How to make the Laser work for Your Practice- transcript
Hi, my name’s Dr. Karina Patel. I’m from the TMJ and Sleep Therapy Centre in London. So I’m going to talk to you a bit about how to actually make the MLS Laser work for you as a practice. So, I’m a business owner as well. I’d say it’s definitely an asset to the practice, not just for the patients and how great it is with reducing inflammation and chronic pain, but also financially as well.
So I’m going to go through a few of the positives about the MLS laser. So, it can help deliver the best patient outcomes. It enhances the patient’s quality of life. It also gives you great economic return. Your standard of care actually improves. Your combination with therapy and diagnostics, so you can use it alongside traditional pharmacology. You can also lead the way for your profession and be one of the first dentists that actually have this machine. As the number of users grows, it will become an indispensable treatment tool. And therefore that means that you’re going to be under pressure to keep up with the competitors that have the machine.
So, the way that you can actually bill the laser, so we have emergency billing for someone who’s come in for an acute injury, say. So, we can bill per site of laser, so if you’re using it in one area, if you use it in two areas or three. So, for example, if you’re using it for one area, you can charge $50 for the one area. For two, you can go up to $100 and for three, maybe $135. You can also use it in packages. So if they do have acute injury, subacute injury, or chronic, you can time your laser sessions. You can do between 6 to 24 sessions. For six to eight, you can maybe charge between $550 and $750. For subacute injuries, so for 8 to 12 sessions, you can charge $750 to $1,000, and for chronic, so where someone’s wanting up to 24 sessions, you can go right up to $2,000. Now that sounds like a lot of sessions, but don’t forget each time that you’re using the laser, it’s only for a matter of minutes. So it’s really not taking that much of your clinical time up.
With the billing protocols, you can also obviously charge through your item numbers. Now your item number of 945, for photobiomodulation with low level laser or 971 for adjunctive physical therapy, or you can use it in combination with other items that you’re putting through. So for an extraction, you can maybe charge usually $250. If you’re incorporating five minutes of the laser treatment, you can then charge it out at maybe $300.
So, the MLS laser costs around $30,000. Now that sounds like a lot but, if you break it down, so you’re seeing maybe eight patients a day with one clinician, you’re adding on an extra five minutes per patient, and at $50 per each treatment, you would then bring in an extra $400 a day. Now, over a week, that’s $2,400, and that can pay off your laser with one practitioner using the laser within three months. If you’ve got a four-chair practice, you can potentially pay it off in three weeks. Another way to do it is you can increase your prices across the board by maybe $10. And that’s a way some people have done it before. But, if you’re one of those people with that four-chair practice, and you can pay it off in three weeks and then start generating a revenue from that, then it’s a no-brainer.
Other item codes you could possibly put through are 986 for post-operative care, not otherwise included anywhere else. 990 for covering the cost of treatment, not otherwise described. And 213 for treatment of acute periodontal infection and that’s per visit.
So the way that you can actually get it out there and talk to your patients about it is one, you can even offer it as a trial session. Patients actually do love that five minutes. So, if you’re able to give it to one, and they speak to somebody else, word of mouth, is really, really good for this. You can also do press releases, brochures. You can post, cards and social media is obviously a massive one as well.
Some of the interest that we’ve got from patients is after posting certain things on social media like, “Leaving the dentist pain-free,” “Don’t worry about that painful root canal or extraction.” Also, “The new therapeutic laser is like having a deep-tissue massage without the pain.” And, you can add it onto your treatment today. There’s just like little lines that you can add.
