Hi everyone,
and thank you for tuning into the Becker's Healthcare podcast series.
I'm Brian Zimmerman, a v p client Content Strategy with Becker's Healthcare.
Today I'm pleased to be joined by Lance Haffey,
senior director of Industry Marketing Healthcare Principle at RingCentral Lance.
So thank you so much for being here.
Hey, thanks, Brian. Great to join you.
So, so let's dive in here and just to get started, I'm, I, I,
I'm hoping you can share a bit about yourself, your role in organization. So,
so folks listening to this can really appreciate your perspective.
I've led healthcare industry practices at four major communications
focused vendors,
and where I focus on how communications and collaboration solutions can really
have an impact and improve overall health service delivery and the overall
patient experience.
And currently as the leader within RingCentral's healthcare practice, uh,
as you mentioned, I direct all industry marketing and go to market strategy,
but I also partner with our vertical industry solutions product team to always
be delivering new healthcare product innovations to the healthcare market.
And I also work very closely, um,
on sales enablement with our extended teams there as well.
Excellent. Well, great to have you on the podcast. I really wanna focus here on,
on some of the challenges DSOs are seeing here,
specifically around reimbursements, rate rates, sort of being stagnant,
obviously, um, despite rising operating costs in dentistry. So Lance,
in your work with DSOs, how are you really seeing this, this trend manifest and,
and how are leaders navigating these challenges?
So I think that static revenue and rising operational
cost impacts all healthcare providers, including DSOs. It's,
it's certainly a priority for our D ss O clients and where I'm seeing those
leaders navigate, you know,
this kind of persistent challenges focusing on where they can better optimize
revenue cycles and specifically how can they improve some very
directed KPIs like referral churn,
where can they speed AR collections or where can they help
improve new patient appointment conversions? And I believe by,
you know, improving and focusing on just these three,
along with many other KPIs, uh,
the DSOs can expand their current revenue performance
by just simply having a better, uh, healthier revenue chain.
And then I think that really helps combat the,
the stagnant reimbursement levels and also the increasing operational cost.
And then can you talk a little bit more about sort of the role of, of,
of technology in, in navigating these challenges and,
and really addressing these sort of lagging reimbursements? And,
and I'm curious here too, if you can ground, uh, your, your response with some,
with some examples, getting a little specific here.
Yeah, absolutely. So, uh,
let's stay within the revenue cycle workflows that I just highlighted,
and even more specifically, let's just use a K P I of referral churn as,
as an example to discuss. So all of healthcare,
including DSOs,
a majority of referrals are faxed and based, uh,
probably about 56% if you just look at industry averages, unfortunately,
about 46% of those faxed referrals,
they fail to convert to appointments.
So that's a huge missed revenue opportunity,
and that would certainly help offset static reimbursements by
leveraging some, some pretty basic communication technologies.
Our G S O clients have definitely improved referral conversions.
So I'll give you an example.
So to create aircover for incoming fax referrals,
first they assign a dedicated phone extension for just referrals,
and then all incoming fax referrals, whether digital or not,
are managed, uh,
digitally through EFAs and come in just through that primary extension.
And then that also allows them to assign rules-based notifications of incoming
referrals across different teams.
And this can be done via S m Ss on their mobile devices.
It can be done as a voice notification of an incoming referral, uh,
or call.
And by just creating that air cover and that immediate notification of an
incoming referral facts, uh,
the teams are just ready and can take action against it.
And so that's gonna dramatically improve the response times to time sensitive
referrals.
And it's definitely had a significant impact on increasing referral to
appointment, uh, conversion rates. So if we, uh, uh, you know,
if we have time, I'll, I'll also address, um, you know,
another metric here and that is appointment conversion.
So this is where AI can really be quite convenient for
DSOs as well, artificial intelligence.
So another area is just simply missed calls and
whether it's a referral or whether it's just a, uh,
an existing or a new patient looking to schedule, again,
it's very time sensitive. So by using ai,
our D s O clients can capture all of the missed calls that they didn't have an
opportunity to get to through ai.
Those calls are automatically routed to an outbound queue
for immediate callback,
and when the prospective patient takes that call off hook,
it immediately connects a representative from the practice.
So we've had clients that have actually recouped up to 20% of their missed calls
and converted them to new patient appointments.
So I think if you look at the technologies I've highlighted SS m s messaging,
EAC using AI to do some intuitive call routing,
it's not particularly complicated,
but it has a real significant impact on just improving revenue capture.
Yeah.
Yeah. And I, I think it's really easy to conceptualize, um, sort of the,
the impact something like, you know, referral to appointment conversion rate,
how, how that can really help improve that revenue capture there. But I, I,
I'm wondering if we can also just go a little bit deeper here and talk more
about really how the, how these technologies can improve R O I. Right.
Uh, just I imagine leaders, you know, listening to this,
leaders working in the dental practice space, um,
with expenses outpacing revenue, really being able to, to, to,
to show that R R O I to codify it, um, is, is very important for these folks.
So are there any best practices you can come to mind when it comes to,
to r o i showing r o I or, or anything you have to say about this?
Yeah, absolutely. So let,
let's start with where I think a lot of practices focus probably too much.
And they,
they tend to look at T C O or total cost of ownership when they make an
investment in technology. And I think that's just a carryover practice. Uh,
that's longstanding it, you know, if you buy a certain piece of technology,
how many procedures do you need to run through it for, uh,
it to be paid for, et cetera? And, and it's a, it's a solid metric,
but T c o as a metric doesn't really
represent a direct operational improvement, especially on the revenue side.
And that's where focusing more on a return on investment measurement is,
is much more focused and measurable, and the outcome means more.
So let's stay in our example of referral churn,
and let's just use some,
some industry averages and let's look at the K P I and then really how that can
map to a return on investment. So roughly,
this is an industry average across a, a, a different complexion of providers,
but typically 20% of a patient, uh,
practice rev patient practice revenue is based on referrals.
Uh,
and then you basically just multiply that against your total patient revenue.
And that's, that's the, you know,
that's the area that's the key K P I that you're trying to improve. Um,
as I mentioned,
56% of referrals are faxed and 45% of them fail to
convert. So that's the lost revenue to be improved.
And I think another best practice is, is make the improvement attainable.
R o i in healthcare is about making small incremental changes to a really big
problem. And then just by sheer volume,
it actually nets out a pretty aggressive return on investment.
So let's say we just want to improve, uh, the, the conversion failure rate,
uh, by 10%. Um, so let's,
let's improve off of 45% of those that aren't converting by 10%.
So that's the gain or the return.
Then you're just simply doing an R O I calculation at that point.
So you're taking the return,
you're minusing the investment in some of the technologies that I've mentioned,
you divide it back by the investment,
then you multiply it by a hundred and you're gonna see, you know,
generally a double if not triple digit return on investment.
And I think that's really where practices should focus.
They have all the data there. Um,
it's not complex to look at where are we now, where can we be?
And then they just simply need to measure it.
You're not only showing the value of that technology investment,
but you're showing material revenue improvement as a result of
leveraging it to improve overall, uh,
operational performance and some key KPIs. So that,
that's what I'd recommend is focus more on, on, uh,
R O I versus T C O.
Uh, yeah. And as you mentioned, this isn't necessarily super complex, but a, a,
a small tweak, a a small improvement or, um, uh,
operationally can yield big results down the road. Um, uh, but,
but I'm also curious, you know, we, we,
we've talked about sort of how these improvements,
operational improvements can sort of, um, yield benefits for,
for these organizations. But, uh, you know,
I imagine a lot of folks out there exploring new potential revenue sources,
revenue streams. What opportunities are,
are you seeing d ss o leaders sort of leveraging or, or,
or taking advantage of and or,
or maybe even what do you see potential opportunities coming on the horizon?
Yeah, I, I observe, I think most of our D s O clients exercising,
I think what are pretty common approaches from something as simple as offering,
you know, fluoride treatments,
maybe really pushing night guards to help those patients with inclusion
management, um, needs, um, to, you know,
really stepping it up and, and offering, you know,
higher value services, if you will, like veneers and,
and things of that nature. So I think most of the, our client practices are,
are leveraging those types of things. Now, I represent technology,
so one, one area that I would focus on away from pure, uh,
dental service organic expansion,
and that's the area I'm always very interested to see where Teledentistry, uh,
can continue to support virtual consults.
And I see some of our clients be pretty creative with it,
so they use it to make connections and introductions between general
dentistry practices and other specialists where a patient may be in the
chair and they're going to have some fairly significant, uh,
oral surgery where they're gonna be operated on, and they,
they make a soft introduction via video to those specialists just so that
specialist can kind of walk them through, you know, what, what it's,
what the experience will be like, you know, both, uh, pre, during and,
and post-treatment. I've also started to see some of our, uh,
practices look at leveraging dentists to actually supervise satellite
clinics where the clinics are just providing, you know, general cleaning and,
and hygiene type of services that don't necessarily require an onsite
professional dentist,
but they can certainly supervise and leverage teledentistry for that.
And it's not huge reimbursement. I know there's some,
some dental codes that pay anywhere from, you know,
maybe around 13 to up to maybe $20. But it's,
it's a volume type of scenario, just like all dental services are.
But this is where I see, you know, we, you know,
when we compare to other provider environments,
we're seeing remote ICUs outside of the, the core acute hospital.
We're seeing hospital at home models where a much higher acute level of care is
being delivered. So I think it's very possible to continue to see the,
the use of video to enhance, you know, preventative check-in,
maybe non-emergency type dental interventions via teledentistry, that,
that excites me. And I,
I think that'll continue to be part of a communication channel that is leveraged
in the D ss O space.
Yeah. And, and thinking about that, it, it, it sounds like it's really a way to,
to thinking about tho those dental specialists or, or,
or dentists sort of working or helping to supervise some of these remote
locations, really expanding the, the influence of, of dental talent of, of,
of these dentists ability to meet the demand that's out there. Am I,
am I reading that correctly, Lance?
Yeah, I think it's about creating, uh, uh,
it's about creating scale and it's about creating scale where you can be
reimbursed for it.
And I think that's where you can organically grow practice revenues,
even if it's just a, a minor service line. Uh,
it can definitely make a difference and, and help again,
address the legging reimbursements and increasing operational cost. So I,
I think it's definitely, um, you know,
it's being used today and I think you'll continue to see that particular
modality used even more.
Excellent. Well, uh, it, it's been a pleasure having you on the podcast, Lance.
Is is there anything else our, our listeners should know about,
about this issue?
So I was thinking that really when you think about lagging reimbursements,
if you think about increasing operational costs, these, these are,
these are variables that are really hard to control and manage.
You really just have to work around them creatively.
And then if you really look at what is at the heart of, of, uh,
generating patient revenue,
I would just encourage everyone to always think the best solution to
lagging reimbursements is always to be focusing on the patient experience and
how to streamline how they engage with your practice.
'cause the greatest and probably most controllable way to improve financial
performance is really just,
is simple as maintaining high patient satisfaction levels,
which is gonna lower patient churn and will also increase referrals.
And so it's not necessarily a free approach,
but I think it's probably one that most practices can manage to,
and I think if you focus on that, uh,
I think that overall you'll have a healthier revenue cycle and a,
and a growing, thriving practice.
Yeah. Lance, I, I really appreciate you coming on and, and really sharing some,
some actionable advice, some tactical steps folks can, can take out there to,
to address the challenge of, of lagging reimbursement.
Thank you so much for taking the time and coming on today.
Yeah, thank you very much, Brian.
Appreciate the opportunity to visit with your audience.
Of course. And I, I'd also like to thank our, our sponsor, RingCentral.
Thank you so much everyone for tuning in.
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