Proveer completes first dental practice acquisition

Proveer Practice Management helped Grand Rapids dentist office Van Haren Family Dentistry acquire the practice of Grand Rapids dentist Dr. Robert Bochniakas on March 1st, 2009.  The merger is a win-win-win for Dr. Bochniak, Van Haren Family Dentistry, and patients.  Dr. Bochniak will continue to see his patients at Van Haren Family Dentistry for 6-12 months while transitioning to full retirement.  The larger patient base furthers Van Haren Family Dentistry's growth objective.  Finally, Dr. Bochniak's patients will experience a smooth transfer of care to Grand Rapids dentist Dr. Ryan Van Haren as Dr. Bochniak transitions to retirement.

 

According to Dr. Van Haren, “We have experienced consistent organic growth over the last few years despite the economic downturn.   Dr. Bochniak’s desire to transition to retirement offered us an opportunity to take a big leap in our growth."

 

Dr. Van Haren adds, "The fit between the practices in this merger is great.  Both Dr. Bochniak and I enjoy the relationships we form with patients and our sense of service to patients.  We both built our practices to foster those relationships and help our patients.” 

 

Greg McGlaun from Proveer Practice Management was the architect of the acquisition and is now managing the transition.  "We are managing a number of tansition issues: different location, different fees, different relationships with insurance companies, different practice management software, different approaches to periodontal care and x-rays, and more.  It's early, but so far so good." 

Genuine service

I have been spending significant time inside the practice of a Grand Rapids Michigan Dentist, Dr. Ryan Van Haren.  I am repeatedly struck by the depth of trust and comraderie between the dental staff and patients that flows from the staff's genuine interest in patients and the quality of patients' interactions with the practice.  The staff and patients have relationships that go well beyond scripts or fake smiles. 

Leveraging dental insurance benefits

Dental insurance is complicated. Annual maximums, benefit periods, exclusions, participating versus non-participating, usual and customary, claim submission, narratives, explanation of benefits, deductibles, coverage levels, and writeoffs. Through all the complexity, hundreds or thousands of dollars of each patient's household budget are at stake.

Many insurance companies provide ready access to details of patients’ insurance benefits. Rather than assume each patient has generic benefits, dentists can leverage insurance benefit information to design treatment plans that better leverage patients’ dental insurance benefits. By taking account of variation in patients’ insurance benefits, dentists can produce one hundred or more dollars per day of highly profitable dentistry while providing better dental care to patients. Just one hundred dollars per day adds $10,000 or more profit for the dentist over the course of a year. What’s best, insurance companies pay for the extra production.

While insurance benefits would be irrelevant in a utopian world of “ideal treatment”, financial considerations are relevant in the real world. If economics were irrelevant, why would so many people – especially in poorer countries - continue to walk around with imperfect smiles? Why would employers put so much money and effort into providing dental insurance benefits? Why would patient financing programs such as Care Credit exist? Why would Americans seek dental care in Mexico or other countries?

The principle of Patient Autonomy in the ADA Code states, “The dentist’s primary obligations include involving patients in treatment decisions in a meaningful way, with due consideration being given to patient’s needs, desires, and abilities.” Finances are not only a justifiable, but a required consideration for dental treatment under the ADA Code.

With detailed information about patients' dental insurance benefits, dentists are armed to provide optimal care for real-world patients who face constraints on their household budgets.

Dental fees for profitability part 1

I often find an opportunity for dentists to painlessly increase their profit by $10,000 to $30,000 just by updating their fees. I'm not talking about an across the board fee increase that can drive cost-conscious patients away. (If you have room to increase your fees without driving too many patients away, what are you waiting for?) Rather, dentists often fail to keep fees for lower profile procedures updated to reflect market conditions. For example, a dentist may set fees for exams, prophy's, fillings and crowns near median levels while fees for root canals and periodontal procedures are below 25th percentile. I am repeatedly surprised how much money is left on the table by a handful of fees that are set too low.

Proveer Practice Management now offers a dental fee balancing service with a guaranteed 1,000% return.

Dental treatment philosophy

Do you expect dental patients to accept your recommendations regardless of financial or other patient circumstances? Or, do you try to educate patients about dental and non-dental health implications and leave the decision to the patient? Something in between? Comments welcome.

Detect missing money

I visited a practice in which collections according to the practice management software wasn’t making it to the bank account. Further investigation revealed a number of discrepancies in the records.

Bad news: The practice faces the labor intensive task of correcting a number of patient accounts.

Good news: By comparing the numbers in the practice management software and the accounting records, we identified problems early.

Discrepancies between your practice management software and your accounting system serve as an easy warning sign that something is wrong. The problem can be innocent - systematic or one-time record keeping errors - or fraudulent.

Business stress in dentistry

I had a conversation with a first year dental student over the weekend. Her dental education is preparing her for a life of clinical excellence, which is good for patients. But her dental education (perhaps not deliberately) is also sending her signals that dental practice ownership can be a stressful and sometimes overwhelming endeavor, which is not good for anyone.

Her response to the stress of private practice, “Screw this. I’m just going to hire you Greg.” Of course that was music to my ears. But the comment made me wonder why so many dentists choose a go it alone route on the business side of dentistry – an area of expertise completely distinct from their clinical training. Not only is stress at stake, but millions of dollars over the career of the dentist.

A few dentists grow a passion for and expertise in the business side of dentistry. I commend these dentists. But for others the business stuff seems to be a nuisance that just comes with the “freedom” of owning a practice.

Any insight from readers is welcome.