Conversions Remain Higher Than Before the COVID-19 Pandemic

As part of a collaboration with business analytics provider, Gaidge, after each calendar quarter and full calendar year the AAO receives and shares with members key metrics compiled from a subset of Gaidge client practices. This subset includes:

● More than 300 single-doctor practices under $1 million in quarterly productivity; and
● More than 200 multiple-doctor practices with up to 10 locations.

The purpose of the collaboration is to aid members with assessment of practice health, short-term and long-term goal-setting and other key practice processes.

Q3 2022 Continues Growth in Collections and Receivables
Similar to the second quarter of 2022, collections and receivables were the most positive part of Gaidge’s third quarter-2022 practice data:

● Continuing to feed off very successful 2021 new patient starts, single-doctor net collection grew by 5.2% over Q3 2021 while in multi-doctor practices, collections increased by 1.7%. Inflation does not appear to be impacting patients’ ability to pay.

● Single-doctor receivables grew by 5.8% while multi-doctor practice receivables increased by 4.2%, as compared with Q3 2021.

The U.S. unemployment rate was 3.5% at the end of the third quarter. it is likely that many patient families can pay fees owed. Gaidge encourages practice owners to continue strong efforts to collect on receivables in order bolster practice financial health.

Also of note:  To help offset inflationary pressures, practices were able to successfully raise their overall fees during the past quarter compared with Q3 2021 (a 2.8% increase in single doctor practices and 3.2% in multi-doctor practices). Gaidge expects inflation to be a factor for all of 2022.

Conversion Rates Still Above Pre-Pandemic Levels
Q3 conversion rates declined slightly in comparison with Q3 2021 at -.4% in both single-doctor and multi-doctor practices, with conversion for Q3 2022 at 68.2% and 70.8%, respectively. Conversion is still higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic however, with Q3 2019 conversion numbers having been 64.3% in single-doctor practices and 68.0% in multi-doctor practices.

Treatment-Related Metrics Declined Slightly Overall in Q3
Production and treatment-related metrics for Q3 2022 included:

● Net production in single-doctor practices increased slightly during Q3 2022 by .7%, in comparison with Q3 2021. Multi-doctor practices’ net production saw a decline of -3.0% against Q3 2021.

● Single-doctor practices’ total patient exams declined by -4.2% in Q3 2022 against Q3 2021, while in multi-doctor practices, exams were down -4.4%.

● Single-doctor practices’ total patient starts declined by -2.3% in Q3 2022 against Q3 2021, while in multi-doctor practices, exams were down -4.7%.

Within the starts category, it is notable that aligner starts for Q3 2022 were down by -14.1% in single-doctor practices and by -10.3% in multi-doctor practices.

View Additional Q3 2022 Metrics from Gaidge

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