5 Dental Malpractice Coverages That Will Make You Smile

By Michelle Perron on August 25th, 2014

Malpractice insurance coverage is a necessity for healthcare providers and dentists are no exception. In our experience, we have found that some dentists who come to us seeking coverage are somewhat lost and others even admit they don’t understand the current coverage they have in place. We understand that the quicker a dentist can cross “buy malpractice insurance coverage” off their To-Do list, the happier they are until….. there is a claim.

The good news is that claims have significantly dropped over the last ten years.  Take a look at the data we retrieved from the National Practitioner Data Bank.



We’d like to take this time to give you a brief overview of five important things to look for when seeking coverage so you can be well protected and rest easy should a claim arise.

Dental Malpractice Coverage Considerations:

• Consent to Settle

We consider this to be the most important dental malpractice coverage clause in your policy. Here’s why. Let’s say, your coverage includes Consent to Settle, but, there is a tiny bit of additional wording that says, “subject to the Hammer Clause”. The Hammer Clause basically says, we will seek out your request to settle a claim. But, if you do not agree to our settlement and want us to keep defending, we will, but you may be on the hook if a claim ends us settling higher than the original settlement amount. We have dedicated an entire blog to the Consent to Settle clause, which you can find here.

•  Who Is an Insured

It stands to reason that you, the dentist, is an insured. But, what about your employees and your entity? With some policies, dental malpractice coverage for your employees and entity is provided at no cost on a shared limit basis or, if you would like, you may purchase separate limits. Making sure everyone who provides services at your practice, whether employed or not, can save you money in the long run.

•  Vicarious Liability

If you have independent contractors working at your facility, is your facility protected if a claim arises due to their care or lack thereof? Having vicarious liability within your dental malpractice coverage will protect you and your entity on behalf of your independent contractors’ acts.

• Regulatory Liability and Information Security Privacy Coverage

Because of the increase in data breach vulnerabilities and government regulations, some, but not all, carriers are now including additional dental malpractice coverage to protect against these types of losses. Although your EHR company may have it’s own coverage, you need to protect yourself and your practice if there were a data breach stemming from your office. Be sure to find coverage that includes response notifications and consistent communication with you throughout the breach remedy process.

• Botox

Due to the increase in popularity of Botox and other injectables, some carriers are now including these procedures within their policies, based on evidence of proper training and certification. If you provide these services and/or possibly plan to add new up and coming aesthetics procedures, you want to be sure you have a carrier that will provide coverage for these procedures.

We believe these dental malpractice coverage considerations will be beneficial to your practice now that you know what to look for. We invite you to share your comments below and welcome any questions or concerns you may have about your current policy.

For more information on dental malpractice coverages we offer and to find out more about our special dental program, click here.

You may find information on additional savings to your dental practice through the Dental Purchasing Group, which you may find here.

I Don’t Sell Anything…I Am A Doctor!

Sales. Never have I encountered a word more disliked. Walk into a dental office and tell them you are there to sell something and everyone scatters like you have the plague, leaving that one poor soul who couldn’t avoid eye contact fast enough, to fend off the sales rep. with traditional gatekeeper techniques. It always brings a smile to my face when I am greeted with open arms as Dr. Baker, only to be rebuffed seconds later when I state I am the owner of DPG. Assuming sales reps. have the best interest of practices at heart, we then must consider why sales is such an ugly word? Perhaps it is the time a sales call takes away from the day. Perhaps it is a bad past experience. Perhaps it is lack of name recognition. Perhaps it is a fear of exploring change. By far and away, the number one reason I have heard over the last 14 years is, “I don’t sell anything…I am a doctor!”

These eight words seem so passive yet describe a scenario that is all too common in dentistry. This mentality at best slows personal growth and at worst does not provide patients with the best available treatment modalities. Consider how fast dentistry changes. Todays techniques are rapidly evolving. Competitive pressures between companies create innovation. Innovation equals improved patient care and outcomes. Let’s explore this concept through an ongoing evolution in orthodontia. Traditional braces that often take several years to achieve full correction have evolved into short term ortho solutions, which in many cases now take six months to achieve results. Companies like Six Month Smiles® have even figured out how to provide rotational torque, allowing treatment of cases previously left to traditional methods and at 1/3rd the cost of traditional ortho. These type of advances improve patient compliance as well as the patient’s experience, thereby facilitating increased referrals every time a patient is given a compliment.

Do patients deserve to know the most recent advances in dentistry, when making decisions regarding their individual treatment plans? Do we owe it to them to provide options regardless of personal preferences? When does offering only one recommended product or service become tendentious? When did providing choices to our patients alter our effectiveness as doctors?

Consider my personal story. In 2011, my dentist of 10 years engaged me at 39 years old regarding my smile. I can still hear him ask, “Are you happy with the way your smile looks? What would you improve?”…I had always considered braces and wanted to ask every time I went to the dentist. My fear of a painful and costly experience prohibited me from doing so for 10 years. On this day, my dentist discussed a product with me called Invisalign. He showed me before and after cases and in the end I left as an Invisalign user. Today, when my dentist asks, “Do you like the way you smile looks?”…I can smile and answer with confidence, “yes”. I receive compliments on a weekly basis. In fact, I found the women of my dreams through eHarmony. When asked, “what was it about me that you liked?”…..she stated, “I fell in love with your smile!”….Imagine if my dentist never took the time to meet with that rep. and learn a new technique? Imagine if he never took the time to educate me on a new product? I for one am grateful he did!

Dr. Daniel C. Baker

Director of Sales & Marketing

Dental Purchasing Group, LLC

W: www.DentalPurchasingGroup.com

E:  DCB@DentalPurchasingGroup.com

P:  603-325-0535  F:  978-860-2914

 

Adopting “Un-Insurance” – A Dental Practice’s Patient Benefit Plan

 

I’ve come to know one of our dental practice clients fairly well over the last 4 years. Dr. R.  was one of the clients that my partner used as the “deciding factor” in our merger of client responsibilities, in that if I could work well with him and his specific needs, I would pass the test to manage the entire client base. Spending time at a Bruins game during tax season also did not hurt in getting to know him. Now we talk all the time, as Dr. R. wants to get my opinion on anything financial, whether practice-related or of a personal nature. It’s a good feeling to be trusted to impart my wisdom, and he values the discussions we have. I always thought our conversations were slightly one-sided with my listening then providing the advice.

Part of our discussions relate to marketing to both current and prospective patients. The goal in any professional practice, whether in dentistry, veterinary or human medicine, is to (a) get patients in the door who need your care and (b) are willing to pay for that care. Entire industries are in place to help secure both fundamental concepts to your practice’s financial success, but sometimes the fit is not right. New patients may come from the web or referral sites, but their dental insurance plans may have high deductibles, those with poor credit may not qualify for CareCredit, or credit card and CareCredit balances may be fully utilized. Whatever the story, you suddenly find out the patient’s financial limitations to your proposed treatment plans. Or your practice staff may be under the spell of “financial hesitancy”, what Bete Johnson, CareCredit’s Director of Business Development, says occurs with empathetic and caring dental professionals who may put themselves in the economic shoes of patients and possibly derail a practice’s generic financial policy already in place.

Here is where Dr. R. came up with a mini game-changer for his practice. He was listening to a convention’s practice management speaker one afternoon, and asked a probing question at the break. “Can’t I just set up my own insurance plan for patients?”

The rest is history. What Dr. R. did was to create on his own a Patient Benefit Plan, not really an insurance plan. For an annual prepayment of $500 ($400 for patients up to age 13), patients receive annual preventative treatment consisting of 2 examinations, 2 cleanings, 2 flouride applications up to age 13, and 4 bitewing x-rays. There is also a 10% discount on additional preventative treatment, fillings, endodontics, oral surgery, crowns, bridges, periodontics and implants. A 15% discount is applied to treatments exceeding $4,000, and a 20% discount is applied to treatments exceeding $10,000.

You may be asking yourself “What is the big deal?” The wisdom is in how the Benefit Plan has managed client treatment plans. Patients are now prepaying one year in advance for basic prophylaxis services to be provided at least six months out from the initial treatment date, hence hygiene appointments (and more importantly, your dental hygienist staff) are booked with patients that will be in a chair waiting for an examination. If more extensive care is warranted based on your hygenist’s thorough oral exam and your follow-up, the patient is in your office, not your competitor’s dental office down the street, and has a thorough understanding of what your benefit plan covers so they can more likely proceed with more extensive treatment options. And 100 patients who have subscribed to a Benefit Plan contribute $50,000 to gross collections each year, a substantial annuity in a start-up or growing practice. Think about what 500 subscribers would mean to the average $1 million practice.

Had the Benefit Plan not been in place, a competing practice with such a plan may indeed have reeled in the new patient, or a recommended treatment plan may not have been implemented due to the uncertainty and cost of treatment. With your own Benefit Plan in place, each party to dental care knows what will be covered and to what extent, without regard to waiting periods, pre-existing conditions, calendar year limits, or waiting periods. A patient can sign up on Day 1 and obtain $18,000 of dental care with all the hoopla that they deserve!

Practices may be concerned about what they are giving away with built-in plan discounts, not what they are receiving. We would rather have the glass be examined and labelled as “half-full”, not “half-empty”. A patient Benefit Plan is a win-win for both parties.

Mark J. McGaunn, CPA/PFS, CFP® leads the veterinary/dental/financial planning divisions at McGaunn & Schwadron, CPA’s, LLC and can be reached via mark@mcgaunnschwadron.com or (781) 489-6651

An Evolutionary Tale!

                                                                        

An inevitable fact of life is that the world is changing around us each and every day. Our environment evolves, morphs and adapts to these changes, in order to flourish in its new surroundings. Without adaptation we face the possibility of a declining population or worse, extinction.

These were the basic tenants of evolution that I learned as a young budding biologist. Fast forward 20 years later through the completion of veterinary school, working as a successful practitioner, climbing the corporate ladder at Mars, Inc. and now as an entrepreneur of a successful start-up and ironically these principles of life apply to everything we do as both clinicians, as well as practice owners.

Todays outside stressors in dental practices present themselves in several forms, such as: lack of new patients and associated referrals, increased cost of goods and services eroding already thin margins, inability to attract and retain high performing employees and lack of patient compliance to recommended treatment plans. Add in declining reimbursement rates and prolonged reimbursement times and one is left to ponder another adage I learned in school, “survival of the fittest”. It is no wonder why today the corporate dentistry model is flourishing, as independent dental practices fight for survival.

In the last decade, independent pharmacies, as well as veterinary hospitals, have experienced the same pressures. Mom and pop pharmacies refused to evolve to new external pressures. As a result, they vanished as larger corporate pharmacy chains (CVS, Walgreens, RiteAid) acquired them. Today, the independent pharmacy model is extinct. Conversely, veterinarians have adapted a pack like mentality to fight for their survival. Today, group purchasing models are the fastest growing segment of veterinary medicine. This has allowed the independent veterinary practitioner the ability to survive, adapt and in most cases flourish. Above all, it has allowed veterinary practices the ability to retain their identity, without having to relinquish control to one of the ever growing corporate practice models (VCA, Vetcor, NVA).

What’s all this have to do with dentistry? Dental practices are now faced with the same choices as their veterinary and pharmacy counterparts. They can learn from these models, as practices seek to adapt to their new surroundings, through a collective approach to their respective challenges or be faced with the real danger of extinction. Ask yourself, when was the last time you went to a local independent pharmacy to pick up your prescription? As I learned in biology 101, evolution takes time and is necessary for the survival of a species.

Dr. Daniel C. Baker 
Director of Sales & Marketing 
Dental Purchasing Group, LLC
www.DentalPurchasingGroup.com 
DCB@DentalPurchasingGroup.com