Dental Startup Academy gives you an inside look on starting a dental practice from scratch from a Dentist (me) - who graduated with tons of dental school debt back in 2010.
Through series of videos and blog posts, I share with you details of all things related to dental practice management - things that worked and things that didn't.
I will provide details of everything I’ve done so far in a step-by-step approach to help you get started with your own practice.
Our channel offers content that covers every aspect of running a dental practice: practice management, marketing to get new patients, dental insurance training, setting up systems, team management and so much more.
Subscribe to our channel for weekly videos geared to help you build a LEAN practice, work less and take home more income, so you can invest the cash flow for your dream lifestyle and other investments!
Thank you so much for making these videos. It has really helped me through a startup practice this year. I am wondering if you would be willing to talk more about how you operate without hygiene? I am really interested in this model given the fact it’s hard to find a hygienist and the hourly pay desired is very high. Thank you!
Thank you for all of your videos! So helpful and I so appreciate you providing the information and making it so accessible here. I wondered if you have a copy of the information that you copy and paste into insurance notes?
Almost all of my Invisalign cases have fallen through. In the chair, they seem so excited, but after the treatment coordinator comes in, they always say they have to think about it. I follow up by sharing the treatment plan, but never hear anything back. Should I be calling the patients or should my staff? How should I be approaching this?
Your channel is a gem 💎. Can you possibly make a video on new grads like myself on how to get better exponentially. Like what would you do differently if you were a new grad and eventually wanting to open up your practice. Thank you for your videos. Liked and subscribed👍
Is that ok/legal to just use the primary ins and collect copays and than send to secondary and give pt credit in the ledger since you have to submit the same amount to the secondary? Not sure if that made sense but i was trying to understand what you meant lol
Great question @AgnesVelez. By saying that we don't look at the secondary insurance when patient comes in for work - it doesn't mean that we're not generating a claim for the secondary. What we're saying is - when patient comes in for work, we collect their copays based on primary insurance info only. Once the primary claim gets paid, we generate a claim for the secondary. If the secondary claim pays anything, it's complete credit to the patient. As long as you're refunding the patient since they have credits on the account, you're doing nothing wrong. You're obligated to send to both insurances. What we're doing is collecting in advance and not relying on secondary in case they pay nothing. If the secondary pays nothing, it now means, we have to do extra work to chase the patient for their balance. To answer your question, there is nothing illegal here! Hope this made sense!
Yes! If they have credits on their accounts, you should let the patient know. Then they decide whether they want to apply to their future work or just want a refund.
@nilaygshah sounds great. Thank you so much for the information and the help. 🙏🏽 I truly appreciate it. I am going to strategy using your version of the dental insurance verification form in the new office I am in. I am going to add a little lol, but it's the best I've seen so far. Thank you for that. 🙏🏽
Ok so say you do “close the case” yourself. Are you speaking with cost. Depending on the neighborhood and demographics as you spoke of before, many patients will break the appointment at the front desk if they do not like the cost. So you may be able to get them to schedule but that does not guarantee they will keep the appointment once financials are discussed. I have seen it go well in some offices but the dentist needs to consider the area they are working in before thinking this will work. And yes, the negative talk about the insurance is not good at all.
@cm7884, there's absolutely no guaranteed regardless of how tight the systems are in the practice with closing cases. patient can pay deposit for their next appointment, and still not show up. You're correct - some of it may depend on the demographics of the area. That's why I always say keep your policies flexible and tweak your systems that supports your particular office.
Thank you so much for your videos, as an office manager, I can say that everything you are saying is spot on!! I had a question about patients who have out-of-network PPO coverage and their plan is based on their own fee schedule. When asking many insurance companies who are not in network, they will not disclose the fee that they actually use to determine benefit for a patient. How would you approach this to make it more clear for the practice and the patient. For example, a patient gets a prophy, the office fee is $100.00. This patient has an out-of-network PPO plan that says they cover preventative at 100% coverage. The EOB comes back and the insurance only paid $60 and the $40 balance is the patients responsibility. Thank you so much for your insight!
@alexanderhall2558 This is a question that comes up for all offices who maybe out of network on one or more plans. To get fees for procedures for out of network plans, it’s never an easy task in the beginning. When you’re unsure of what you’re going to get paid, you’re going to want to underestimate what the insurance will pay and collect more from the patient. In your example, you mentioned $100. I’d collect 80 from the patient and let them know it’s possible you may end up with a credit once we generate a claim on your behalf. As you’re doing this in the beginning, you’re building a “blue book” of fees of procedures for that particular plan. So next time you see a patient with the same plan and benefits, you know what to expect from the insurance and you can collect appropriately. This is for preventive. For basic and major restorative, I’d most definitely send in a preauth to get the fees. Again, once you get the fees, add them to the blue book. So essentially you’re building up the fees database on your end. Depending on which practice management system you’re using, you can utilize the built in blue book feature to do this. When you get started, Starting the conversation with the patient with full honesty is the best course. Don’t go around and tell the patient you accept their plan because they’ll assume they have to pay nothing for preventive. Whether it’s in person or on the phone, let them know they’ll have a small oop for preventive, but you will send in a claim on their behalf to get them benefits. Majority of the times, it’s HOW you say it to the patient. Hope this was helpful. Don’t hesitate to reach out if anything else!
I am 2 months in a start up and this is super helpful to me! Where in Open Dental do you put the past history of a tooth? for example "tooth #2 had a crown or filling done in 2021"
@KristinaBosworth, I’m glad the video is helpful for you! For history that is important and relevant to whatever I may need to do on a patient, we just put it in the chart module in the blank note section under the tooth chart separated by dates. Keeps it simple and accessible and attached to the chart. Hope this was helpful!
Your videos have been solid as I've watched most of them. My wife has been an associate for 3 years now and we just finished off paying over 350k in student loans finally. We're considering starting our own practice, but we're concerned about starting a family and attempting a business at the same time. Just curious if you would recommend starting a practice ASAP or waiting until a kid is 2-3 years of age and saving money until then for a practice. Edit - I'm not a dentist myself, but work in Business + Finance so I feel like I could hit the ground running with the financial side of things for a practice.
@fiddy7797, First of all, big congrats to you guys for paying off the student loans! That’s a big burden to get rid off! There isn’t a right or wrong answer to what you’re asking. When you start your practice, since your wife will be the one working on patients and creates the revenue, it will be difficult when you have a new born. I’m not saying it can’t be done. There are plenty of moms who go back to office right away after couple of weeks and continue because you want your practice running. Unless you decide to hire an associate right away that’s going to be there when your wife isn’t, it may be difficult to build that patient base for the beginning phase of your practice. I can say a lot about this than what I want to write in this comment here, but it can be done but you’ll have to prepare for it. Having said that, there’s never the perfect time to open your own practice. Something always comes up, you deal with it as it comes along. Although starting your own practice as soon as possible is the best thing for you financially, you don’t want to rush and you should do it when you really do want to own your practice. Feel free to email me and we can chat more! Hope this helps!
@Efahsal I don't have a video specifically for new graduates. I've delved into topics important to new graduates such as student loan debt, associateships, etc. via my newsletter in the past. All the written blog posts on dentalstartupacademy.com and the videos here on RU-vid have to do with starting your own practice, and managing it. I basically share all the things I run into in my own practice. But you're not the first one to mention this, so I will add to my list for future videos for topics for new grads for sure!
@nilaygshah you are so detailed. I wish I could work in your office! I'm a dental hygienist who's had 2 spinal surgeries. Still recovering from my second, but I am considering the fact that I may not be able to do hygiene again....at least not in the near future. So transitioning to the front may be what is next for me... I've been in the field for over 20 yrs so can't imagine not doing dental. Hygiene is definitely my passion though..
@@chauvennamatthews3043 Thanks again! With your clinical experience as a hygienist, you'll have an advantage and will make a stellar managerial / administrative lead for a dental practice!
I work as a Patient Services Specialist in a clinic. I'd love to mix it up and work in a Dental clinic because I love the idea of working four days a week. There are alot of things that overlap with my job as a PSS and working as a Dental Front Desk Receptionist.
When my first three hirees failed when I opened my practice from scratch back in 2012, I then hired someone with no dental experience. She was a Patient Services advocate from ER in a local hospital. She was amazing and was with me for only 5 years because she had to move. You will stand out in a dental office with your experience as a Patient Services Specialist. Everything you need to know for dental front desk position can be trained, but can’t teach the work ethic and personality you’ve developed as a Specialist!
I’m assuming you’re asking about allowance amount when patient has two insurances. The primary insurance determines the allowance amount for the procedure. Whatever you collect for a procedure (prim ins + secondary ins + pt copay) cannot by be more than what the primary in-network fee for that procedure. Hope this helps!
I’m glad you found it helpful! What other topics do you want to learn more about? I’m always open to content ideas! I appreciate you taking the time in giving me feedback!
Hey doc you said that you've only hired people with no dental experience. Do you have any resources to bring someone up to speed in terms of dental jargon, or how to handle calls/patients, or anything else to help familiarize someone brand new who's never worked in a dental related field?
I don't have specific dental jargon or phone calls/scripts you could use right away. That's in fact one of the reasons why I started this channel is to start talking about daily operations, training, etc. For now, I have two videos on terminology that should help with understanding office management / insurance: "Important Terms for Daily Dental Office management" and "Dental insurance Terminology Part II". Also, if they're starting, they'd need to understand Dental insurance verification. I have one detailed video on how to do it step-by-step: "Dental Insurance Verification Step-by-step" along with a template you can download. You won't be able to throw everything at once to this person and expect them to pick up right away. They'll make mistakes, but it's part of learning. If I were in your position today, I'd have them go through the terminology video so they understand the basics. Immediately, after that I'd have them make insurance verification calls after watching the verification video. Hope this helps!
Before you consider cloud based systems, you have to consider what it is you’re trying to achieve. Cost cannot be the only factor. Some cloud systems will cost you more than a server based system. Some assume that just because you go cloud, you can let go of your hired IT service company. I have never used a cloud system. But just speaking from experience of starting a practice from scratch and having started with Open Dental from the get go, I can tell you it was the best decision ever. Before dentistry, I was in software development. I’ve also worked with Dentrix (legacy, not Ascend/cloud) during my associateships. It was clunky and “heavy” and had monthly costs associated with it that just seemed ridiculously high as compared to Open Dental. For what I needed, Open Dental does everything and more. And its monthly service fees are optional as support isn’t required. So I pay zero for practice management system. But then there’s also the case of personal preference. Some people just prefer to go cloud. Hope this helps!
Go to our main website teamio.app, scroll to the bottom and put in your email in the box above the button “get on the inside”. Once I get the email, we take it from there and then can set up demo at a time that’s convenient for both of us! Hope this helps!
Hello, I'm working for a dental billing company, i want to start my own dental billing company, Do you need any help with dental billing, eligibility and AR follow-up??? Please let me know I'm looking for new clients 😊😊.
