Appliance Choices and the Fee Presentation

In previous posts I have emphasized the importance of helping patients select a single treatment plan during the consultation. For the doctor, this means taking an “if it were me” approach to selecting the best treatment plan when there are multiple options; as I have noted previously, leaving the decision on how best to proceed among options with the person least qualified to decide upon an option – the patient – is helpful to neither the patient nor the practice.

The importance of making a single decision also has relevance when it comes to choices in appliances. I recently reviewed a video consult with one of my client’s TCs in which the option of clear or metal braces had been presented during the appliance review. This step was well handled by the TC; however, as with many of her peers, the presentation of these options was concluded without asking the patient if they had a preference between the options presented (as you will see in a moment, they did). Because the decision on which appliance option was preferred was not finalized, and because the practice charged, like many of you do, a premium for clear braces, this greatly complicated the fee presentation. As you would expect, throughout the fee presentation and payment options the TC had to basically double-present everything, one option with metal and another with clear, making the fee presentation complicated, cumbersome and, worst of all, hard for the patient family to follow.

It is important to remember that, after choices have been presented in appliances, most people know which option they prefer, even if there is a price difference. The key is to ask – and to do so before the fee presentation is initiated. Something as simple as “do you have a preference?” will often get this issue resolved. If there is a fee difference, as was the case here, the TC could have said; “the difference between metal and clear braces is $_____. Which option do you prefer?”

In the aforementioned case,  at the end of the fee presentation, the patient volunteered to the TC that they preferred the metal braces option – a point that, had we addressed it prior to fees being presented, would have greatly simplified things for both the TC and the patient, and saved a lot of time, too. So the points to remember here are:

• Treat the appliance review and the fee presentation as two completely different steps, and pause at the end of the appliance review to address any choices left to be made;
• If choices are involved, ask the patient to choose;
• If there are cost differences, tell the patient what those are and, having provided that, ask them to choose;
• Have these issues resolved so that you can calculate a singular fee and requisite payment options.

Our goal is always to make it easy for the patient to make a well-informed decision. Eliminating unnecessary obstacles, such as appliance options not of interest to the patient, will simplify the fee presentation process and pave the way to “yes” .  The key is to ask what the patient wants before presenting recommendations and fees.