How should a dental practice handle a patient with a DMO contract when proposing out-of-pocket treatment?
By having an honest, leadership-based conversation about what the DMO will and will not cover, then offering out-of-pocket treatment options that the patient can pay for separately. Most DMO contracts explicitly allow the doctor to introduce out-of-pocket options as long as the patient has been informed about what the DMO covers first. Check the contract to confirm. If the contract is unclear, write to the administrator or president and ask. The likely answer is yes, because out-of-pocket treatment costs the DMO nothing and removes the patient from the cost pool. The conversation needs to be candid. The patient hears clearly what the DMO will pay for and what it will not, and then receives proposed out-of-pocket options framed in terms of health, quality of life, and outcome rather than as a workaround. This works only when the trust foundation has been built upstream through marketing, reviews, phone interactions, and consultation experience. Trust supports the leadership conversation. Without it, patients hear the out-of-pocket pitch as a hustle.
If the answers you are finding here resonate with you, my team and I work with a small group of clients each year. The next step is a complimentary Discovery Consultation and Practice Review with Dr. McAnally.