Verbal Skills to Move Away from PPOs

Episode #439 with Jenni Poulos

Dropping bad PPOs can be daunting. But there is one thing you can do to make the process a little more comfortable — utilizing verbal skills. Different words carry different weight, and Kirk Behrendt brings back Jenni Poulos, one of ACT’s amazing coaches, to explain how a small change in language can make a big difference in perception. By improving your verbal skills, you will build trust, value, and confidence. And, ultimately, you will retain the patients you want to keep in your practice. To learn how, and to learn more about ACT’s free Say This, Not That resource, listen to Episode 439 of The Best Practices Show!

Main Takeaways:

Language matters — your words carry weight.

Your team needs to be aligned on language.

Think of ways to phrase things with a positive spin.

Tell patients what you can do, not what you can't.

Eliminate fear and communicate confidently.

Quotes:

“The things that we say do carry a lot of weight. The language that we use — people have preconceived notions. They have stories that they tell around words. So, the language that we use matters. The safety that language can build, the trust that it can build, it is going to help your team navigate their own fear and stress around this and help move your patients through any fear and stress that they have about this transition [from PPOs]. So, you need to practice this, to lean into this, to give it plenty of time to have this transition be successful.” (3:14—3:50)

“The person that answers your phone doesn't represent your business — he or she is your whole business if I don't know you. And the care and skill and eloquence of someone at the phone determines a lot of your success.” (3:58—4:12)

“We don't think about this. Our clinical team comes in with extra school. Our hygiene comes in with extra school. And our administrators come in, and they are expected to execute a ton of tasks every day that they’ve received no additional training in. And we, as dentists, as managers, as those running the practice, we’re responsible for filling that gap and giving that training to our admin team members.” (4:41—5:12)

“Everyone on your team needs to be aligned around the language that you are using when you decide to make these transitions [from PPOs]. And you're going to practice, practice, practice, practice, and everyone is going to be comfortable and confident with the message that you're delivering.” (5:17—5:35)

“I absolutely believe that when we make the decision to transition away from PPO in-network status, this conversation begins chairside with our patients. There's a different level of trust that exists, oftentimes — not oftentimes, the majority of the time — between doc and patients, between hygienists and patients. And we don't want our admin bearing the brunt of this conversation. We want our clinical team to be starting the conversation about this transition [from PPOs] from a place of what our core values tell us about how we practice dentistry and why we are making this transition, and then we can move it up to the front for admin to fill in gaps.” (5:48—6:34)

“Many, many docs that I have been lucky enough to take through this transition of decreasing their dependency on insurance, the first question always is, ‘I don't even know where to begin this conversation.’ There's so much fear tied to it. And I would say, ‘What does it mean for you to practice dentistry with your core values at the forefront?’ Because when you can answer that question, you can succinctly tell your patients why this transition — because just like you said, you didn't get into dentistry to join a thousand PPOs and to write off a third of your paycheck. But I bet your core values tell you quite a bit about why you got into...