Annual patient value (APV) is a crucial metric, reflecting your practice’s ability to adapt to inflation, gauge case acceptance, and showcase your diagnostic approach and range of services offered.
While your number is important, what truly makes an impact is achieving a minimal annual growth rate that aligns with your local inflation rate.
For practices participating with in-network PPO contracts, understanding APV based on both production and collections is critical. The difference between these two figures offers insightful guidance when contemplating the decision to drop PPO plans. Consider APV as one of your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)—a compass guiding your practice toward a healthier profit margin and long-term stability.
The Calculation:
Divide your active patient count into your annual production. That is your APV by Production. Do the same for collections to find your APV by Collections. It’s that simple.
Example:
$1,000,000 Production:
1100 patients = $909
$850,000 Collections:
1100 patients = $773
Active Patient Count:
Your active patient count includes patients that have received dental services within the last 18 months.
Benchmarks:
On a national level, the average annual per patient value is $785.1 New patients bring up your annual patient value as the average new patient provides $4,220 in production within the first 12 months, then settles at $785 per year when in the hygiene recare system.1
How to Improve Your Number:
Improve your APV by maximizing reimbursements through proper coding, expanding your range of services to include higher profit margin procedures, instituting annual fee increases, and reducing managed care participation.
A healthy annual patient value provides greater flexibility as the practice does not need as many patients to meet financial goals. Reducing PPO dependency, which can result in the loss of some patients, is less
risky when the per patient value is healthy. Additionally, this approach leads to a more organized schedule, with patients being scheduled for longer time blocks, reducing the number of patients treated per day.
Burkhart’s Practice Support Team welcomes the opportunity to support your healthy business in 2024 and beyond. We are committed to your practice’s business success. Reach out for additional support to increase your annual patient value, complimentary to our Supply Savings Guarantee and Platinum clients.
1 SIKKA Software data
Your success is our success. Please reach out to us anytime.
Learn more, visit the Practice Support Team page, email us at PracticeSupportTeam@BurkhartDental.com, or call 1.800.665.5323.
Category: Practice Consulting
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