LendingPoint — Implementation Playbook (DSO)

Executive Summary

LendingPoint provides transparent membership-based financing for dental procedures, allowing patients to access care without traditional insurance or credit checks. The platform handles treatment planning, patient education, financing approval, and claims management through a single integration. DSOs benefit uniquely because LendingPoint scales across multiple locations with centralized pricing, unified patient data, and consolidated reporting—eliminating the patchwork of per-location financing vendors.

Why DSOs win: A 15-location DSO typically manages 5-7 different financing vendors, each with separate logins, reporting, and patient experiences. LendingPoint consolidates this into one system, improving case acceptance rates by 18-24% (per beta data) while reducing administrative overhead by 40% and patient confusion by 60%.

Expected timeline: 16 weeks from kickoff to full deployment across all locations, with revenue impact visible in weeks 4-6 during pilot phase.

Pre-Implementation Checklist (Weeks 1-2)

Technical Requirements

• EHR/Practice Management Integration: Confirm your DSO's primary PMS (Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Open Dental, or Curve) has an active LendingPoint API connection. Schedule a 30-minute compatibility audit with your IT vendor.
• Internet & Bandwidth: Verify all locations have ≥25 Mbps upload speeds. LendingPoint's document processing requires reliable connectivity; schedule a speed test at each site.
• Device Requirements: Ensure treatment chairs/consultation rooms have iPad or desktop access (Chrome or Safari, latest 2 versions).
• Data Security: Confirm compliance infrastructure (BAA with LendingPoint, firewall rules for patient data export). Schedule a 1-hour security review with your Privacy Officer.

Stakeholder Alignment

Secure written buy-in from:

• Executive Leadership: CFO and DSO CEO (focused on revenue lift and payment collection improvements)
• Clinical Directors: Regional practice leaders (focused on case acceptance and provider education)
• Front Desk/Patient Coordinators: Treatment coordinators (focused on workflow simplicity and patient questions)
• Finance/Billing: Accounts receivable team (focused on payment reconciliation)

Schedule a single 90-minute kickoff meeting with all stakeholders present. Assign one person as DSO-level project lead (ideally 20% of their time for 16 weeks).

Baseline Metrics to Capture (Today)

Establish current-state numbers across your DSO for comparison:

• Case acceptance rate (across all locations)
• Average treatment plan case value
• Patient financing abandonment rate (% of patients who opt out when financing is discussed)
• Days to payment collection (average patient payment cycle)
• Monthly new-patient volume (by location)
• Team hours spent on financing admin (front desk + clinical time)

Export these from your PMS now, before any changes. You'll measure against this baseline in weeks 8-16.

Pilot Wave (Weeks 3-6)

Location Selection Criteria

Choose 2-3 locations (not just 1) for your pilot. Criteria:

• Volume: ≥500 unique patients per month (enough to see signal in financing behavior)
• Coordinator Capability: Select locations with engaged, tech-comfortable front-desk staff
• Technology Readiness: PMS is fully current, internet stable, no pending hardware refreshes
• Clinical Diversity: Mix of cosmetic, restorative, and ortho cases (tests LendingPoint across use cases)
• Geographic Spread: Don't cluster pilots (one urban, one suburban, if possible—tests deployment across network types)

Avoid: Your newest location or highest-turnover office. Don't choose your "worst" office to fix culture problems; that adds variables.

Configuration and Setup (Week 3)

• Day 1-2: LendingPoint onboarding call with your implementation specialist. Map treatment codes to financing categories (e.g., "Cosmetic" cases trigger different messaging than "Restorative").
• Day 3-4: Brand customization. Upload DSO logo, select color scheme, configure email templates to match your brand voice.
• Day 5: PMS integration testing. Run 10 test treatment plans from your PMS through LendingPoint. Confirm auto-population of patient demographics and linked treatment codes.
• Day 6-7: Create 3-5 test patients in your staging environment. Have each pilot location run a mock patient journey (treatment plan → financing offer → acceptance → payment).

Training Approach (Weeks 4-6)

Week 4 — Train-the-trainer (4 hours total across 2 sessions):

• Conduct two separate sessions: one for clinical staff (hygienists, dentists, clinical coordinators) and one for administrative staff (front desk, patient coordinators).
• Focus on use cases, not software. Teach "when to present financing" and "how to answer patient objections," not button clicks.
• Provide job aids (laminated 1-page flowcharts for front desk).

Week 5 — Coordinator-led rollout (ongoing):

• Each pilot location's lead coordinator conducts 15-minute huddles with their team on Days 1, 3, and 5.
• LendingPoint provides templated scripts and 3 example patient conversations (video).
• Your DSO project lead attends one huddle per location to reinforce messaging.

Week 6 — Go-live week:

• LendingPoint is live for real patient cases on Monday.
• Daily stand-ups (10 min, async Slack channel) for pilot locations to surface blockers.
• Your project lead audits 3-5 real patient interactions per location to validate proper technique.

Key training metric: By end of Week 6, ≥80% of treatment coordinators can complete a full patient financing journey without help documentation.

Scaled Rollout (Weeks 7-16)

Wave Planning

Divide your remaining locations into 2-3 waves of 5-7 locations each, deployed every 2-3 weeks.

• Wave 1 (Weeks 7-9): Locations with strongest IT infrastructure and highest coordinator capability (these become advocates).
• Wave 2 (Weeks 10-12): Mid-tier locations (moderate volume, stable staffing).
• Wave 3 (Weeks 13-16): Smaller or newer locations (lowest administrative burden, benefit from proven playbook).

Each wave follows the same 2-week cycle: Week 1 = training, Week 2 = go-live + daily support.

Change Management

• Week 8 (mid-pilot): Host a 30-minute video call with all non-pilot locations. Show 2 patient success stories from pilot sites (video testimonials or case studies). Address top 3 concerns you've heard.
• Weeks 10, 13, 15: Monthly all-hands emails with adoption metrics ("Pilot locations have improved case acceptance by 22%"). Share clinic-specific wins.
• Ongoing: Assign a "LendingPoint champion" at each new location (someone who trains their peers, owns troubleshooting).

Support Infrastructure

• Dedicated Slack channel: #lendingpoint-support (your project lead + one coordinator per location). Response time: <2 hours during business hours.
• Weekly office hours: 30-minute Zoom calls (Tuesdays 2pm) open to all staff for live questions. Optional attendance; recorded for asynchronous viewing.
• LendingPoint ticketing: Your project lead monitors the LendingPoint support portal. Route non-urgent issues (feature requests, edge cases) to LendingPoint's ticket system.

ROI Tracking

Key Metrics to Measure