What are the Average Dental Revenue Numbers for Your Practice?

As a dental practice consultant with years of experience in the field, I’ve seen firsthand how understanding and effectively managing your dental revenue can influence your practice’s long-term health and success. Dental revenue is the cornerstone of your business, and it’s vital to your growth and sustainability. Every practice can struggle with decreased collections, staff turnover, and inefficient management processes. Let’s delve into some of the ways you can assess the health of your practice, as well as talk about some solutions that can help you collect and produce more.

Key metrics for assessing the average dental revenue cycle

To begin, let’s focus on a few key figures. Across most practices, the average collection ratio—a measure of the efficiency with which payments are collected—typically hovers around 97%. While this seems impressive initially, there are ways to get closer to 100%. In some reports, the collection ratio has surged to a whopping 131.40%. But how is this possible?

Let’s look at another metric: Your accounts receivable (AR) over 90 days. On average, a practice might see an AR of approximately $100,000. Yet, in instances where the collection ratio has been bolstered, this figure drops significantly, to around $26,000. The key financial implication is that by improving the collection ratio, your practice can substantially reduce its outstanding accounts and put that AR money into the bank.

In terms of production (which represents the total services provided by the practice), the average total production is about $95,000. However, those practices that have worked on their collection ratios see a significant increase, up to about $150,000. It’s worth noting that net production (production after adjustments like discounts) sees a similar improvement, jumping from an average of $75,000 to approximately $124,000.

Methods for increasing your collection ratio

What’s the secret to these remarkable improvements? And how can your practice increase collections and therefore dental revenue? Starting with the basics, assess the following sources of overhead to see what can be scaled back, better optimized, or shopped around to reduce rates:

• • • • Staff turnover, salaries, and benefits
      • Office mortgage or lease payments
      • Lab supplies and equipment costs
      • Business insurance and personal liabilities

Decreasing your overhead is only the first piece of your revenue cycle management puzzle. You must increase collections while removing the bugbear of your over 90 AR. Of course, that means that the bigger answer lies in optimizing your dental billing process, and a key strategy here can be outsourcing to experts who work directly with your in-house team. Gone are the days when outsourcing is a scary prospect with other people handling your money and removing accountability for providing your practice the results it needs. There is a better way.

Your bespoke solution: outsourced dental billing

Outsourcing dental billing allows practices to leverage the specialized skills and expertise of billing experts with years of experience and their own dental billing businesses. With the vast changes in insurance policies, billing codes, and overall complexities of dental billing, it can be increasingly difficult for dental offices to manage this completely internally.

By outsourcing, your practice gains a dedicated team that ensures claims are submitted correctly, follow-ups are handled promptly, and all amounts owed are collected. Additionally, it frees up your staff to focus on providing the best possible care to the patients who walk through your door each day.

How is my dental revenue affected by outsourcing dental billing?

Here’s how it works: After each patient appointment, your dental billing team is responsible for coding the procedures and sending them to the insurance company for quick reimbursement. They will also follow up on the claims, help establish timely payments, and address any denial or delay in claims. This systematic, thorough approach maximizes your collection ratio over time, leading to decreased AR and increased total and net production. This works for outstanding patient statements, too, and collecting 100% of what you’re rightfully owed is easy with eAssist.

Your partner in dedicated dental revenue solutions

Ultimately, the figures show a clear story: Outsourcing dental billing can transform your practice’s financial health by significantly increasing dental revenue. A higher collection ratio leads to lower outstanding receivables and a boost in total and net production, all contributing to a healthier bottom line.

eAssist understands that this doesn’t mean compromising the quality of patient care; rather, it allows your practice to focus on what you do best—providing exceptional patient care—while leaving the intricacies of billing and collections to dedicated experts. You can be sure that your AR is being worked every day, with accountability reports that give you peace of mind. There’s nothing quite like seeing those numbers go up in real time.

The first step to increased dental revenue begins an exciting journey to better success. Having a dedicated partner who helps to collect 100% of what you’re rightfully owed, works to get your AR to near zero, and keeps it there are just two benefits of partnering with eAssist. Schedule a consultation today and let us hear your vision of perfect success—in profitability and beyond.

Racheal Grant

Business Development Specialist

Racheal has 19 years of experience in the dental industry, beginning as a dental assistant and expanding into dental administration, which gave her a deep understanding of practice operations. Since joining eAssist in 2015, she has helped practices streamline workflows and boost revenue. Now, as a Business Development Specialist, she works closely with dental practice owners and office managers to identify challenges and demonstrate how eAssist’s solutions can drive success.