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How to Save Money on Dental Software Subscriptions

By Planet DDS
July 23, 2021

One of the easiest ways an independent practice can save money on dental software is by consolidating. And who doesn’t want to save money for their private practice? Since most practices slowly add third-party subscriptions over time, it’s not always easy to take stock of how many you have currently. This blog will help you identify what software you currently pay for and help you save money by consolidating your tech stack.

Security and Compliance Subscription Costs

For any dental practice in this digital age, there’s no avoiding monthly expenses in some form for security and compliance costs. There may also be one-time costs for items such as servers that you replace from time to time. Let’s look at some monthly subscription and one-time expenses that you might be incurring for IT security:

  1. Managed antivirus and ransomware protection can be up to $69 per device per year.
  2. Backup and disaster recovery can be $349 per month, depending on the amount of data you have.
  3. Managed security and compliance for dental practices can be $200 per month, depending on how many devices you need to be protected. This service can include network security, firewall management, antivirus software updates.
  4. HIPAA compliance IT consulting services can cost upwards of $6,995 for one physical practice location.
  5. Remote access and support services can cost upwards of $400 per user and an additional $500-1,000 per server.
  6. Server replacement costs can cost in the order of 10s of thousands of dollars, depending on your practice’s data.

All told, in IT expenses alone, you could be paying close to $9,000 a year and an additional $10,000 every few years in server and related IT services. Which of these do you wish you could cut from your monthly expenses?

The Cost of Not Protecting Your Practice

On the flip side, the cost of not investing in security and compliance can leave your practice vulnerable to costs so high that it could put you out of business. Patient records for healthcare providers sell for a high premium on the dark web or the black market. For instance, a social security number alone can sell for a mere $1 while a patient’s health records can sell for as high as $1,000. This increasing trend of cyberattacks against healthcare organizations is expected to continue.

In July of 2021, cybercriminals mounted the biggest ransomware attack in history. Asking for a ransom of $70 million, the hackers scrambled the databases of hundreds of organizations from 17 countries, including the United States. Dental offices were among those affected.

Cyberattacks aren’t just a problem for big companies, in fact, 1 in 5 small businesses fall victim to a cyberattack, and the data shows that 60% of small businesses go out of business within six months of an attack. With high ransom demands and exorbitant costs for rectifying the breach, estimates show that an attack will cost an organization on average over $700,000 in downtime, labor costs, device costs, network cost, and lost opportunity. Additionally, organizations that don’t have data backups to rely on may be forced to pay the ransom, which on average doubles the cost to exceed $1,400,000. It’s easy to see why such high costs can force a small business to shut down 60% of the time.

Patient-Facing Software Subscription Costs

Recurring software costs are an additional expense dental practices face as they look to better engage with patients. As advancements in technology continue, patients have come to expect a modern, streamlined experience. Online registration, payment portals, scheduling, and text/email reminders are now the norm.

For these patient-facing software subscriptions, you can expect to pay upwards of $300-750 for initial set up and then up to $339 per month for patient communication portals, online payments, and automated patient communications. Online forms can be up to $300 for initial set up and $99 per month after that. Online scheduling is also offered as a subscription by companies charging as much as $249 per office with a set-up fee of up to $995.

If you’re an office that utilizes all these subscriptions, you could be paying over $700 per month in subscription fees—totaling more than $8,000 per year to improve your patient’s experience.

Miscellaneous Subscription Costs

Depending on the number of referrals your practice sends out, you might also be paying for a HIPAA-compliant referral portal for an additional $49 per month. And if you outsource your insurance verifications, that could be an additional $250-1,000 per month, depending on the volume of verifications each month.

Adding up the Cost of Too Many Subscriptions

On top of the actual out-of-pocket subscription costs for all these third-party tools, multiple software solutions force you and your staff to toggle between them, creating inefficiencies in your office and wasting time. Costs add up quickly, especially when you consider both the inefficiency cost of subscribing to numerous software and the out-of-pocket expenses that could be close to $20,000 a year. These costs are eating at your bottom line. What if there was a more affordable, simpler way? Which subscriptions do you wish you could cut from your monthly expenses?

Saving Thousands Each Year with Denticon

With the cloud-based, all-in-one Denticon practice management solution, you can consolidate and simplify your tech stack. Your subscription includes data storage, backups, disaster recovery, intrusion detection, upgrades, security patches, and more. With integrated patient communication tools, an online payment portal, real-time scheduling, and online forms/registration, your patients can receive the modern experience they’ve come to expect.

Denticon also features built-in insurance verification and co-pay calculations. Recently, Denticon released the dental industry’s first and only fully integrated referral management system that allows you to track and manage referrals along with a HIPAA-compliant sharing portal that helps you communicate with outside providers, even if they’re not using Denticon.

To learn more about how Denticon can save your independent practice hundreds of dollars each month and streamline your workflow, contact us for a free, no-obligation demo today.