Follow the link for a report from Medscape asking doctors which insurers are the best which are the worst and what are the differences.

And the loser is…

Insurer Ratings Report 2011.

Next month I will be participating in the annual AADPA meeting in Scottsdale. AADPA is the American Academy of Dental Practice Administration. I have been a member of this organization for over twenty years and can say with conviction my association with this group has had a profound positive effect on my life and my dental practice.

The academy is not for everyone however if you are interested in the business side of dentistry and especially  human relations then the AADPA is an organization you should check out. Membership is limited but invited guests are welcome at the annual meeting.

1. Begin with the End in Mind:
Have a plan and a goal before you start

2. Establish a technology infrastructure:
Integrated practice management software

Computers networked in the treatment rooms

3. Add the “Big 2”:
Digital images

Digital radiography

4. Non-dental programs:
Word processing

Checkbook

Anti virus

5. Add advanced dental applications:
CAD CAM

Digital Diagnostics

Computerized probes

6. Keep a future focus; be open to evolving technologies:
Internet

3D Images

Mobile

Following is a link from the ADA News. I have been a happy user and big fan of CareCredit for many years. Making it easy for patients to accept and pay for fine dentistry is a plus for any office. I am also a fan of the tools CareCredit makes available online for dentists to check patient’s eligibility, get them in the system and then track how it is working.

CareCredit is celebrating its 25th anniversary of helping patients finance their health care.

… CareCredit was established in 1987 as a way for patients to pay for new dental implant technology. CareCredit is now a credit card, and the company’s focus is solely on health care financing options

via CareCredit celebrates 25th anniversary – American Dental Association – ADA.org.

“Every few hundred years throughout Western history, a sharp transformation has occurred. In a matter of decades, society all together rearranges itself – its worldview, its basic values, its social and political structure, its arts, and its key institutions. Fifty years later a new world exists. And the people born into that world cannot even imagine the world in which their own grandparents were born. Our age is in such a period of transformation. If history is a guide the transformation will be complete in 2010 to 2020.”

In my humble opinion there is no high tech investment that will pay off faster than training. If you have not had some sort of high tech training in the last 12 to 18 months you are holding the office back and costing yourself thousands in lost productivity.

Plan for some training this year by budgeting the money for it right now. A full day of onsite training will cost less than $1,000 and could easily save you tens of thousands. And…this is very important…training day is not Dr. golf day. To be most effective training must include the dentist .

When evaluating high tech for the dental office there are three things to consider before making a big purchase.

1. Does this technology system enhance the human system? That is to say does it make the job easier and faster or even just more rewarding for the dentist the staff or the patient?
2. Does this technology system improve the overall quality of patient care?
3. Will this technology pay for itself? Is there a reasonable ROI?

The final question is often the most difficult to determine. Direct ROI results can be straight forward, such as reduced lab fees, reduced spending on film and chemicals or reduced printing and posting. Yet even these are sometimes hard to extract from the practice data. It is even harder to determine indirect savings such as reduced time in finding a record or increased income such as a referral based on some impressive WOW technology..

Just a few years ago this would have seemed impossible.

Doctors in America are harboring an embarrassing secret: Many of them are going broke.

via Small Business: Doctors going broke – Jan. 5, 2012.

The CNN Money article linked above presents a number of reasons US physicians are struggling including reduced and delayed payments from government and third parties. In some cases the payment for certain treatments are less than the actual cost of delivering the treatment. Sometimes the system pits doctor against patient. Most troubling is that some patients are no longer able to receive care.

These are the kinds of financial issues and third party interference issues that are driving new entrepreneurial approaches to medical dental care like American World Clinics.

You can find an article I wrote for Dentrix Magazine online here, page 28.

The article discusses what to do, or more importantly what not to do when you are faced with a negative online user review.

Data mining is the act of looking for useful relationships in out general business data that can be used to better manage our practice or serve our patients. My article in Dentalcompare “No More Management by Guesswork”  looks at how data mining can work using an online e-service, Action Run.