiting for that conversation on cost, it can be uncomfortable for both sides, both the dental team and the staff and the patient. When practices adopt these strategies, we start to see a lot of benefits. And one of the surprises dental teams will often state is, regardless of the financing option, when I offer it to everybody, my approval rates go up because they're no longer pigeonholing. these options for a specific segment of patients. When you offer it to everybody every time, you're broadening that spectrum of care to more folks, and you start to see a lift in case acceptance rates and approval rates and all these other metrics you track. What impact could adopting these strategies have on a practice? The two most important benefits that adopting these strategies have on a practice is increasing case acceptance rates and broadening the access to care for more folks. If you are unable to bring in more traffic to your office, if increasing the number of patients is a challenge, how do you help your existing patients do more? And to go back to the original question you had previously about treatment recommendations, you can use financing options to help tailor treatment recommendations to fit within a person's budget. Because maybe even with financing, they can't accept the full recommendation. But maybe we can break this out into phases. Maybe we can do this in pieces. And a lot of financing options have made this a lot easier for patients to be able to just get started. And sometimes the act of getting started with financing on phased treatment plans oftentimes will see benefits through a bump in their credit scores, a bump in their approvals for the next round. So you often have practices reporting that when they embrace the methodology of every patient every time, they're capturing a lot more production. And if you're offering it to a broader spectrum of folks, you're seeing those higher approvals, higher transaction amounts. So more production for the office, especially offices that do their own collections or in-house payment plans. That's a big that's a that's a tough challenge, you know, to collect. So identifying partners, financing partners that have rock solid support, steady access to training and help when you need it and making sure that they're treating your patients well. I think are key too. So, you know, if you want to increase case acceptance rates and boost production, you know, let everybody know what options you have because you'd be surprised. We're talking with Adrian Valente, Director of Training at Sunbit. Again, Adrian, thank you very much for your time today. You really enlighten us on a lot of nuances about patient financing that I think our listeners are going to benefit from. And we hope to have you on another podcast in the future. Thank you very much. Thank you.