by Karah Karah | Apr 17, 2015 | Prescriptions for your Practice
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Quotes & Notes:
- We [Prosperident] are the biggest at what we do, which is investigating embezzlement in dental offices.
- By embezzlement, we mean staff stealing from dentists, and it could take various forms. It could be direct in the sense of stealing checks payable to the doctor from insurance companies or it could be indirect like, to give a frightening example, somebody with a little bit of clinical background bringing somebody into your office after hours and doing dental work on them.
- If I had to give you an educated guess, I’d say that for a practicing dentist, there’s about an 80% probability that at some point in their career they will be embezzled.
- The average amount that we see stolen from a dentist in an embezzlement matter is about $110,000.
- There are broadly speaking two ways to steal from you, one is forcing you to pay out money that you weren’t planning on paying out. And the other way is to intercept money that is coming in from patients and insurance companies.
- If you look at the basic anatomy of stealing, there is the act of stealing and then there is the act of concealment afterward. When we investigate, it is the concealment that we are generally looking for.
- What we have to focus on instead is what we can do to increase detection?
- Who among your employees is displaying an attitude that would suggest to you that it would be relatively easy for them to get to the point of saying that stealing is ok? Do they resent your success? Do they covet your possessions and your lifestyle? Do they over-empathize with patients with financial issues?
They are stealing because they want to, and it is an ego thing. We did an investigation that we wrapped up last year. There was somebody stealing from an office. She was stealing and then she won 3 million dollars in the state lotto. And after that, she kept stealing.
- One of the most common comments we get from doctors is, “That is the last person I would expect to embezzle.”
- If you break the rules, if you take cash payments and don’t report them to the IRS if you cut insurance corners, what you’ve done effectively is hand any embezzler in your office a get out of jail free card.
- Your practice should have an entry alarm.
- Use your practice management software properly. For example, everyone should be using their own unique ID, with their own password, and you should enable the feature that enforces everybody to change their password every so often.
- We have a checklist called the Embezzlement Risk Assessment Questionnaire. And it is designed to systematically take a dentist through looking at staff behavior.
- Whatever you do, don’t let them know you suspect.
- Unfortunately going to your CPA firm, in general, is a waste of money to solve this money.
- We need to vigilant, but at the same time, I don’t think that automatic mistrust of employees is the right plan either.
If you want to learn more or get the Embezzlement Risk Assessment Questionnaire, you can go to www.dentalembezzlement.com, or email David Harris at [email protected]. Questions for the questionnaire go to [email protected]. If you prefer to call them, their toll-free number is (888) 398-2327.
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by Karah Karah | Feb 10, 2015 | Prescriptions for your Practice
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Quotes & Notes:
- I believe that some doctors seriously undercharge for what they do. They make assumptions about what patients can or can not afford.
- The real reason I wrote this book is because of the small mistakes that these dentists and doctors make are costing them thousands and thousands of dollars.
- You learn all of the dentistry, but you don’t get taught communication skills at that university.
- Price is always an issue, but it is rarely the issue.
- Many decisions made around emotions, price is never an issue.
Report building is the single most important part of the ethical sales approach.
- You ask questions to really figure out what your patient wants.
- Prescription before diagnosis is malpractice.
- Just a 10 percent discount can equal as much as a 28 percent loss of net profit.
- If you are going to give a discount, at least tell them. There is only one person who knows if they have a discount, and that is the doctor.
- The biggest mistake you must not make is getting defensive.
- Self-confidence, you have to work on it every single day.
- Your patients don’t know how good your treatment is until they have experienced it two months after the fact.
If you want to learn more about Ashley Latter or his book and DVD you can go to ashleylatter.com and sign up for the free weekly newsletter.
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by Karah Karah | Feb 9, 2015 | Prescriptions for your Practice
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Quotes & Notes:
- She is the director of consulting at Classic Practice Resources and is really an authority on creating systems for practices that really help them develop efficiencies and all and all become more productive.
- We are sharing a lot of tools to help them be more productive and have more fun.
- They [cancellations and no shows] are causing a lot of stress, and they are having practices that have a lot of missed opportunities.
- They are just not good for the practice. And many times they can be prevented.
- The biggest reasons for broken appointments are, no real concrete financial arrangements, the patient just doesn’t value the service, and the appointment wasn’t really confirmed properly.
- When the patient starts asking questions, and if those questions don’t get answered, then guess what, they are a no show.
- First of all, a lot of patients are asking for automated confirmation calls, and some of them know how to utilize it.
- We have to keep a hold of the fact that people do not really love to go to the dentist.
- We recommend sending a physical card three weeks in advance, send an email/ text three days in advance when they can confirm, and if they don’t they get a phone call the day before.
- If they confirm and no show, from now on they get the call.
“The more control you have over your schedule the higher your production will be.”
- Determine how much every unit of time is worth in your practice for each provider.
- The worst thing you can do is when you have an opening, call others to try to fit them within that time, for you are teaching your patients that it is ok to cancel.
- “We have worked on this schedule, we know you need this root canal and we have worked it out for you to come in tomorrow at two.”
- For the appointment wrap up, the dental assistant or the hygienist needs to sit the chair in an upright position, and keep the patient seated, and you must leave the patients bib on. Once you take the bib off they think the appointment is over.
- Give them a summery of the procedure that happened today. Its an opportunity to reinforce the future treatment needs and benefits of returning to complete what was started.
- Always, always ask the patient if they have any questions.
- Never send that patient wandering down the hall. There is a hand-off.
- If you want people to keep their appointments, then they have to realize that it is going to get worse.
- They [receptionists] need to be able to control and minimize broken appointments, and this is done through their actions and words, and avoid using the word cancellation.
- The first thing I am not going to do is say “Oh that’s ok.” No.
- Show them compassion.
You can learn more at classicpractice.com, and you can reach Sandy Pardue with her number (800) 928-9289, and email her at [email protected].
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by Karah Karah | Sep 27, 2014 | Prescriptions for your Practice, Wealth Wisdom
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First, check out this outstanding financial resource that Jonathan has provided for the RD audience: http://dentistmetrics.com/relentless
Quotes & Notes:
- The biggest struggle I see a dentist has is knowing where to start.
- A business has people, products, and processes. And a lot of dentists have a lot of problems with those processes. It really comes down to managing people.
- They [dentists] have the innate ability to be able to manage the clinical side plus the business side.
- Nothing is going to run without your staff.
- Whenever you really start niching down, in the dental industry . . . you can actually see where people are doing things wrong by just looking at the numbers.
The goal is to have 55-60% overhead [for a solo practice]. And that is an average. I am a believer in the saying averages apply to everyone and no one at the same time.
- This issue doesn’t work for you because of why? And they will say, well it is because of the contract of the person in this role. You can say, has any dentist ever bought a practice, had a contract in place, and changed that contract? It’s really hard for them to say no.
- Staffing is the biggest thing to get in check if you want to get to that 55-60%.
- Lab fees and dental supplies both go hand in hand. That is really the #2 thing we tell people to look at after their staffing.
- Part of being a business owner is trying to find the best deals.
- Really make sure that that process [the process of purchasing lab equipment and so] is for convenience but rather for profit.
- Ask other people in your area what they are paying.
- Because I am a CPA I should probably say [the next big-ticket item is] taxes, but I’m actually not on that board.
- If you keep 15% for lab and equipment, and 20% for staffing then really you only have 20% left for everything else, be it rent or anything else.
- Any practice that is from the start-up level or is just in the running level, anywhere from zero 800,000 dollars in revenue. Their sole responsibility should be in marketing.
- If you have a great service or a great product, then you are actually doing disservice to the public if you don’t offer it.
- The problem with that is if you are doing what everyone else is doing then you are just going to get caught in the crowd.
- If you have a light to shine, shine it for the world to see. Don’t hide it.
- If you have a sneaking suspicion of something, don’t let it just go by the wayside and just accept it as fact.
- I would definitely go to check out dentalcardservices.com.
- Take control of supplies.
“What’s measured is improved,” Peter Drucker. But also “What’s not measured is not improved.”
- I feel like driving revenue is so much more important in the early stages of running a practice.
- I use Xero.com for accounting.
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