What if helping more patients say yes to treatment starts with changing the way your practice talks about money?

Financial conversations can make or break the patient experience. But when practices offer flexible payment options, communicate costs clearly, and take the time to understand each patient's needs, they can remove barriers to care and improve treatment acceptance.

In this episode of The Raving Patients Podcast, Dr. Len Tau sits down with Franshaun Thomas, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Independent Market and Expansion at Synchrony, to discuss how smarter patient financing workflows can help dental practices improve case acceptance, build patient trust, and make quality dental care more accessible.

From offering flexible payment options and introducing financing early in the patient journey to leveraging existing technology and reconnecting with patients who haven't completed treatment, this conversation explores practical ways to remove financial barriers and help more patients say yes to the care they need.

What You’ll Learn

• Why offering flexible financing terms can significantly impact treatment acceptance.
• What metrics practices should track beyond approval rates, including treatment completion and patient retention.
• How to understand patient budgets and recommend financing options that fit their needs.
• Why financial conversations should happen throughout the patient journey.
• How discussing financing early can help patients feel more comfortable moving forward with treatment.
• Why financial transparency is essential to building patient trust and protecting your practice's reputation.
• How to reconnect with existing patients who have outstanding or unfinished treatment plans.
• How CareCredit's existing cardholder network can create new opportunities for dental practices.
• Why prequalifying patients can help teams approach financing conversations with greater confidence.
• How to maximize existing practice management software integrations, text-to-pay, and scheduled treatment marketing.
• Why practices should evaluate the tools they already have before investing in additional technology.

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Key Takeaways

00:36 Introduction

02:40 Understanding the Challenges Facing Independent Dental Practices

05:32 How Flexible Financing Helps Patients Say Yes

07:09 Measuring Success Beyond Approval Rates

09:18 Finding the Right Financing Option for Every Patient

11:00 Unlocking Opportunities Within Your Existing Patient Base

12:00 When Should Practices Introduce Financing?

13:50 Making Financial Conversations Part of Patient Care

15:35 Why Patient Financing Isn't One-Size-Fits-All

18:03 Financial Transparency and Building Patient Trust

19:20 Leveraging CareCredit's Existing Cardholder Network

20:19 Overcoming Patient Hesitation a0nd Financial Uncertainty 

21:20 Using Prequalification to Improve Treatment Acceptance

22:48 Making Financial Conversations Easier for Patients

24:30 Maximizing Existing Practice Management Technology

26:10 Final Advice for Dental Practices

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Connect With Franshaun

Franshaun Thomas leads efforts to help independent practices grow while expanding patients’ access to care through CareCredit. With more than 12 years at Synchrony across strategy, commercial, and sales leadership roles, she focuses on helping practices modernize the patient payment experience, reduce administrative burden, and create sustainable growth.

Learn more about CareCredit: https://www.carecredit.com/

Dental practices can also connect with their local CareCredit representative for information about available financing products, practice integrations, training, and tools.

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Learn proven dental marketing strategies and online reputation management techniques at: https://www.drlentau.com

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This podcast is sponsored by Dental Intelligence. Learn more at: https://www.dentalintel.com/

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This podcast is sponsored by CallRail, call tracking & lead conversion software for dentists. Find out more at: https://www.callrail.com/

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Raving Patients Podcast is your go-to place for the latest and best dental marketing strategies that will help you skyrocket your practice. Follow us for more!

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