The last quarter of the year is often the busiest for dental practices, with patients racing to maximize their insurance benefits and schedules quickly filling up. Amid the chaos of juggling appointments, managing staff schedules, and preparing for the holidays, it’s essential not to overlook the importance of year-end communication and recare efforts. Proper planning ensures higher patient engagement, smoother operations, and improved financial outcomes—all while setting the stage for a successful new year.
With Curve SuperHero’s™ cloud-based tools, dental practices can streamline patient communication and pull key reports to stay on top of appointments, insurance claims, and outstanding treatments. In this article, we’ll explore how to optimize year-end communication and recare efforts, ensuring your practice finishes the year strong.
Contact Patients with Unscheduled Treatment Plans
Patients often delay recommended treatments, and the end of the year is a perfect time to remind them of outstanding procedures they can schedule while insurance benefits are still available. Curve’s treatment plan reports make it easy to identify patients with unscheduled treatments and automate follow-up messages.
Why This Matters:
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Maximizes Year-End Revenue: More scheduled treatments boost production and close out the year with stronger financials.
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Helps Patients Utilize Insurance Benefits: Patients appreciate being reminded of unused benefits before they expire.
With automated messaging templates available through Curve’s platform, practices can send personalized emails and texts to patients, encouraging them to schedule appointments before the year ends. Don’t forget to include in your message the availability of online self-scheduling on your appointment schedule, which is kept up to date in real time and makes it easy for patients to select the type of appointment they need.
Clean Your Active Patient List for Improved Communication
Use Curve’s reporting tools to pull an active patient report and remove duplicate or outdated records. Scrubbing the active patient list ensures that your patient communications—such as appointment reminders and treatment follow-ups—reach those who are actively engaged with your practice.
Benefits of Data Hygiene Before Year-End:
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Improves Appointment Scheduling: Clean data ensures reminders and follow-ups are sent to active patients.
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Increases Reporting Accuracy: Accurate records provide more reliable insights for end-of-year metrics and next year’s planning.
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Optimizes Marketing Efforts: Better data allows for more targeted marketing campaigns, increasing patient retention and acquisition.
Plan for Fee Adjustments and Insurance Communication
Year-end is also a time to review your fee schedule and communicate any upcoming price adjustments to patients and insurance providers. With Curve’s financial reporting tools, you can assess which procedures need price changes to align with costs or industry benchmarks.
Four Reasons for Communicating Fee Adjustments Before Year End:
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Improved Patient Communication: If patients have co-pays or out-of-pocket costs tied to insurance rates, communicating the updated fees ensures patients aren’t surprised by higher costs.
When explaining fee adjustments, it’s helpful to frame the changes as necessary to keep delivering high-quality care despite increased operational costs. Many patients appreciate the heads-up and will take advantage of the opportunity to schedule treatments before the new year to avoid higher fees. This approach positions your practice as transparent and proactive, giving patients control over their care decisions while reinforcing your commitment to clear and honest communication.
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Preventing Claim Rejections: If the practice updates its fees but doesn't notify insurance providers in advance, insurance claims submitted with the new rates may be rejected or delayed, as the new fees wouldn’t match the insurer’s records.
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Updating Insurance Fee Schedules: Many insurance providers have contracts with dental practices that set allowable fees for specific procedures. Alerting them beforehand ensures that both parties can update their systems with the new rates, avoiding discrepancies during billing.
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Ensuring Timely Reimbursements: Smoother billing transitions mean that claims can be processed without delays once the new fees take effect. If fee changes are communicated in advance, insurance companies will adjust their systems accordingly, reducing the risk of slowed payments.
Use Recare Efforts to Improve RCM Performance
A well-organized recare strategy boosts patient engagement and enhances revenue cycle management (RCM) by reducing the number of outstanding collections. With Curve’s tools, practices can monitor:
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A/R Aging Reports: Focus collection efforts on accounts with overdue balances.
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Outstanding Claims: Track claim statuses to ensure timely reimbursement from insurance providers.
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Payment Reminders: Automate patient reminders to reduce late payments and improve cash flow.
Effective recare efforts ensure patients remain engaged and financially compliant, contributing to smoother collections and higher year-end revenue.
Pull Patient Credit Reports to Resolve Outstanding Balances
A patient credit report helps ensure that any overpayments or patient refunds are processed before the books are closed for the year. Curve’s patient management software makes it easy to identify credit balances and send reminders to patients or insurance providers about outstanding payments.
Benefits of Closing Out Balances:
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Improves Patient Relationships: Prompt refunds enhance patient satisfaction.
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Clears Financial Books: Entering the new year with a clean ledger ensures accurate financial planning.
Organize Your Holiday Schedule Early
Scheduling around the holidays can be challenging, with staff taking time off and patients managing busy personal schedules. Use Curve’s scheduling tools to plan by identifying who will be out of the office and determining if a temporary office closure makes sense.
Key Steps for a Smooth Holiday Schedule:
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Identify Staff Availability: Ensure adequate coverage during the holidays.
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Communicate Holiday Hours: Notify patients about any schedule changes well in advance.
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Pre-Fill Appointment Slots: Use automated reminders to confirm appointments and reduce last-minute cancellations.
Curve SuperHero: Your Partner for End-of-Year Success
Optimizing communication and recare efforts requires the right tools, and Curve’s cloud-based dental platform is designed to streamline your practice operations. With customizable reports, real-time dashboards, and automated communication tools, Curve makes it easy to track financial performance metrics, engage with patients, and boost revenue—all while preparing for a smooth transition into the new year.
Get ahead of the year-end rush and optimize your operations with Curve today. The last quarter of the year is an excellent time to schedule a personalized demo to see how Curve can help your practice thrive in the new year.
