Dental Management Archives - The Wealthy Dentist

Raising Dental Fees (Survey Video)

April 30, 2013 By Jim Du Molin 1 Comment

As a normal part of running a small business, dentists have to deal with increasing costs of materials, lab fees, payroll and other dental practice management expenses.

Basic business economics says that as your costs rise, so should your fees. But that’s not necessarily been the case for many dentists.

Jim and Julie discuss some of the realities surrounding whether or not dentists have raised their fees:

“Raising my fees just puts an onerous burden on my uninsured patients, and does not raise revenues on the majority of procedures. Rather, it just increases the amount I have to write off,” complained a Michigan Dentist. “I’m getting closer to dropping participation with all ‘managed cost’ programs.”

“I know I need to raise my fees, but people are constantly complaining of cost,” says a Georgia Dentist who hasn’t raised fees in over two years.

“I feel dental offices should always raise fees to reflect the current annual rate of inflation. We keep our fees in line with local and regional averages and adjust ours annually to keep up with inflation,” said an Ohio Prosthodontist.

If you’d like to share your opinions in future surveys, just sign up for our weekly dental marketing and management newsletter at TheWealthyDentist.com.

How long has it been since you’ve raised your fees?

Filed Under: Dental Videos Tagged With: dental fees, Dental Management, dental practice management, survey video

Dental Management and Missed Appointments (Survey Video)

April 23, 2013 By Jim Du Molin Leave a Comment

Patients who miss dental appointments are a major dental management problem.

Dental practices have various missed appointment policies to encourage patients to actually show up.

Jim and Julie talk about how dentists handle patients who miss dental appointments:

Dental hygiene appointments are missed 13% of the time, according to the dentists in this survey.

What about dentist appointments? They’re only missed 9% of the time.

“We call them immediately to find out why they have missed the appointment. We educate them as to why it is crucial to keep their appointments, mentioning that we have other patients waiting to be seen in that time slot if they had called and given enough notice. We’ll fire the patient after three strikes if there is a pattern.” Alabama Dentist

“It’s a big challenge; I wish I had a great answer. We have a written policy, include it in newsletter, call at 10 minutes into the appointment, and send a letter. The first one is a warning and free, then we charge. We hear all the excuses imaginable! People are less respectful than 30 years ago.” Illinois Dentist

“When they miss one appointment, we immediately give them a friendly reminder about our broken appointment policy. We use Smile Reminders (text, e-mail, and phone) to remind our patients about their appointments at two weeks, a few days, and the day before their appointment. This has greatly reduced our no-shows to about 5%, and also gives us time to fill their appointment if they have to move it. We are extremely happy with our low percentage of no-shows!” Ohio Prosthodontist

How does your dental practice handle no-shows?

Filed Under: Dental Videos Tagged With: Dental Management, dental practice management

Dental Management Survey Reveals Dentists Aren’t Getting Enough New Patients

April 9, 2013 By Jim Du Molin 1 Comment

Dentists want more new patients!

We asked dentists in our recent dental management survey if they were getting enough new patients.

A clear 66% majority of dentists said No — it would be better if they got more leads.

Another 22% said additional leads would be great, even though they were doing alright.

Only 13% said they got plenty of leads.

“Many of our new patients are still emergency only, and interested in only pain relief. Hopefully we will get back to the committed patient who wants ongoing care.” Texas dentist

“I don’t want leads! I imagine I can look in a phone book and call any number of leads. I want people who want to come see me and have already been prepared by meeting me or by another patient that spoke of me.” California dentist

“What are you supposed to do with a “lead”? Go get ‘em and reel them in? Do cardiologists and psychologists need more “leads”? My God, what has dentistry come to?” Illinois dentist

“We’re not getting enough new patients, so we’re starting a dental patient marketing campaign shortly.” New York Dentist

Dentists in our survey are seeing an average of 17 new patients each month. Answers ranged between 2 and 55 new patients, with the median also at 17.

How about your dental practice? Are you getting enough new patients?

Filed Under: Dental Surveys Tagged With: Dental Management, Dental Marketing, dental survey results

Dental Practice Embezzlement: Dentist Survey Video

March 25, 2013 By Jim Du Molin Leave a Comment

Dental practice embezzlement can be a major dental management issue.

In a survey from The Wealthy Dentist, 52% of dentists who responded reported having been embezzled, while 48% say they have not been a victim of fraud.

“It happens to 95% of dental offices,” said an orthodontist. “The other 5% are ignorant, or have a spouse working the front desk.”

Jim Du Molin and Julie Frey discuss the problem of dental practice embezzlement:

“I was embezzled to the tune of over $1,000,000!” said a periodontist.

“You need to have several checks and balances to help prevent embezzlement, plus do random audits to let staff know you keep on top of checking records and books,” advised a pediatric dentist.

Has your dental office ever been embezzled? Any further thoughts on dental practice embezzlement and fraud?

Filed Under: Dental Embezzlement, Dental Videos Tagged With: Dental Embezzlement, dental employee, Dental Management, dental office embezzlement, dental practice, dental practice embezzlement, dentist embezzlement, embezzle, embezzlement, employee, finances, fraud, money, steal, theft

Dentist Work Week: Dental Management Survey Video

March 5, 2013 By Jim Du Molin Leave a Comment

The typical dentist work week includes a lot of hours, with doctors working both as dental care practitioners and in dental practice management.

According to the American Dental Association, most dentists work a four day work week. While half of the dentists in this survey said they work four days a week at their dental practice, one in three works five or more days a week.

Jim Du Molin and Julie Frey discuss the typical dentist work week in this video.

“I now find it necessary to work on Fridays at another clinic,” said a Texas dentist. “My own practice has slowly declined in production since 2008.”

A North Carolina oral surgeon said, “I try to be more flexible with my office hours to accommodate patients’ work schedules.”

“I’ve been working more hours, partly because of economy, and partly due to decreases in contractual reimbursements from Delta Dental,” complained a Washington dentist. “We have had no fee increases from Delta in past three years, and they reduced our dental insurance reimbursements 15%. If you consider that overhead is probably around 70%, this 15% decrease represents about a 35% decrease in my net income from my practice.”

What is your standard dentist work week? Has the economy changed how much you work?