Podcasts about EOB

Part one of Kiera's conversation with Howard Farran on the Dentaltown podcast. They discuss how many details a dentist should know about their business, what about the COVID-19 pandemic still haunts practices, the AI of dentistry and the human care of patients, hidden gaps draining profitability, and more. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And today we are sharing a guest interview I did on another podcast. And it was too valuable not to bring you guys here.   this episode, you're gonna hear this host lead the conversation and then I'll wrap us up at the end. I cannot wait. It was truly one of my most   episodes and I truly hope you enjoy.   The Dental A Team (00:17) It's just a huge honor for me today to bring back Kiera Dent. How are you doing, Kiera? my gosh, Howard. It's so great to be back. I remember my very first podcast with you. I was actually at an office in Alabama and I went like hid in this room because I was starstruck podcasting with you. So to be able to be back on the show with you ⁓ several years later is just fun. I love what you guys are doing. I love Dentaltown. I love your posts. so it's really fun to be back. So thank you. ⁓ the honor is all mine. Just remember Kiera likes Shakira.   And Dent is just her nickname. The full name is Dental Queen Goddess. So thank you. And ⁓ she is the founder and CEO of the Dental A Team, committed to elevating dentists and their teams to their highest level through customized in-office and virtual consulting and training. Her vast experience ranges from the front office to assistant, regional manager, and dental practice owner, giving her a perspective few consultants can claim.   She and her team work with hundreds of dental practices nationwide and confidently say we don't just understand you, we are you. Among her many accomplishments, Ciara has grown a practice from 500,000 to 2.4 million in just nine months with a doctor straight out of dental school. She's coached hundreds of practices, authored numerous articles, and designed a customizable operations manual manual that serves as a roadmap for systems and team success.   Her Dental A Team podcast has amassed nearly 2 million downloads, making it one of the most impactful resources in all of dentistry. Kiera lives every day by her core values. Do the right thing, ownership, passion for excellence, ease, grit, innovator, die, and fun. Her motto says it all. There is always a solution. And my gosh, I just want to tell you the truth. And the reason I was so excited to bring you on. It seems like dentistry has turned into two groups of dentists.   There's all the old farts like me who, you know, we had, you know, we had great practices, great lives, great careers. And then you got these younger dentists that look at us and say, ⁓ man, you graduated in the good old days. You know, you didn't have five hundred thousand dollars of student loans, you didn't have DSOs, Delta hasn't given us a raise in four generations, and and and they're mad at the ADA. I think they're even mad at their mom. I I they're I think so and they're not happy. Do you have any good news?   For these dental graduates with $500,000 of student loans, or did they make the wrong decision and should have become a plumber? I mean, you know, plumbing is always a backup plan if dentistry doesn't work. So I think you're like at least in that realm. Like, you know, there's always options. But I love dentistry and I actually, ⁓ I think we're actually in the best time of dentistry. And I know that yes, there's the good old days. Then Howard, those were great days for you. But I think like, how many options do people have now? We have AI, we have these innovations, and I mean.   Your my example of a student straight out of dental school, we actually had one million. So I actually called her 2.5 because we had $2.5 million. So from student debt to practice loan debt to buying another location, all within a couple of months of us starting the practice. And so I called her 2.5 every time I walked past her. I was like, get that back straight, girl. Like we got 2.5 mil of debt on us. but to be able to grow our practice in nine months was   Absolutely incredible. And I think that that's where dentistry is amazing. There is no cap, there is no ceiling, and you have a way to truly impact and change people's lives. And I'm like, you have DSOs as options. Like there were not the times where you were getting the multiples that you get today. You also have like there are so many avenues that dentistry can afford you. but I think it's a it's a matter of what you choose to focus on, is what you're going to find more of. If you want to sit here and say, ⁓ my gosh, it's awful. We have 500,000 of debt. And I'm like, Yeah, but guess what? My husband had   Not quite the same, but we had several hundreds, thousands of dollars of debt. And he's a pharmacist. And so I understand what it's like to come out of school and have hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt on us. But guess what? He's making, you know, hundred, hundred and fifty. If we're lucky on a good day, we're capped out. It took us forever to pay back our student loans. But as dentistry, you have untapped and uncapped potential. And so for me, you get to change people's lives, you get to give them confidence, you get to help them have better health, and you're able to make people smile like.   I can't think of a better opportunity to be a part of. And I'm not just Pollyanna over here. I coach hundreds and thousands of offices. I've seen the good, the bad, the ugly, and the in between. But I'll tell you, depending upon how you choose to view this, you can either find the good or the bad. And I'd recommend like, let's find the great because it's a gold line of opportunity if you want to see it. What what do you say to dentists who say, Mm-mm, you know, I I really don't want to complain really a bit. I mean, on paper my   My practice looks perfect. I got two hygienists. I do a million dollars. I do all this, but just internally it just feels chaotic and stressful. So it looks like on paper he's doing everything right. But she says, I still feel like chaos and stress. What's what's that about? I think like welcome to being a business owner. I think that there's two sides of success. In the word success, there's literally the word suck. Like there are parts of success that are going to suck. Like that's just how it is, guys.   And so that chaos and internal turmoil, I think I there I have lots of offices where you don't have to be that way. And I think going from like operator doing all the pieces, being stressed out into like a CEO of a business. ⁓ I think sometimes dentists are such gunners doers, they're so hands-on that they have this internal chaos. But there there are paths again that don't have to be that way. But I also think this is part of the game of business that we signed up for. And I think when you get to the level like Howard.   You've seen, I've seen over our career, we've got the gunners and the doers and the like zero to two year business owners. Like it's freaking chaos. It's psycho. Like you're learning these things just like you're back in dental school. But as you mature, you start to realize that the chaos is just part of the game. And the more you're able to learn to weather it, to see it, and to not do all the pieces, elevate your team, get great people, do like hire it out. You can hire, I mean, a practice is doing a million and you got great profitability and overhead.   You can hire a lot of great people to take away a lot of your problems. And so like, let's get some of those things done. And then you actually become happier and you make more money. So that you don't have to sit in that chaos. I think that there's a part of it that will always suck. but there's also a part that can really be the successful part too, that's fulfillment and enjoyment. But you got to make the steps and take the steps to do it rather than just sit and complain about it.   Love it, love it, love it. ⁓ what do you what do you say about the ⁓ the dentist who got out of school, goes and works for a major DSO, say say he's working for Rick Workman, Heartland, and he works there two years, and you know, he you know, he's working for a guy that owns eighteen, nineteen hundred dental offices, but he can't tell you the code for a profit. Can't he'll say, like, you know, are they paying my pay right? Really? You can't check at you. I mean, it it's like   It's like they'll listen to a forty hour lecture on the difference between two different composites, but they did I mean th they worked through two years, they don't know insurance codes, they can't check out a patient, they don't know the software. I mean, I had one guy tell me, ⁓ the only thing you could tell me about the practice manager software is the brand name. He couldn't tell me and then he's asking me, you know, it what which one you know, but anyway, do you think do you think a dentist doesn't need to know all the business details?   Or do you think that's a blind spot and you can't delegate anything till you can do it and master it? I think that there's two types of owners. And I think that there's some that are really great at hiring people that they are great at hiring people, knowing it, listening to podcasts, hiring coaches, training the team, and like having somebody spot check for you. Then there's others that like they've got to know the ins and outs. But I think that like Howard, there's   To me, there's also a middle ground where I think that you can go sit with your biller for one day and just like say, like, walk me through your process. So you have a general idea and an understanding of what they do. Go watch to see how they schedule. ⁓ I think when it comes to billing, I do think the dentists have a very big blind spot. And to me, that is like as a business owner, not to know how your money comes to you. To me, that feels like a pretty big blind spot of like even just understanding that knowledge. And so   If I were to say, I don't think you need to know the ins and outs. I love like I recognize this. I was a business owner of it. I own practices. I worked with hundreds of dentists at Midwestern University's Dental College. Like, I hear what you guys are taught. Plus, I'm a team member on the other side. And so I created a billing course and an office manager course because I just want a dentist to know like, what should I be able to expect? And I think like if you want to just have a general overview so you don't get blindsided, you you can have it. I think you can quickly within like a week.   Know the bulk of like everything you need to know in a practice very simply, very easily. So that way you can delegate. That way you can have it. You're not gonna be perfect. but I think just having a general awareness. And then I love to give doctors just a quick checklist, like once a month, go spot check, go grab an EOB. Even if you don't know what the heck that EOB is, go ask your front office for it, check it. And just the more you learn that language, just like the language of business, I think it doesn't need to be an overnight sensation.   But I do think the more you're aware of it, I don't think you have to do every single role though to be a successful practice owner. And I mean, shoot, if Heartland can do it, I think it's a good example. But I think who are you? And are you a hands-on tactical person? Are you somebody who's really good at hiring people, t trusting other people, getting the checklist and spot checking? I think you can do it either way. But my recommendation is like just like one week, go like sit in every seat of your practice and get a general awareness and educate yourself on the things that you don't know. I'm really big on money, understanding at least how insurance works. And then also how do we like   present cases, what are kind of the flow that way those big zones that really impact your financials, you can you can be aware of. So those courses, those online CE courses, your website is The Dental A Team. The Dental A Team. Now I think the A Team, you need that guy with the Mohawk and all the bling. I mean that's who I am in my like spare time. This hair is just a facade. Like, you know, I hang out as Mr T. Mr T. Mr T, Mr T, yeah.   That's why I was thinking the A Team, but is that on your on your website, the th those courses? Yeah, they are. So we have an online library, it's all C E. We've got downloadable checklists, we've got operations manual. You got it. That's exactly right. And Howard, in real time, I'll have our marketing team actually put together a code. If you guys put in Dentaltown, since you're listening, we'll make sure that you guys get a coupon code for that as well. Well, since it's my compass podcast IRS that you just put Fabio.   you want Fabio? Okay. well in that case. So ⁓ so is I also see you have a ⁓ Summit twenty twenty six is live on Friday, April twenty fourth. Grab your ticket. Where's where's that show gonna be? Is it Reno where you are? You know, that's actually virtual, Howard, and it's one of our like favorite comebacks constantly. And the reason I do it virtual, people have been asking me for years, like, why don't you do it in person, Kiera? And what I found is   Because it's so like again as a team member, I really struggle to get my team ramped up, amped up, and have it be financially affordable. So what I found is if we can have it virtual in your practice with your full team, you guys are able to get this boost and surge of energy and have a good time. So it's for leadership teams, it's for doctors. ⁓ we've been doing it for six years strong and we tend to have hundreds of offices. You get your whole office there, you have a good time.   But yeah, it's virtual and it's C E and it's a great time. ⁓ I attend a lot of Tony Robbins, a lot of Brendan Bouchard, Rachel Hollis. So we've learned how to do people have told me the online experience is so fun. ⁓ we just get continual people coming back year after year after year. So yeah, come join us. It'd be a great time. I love Tony Robbins because ⁓ you know, my boys they wrestled year round from age five to fifteen.   Yeah. Made our garage. I got two real wrestling mats from the manufacturer in Pennsylvania delivered by an AJ Miller. So I never ever parked in my garage ever. And we would we were listening to that Tony Robbins 30 day, 30 day personal power. Yep. And then I and then I bought my first laptop when I went to MBA school. And so I took notes on it. And then when I was done, I I ⁓ closed down Saturday and I went to a studio Saturday, Sunday, and I ranted out my notes.   And I said, this has got to be 30 hours because I mean it's still Tony Robbins 30 day personal power. And that was the 30-day dental MBA. ⁓ and it worked out to be about thirty hours. But I'm telling you, the pandemic changed everything. That was when ⁓ online CE at Dentaltown just went through the roof and it hasn't come back and dental meetings haven't come back. Cause why do I need to fly to Chicago to listen to you if I got a Zoom call or   or streaming video or this event. I mean, I mean, just think of the plane ticket, the hotel, the sitting and attending. If you're in Phoenix, you know, just to get to New York is a five hour flight. I mean, why I I gotta fly five hours each way when I could see you on YouTube or a podcast or or whatever. But I wanna but I want to go back to that pandemic because that pandemic, I really think the reason you can really do this so successfully today is because of that pandemic. That's why we realize   I don't have to be in the flesh to learn knowledge. And and like I I I feel fine talking to you. I me too. The only thing I regret is teaching my mother how to do that. I got her FaceTime and all that kind of stuff. And because she calls to tell me about ever every one of her exciting things is junk mail she has. She's eighty seven and she believes every piece of junk mail. I love it. She's always free freaking out on her junk mail. But but I want to talk about the pan the dark side of the pandemic.   And that is a lot of people think about 20% of the hygienists left to practice. Before, you know, when I got out of school, your labor was supposed to be twenty percent, your overhead was supposed to be fifty percent. And by the time it was it didn't even take 10 or 20 years, and and due to insurance, I think not keeping up, ⁓ overhead went to basically two thirds. It went to about sixty-five percent and labor went to about twenty five, sometimes twenty-seven percent.   I'm hearing thirty percent labor all the time. And I mean I mean I'm talking about serious dudes who know the business of dentistry. And I don't I don't want to get my buddy Rick Kirstram out of me. He owns a hundred comfort dentals and he said he can't he said he's got the mean and lean where labor is twenty. He says he's got mean and leans with labor at twenty-eight, twenty-eight and a half. So so the the pandemic is ⁓ it that was five years ago. Why do you think it   seriously impacted labor cost of the pandemic. I do, Howard. And I think I think we kind of have this perfect storm, right? Like I think we've got multiple waves coming at us that have impacted. I think the pandemic pushed out those that were like, you know, I'm done. Like, like I'm good. I'm at the end of my career. I don't really want to do that. ⁓ a lot of hygienists are female and I think a lot of them realize they did not need two incomes anymore. And so it's like, you know, I want to be with my kids. I want to be home.   And then hygiene schools don't pump out a lot of hygienists and it's usually like a two year span. So yes, I have actually seen like hygiene is it really did, and then it clicked up. So the cost of hygienist has gone up astronomically. I mean, I think the highest I've seen of a hygienist being paid was 85 an hour. And to me, I was like, at that point, that was up in ⁓ it was up in Washington, up by Bellevue, Mount Vernon, that area. And I literally saw the the posting for 85 plus a a bonus, and I was like,   Screw that at that point. Like in all respect to hygienists, I'm gonna hire a dentist for that cost. Like I truly will. And that's not being disrespectful. It's just like a dentist is a more multifaceted. I understand they are not great hygienists, but if I have to and I'm gonna be putting this number up, like we've got to get to a space where it does work. So yes, I do. However, there are more hygienists coming onto the market. I still know that this is one of the hardest things, but ⁓ I have a practice that's out in Maui, rough life, huh, Howard? I get to fly to Maui to go do work, like.   You know, shout out to that office. ⁓ but what we found is we were able to find a way to get the hygienist to be paid exponentially higher by doing assisted hygiene. And so I think I'm seeing people innovate. I think I'm watching them create. I think I'm seeing people do some more outsourced costs in the front office. And so they're able to then offset the costs of the clinical team. ⁓ I think that people are just getting innovative and creative. And what I want to highlight is while this feels annoying, this is also business. And if we don't innovate and if we don't continue to evolve,   We actually decay and decline as an as an organization and as an industry. And so I know it's annoying and I absolutely empathize. And you're right. Like for me on our payroll, we're at 30%. Like I've had that as our metric for our clients for the last five years because payroll costs have gone up. But I'm like, but just because they've gone up, like let's look at several other industries. I mean, we're not here to like love on or hate on McDonald's, but I'm like, they have kiosks. They figured it out.   I checked in at a hotel in downtown San Francisco. There was no person there when I checked in. It was literally a person on Zoom just like this. I clicked in, they said hello to me. They took my information, but they didn't have to have a physical body in the office. And I think with AI and technology, dentistry is going to evolve, but I think the art and the care of patients does not need to evolve. And so, like, let's put our dollars where that matters and let's be able to look and innovate in other ways that keep our costs low. ⁓ I still think dentistry, I mean, why is there a one percent default rate on loans? Like,   Banks are still lending. We had the first down year of DSOs last year and the first uptick of private practice last year. And so when I look at these things, like it is still a great business to be in, even though labor costs, like, guys, again, it's just another flavor of business. So like let's figure out how to innovate. Let's figure out how to do it. And like, yes, I'm gonna pay for great people. I see team members as assets, not liabilities. And I'm gonna cut and chop on other areas that I can, but I'm also gonna be smart with my labor costs and make sure each person hitting their KPIs, they've got numbers that they're driving.   We are running this as an efficient business while like loving and taking care of our patients at the same time. I'm glad you mentioned bank loans because it's less than one percent default rate. Yes. All the defaults have the same thing in common. They all had their license taken away. Right. Always. And and if it's for drugs or alcohol, they now treat that as a medical disease. And the dentists still say, Screw you, I'm not gonna quit doing biking. And then they run south of the border. And that's why whenever you find a dentist down there that looks like me.   They're running for free Vicada. They they they said I'm not peeing any. So unless you, you know, do something just horrible. I mean, and you know, you have you have to get your it licensed in your way. But I w I wanna tell you about you know, there's just so many other things that you can focus on besides labor, like increasing their productivity. ⁓ I know dental offices. you can get a full if you pay a dentist in the Philippines five dollars an hour.   You get the best dentists in the Philippines. And I and there's dental offices that with Zoom and things like that are doing all their insurance and their claims and all that stuff. I mean, ⁓ so the with with with ⁓ with the internet, I mean you can literally have someone ⁓ be at the front desk ⁓ on a on a kiosk that's actually a dentist from the Philippines from five dollars an hour who when he's not busy can be calling your insurance companies all that. I I want to ask you another thing that's really hot on Dentaltown.   today. Everybody keeps talking about these dental insurance EFTs versus virtual credit cards. but basically everybody's reporting that major dental companies like even Delta are gonna stop sending paper checks and you gotta do it all electronic. And I guess that that electronic could be free, but it could be you know it could be another three and a half or three percent credit card fee on all your claims. Or what or what are your thoughts on all that? I'm hard on that   I have and I'm a hard no on the credit cards. Like, why? Why are you doing that? EFTs are so fast. Like there's absolutely no reason to be paying this. Explain to my home. A lot of them don't even know what a EFT. Mo I I bet 80% of the the dentists listen don't even know what we're talking about. Will you explain it? Will you explain it like I just graduated from dental school eight minutes ago? Of course. Well, I think that this is also where going back a little bit where you said, like, do dentists need to know the business? To me.   You don't even have to know that much, but I want to just challenge you that if you're getting a three, three and a half percent cut on your payments for quote unquote ease, that's a real big hit. And I would just challenge you to think about like for what and why. And so coming in, there's different ways the insurances are going to pay you. So they're gonna pay you via paper check, they're gonna pay you via EFT, which is a electronic fund transfer, or they've got this new thing where they're gonna pay you via credit card. And like honestly, to me, the credit card is so scammy.   And I've talked to so many people and like educate me, like, why would anybody do this? Like, I cannot comprehend. Like, I'm already taking a cut on insurance as is. Like, thank you for my marketing fee to be an insurance. Like, that's how I view that that write-off. Like, I know you hate it, but you're also gonna, you're either gonna have to do that, or you're gonna have to pay for marketing to bring in fee for service patients. So, like, again, let's just think about that. But I'm like, so I've already got a cut there, but I'm then gonna take another hit in addition to that for a credit card ease.   So as we're talking about that electronic fund transfers, they deposit straight into your bank account. The reason that some offices don't care for electronic fund transfers is because like trying to match it up is a like it kind of dumps and chunks into your bank account. So all you need to do is help your team members. Like there's ways that you can have it where it automatically emails your team when that comes through. So then they can go online and they can find out what the EFT was, so then they can balance and like enter it in.   I do think dentistry software is so dated because what happens is when we get paid from the insurance company, we get either like it's called an EOB, it's an explanation of benefits, and it's like batch checks. So when they dump this money to you, Delta's gonna give me like 20 grand. But like, who do I allocate that 20 grand to of all these patients? So that's I think where some people have like, well, electronic funds are so annoying and this and that. But I'm like, they're very quick, they're very fast, they're a lot safer than paper checks. Paper checks people do get embezzled on.   That I literally see no reason. Like, I don't care if you get it like one day sooner with a credit card, you are paying a huge hefty fee on that unnecessarily when electronic fund transfers are pretty much just as fast. Like maybe a like smidgey of a delay. But to me, that's a that's a very worthwhile smidgey of a delay. Because you're getting your payments so much faster. And as long as you're staying on top of it, you should still be able to maintain a 98% collections rate, even if you do checks or if you do electronic fund transfers. It just is so.   So dumb. I've yet to see a reason. But to me, I'm like insurances are so smart because it's just another way for them to take a chip out of what they're paying you and to have it come back to them. So again, think of the motive as to why they're offering. These people are not dumb. Those insurance companies, if you've ever gone to a business who's the biggest building in the entire city, it's your insurance companies. They're not dumb businesses. And I think we need to be smarter business owners that out think that. They always but Delta always says, we're   Yeah, so is Rolex Watch. Rolex Watch is a non profit. And and some of the CEOs of some of the anyway, we won't go there. But ⁓ yeah, ⁓ so what other ⁓ besides you know, when when someone tells me about their overhead, I tell them, look, I can't call the government and have my tax rate lowered. I can't call the nuclear power plant SRP or APS and tell them to lower my electric bill. I mean, something I i if the hygienists can   Wants a dollar an hour and if I say no, I'll give you 75 cents and she can go get a dollar across the street. I mean the market sets many, many prices. So the only way to fight that back is to ⁓ increase your productivity. You know, I mean if if if you have a dollar in labor and they do a dollar in dentistry, your overhead is a hundred percent. But if your dollar in overhead can do two dollars in dentistry, now it's down to fifty percent. So how so ⁓ are there other   ⁓ hidden gaps that are quietly draining profitability, or has it just come down to production? Or is it both I like I'm so glad you brought this up because I think like it's so easy to sit here and say, like, dentistry's not profitable. But I'm like, go find me another business that has a one percent fell rate that usually can run twenty to thirty percent profit margins if you run a business right. And this is not just Kiera sitting here fluff. This is like I got real clients running at these margins consistently. They've got large practices, small practices.   And so when I look at this and I'm like, okay, how do we make this more efficient? A lot of people want to go to the first thing of like, let's cut insurances. And I'm like, yay, pop the confetti, but be real smart. Because again, you're gonna then increase marketing fees, you're gonna lose a lot of your patient base. Like, let's just think through the ramifications. And so there's lots of different ways that we can increase productivity and not have to go for the cut. So I look at three levers that I found that can increase a practice. So one is we can increase our production. We're talking net production, not gross, like please feed your family, not your ego. So that's number one.   Number two is what's your collection percentage? Cause half the time doctors feel like they're broke and they don't have money, but your money's sitting in AR, which is your aging reports or your accounts receivable. We're not collecting the money and we don't have a good billing process. We got to get our collections up to 98%. And then the third thing is like we cut costs. And so looking at that, a lot of people want to go to just cut costs. I'm like, but in dentistry, let's break it down. If I want to add 10 grand more to my practice.   I love to help teams. Most offices are working four days a week. So if we're wanting to add 10 grand to a practice, working four days a week, let's do 10,000 and we're working 16 days a month. That's an extra six twenty-five a day. Well, how can we make six twenty-five in a dental practice? Let's think about our fluoride applications. Let's think about FMXs. Like I'm just talking, this is your lowest hanging fruit for you. Let's talk about could we add one or two fillings? Could we add like same-day dentistry, which is going to make more raving fans for our patients? There is so much ease in there.   Now, to increase our production, we can also look at our case acceptance. Doctors have so much case acceptance. And also, what are we diagnosing? I'm like, doctors, if you want to be producing 100 grand a month, the statistics are you need to be diagnosing three times that amount. And then we need to make sure our treatment coordinators are really good at diagnosing explaining treatment to them. They're not diagnosing, but they're explaining the treatment. They're presenting it in a way. We're not using insurance as our main driver. We're using it as like a coupon. And then we're really good at our follow through and our follow up.   Gotta have a right person, right seat in your treatment coordinator seat that's obsessive with hitting the right goals. And so there's like so many little ways. Like you can in I have added block scheduling, which I know is like a consultant's number one favorite thing to talk about, but like make it really make sense and easy for your team. I've added a million to a practice with no extra days, no extra work. We literally are just being more strategic with how we schedule. And so there's just so many little ways that I want dentists to realize like,   To me, I get really excited. This is where I geek out as a consultant. I geek out and I love to help that is because I'm like, how can I like squeeze more juice from the lemon you're already in? Like, let's just make more lemonade. Let's figure out ways to do it. And then let's make sure our costs are effective. So we teach your teams how to look at the business as a business. We teach each team member about their one KPI that's really going to drive it forward. We help them track. I just did this with an office manager this week and she's so lit up to look at her numbers, to look at her metrics, to see how she can do it.   And when they start to see how they can click it through, it's not you trying to push and drive more money. Like doctors, I tell everybody, every team member, you want your doctor to be so freaking profitable. Because if they're profitable and they're like they're secure, your life is so much better. So like I'm like dentists, we got to get you profitable, we to get the cash flow, we got to get you less stressed because you're gonna be a better dentist and a better business owner. But how are there's so many little easy ways where it's just low-hanging   Typically I'm able to add 10 to 30% of production in usually 90 days to an office, like very consistently with just small little reps, no real extra work. How are we doing our exams? Are we being directive in our treatment planning? Are we using like, okay, next visit I want to see you for this? And when do I want to see you back? And how much time is this going to take? Like, let's break down the barriers of treatment planning. There's so many little simple things that if you just implement, you can be very profitable very easily.   And then look at your P L. If you're not looking at your P and L every single week or month, like just being aware, getting into the language of business, that's also gonna help you too. So yes, cut. ⁓ but I found that it's always a lot easier to make sure our collections match, our production matches, and we use those little low hanging fruits. ⁓ and it's there. Like dentistry is such a magical, like, like it's a great lemon tree. You can make a lot of lemonade out of a dental practice. I want you to tell me if I'm right or wrong or or   I think I think there's two threes to double your price. Number one, if three people call your front desk, one is going to come in because they're smart and they need to they know they need to get their teeth clean. One isn't gonna come in for anything and you can hear them vaping and smoking and drinking beer and eating Cheetos on the call. But one out of three needs a little extra push. And if you train the person answering the phone, they can close that one out of three. And if they do, they doubled your practice. Then when they get in, you still got the now you got three people in chair.   One's gonna do what you say because you're a doctor and they've done their their author search and and you say they got a cavity, they're not gonna argue with you. One's not gonna do anything. In fact, in fact in fact I was like I had about a dozen patients that in the middle of my treatment plan, they asked me if they could just take a cigarette break ⁓ from my presentation and they went outside, had a cigarette, came back. They're gonna do it. But the other one in three needs some some closing skills. And so if you if you can close on the phone   You doubled your practice. You you got two butts in instead of instead of one. And if you fix your treatment plan presentation, you're gonna do two cases at one. And I think it's so funny now because the dentists have never let their hygienist or assistant, let alone receptionist, do any diagnosing treatment plan. But now AI, Pearl, and Overjet diagnosing all the cavities. So you wouldn't let your hygienist while she's in there for an hour.   Diagnose and treatment plan and sell the dentistry, the assistant while they're taking FMX, they they can't point out, yeah, see, that's a cavity, you don't need a filling and a root now. yeah, they couldn't do it because they were humans. But now Pearl and Overjeck can do it all day long and you're good with that. I mean, so so what how do you how do you double the close rate from one out of three to two out of three on the phone? How do you double the treatment plan acceptance rate from one to two out of three? Yeah. Do you do you agree those are possible goals?   Absolutely, Howard. I think again, this is the low hanging fruit that people are like, but that feels so hard. And I'm like, choose your hard. Like, is it harder to spend a little time with a front office and train them how to do this? Is it a little like, or is it harder to be cash flow negative? Like you choose what's your hard to me? Absolutely. Let's go after that. And I agree with you. Like teaching a team to preheat an oven, I call it what would doctor do. And so like, let's train our hygienist.   Like I tell all hygienists, doctor should be the second opinion, not the first opinion. And you got Pearl and you got Overjet. And so just spending a little bit of time with your team. So what we typically do for case acceptance, like let's go hit that one quick and then we'll talk about scheduling. Is I'm really big on let's get the whole team where we're talking the same language. So we recommend, like, what would doctor do? I recommend you run this over the course of six weeks, is typically how long it takes, anywhere from six weeks to maybe three months.   but we're gonna sit there and we're literally going to go through. We're gonna pull up an FMX. We're gonna do it one day over lunch. Hygienists, doctors, and if you want front office and dental assistance, rock on. But really, I want my like people that are seeing the bulk of my patients with doctor and hygiene. We're gonna look there and I want all of our hygienists to start like if we have an FMX up there and the interaurals, what is doctor going to recommend and how is doctor gonna talk about it? We're not just gonna sit here and have a nice little chit-chat. We're each gonna write it down because I wanna make sure every hygienist starts to get very, very comfortable. And the goal that I tell all hygienists is   Your goal should be at the end of this, what would doctor do training over six weeks? And if doctors are really consistent with it, I'm like six weeks of training to be able to double your practice and increase your case acceptance to me is a very good use of my time. So if I can do that, doctors and hygienists, you should be able to have 95% accuracy with your doctors at the end of this. And they do it. So hygienists get really lit up and they get very excited about it because now they're able to preheat the oven. They're able to talk to patients about it, use Pearl, use Overjet.   And then doctors, when they tee it up to you, and I say like hygienist, you've got to be the ones who first like introduce it, talk about it with the doctor as soon as they come in, but be real quick. So we introduce the patient, we compliment the patient on something, we recap the treatment that's discussed and we say something personal. Hygienist, you do that, your doctor exams will be much shorter for you and doctors will love it because it's very quick. If we can get that dialed in, and then doctors, you have a very like confirm the treatment.   then recommend exactly what needs to happen. And then we take that same baton up to the front office and front office, we schedule first. We then present the treatment. We use insurance secondary. I'm never leading with insurance. You do these little items which seem like, ⁓ no, that's like very quick, easy things. You're going to rapidly be able to help those ones. And then I do a two two two follow-up. So if they did not close for me and I'm going to go through it and I'm going to work through and I'm going to track all the people that didn't say yes to me and all the people that did say yes to me.   I'm gonna look for patterns. What are people saying yes? Like those are easy ones. Those are the gimme's. Those are the easy patients that Howard said. I'm looking for the people that say no and what's my pattern in there? And how do I change my verbiage? Because treatment planning is 80% psychology, 20% skill. So like what are you thinking? How are we presenting it? What are the words we're saying? One or two little changes usually will close that. What are the patterns and how can I get that number up higher? And I follow up with them in two days, two weeks, two months to make sure that they don't follow off.   People are like, Kiera, you really make your treatment coordinator do that? And like, yeah, I was your treatment coordinator that closed $50,000 same day. And this is exactly what I did. This is how I've trained co offices across the nation to do it. You just have these simple little things that help them out. And then you flip over to our scheduling. Like, I think scheduling's easy, Howard. I genuinely do. I'm like, half of it is just be nice. Like you got the COVID crank, and so many people are so grumpy and so like.   Annoyed when they pick up the phone, then I'm like, you can already leap your ahead by just being nice and being excited to welcome a patient. Then take like charge of that conversation. So let's take the ownership of that conversation. If someone's Do you take my insurance? I'm going to quickly redirect and say, my gosh, how did you hear about us? I'm going to answer that, but I want to find out how did they hear about us? If it's our Google reviews, if it's a referral, if it's somewhere else, I want to like say, my gosh, you're so lucky to be here.   We love our patients. We love our reviews. I can't wait for you to be a great raving fan too. let's talk about this. I can everything can be overcome. Please do not let being out of network stop people. It's a thousand dollar coupon and we're turning people away over that. No, no, no. We are better than that. And if we are the best dentist, they need to be coming to us. We need to win these patients over, make them feel so loved. Let's get them scheduled. Let's make this a great experience for them. Let's make them feel so excited. I did it with PT called like six offices.   And the office I chose, like so many people were annoyed I was calling. Can I put you on hold? Can I do this? And I was like, no one really wants my business. If you're just nice and you take control of that conversation, you can easily turn and transform your practice. So hopefully that was like not too much. I like I love these things. I love training treatment planning. I love training how to like take control of a phone call. I love helping teams overcome those little simple objections because it's very, very simple things.   that make massive leaps and bounds of change. And it's a great way to double your practice very easily, like you said.   The Dental A Team (36:13) All right, Dental A Team listeners, that was the guest interview that I absolutely loved. And I hope that if there was one idea that stood out to you, don't just agree with it, but actually go implement it this week. And if you need help setting this up in your practice or you need help just navigating or need a friend, head on over to TheDentalATeam.com and I'll be able to help you guys out. Click on the book of call or any way that we can support and serve you. That's what we're here for. That's what we're obsessed with. And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

The End of the Bench with Rob Breaux and David Collier tells you what you need to know in the world of sports both locally and nationally, and they read your comments from the chatline. We discuss the idea of what percent of college athletes actually have made a bet on anything. The guys check the calendar today for holidays, birthdays and this day in history. What is the latest on Sorsby and his betting issue when it comes to his availability for playing this upcoming season. Today we have our 5th annual EOB derby with Clint Scott on the call, and lastly, the guys take questions from the chatline to end the show with Ask The Benchwarmers.

The End of the Bench with Rob Breaux and Craig Wells tells you what you need to know in the world of sports both locally and nationally, and they read your comments from the chatline. We check the calendar today for holidays, birthdays and this day in sports history. We continue to discuss who is in the transfer portal and what Tech need. Rob goes over the list of horses that are in the EOB derby, and lastly, the guys take questions from the chatline to end the show with Ask The Benchwarmers.

Got questions? Send Ericka a Text!What if the number on your AR report is giving you false comfort and your patient ledgers are quietly wrong? We dig into a hard truth from dental billing and revenue cycle management: most practices have never audited their ledgers line by line, which means balances, credits, adjustments, and write-offs can be fundamentally inaccurate. That is not just a money problem. It is a patient trust problem, and it can become a compliance problem fast.We get practical about reading dental practice reports the right way, starting with the biggest mistake we see: lumping patient AR and insurance AR into one number. Those buckets behave differently, follow different rules, and demand different follow-up. We also talk about aging, why over-90-day AR often has low collectability, and why an AR cleanup project should be treated as a cleanup project so you can get clean reports and real visibility.Then we break down the biller levels that determine whether your practice protects revenue or leaks it: A players, B players, and C players. A player billers dissect the EOB, compare it to the breakdown of benefits, challenge underpayments and denials, and understand key rules like prompt pay law and the right to recovery. We also shine a light on the most neglected report in dentistry, the credit balance report, and why patient credits can turn into unclaimed property obligations depending on your state.If you want clarity on what is really happening in your billing system, take the next step: book the free billing strategy call, then share this with a practice owner who needs to hear it. Subscribe, leave a review, and tell us what part of your billing process you want to tighten up next. Download "The Most Underused Codes in Dentistry - And How to Get Them Paid" checklist here:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfxnnfSlNd0NPhMoBWq-1D_xU5R8LS4xPhHNKIjfLQwStOUag/viewform?usp=headerRegister for the free one-hour webinar on Wednesday, April 29, 2026, here:https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/ABKZUAxNQEynSqUET8SwAgSchedule a billing chat with Ericka:https://calendly.com/ericka-dentalbillingdoneright/30minDM Ericka on Instagram to join the wait list for Elevate Billing & Coding:@dental_billing_coach Email Ericka:ericka@dentalbillingdoneright.comEmail Jen:jen@dentalbillingdoneright.comGrab the Hygiene Billing and Coding Playbook Here:https://stan.store/hygieneunlockedEmail Ed:ed@dentalbillingdoneright.comSchedule a demo with MaxAssist to unlock scheduleing potential here:https://maxassist.com/book-a-demo-fortune-billing/Perio performance formula: (D4341+D4342+D4346+D4355+D4910)/(D4341+D4342+D...

Kiera joins Dr. Paul Etchison on the Dental Practice Heroes podcast to talk about the infamous front desk and how to finally figure out what levers should be pulled and which should be pushed to get the department in ship-shape. The best part about this episode is that Kiera and Dr. Etchison make the steps to success easy to understand and implement. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And today we are sharing a guest interview I did on another podcast. And it was too valuable not to bring you guys here.   this episode, you're gonna hear this host lead the conversation and then I'll wrap us up at the end. I cannot wait. It was truly one of my most incredible episodes and I truly hope you enjoy.   speaker-0 (00:19) Kiera, so glad to have you back on the podcast. It's always a joy having you on here. And I'll tell the listeners, I've worked personally with Kiera a number of occasions, someone I very much trust, someone I respect entirely in the industry and just knows her stuff and always a great guest to have you on. And today we're going to be talking about, you know, front desk stuff where   I work with a lot of clients. Do you work with a lot of clients? I don't know if you share the same regard. I would love to hear your opinion on this, but I would say most of the clients that I work with, the front desk tends to be their most chaotic and unorganized department. I mean, do you feel that you share the same sentiment?   speaker-1 (00:59) Yeah, Paul super excited to be on the podcast with you. Always enjoy a good chat and I mean, think proof's in the pudding. Do you remember the number one reason you called me to work with you the first time? Oh yeah, I was front office.   speaker-0 (01:12) I think it was the second time and the third time.   speaker-1 (01:14) It really all those times were and the answer is yes and this is why I created Dental A Team is because like Working in the dental college and seeing so many dental students like you guys learn how to Drop your box on an MO and like how do I have a perfect crown prep? You don't learn how do I do the billing and how do I do the insurance and how do I schedule patients like you learn how to have patient etiquette and great dentistry and so that's why I created Dental A Team like it's dentists and teams like hey dentist let's get you to rock your space and then let's work on the team side because   because even myself as a team member, there was no learning. It was like, just do it. And I'm like, well, what do I just do? And so I think the front office just feels so elusive. It feels so scary. And like, Paul, you're in someone's mouth. You're not like, ⁓ how do I do an insurance claim? And so I think there's so many nuances, but also for dentists, the front office is the gatekeeper of your money. Like they're the ones who schedule for you. They're the ones who present your cases for you. They're the ones who collect the money for you. They're the ones who bill for you. So so much of your financial freedom and like,   your paycheck is also directed by a department you don't even understand. So I think that that's why there's so much just like, it's not conflict, it's just almost like unknown and it feels daunting. And so you don't even know what levers to push or pull because you don't even understand how the how the engine works. It'd be like, hey, Kiera, my car is making a sound and I'm like, good, I don't know what to do. Like, that's not even my realm. And I think that that's how a lot of dentists feel about the front office. So, yeah, that's why that's why I exist and why I love to   be on the podcast and share because it doesn't need to feel daunting or scary, nor do you need to do it all. I think just being aware and knowing what things to look for, what things you can expect and having a hopefully a trusted voice in the industry where like, hey, I'm here, no judgment. Like just ask all the questions and let's help you guys get your team up to par. And also for team members, cause they, lot of times don't even know what they should do either.   speaker-0 (03:05) Yeah, absolutely. They're just thrown in there and said, here, figure it out. Do it. Just answer the phone and do all this fun stuff. I mean, like, I think what struggles for dentists as practice owners is we just don't understand, like you mentioned. We don't understand, like, how to send a claim, how to look at an insurance breakdown. But whereas every other element of the practice, we have a deeper understanding on it. Do you think, I mean, I'm sure it would be beneficial, but is it necessary for a dentist to learn everything about claim submission and all these things?   front desk related? Or can we get by with some more higher level organizations such as you provide?   speaker-1 (03:41) I think, Paul, it depends on who you are. think Paul Etchison, I would say you probably can get by with some high level. You got it, you got it figured out, you can sift through. For some other doctors, they want to at least know. But I would say it's a blanket statement across the board. I think at least having a slight awareness, go up to the front office and just sit there and be like, hey, walk me through how you submit a claim. ⁓ I think you even knowing some of the jargon, the language of   what's going on up there. Like, can I see an EOB? ⁓ That's like, and I think it's kind of like, go back Paul, being a business owner, I equate front office to like a PNL and CPA and bookkeeping. We have all learned how to run a business without being a CPA or a bookkeeper, but it's because we're in the language of the PNL. And I think, how can you get into the language of the front office? You know yourself, but.   I think abdication and just like delegation, like hands off is probably a dangerous space to be, think for any business owner. Like I don't want to be in sales, but if I don't understand the sales process, that's not going to work. Marketing, like, okay, great. But I need to at least understand the nuances of it. And I think that's the same for front office. So I would say as a simple blip, why not just go up and listen to how your front office schedules? Why not go up and just see how they submit claims or verify insurance?   And then, yes, I would talk to and listen to podcasts by the Dental A Team or other trusted individuals in the field. ⁓ We have online courses that we've created for all of these. Not so dentists learn it, but just to like, what's kind of my, I don't know, like front office for dummies, like go back to those books that they had, like, what's my quick overview to where I'm not going to get screwed over, I'm not going to get embezzled from, I'm going to know what to expect of my team. And I'm even happy to share even simple job descriptions of what those roles   can and should be doing. I think even that knowledge alone helps doctors just feel more confident and competent of like, ⁓ my office manager should be acting like a COO. My billers should be acting like a CFO or an accountant. Like they should at least know this and be able to bring things in. And my over 90 should be know more than 5 % of my collections. Like knowing just those little pieces, I think ⁓ that's just going to give people more confidence. But again,   equated to how you work with your CPA and your bookkeeper. You didn't know that, but you were immersed in the language of it. And I think the more you can just look, know, learn without doing. And I'm talking like this is like a week or a month. Like it's not like years and years. Like you could just quickly get affiliated with it. But I think audits and spot audits once a quarter would really be beneficial. And if you're a hands-on person like myself, literally have your front office have you like submit one claim and submit and   put in one payment onto the software, ⁓ do one insurance verification, do one scheduling. It might feel weird, but just like you have your front office come back and watch a crown so they can explain it in a treatment plan, just doing it one time also gives you a lot of familiarity that I think you can catch a lot of things just because you almost know what does A plus B equals C, how does that equation actually work.   speaker-0 (06:54) Yeah, and I love that CPA analogy because that makes a lot of sense. Like we don't get deep into the bookkeeping and deep into the profit and loss, but we do know enough that we can use it. You know, and I see with like the front office is that a lot of dental practice owners, just don't see the value and they just don't see like why to provide the training out there. And it's such a large part of the practice. I mean, just like, like if you could like pick just a few, what are some downstream things that happen that us as owners see that is more visual to us?   evidence of lack of training upfront.   speaker-1 (07:27) Yeah. ⁓   Paul, I don't disagree and I think it's something crazy because it's like hygiene is so important and so we like focus a lot on hygiene and make sure it's there. But your front office is the, I call it like the bookends of the practice. They're the initial ⁓ information for the practice and the first impression and then they're also the last impression. And I can't tell you how many doctors I'm like, Paul, you're amazing, but your front office is actually destroying your business and you don't even know it. So things that you might not catch or see are sometimes like your front office with billing, like look at your review.   because if your billing is having problems, it will pop up in reviews and they'll say like, they charged me wrong or they didn't quote me right. Like that's gonna do some red flag alerts for you just to be able to quickly see. Usually the billing issues downstream are gonna show up in the reviews and patients leaving the practice that you might not even know about. ⁓ Other things that I think you can catch are like, if you have any type of recording of phone calls or have a family member that you trust, just be a random new patient with air quotes on it.   and give feedback of how they were treated on the phone. I think that's a really good way to find out because if your front office puts them on hold or they don't have like genuine care and customer service centric, patients are going to leave that you don't even get the opportunity and you're spending all this money on marketing. But then our front office is like, could you please hold? And it's like, great, super happy to be put on hold or I can't get you scheduled in or even like, I think sometimes dentists, you.   Kind of like myself, when I go into a practice, I'm like a creepy little hangout behind the scenes. Like, doctors, if you have a little bit of downtime, just go like hang on the wall and listen to how your front office team is answering the phones, how they're presenting treatment plans. You probably like, areas that I see a lot of opportunities that are missed are, how are we converting our phone calls and getting patients on the schedule? How are we scheduling? Like, are my patients saying, I cringe when I go in. I cringe when I hear phone calls.   I cringe when I hear another scheduling. I cringe when we're presenting treatment. If a patient's like, I'll just wait. They're like, OK. I'm like, OK. No, like, we should go past this two times. There's ways to do it. Or if a patient calls about a balance and they're like, it's OK. We'll just write it off. And I'm like, we're writing that off? ⁓ You can look at audit trails to see what is being written off on your accounts in billing. ⁓ You also can look at your AR. You could quickly just run the AR report. You don't even have to know.   A good benchmark is less than 1 % of your collection, or like one month's worth of collections should be all that's in your AR. So if you're producing 100 grand, we should have no more than 100 grand in total AR. So those are just some downstream of, think, like really making sure our schedule's full and we're treating patients amazing so they're not leaving before we even get that opportunity. Are cases being closed? And like we've got great verbiage to close cases.   And then honestly, like there was a practice and I walked in and there was a huge stack of checks and I was like, what are these doing? They're like, I just don't have time to enter those. And I'm like, well, we don't have time to like pay you either. So get those checks in like really truly. I'm not trying to be a jerk, but like you've got to get these in. ⁓ And then looking at the claims and how much AR sitting in there just to see, and then doing a quick audit trail to see I had a practice. had about, gosh, about a million dollars worth of AR.   And I was like, is high. And they're like, yeah. Like if we can't get in touch with the patient, we just write it off. And I was like, I'm sorry, what? Like you just write? They're like, yeah, we try. But like, if they don't answer, we just write it off. And I was like, so that's like not allowed. And we need to have the doctor approve those. So I think some of those little pieces, and those can be set up with audit trails or permissions within the software. And I think even just some of those safeguards can really help a practice.   Like these are, think, a lot of red hot fires that could be worse than you realize. Dr. Paul, you could be doing amazing dentistry, but if your front office team is not great on the phone, not great with case acceptance, not great with billing, you might accidentally be losing a lot of, like there's just a lot of open holes and you're trying to put in more by diagnosing more and doing more dentistry at the top. But our buckets got quite a few little leaky holes that even if we put like patched a couple, you'd see your practice grow a lot more with minimal effort.   speaker-0 (11:47) Yeah, I always like to think of the idea that if we've got like a $1 million practice and typically we see case acceptance in like the one third, like 33 % ish, you know, when we're looking at a fee. So you would think that we're diagnosing $3 million. So most doctors will focus on the things such as like, well, let's work on the way I talk to the patient. Let's work on this. Whereas completely missing the fact that, I mean, just even getting a 5 % increase in case acceptance that would come from training on the front desk end versus   stuff that you would do on the back. So it's like, it's a valuable part of the office. But, you know, I'd love to ask you, we've got this part of the office that is a lot of competing demands, a lot of different things to do at once. And what I see is doctors often getting upset at their front desk when they're not filling the schedule because the doctor has a cancellation and now the doctor has time to like say what is going on and they go to the front, they say, well, who's filling the schedule? And everyone's like, well, we're doing this, this, this, and this. How do you, as an owner, like,   help a department see these competing demands and have the right sort of priorities.   speaker-1 (12:53) Yeah, Paul, there's a great book ⁓ that I am obsessed with this year. We sent it out to a bunch of people and let's see. Hold on. I'm looking it up.   You know, I really love it. Clearly. I think it's called Begin with We. Let me just double check myself on it. I'm pretty confident looking it up real quick. ⁓ It's We. Yes, Begin with We and it's by Kyle McDowell. And it was something that I really got obsessed with this year because there was a one of his 10 rules is outcomes over activity.   And I realized that I think that that is one of the greatest hiccups in the dental practice is we're so obsessed with activity, but not outcomes. And so in a dental practice, I'm really big on what is the outcome that this position needs to get.   I don't want them and I used to do this. Like I used to have end of day checklists that were like front office team needs to make 25 re-care calls. And then I was like, why am I saying that? What I really want from those 25 re-care calls is I want a full schedule and I don't want my team to be perfect, but I do need to make sure that the main outcome. So like one main outcome or KPI or metric per position and they know and like some people are like, Carol, how do get your team to do this? And I'm like, my team knew that if our schedule was not full, they were not going home.   like period, like you're gonna, I don't care, you're gonna stay until eight o'clock at night, but like that schedule is expected to be full. And it's not that I'm like driving hard lines. It was, this is the most important thing. So my scheduler, their goal is that they need to have my doctor scheduled to goal 90 % of the time, like we are scheduled to go or it's front office team knows that my hygiene schedule needs to be completely full with all confirmed patients because don't worry, they play games and it's like, well, my schedule is full. And I'm like, yeah, well, half of these weren't confirmed. They're gonna be no shows. So it's a...   My schedule is full or we're allowed one hygiene opening with all of our hygienists per day. But like by end of day, this needs to be done in every day that that's our goal. And our goal is to make sure that hygiene is up to goal 90 % of the time. We track it daily. We track it weekly. We make sure they're there. My treatment coordinator, my doctors need to be up to goal, like to their scheduled daily production goal. That's the expectation every day is that they're scheduled to goal. And when I look at the course of a week or a month, my expectation is that 90 % of my days, Paul, you're hitting your daily goal.   Well, now that and that's like, that's their main focus. I think so often we're like, we want the schedule full, we want the patient experience, we want this and we want that. But I'm like, if I can simplify it for my team, just like my AR, my AR needs to be less than one month's worth of collections and I need less than these amounts per category. Great. There's so many other things they can do that they can get busy and like, I got to answer the phone. But if I know before I leave, like the way I win and the way I check my day off is.   I've got my doctor scheduled to goal, I've got my hygiene schedule full and we've got our months collections done. Those are three of your biggest areas. Of course there's a thousand things, but when we lock and load on that and my doctor needs to diagnose X amount, ⁓ it does also then impact our case acceptance because guess what? Now that treatment coordinator is like, shoot, I have to get Dr. Paul up to, I don't know, 5,000, 8,000, whatever your daily goal is. And I know that that's my expectation and I'm going to be reporting every single week on this.   And what happens if I don't hit goal? So some people incentivize with bonuses. Some people, this is just part of your job description. Some people are meeting on weekly one-on-ones and like helping them through it. Some people like treatment coordinators work with their doctors and they review treatment cases every single week. But if you can laser focus each one of them, but it's not a would like to have, it's a must have as a culture. And we are a culture of we hit our outcomes consistently and we don't miss those. We don't have to be perfect, but that's what we track and measure by.   That's how you improve at practice. And then all the other noise goes away because me as a team member, I'm not trying to compete for what I think is most important. You've helped me know and we've aligned and we've agreed. And I know what's going to be the outcome if I choose not to. And then everything else kind of falls into place. As a front office team member, there's a lot to do. But I think just giving one or two really helps streamline that.   speaker-0 (16:56) So like what I hear you saying is that if it's important to you as the owner, you've got to.   make it important to the team as well. And that's by discussing, making it a focus. Yet, I find that a lot of practice owners are very scared, and I don't know if scared is the right word. Maybe fearful of ⁓ pressing too many buttons up there. know, like upsetting people, over-asking, asking too many things. I mean, do you think that practice owners need to have a mindset shift around the leadership that comes with the front office?   speaker-1 (17:29) I think it's a...   I don't know, like it's almost like a family motto and it's a team motto. Like we all work and contribute and each of us is part of this bigger whole. And so like if Dr. Etch does not diagnose enough dentistry for us, like that's a broken part in our whole like wheel. And I need to be as a team member able to count on Dr. Etch to be on time for our patients and to diagnose enough treatment for us. Like that's his part of our puzzle. And if he doesn't do that, I need to hold him accountable. And so it's not a Dr. Etch's   like top dog supervisor, we're all part of this to make a hole and we all need to be able to have like go to five dysfunctions of a team. Like how can we have more healthy debate and call each other out? ⁓ I love thinking of sports analogies where like they want to win. We all know what like win on the scoreboard looks like and I can only imagine like, could you imagine like we'll just use the Chiefs. I like everybody knows the Chiefs like right now. So like could you imagine Patrick Mahomes?   Like someone doesn't block for him and he gets completely smashed and he's like, Hey coach Reed, could you please tell the team to tell them to block? It would be ludicrous. Like Paul, you even laugh about it because it's so ridiculous. Instead in the moment he's like dudes block for me. Like I'm not, we're not going to win if you don't do your job. But yet in the dental office, we don't see ourselves in that way of being able to call each other out when we're not, we're not doing our part of the puzzle to win on the team. And so I think doctors, I think that's the mindset.   mindset shift of you should be able to hold them accountable just like they should be able to hold you accountable and if we see it, a lot of times I like these KPIs to be up on a board where it's visible and it's either green or red and my name's on it and I know that I've got to contribute and we look at this whole family aka your practice every week and are we green or are we red? Did Dr. Etch hold up his end of the deal? Did I hold up my end of the deal? Did our other person hold up their end of the deal? And when you start to see that,   It's like a sports team and we say we have this scoreboard to know if we're getting the W at the end of the day or if we're getting the L and we have to call each other out when we're not. Yes, we're here to help, but we also are a team of outcomes over activity and a team of ownership mindset where I own that and I make sure that I'm blocking for you so you can like go and win the touchdown. But all of us are winning collectively together. We don't just have a superstar all star. It's a collective effort. So I think.   Yes, you can be concerned, I think doctors, you push buttons when you come up and you're like, who's filling my schedule? Rather than maybe you hang out and just listen for a minute and hear how things are going, that you could then take that into coaching in the future. ⁓ You are always praising good behavior, but you have a clear scoreboard. It's like you don't have to go up there. But if we're missing the scoreboard, then we have conversations more consistently, so it doesn't feel out of the blue. We're able to coach and counsel more often, and that's just part of it. We call each other out in the moment rather than like,   talking around each other, we call each other in the moment.   speaker-0 (20:26) I love like just the idea of that it's a culture piece and you make a part of your culture and it's more like macro level. It's like we're looking like, like you mentioned, the outcomes over the activity. ⁓ if, if I'm a doctor and I'm listening to this podcast right now and I'm like, yeah, that sounds great in theory, but that would never work in my office, not with my personnel and not with my team. They wouldn't take that sort of constructivism or that, that feedback and they wouldn't have that, that team attitude. And I deal with this a lot with coaching clients and I'm sure you do as well.   It's a culture change that's required, but it could make the owner's life so much easier if we just only had to focus on the outcomes and not so much micro things. How would you suggest a doctor maybe have this conversation with their front office team to say, like, I want it to be more like this. This is what my vision is for this. Help me get to this point. Like, what do you think that would sound like?   speaker-1 (21:22) Yeah, and I do love this. This is why we coach like doctors and teams. This is why we come in because sometimes an outside voice is easier than an inside voice, right? Like I get it. It's scary for me. This is why like know yourself and be free. And if you're not the one that's like I'm good at setting a vision, but like holding lines like this is not my jam rock on like you need a good pair to you. That's a great office manager who's really good at communicating this and getting a team on board. So I think like sometimes doctors show they've got to be   the producer, the diagnoser, the sales, marketing, all the pieces plus the accountability. I'm like, know what you're really good at. Paul, I look at you, you're an amazing visionary, you're really talented at dentistry, you're great at culture, and your office manager was kick a next to you. She did so good at holding pieces together and you would bring in training to give her support so they could grow to the next level.   You are like you're like I'll kind of do it, but like that's not who I am. I'm the same way I've got an operations person next to me and can I do it? Yes, but is that my zone of genius? No, and that doesn't mean we abdicate and we're like, well just because I don't like it don't do it, but I think like if you're really good at this then rock on and do it.   But doctors, we need a vision of where you're going. And that's your main thing that we need from you of like, what does this look like? Where are we headed and why? Like what's the lighthouse on the hill that we can all rally behind? And then we need a really good like leadership team or office manager next to us. And every time I talk to doctors about joining us in consulting, my first question is like, great, what are your issues, problems? Like tell me about your practice and who's your implementer next to you. And if they don't have a strong OM next to them, I know that that's 90 % of their problems. So we need to fill that seat next to them because   a good yin and yang, Paul you know this just like I do, they need to be that accountability person. You're drilling and filling, but then that becomes part of our culture and I think if you've never been this way, a good way to take this into action is like let's have a team like state of the company or like next vision or whatever you want to call it, but like this is how we've been operating.   And this is where we're moving to and this is why and this is how it's going to make all of our lives easier. And I understand that it's going to be a little jostly and hey, so maybe you hire a coach or consultant that's going to help with that. Maybe you and your office manager rally. But I have found and I have seen that a lot of times having somebody outside can help. Like Paul, that's why you hired us is because like we needed an outside voice even though we were saying the same thing.   to come and I love all of our consultants, we've been team members, we've been in the front office, like we've been there, done that, done it successfully to really empathize and understand. But I think it's gotta be a, is where we've been, this is where we're going, this is why. And if a doctor were to say, that's not my team, they won't relate to that, I would say, look at you first and say, like, choose your heart. If your team's that way, like, do you really wanna move into this next layer? Like, how bad is that pain?   Because if you're not willing to do this, your team's not going to follow you either. But you are the culture setter of your practice. So what you tolerate, it's not what you say, it's what you tolerate. And so that is truly your standards of the practice. So I would say it's also a, you got to have like a little like conversation with you in the mirror of, I really willing to change my culture? Am I really willing to go through the like, there is a chasm you've got to cross.   But the other side is truly beauty and it does work and teams do actually thrive if they know how do I get my win? What does my doctor truly want from me? And teams genuinely do want their doctor to thrive. Like that's why they're there. So I think you have to be committed to holding that line, to driving that vision, to having the uncomfortable conversations and making them comfortable and having a really good person next to you. It can be a DA, it can be an OM, it can be a hygienist.   But I think a lot of times having two voices that move it forward oftentimes are easier. But doctors, you've got to be a really strong lighthouse on the hill. And you've got to be committed. And you're willing to go through the effort to change a culture. ⁓ Culture doesn't happen overnight. Culture is a slow burn that takes a while to turn. ⁓ But I think it's like the Titanic. You don't think it's moving. But then when you look up, it has made progress, even though it didn't feel like it. And I think that that's the same with culture.   speaker-0 (25:35) Do you feel that, I mean, it's almost like, and I see this with my clients, is that they're focusing on the wrong area. Like, we're looking at, someone might reach out to you and say, hey, my front desk, I want them to do this, they're not doing this. I want them to do this other thing. They dig their feet in, they say no. I mean, can you tell the story of a recent client that you worked with that maybe came in and was pointing a lot of fingers, but really, it just needed to look in the mirror?   speaker-1 (26:01) Yes, this happens often. And I think it's like a whack-a-mole. And I think that that's why people do reach out for coaching. I think that they recognize that I'm spinning all these tops and I just don't know where I need to go. And it's like, great. So a recent client that I would say they were so obsessed about their hygiene department and they were trying to run around. They're like, we need to fix this, we need to fix that.   And I was like, actually what you're saying with all these words that you don't realize is you just want more profitability. You're stressed out of your mind. So you're going after all these different things when we just need to get your profitability dialed in. We need to figure out like where are we cash bleeding and fix that issue because your hygiene department probably only needs like a small uptick, but you're after that. You're after this person, you're after this, but your real main problem is your cashflow low. Like that's it. And that's a you thing. That's a you not knowing business. That's a we need to fix that.   And then we look at which systems do we need to implement or which department do we need to go attack that's going to actually fix that problem for you. And so I think so many times people want to, like we hear podcasts, right? So it's like, okay, I'm taking notes today. I'm going to go check in on all these KPIs. But sometimes like something I love about how we consult is a lot of consulting companies like ABCD, you got to do that. And for me, I look at, all right, what are we already doing really well?   what is the true pain point of the practice and what's the one, two or three things that are very easy changes that are going to exponentially get you out of the problem you're in and move you forward. I might have a set way that I want you to say a phone script. I might have a set way that I want your case acceptance to go but those might not be the root issue and the root issue might be you as a leader need to get us a vision. I will tell you Paul, we had a mastermind in person and people were like complaining like my team's not bought in, my team's not bought in and I was like all right guys, I just have a quick question.   If I were to walk into your practice today, how many of you like talk to your team, you're not allowed to give them influence. How many of them could tell me where we're going and like where we're headed in the next five to 10 years? They did not raise their hands. And I was like, that's your problem right there. You have not given this team where we're going, why we're going. And so they're just rowing their own little boats over here thinking they're doing the most important thing versus I'm headed towards this. This is my number. This is how I win. And you gave them that clarity.   and you looked in the mirror first and got the vision. So I say, this is twofold. There was one of, you need to give the vision to your team. You need to have the clarity of where you're going. And second, instead of playing whack-a-mole and like trying to fix every little thing, what's our true root problem that we need to solve? And if things are going good or like mostly good, let's go after the fastest, easiest levers. Like people are like, I need more profit or production. I'm like, okay, what are the easiest, fastest ways? Increase our production, increase our collections, decrease our spending. Production.   diagnose more, close more cases, look at our block scheduling and look at our hygiene. Like those are like your simplest easiest ways and make sure like our schedules fill to goal. Like that's really there's not a lot that we have to do that I think we sometimes over complicate when we could simplify and make it a lot easier. And I think that that's probably the whole message of this of there. I think it's actually a lot easier to get to where you're trying to go. I just think like go all the way back to the beginning.   It's like my car is making this sound and I don't know how to fix it. So I'm going to try the spark plugs. I'm going to try the brakes. I'm going to try the da da da. When really all you needed to do was just like fill it up with gas. So just finding that simple piece I think is where people, it's hard because they don't know. So they're going to play whack-a-mole rather than give me the vision, get the numbers dialed in and let your team thrive in those departments.   speaker-0 (29:39) I couldn't agree more. I love that you said that. I think that's going to be so useful for so many people to hear. Talk about what the Dental A Team is up to this spring and how people can reach out to you if they want to learn more.   speaker-1 (29:51) Yeah, we are always like, we're just here to help. So we do doctor and team training, we do virtual and in-person. We have in-person masterminds, which are super fun for doctors to get connected. And I didn't like to be the owner that like, I go get rallied and then my team doesn't. So I'm really big on like, let's rally you and your team so you don't have to try this. Like, got super pumped on the podcast, but like, hey, OM, could you go listen to this podcast and do your job better?   So we do a good job of blending for people. so, yeah, in February we're in person and then in April we're doing our master, our summit. So we always do a summit. And if you guys tell us that you heard about it ⁓ on Pulse, definitely you will get ⁓ a VIP ticket, but that's going to be on April 24th. It's a four hour CE. It's our amazing summit. Head on over to TheDentalATeam.com or you can email us Hello@TheDentalATeam.com I'd love to have you there.   But yeah, if you're like, gosh, I just need help. We do like a full practice like autopsy with you and like, hey, let me just give you some free advice. Let us help you out. But yeah, anyway, we can help you and your team streamline. So doctors can be amazing doctors and CEOs. Teams can level up to their highest potential and we do it together. Conjecture like Paul, Paul's an amazing doctor. Like talk to him about like doctor mindset. I don't know how to tell you how to do a fill. Like that's Paul's world, but how to get your team on board and how to rally with you and support you in the life you deserve. That's what deadly teams about. And   I would say doctors, be selfish. You're CEOs. You should be the dentist. You should be the CEO. You don't need to be the everything. You don't need to know all the front office. are people that can help you and support you. ⁓ But learning that and getting your team the tools, that is your job to do. And I would encourage you to reach out if we can help in any way. And always, always a huge fan of Paul and his group. And listen to Paul. He's got brilliant ideas. He's one of my favorite dentists that I've ever coached. And he's an amazing person at culture and.   of being able to drive people to results. And I think I'm just a good jelly to his peanut butter. We do the team side. do the helping your doctors get to the life they want through team execution.   speaker-0 (31:50) Awesome, Kiera. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast. I always enjoy having you on, love connecting with you and listeners. Go check out Kiera's stuff. She's brilliant. She is a brilliant person and she knows how to get your team on board and to do the things that you want them to do. So thank you so much, Kiera.   speaker-1 (32:06) Thank you. I appreciate it so much, Paul. Thank you so much.   The Dental A Team (32:09) All right, Dental A Team listeners, that was the guest interview that I absolutely loved. And I hope that if there was one idea that stood out to you, don't just agree with it, but actually go implement it this week. And if you need help setting this up in your practice or you need help just navigating or need a friend, head on over to TheDentalATeam.com and I'll be able to help you guys out. Click on the book of call or any way that we can support and serve you. That's what we're here for. That's what we're obsessed with. And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

Chances are, your accounts receivable (AR) is not dialed in. Kiera provides very tactical, specific tips on how to get your AR cleaned up and start bringing in money you've already earned. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today is a very important topic But one the people like my rat rat rat, but guess what my rat rat rat is gonna make you a lot of money So I hope you're excited for it. So we'll take that rat rat rat into kaching Because it's dentistry party done and we're just gonna like help you out. I hope you guys enjoy hanging out with me This is my like nerdy geeky side that definitely loves and obsesses of being able to help you guys and it's been so fun I'm working with some people and teaching them about this and   getting them excited on how they can fix their AR ⁓ is something that just like really, really lights my fire because doctors, you do the freaking dentistry, get paid for it. Can I get an amen out there? Like seriously, you do the dentistry and AR and making sure you're paid is something that I am so obsessed about. So, and this doesn't mean doctors, have to do it yourself. So I want us to get into the AR like the womp, womp, womp, it's annoying, but guess what? These are billing tips that work that are gonna make you a lot of money for work that you've already done.   This is like people like, Kiera, how can I make more money and not do more work? And I'm like, just take the money, the what you've already done. it's crazy. lot of people come in and like, Kiera, you're really going to be able to like, ⁓ give us an ROI on your consulting. And I'm like, time. Why? Because I know your AR is out of control. have yet to meet a practice that has perfect AR. And if you are the practice email me, I'm going to give you a freaking shirt and we don't get out done on a team shirts anymore. So yeah, you should definitely email us. ⁓ there are a couple of practices out there.   But most the time, AR is something that is not dialed in. It does not have a plan. And this is something that is going to be very tactical for you. So first step is AR. What is AR? It's the accounts receivable. Okay. And there's two parts to it. AR has the patient portion and the insurance portion. Okay. So when we do dentistry, we need to make sure we collect money and we bill insurance and then we make sure that we get paid for that. Now, insurance is such a sneaky little game and I get so annoyed by it I love to teach people this.   So we need to have it where there's like a few processes that make AR really good. So we're gonna break it down very simply. Number one, good information in means good clean claims going out. I'm always like, we send clean claims. Clean claims mean, clean claims, clean claims. Clean claims, clean claims. ⁓ Clean claims. I'm gonna giggle saying it. I can hear the little jingle in my voice. Clean claims means that we...   have the correct information. So I've got the patient's name, the date of birth, the insurance information. That's all correct. I've got the group number and please for the love of everything, holy, do not make a million group numbers. Do not do that. Make sure AR are so messy and your insurance box is so messy. We just have it. We also need to have fee schedules that are up to date every single year. Please do that. We need to attach it. We do not want write-offs. So what this means, ⁓ also another like, it's not a pet peeve. It's just like,   Oh, I'm sorry. You need to like listen to the podcast and implement this. Stop reporting to me your fees in gross numbers and do it in net. So many times I get on calls with people and they're like, Kiera, we produced like 2 million, but we collected one. And I'm like, ouch. And they're like, well, like our net was like, you know, 1.2. I'm like, so tell me you produce 1.2. Let's live in real land numbers, not the 2 million. Cause you're always going to be mad at me. They're like, well, I produced 2 million, but I'm only making a million. Well, yeah.   Because guess what? You didn't really produce two million. I know you want to say you did, but guess what? Insurance is what really is paying you. So we've got to do that. And I know you don't want to, but when you will do this and you attach the correct fee schedules to it, you are actually going be able to predict your numbers better and your money and your finances are going to get better on your personal side too. So hear me out. It was the worst day. was worse than Christmas getting a lump of coal. I took our production and it dropped us by 30%. And guess what? My goals are to produce 20 grand in a five out practice per day. You want to know how hard that was? I was like, I'm never going to make it.   But guess what? Because I was reporting in real numbers, me even as a TC and an O.M. we were able to schedule more correctly and get us to the actual 15 grand of true 15, 20 grand per day of true production that we were collecting. How much do think my business grew? ⁓ a lot because we were actually producing incorrect numbers, not inflated numbers. So clean claims. We're back to that clean claims mean we've got correct information. We've got the correct ⁓ all of the information is correct.   We've got our insurance verification done and we've got the fee schedules attached. So then when I'm giving an estimate, I'm estimating to the best of my ability. We do not send pre-Ds. I call them pre-denials. You can have your own opinion, but I really truly do not like pre-denials. They take time, they waste energy. And to me, guess what? I got the best information. I'm a thousand dollars. I'm an insurance coupon. I need to be a dang good treatment coordinator that's able to communicate this. And if the patient owes money, guess what? We've got to be really good at communicating that too. This is our best estimate.   I'm gonna do my absolute best. We called your insurance company. I've got the best insurance verification. This is the absolute best I can get today. We're gonna take care of that. And on the flip side, hey, worst case scenario is you're gonna owe this much out of pocket. Tell them that. Then they're not mad at you when you call them. like, hey, insurance didn't pay as much as we thought. But remember, worst case scenario, this is what it is. And I can work with you to get that collected, okay? So then from there, we make sure we have correct documentation as well. We need to attach the correct narratives.   ⁓ insurance or excuse me, x-rays, intra-orals, whatever we need to get that paid. Insurance companies are obsessed with not paying for you, but it's because they play the game. So just figure out the rules of the game. We have our fee schedules in there. We send the correct documentation and we send it out every day and we check to make sure none of these claims get stuck in our claim sender. Okay, so we wanna make sure it goes through the clearing house. It doesn't get stuck there. I feel like that's like the post office for claims. We send it through and we make sure all of them get pushed through to the insurance company.   and then we follow up. And now this is where I need owners of each of them. So we need somebody to make sure that all of our intake process is correct. We need someone to make sure that our, what we send out in our claims is correct. And we tell the clinical team what we need for every single claim. And then from there, we have one person who owns our billing department. AR needs to have a clear owner. Who is our billing person that works on this every single day? Yes, you heard me. Because the goal is to get our claims paid within 30 days. You can do it. It's doable, but you gotta have a process.   So that person then their job is I recommend we run the AR list at the beginning of every single month. Then we put it into an Excel spreadsheet or however you want to do it. I found that it's easiest in Excel and then we have it color coded. And I like it to be broken down so that way the biller, their goal is to get through every single patient. Yes. And I have seen 2,500 patients, 7,500 patients. Like it is amazing how many like line items we can get. Hopefully you're more like the 500 to 700 patients on that AR list.   Then what we do from there is we've got patient portion and insurance portion. And what we want to do is we want to actually get this really, really dialed in to where we are collecting at time of service, the patient portion. My hope is that your patient portion that's due is very minimal. And the only time we have a patient portion due is because insurance didn't pay as much as we expected them to. So we got to go collect. We've already collected the money before they go out. Please, for the love of everything, holy do not let your patients just be like, I'll pay you with an insurance pays. Absolutely not.   collect the money today. It is much easier to collect today and give a refund than it is to go chase money. I'd rather you get paid today, wait on insurance. That's fine. But be like, hey, we call your insurance. We estimate really, really well. This is how much we're going to collect today. And then, hey, if it's good news, great. We're going to be able to get you a refund. And if it's not, then great. We're not going to have to call you and ask for as much in the future. So this is what we're estimating. This is our best estimate. We've called your insurance company. We've done everything we possibly can to make sure it's the best we can. And I guarantee you, we're going to take great care of you.   Collect the money. Then when it comes in, what I like for the biller to do is to look, what did this insurance company actually pay? And then go update your fee schedule to the true numbers, because fee schedules are just very generic, but for your area and your zip code, we actually like, if insurance billers will go through and look at that and be like, on a crown, Delta Dental actually pays $758. You're like, yeah, right here, it's like 500. Okay, so $558, but we had 500 in there.   Go update that so then we collect more accurately throughout the year. If we are really disciplined in this and our insurance biller will do this, your billing gets so much tighter and we have less money in our AR. Then we go through it, we go through every single claim. Now if your insurance is a lot in the AR, because we haven't worked it, you're gonna wanna work with the top pieces first. The most expensive, the biggest accounts, and I work insurance ones, and then I work patient ones. And I also am looking at the 90 days, and then the 60 days, and then the 30 days.   And then the zero, don't even like zero to 30. don't even touch that 30 to 60. Yes. 60 to 90. Yes. Over 90 for sure. I'm going to hit that. So you can sort your listing Excel of the biggest account balances. And we're going to call the insurance. We're going to call the patients because you feel like you made like a lot of progress. Also, we can look down at the bottom. Another thing too, is sometimes there's like $5, $10. If your insurance list is really big and your AR is really large, sometimes I recommend writing like below $10. Now this is your money. It's not mine. So you do what you want to do with it.   Sometimes I do recommend writing that off, but before we do it, we're to want to send statements to everybody, see if we can collect any of that. Then we have a set date where we're just going to write it off and call it bad debt. We're going to fix our processes moving forward. But if you will do this and you follow it and everybody follows it every single week, every single month, your AR is going to get cleaned up. So people are like, but it's so hard. And we have like one person who owns it. And I say like Tuesdays and Thursdays are insurance and Monday, Wednesday, Fridays are patients. And we call our patients and we do our insurance.   and we clean it up and we get the correct fee schedules and we make sure that we're following up consistently. We're hearing, excuse me, what they say on the ⁓ claims. We're hearing what they are denying. Also, just because it's on a claim and they on an EOB and they say, you need to write this off. We do need to be really smart on insurance and we don't just say, we wrote it off. Absolutely not. We double check, we verify why was it written off? What were the reasons for it? Can we resubmit it? Can we get this paid? Is this a patient portion that needs to be paid?   Do not just write it off because the EOB says it was written off. So we do not do that. Then what I also recommend is we often wait till the end of the month. We talk to our billers and they didn't get through all their AR. Office managers should be meeting every single week with their billing coordinator and the biller needs to be reporting. Here's how much AR I've completed. This is where I'm at. This is my plan for the next week. I'm going to get through every single patient this month. Also, we do not just send statements out. People love to do this. I'm very pro.   We call first, we text and then we send a statement. Why not just call them right then and there and be like, hey, Kiera, great news. We got insurance paid, we owe this amount and I can take card when you're ready and get that all cleared up for you. Send them a text with the payment link. Here you go, this is the balance and they will pay it. Send them a statement that has a QR code to pay online. You guys stop having them write checks and send it to the practice. Make it easy, talk to your payment processor. I love Moola for this. They make it so easy for patients to pay and their fees are so low. So if you need it, tell Moola, The Dental A Team, sent you.   They're incredible and they're a great processor for you. But this is where it has to be. And I'm really big on what we need to have our goals be. So I like to make this simple. Our over 90 should be no more. All of our collective AR should be no more than one month's worth of collection. So if you're producing 100,000, there should be no more than 100,000 sitting in AR. you've got more than that, let's fix   the way I like the goals to be is I like it to be it's no more than 15 % is in our 30 to 60. And the reason why is because that's going to be pretty big. Now zero to 30, I don't worry about, but it's 15 % or less in our 30 to 60. Then it's 10 % or less in our 60 to 90 and less than 5 % over in our over 90. We want to make sure that it follows that. So that way you guys are able to, but great. And those are very generic and you can get those lower. The only thing that usually impacts are over 90 are usually payment plans and also ortho.   So if you have those in there, there are ways that we can discuss with you on how to get those out to clean up your AR, but you've got to have this structured. We've got to have this to where people are following it. And we need to get this in every single week and like truly work with our billers. And if offices will follow this, you guys, this is something that is not hard, but it does take discipline and discipline does equal freedom. And doctors, had a doctor and she was just like, Kiera, I'm not making any money. And I was like,   I don't understand because you have so much money in AR and your production's so great, but we're not collecting the money. So step one is we collect. Now, if your AR is also like ballooned out of control, we can fix it and we collect money when they check in and we make sure we collect on the checkout. So this way we're catching both sides of when patients are in the practice. And some people are weird about that. And I'm like, why are you weird about that? We know they have a balance and we're gonna collect it when they check in. Think about going to the doctor's office. So like perfect, they collect money as soon as you check in every single time.   It's not weird for people to do that in healthcare. So let's collect on the intake and let's collect on the outtake when we're giving the treatment plans. These two areas are gonna fix AR and people are like, that's so hard. And I'm like, I would much rather collect money when they're in the practice rather than needing to call them. Also, another mode of thought is I don't ever give more than 1 % of collections in refund checks every single month. So refunds and credits can get really ballooned people are like freaked out about that. Cause maybe like collected too much, which is like,   High five, good. I'm not saying over collect, like, hey, insurance paid more like that's a win. But before we give those refund checks out, those are the ones I'm gonna call first to see, do they have unscheduled treatment? Like, hey, great news, your insurance paid more than we thought. Let's get you scheduled, let's use that credit for this treatment. So it's a great way to fill your schedule too. But hey, if there's a true credit on the account, let's just start writing 1%. So if we're producing 100,000, what's 1 %? You got it, a thousand bucks, okay?   So 1 % of that, we're gonna then write those refund checks back for that month. This way it doesn't hurt your overhead of time. Now watch because there are certain state laws that do require you to give refunds sooner than that. So check your state laws and make sure like whatever it is. There are some new ones that have just come out. So be sure to check that so you're compliant with your state laws. If there's nothing about it, 1 % is usually a pretty good frame of mind. So that was a quick down and dirty and I hope you enjoyed it. But really taking it from clean claims, you're welcome.   to fee schedules being entered in, to submitting claims and making sure they go through, to following up on our insurance, making sure that we're tracking that so everybody knows where our claims are at, what things are going on with that. And then from there, we're gonna make sure that we have ⁓ every single week check in with our biller. And billers know we want 15 % in our 30 to 60, 60 to 90 is 10%, over 90 is no more than 5%, no more than one month's worth of collections total in our AR, and giving back 1 % refunds.   You guys, this is something I obsessed about. This is something we work with billers on. I have a practice in Oklahoma that we worked with. They had 2,700 line items of this and we just worked with our team and we cleaned and we cleaned it and it took us about two years and we were able to get them back into perfect collections, perfect processes. It took a while, but discipline, dedication and setting these things into place now are going to protect you and prevent this from happening in the future. Also, there are some great AI companies that you can use.   ⁓ Lassie is a great one that I've heard of. There's a few new ones coming up on the market. So if you need help with it, insurance verification, you can outsource. We have a lot of resources. So if you need any email Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. And if you're like, I need help, I'm drowning, I'm not making money. Let's talk. Profit production guys. it's the way we get more profit. We either increase our production, decrease our spending or increase our collections. Those are the three levers. So whatever those three we need to work on. And sometimes it's so hard because you're like,   But like I'm doing dentistry all day long, Carrie, I have time. You're right. You're supposed to be the dentist and the CEO. Let us train your team for you. That's what we love to do. Work with you and your team. So reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. Commit to being profitable this year. Commit to getting your AR in place. Commit to following these billing tactics. You guys, it is not hard, but it does require discipline. And we're happy to help you set it up. We're happy to follow through. We're happy to show you how to have the conversations. We're happy to show your team how to do this. We're happy to build KPI scorecards so you can watch it and utilizing analytics for it. So it's never daunting and scary.   It's disciplined dedication and dedicated time to make sure this happens. And usually team members get scared and it feels daunting. So it's kind of like the laundry. just like keep letting it pile up, but doctors, this is your hard earned money. And I don't believe it should be like laundry that piles up. It'd be, should be something that we are actively engaged in fixing and working through to make sure that you're getting paid what you need to be paid. So reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

Expanding Bluebird Kids Health: Access, Value-Based Pediatrics, and Payment AdvocacyHost Dr. Her Bravo welcomes Dr. Shannon Fox Levine and talk about her move into Bluebird Kids Health, which is expanding Palm Beach Pediatrics' value-based, technology-forward model to new de novo sites in Florida to address pediatric care deserts for Medicaid populations, including new offices in Jacksonville and Broward County, and the use of a partnered mobile clinic. They discuss keeping Athena Health, hiring and training new clinicians, and interest in ambient AI to reduce documentation burden and improve patient relationships. Levine outlines Florida AAP concerns, including school vaccine mandate changes, Medicaid payment advocacy (including Medicare parity via incentives), and a pilot workflow to diagnose autism in primary care using tools like RITA-T and CARS-2 with appropriate reimbursement. She also describes her national AAP payer advocacy role, addressing issues like downcoding, EOB monitoring, and use of a price transparency tool, emphasizing sustainable payment to reduce burnout and maintain access.00:00 Podcast Intro and CME00:55 Meet Shannon Levine01:46 Bluebird Kids Expansion03:35 Tech and Mobile Clinics06:55 Ambient AI for Notes11:27 Training New Clinicians14:13 Florida Advocacy Updates16:37 Autism Diagnosis Pilot20:11 Medicaid Contracts and Pay22:31 Value Based Care Future23:14 Florida MPIP Basics24:08 Incentives Versus Quality25:39 Risk Models And Proformas28:11 Care Coordinators In Action31:10 Stop Loss And Carve Outs32:54 Metrics And Vaccine Denominators35:35 AAP Payer Advocacy Workflow40:11 Price Transparency Tool42:26 Negotiating With Payers45:11 Burnout And Closing ThoughtsSupport the show

In this episode, Dr. Grace Yum talks with Steijn Pelle, CEO and co-founder of Lassie, an AI platform designed to automate dental insurance posting, billing, and administrative workflows. Steijn explains how Lassie replaces time-consuming manual tasks, reduces errors, and helps practices reclaim valuable time—leading to smoother operations, less stress, and more focus on patient care. Episode highlights: How Lassie automates EOB posting, write-offs, and digital payments Saving 60–70 hours per month with AI-driven workflows Reducing manual errors with consistent, rule-based posting Supporting team efficiency—not replacing staff What's next for AI in dental claims, billing, and scheduling Ready to thrive as a dentist and a mom? Join a supportive community of like-minded professionals at Mommy Dentists in Business. Whether you're looking to grow your practice, find balance, or connect with others who understand your journey, MDIB is here to help. Visit mommydibs.com to learn more and become a part of this empowering network today!

AI Wins in Healthcare: Administrative Automation, Revenue Cycle, and the Future of Intelligent Care Healthcare administrative costs consume 25-30% of total spending, yet most AI investments focus on clinical applications rather than operational efficiency. Dr. Yan Chow of Automation Anywhere discusses proven AI use cases delivering measurable ROI today, from revenue cycle management and EOB processing to automated clinical documentation while exploring emerging conversational AI capabilities reshaping patient and provider interactions. As health systems face continued margin pressure, Chow examines where automation investments generate immediate returns versus longer-term strategic value. He addresses the “art of the possible” in administrative AI, implementation realities for enterprise deployments, and why the next wave of healthcare AI may be less about diagnosis and more about eliminating the administrative burden strangling clinical workflows. Find all of our network podcasts on your favorite podcast platforms and be sure to subscribe and like us. Learn more at www.healthcarenowradio.com/listen/

Healthcare administrative costs consume 25-30% of total spending, yet most AI investments focus on clinical applications rather than operational efficiency. Dr. Yan Chow of Automation Anywhere discusses proven AI use cases delivering measurable ROI today, from revenue cycle management and EOB processing to automated clinical documentation while exploring emerging conversational AI capabilities reshaping patient and provider interactions. As health systems face continued margin pressure, Chow examines where automation investments generate immediate returns versus longer-term strategic value. He addresses the “art of the possible” in administrative AI, implementation realities for enterprise deployments, and why the next wave of healthcare AI may be less about diagnosis and more about eliminating the administrative burden strangling clinical workflows.Yan Chow, MD, MBAGlobal Healthcare Leader, Automation AnywhereMegan Antonelli, Chief Executive Officer, HealthIMPACT Live

January 23 , 2026 In this episode, Scott and Mark Painter discuss what the upcoming January 31 deadline means for telehealth coverage under Medicare, including expectations around funding extensions, potential payment delays, and bipartisan support for long-term access. They also introduce the expanded PRS Coding and Reimbursement Hub—an evolving resource offering disease-specific coding guides, product-specific reimbursement tools, prostate biopsy calculators, EOB insights, and more. Designed to help practices stay ahead of payer policy shifts and streamline claims for new technologies, the Hub is positioned to become urology's go-to coding and reimbursement resource in 2026 and beyond.Urology Advanced Coding and Reimbursement SeminarInformation and RegistrationPRS Coding and Reimbursement HubAccess the HubFree Kidney Stone Coding CalculatorDownload NowPRS Coding CoursesFor UrologistFor APPsFor Coders, Billers, and AdminsPRS Billing and Other Services - Book a Call with Mark Painter or Marianne DescioseClick Here to Get More Information and Request a Quote Join the Urology Pharma and Tech Pioneer GroupEmpowering urology practices to adopt new technology faster by providing clear reimbursement strategies—ensuring the practice gets paid and patients benefit sooner.         https://www.prsnetwork.com/joinuptpClick Here to Start Your Free Trial of AUACodingToday.com   The Thriving Urology Practice Facebook group.The Thriving Urology Practice Facebook Group link to join:https://www.facebook.com/groups/ThrivingPractice/ 

We revisit the rising problem of the “functionally uninsured” and ask how to restore real access for employees who delay care because of confusion and cost. Paymedix CEO Tom Policelli shares how a super EOB, upfront provider payment, and 0% financing change behavior and bend trend.• confusion outranking cost as the top barrier to care• hospitals pushing prepayment and the access wall it creates• income-tier patterns driving ER and inpatient overuse• super EOB mechanics and single monthly reconciliation• provider payment upfront and revenue-cycle relief• employer savings of two to three trend points annually• advisor positioning and retention benefits• partnerships with EXO Health to improve network economics• TempoPay for pharmacy access and first-dollar fills• risk management via broad pooling and automatic eligibility• national expansion through aligned partners and TPAs• a third path beyond prepay or bill-and-pray collections“Go to PayMedix.com.”This episode is sponsored by Benepower, the platform of choice for a modern benefits experience. Benepower is an AI-powered benefits platform offering access to top products and services, enabling consultants and employers to create customized plans, optimize usage, and measure effectiveness. www.benepower.com

Ever get a bill in the mail and wonder if it's actually a bill? Enter the Explanation of Benefits (EOB). In this episode, we'll review what an EOB is and what it tells you about your care and costs. You'll also learn what steps to take if something doesn't look right.

This week we cover topics from watching Hospital Bills and how to save money to news of Wilderness survival and new policy, record-breaking hunts to mythbusting jellyfish. Real-life stories that could save your life or keep money in your wallet. Join radio hosts Rebecca Wanner aka ‘BEC' and Jeff ‘Tigger' Erhardt (Tigger & BEC) with the latest in Outdoors & Western Lifestyle News! How to Save Money on Hospital and Insurance Bills — Even When You're Fully Covered When you're diagnosed with a serious illness like cancer, the last thing you want to worry about is money. But between insurance coverage, hospital billing departments, and ongoing treatments, out-of-pocket costs can spiral — even when you're fully insured. In 2021, I was diagnosed with cancer. I underwent 12 rounds of chemotherapy and 8 weeks of daily radiation. While my insurance was a blessing, I quickly discovered that being covered doesn't mean you're not vulnerable to costly billing mistakes — ones that could cost you thousands if you're not paying attention. Why You Must Compare Your EOB With Hospital Bills — Line by Line One of the most important lessons I learned: Always compare your Explanation of Benefits (EOB) from your insurance provider to the bill from your hospital or healthcare provider. Here's what happened to me: Even after I had hit my out-of-pocket deductible, I noticed monthly hospital charges averaging around $900 in my online billing portal. After comparing the EOB to the hospital bills, I saw that some treatments weren't even being submitted to my insurance company. Instead, I was being billed directly — as if I had no coverage at all. I called my insurance company, who confirmed they hadn't received claims for those charges. Then I contacted the hospital's billing department and was told each time that it was a “mistake,” and they would resubmit. Had I not caught this, I could have paid over $10,000 in wrongful charges — with little chance of a refund later. Pro Tip: Don't Automatically Pay Medical Bills Without Verifying It's tempting to just pay the bill and be done with it — especially when you're overwhelmed and just trying to get through treatments. But trust your gut. Instead: Wait to receive your EOB before paying anything. Compare dates, services, and costs between the EOB and your hospital bill. Call your insurance company if anything doesn't line up. Then, contact your healthcare provider's billing department and request that charges be re-submitted if needed. Always Ask: "Has This Been Submitted to My Insurance?" Make it your mantra when speaking to any healthcare billing department: “Has this claim been submitted to my insurance company?” If they say no or “it was a mistake,” ask for proof of submission and a timeline. It can take weeks or even months for a corrected bill to show up — so document every call and keep all emails or confirmations. Human Error and AI Mistakes Are More Common Than You Think In today's digital world, hospitals and insurers often rely on automated systems for billing. But that doesn't mean the process is error-free. In fact, it may be worse. You might encounter: Incorrect coding of procedures Claims not submitted at all Duplicate billing Coverage miscalculations That's why your personal oversight is essential — especially when you're dealing with ongoing care. How to Protect Yourself from Costly Healthcare Billing Mistakes Here's a quick checklist to help you save money and protect your finances during a medical journey: Know your deductible and out-of-pocket maximum Track every treatment and procedure in a personal log Check your EOBs monthly and match them with bills Dispute errors right away — don't wait Keep records of every call and conversation Ask for itemized bills from providers Request written confirmation of any billing correction Final Thoughts: Be Your Own Advocate — It Could Save You Thousands Between AI systems, human error, and overloaded billing departments, even those with full insurance coverage can fall into financial traps. The stress of calling weekly to fix these issues took a toll, but in the end, it saved me thousands of dollars. The bottom line? Be proactive. Be persistent. And never assume a bill is correct just because it looks official. If you're navigating medical bills or complex treatments, you're not alone. If I hadn't spoken up, I would have unknowingly overpaid by thousands. Don't be afraid to double-check, question, and challenge what doesn't look right. Your health matters — and so does your wallet. 14-Year-Old Girl Makes Pennsylvania Hunting History with Record Bull Elk We've got a record-breaking hunting story that's as heartwarming as it is impressive. According to Outdoor Life, fourteen-year-old Samantha Bartlett just became the youngest hunter ever to tag a bull elk in Pennsylvania — and she did it with a single, well-placed shot from her crossbow! It all happened in the early morning hours of September 16, deep in the mountains of north-central PA. Samantha and her dad, Noel, had already spent three long days hiking and hunting, holding out for the right bull. On the fourth day, it finally came together. After hearing two bulls fighting at dawn, Samantha and her guide crept through tall grass and waited. With a few cow calls, a massive bull came trotting in. At 40 yards, Samantha took the shot — and nailed it. The 6x7 bull elk went down within 100 yards, and the rest is history. The animal was estimated at 800 pounds, and the rack green-scored at 310 inches. Getting the bull out? That was a whole different story. The team dragged it downhill for four hours — no vehicles allowed — proving once again that the hunt doesn't end with the shot. Her bull was officially checked at a game station in Benezette, where state officials confirmed Samantha's place in the record books. This big moment was made possible by a lucky draw for a limited bull elk tag — and by a new law allowing Sunday hunting in Pennsylvania for the first time, giving young hunters like Samantha more opportunities. What's next for her? She's got her sights set on the “Pennsylvania Quad Trophy” — elk, black bear, turkey, and deer — all with a crossbow. Talk about ambitious! Moral of the story? Don't underestimate a determined young hunter and her crossbow. Reference: https://www.outdoorlife.com/hunting/youngest-hunter-bull-elk-pennsylvania/ 14-Year-Old Becomes the Youngest Hunter to Ever Tag a Bull Elk in Pennsylvania   Military Training Helps Missing Hunter Survive Winter Storm in Colorado Backcountry According to Summit Daily, A 57-year-old hunter from Illinois is safe today, thanks to a combination of military experience, calm thinking, and solid preparation — after spending two freezing nights alone in the rugged backcountry of Jackson County, Colorado. On Monday, Sept. 22, the man became separated from his group near the Three Sisters Trailhead in the Rawah Wilderness. The last anyone heard from him was a text saying he was lost, just before 3:30 p.m. His phone later went dark, and with winter weather rolling in, it was too dangerous for search teams to head out that night. By the next day, over 20 agencies — including Search and Rescue teams, deputies, and wildlife officials — launched a full-scale search in snowy, cold, and windy conditions. Air support was grounded, and rescuers battled through the backcountry on foot. Despite the brutal storm and tough terrain, the search effort continued into a second day. Then, on the afternoon of Wednesday, Sept. 24, hope came from above: the hunter was able to place several 911 calls, helping rescuers pinpoint his location. At around 1 p.m., air support spotted him — alive and in good health. So how did he make it? The hunter credited his survival to his military training, staying calm, building a fire, and using his sleeping bag and layers to stay warm. A big thanks goes out to Jackson and Grand County responders, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, search dog teams, and all others who helped pull off this dramatic rescue. Moral of the story? Being prepared can make all the difference — especially when Mother Nature has other plans. Reference: https://www.summitdaily.com/news/missing-hunters-military-experience-and-supplies-keep-him-alive-in-jackson-county-backcountry/ Tragic Lightning Strike Kills Two Missing Elk Hunters in Colorado Wilderness According to the Kiowa County Press, Wyoming is at the forefront of a renewed push to remove Endangered Species Act protections from grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Representative Harriet Hageman has introduced the Grizzly Bear State Management Act of 2025, which supporters say reflects decades of conservation success. Grizzly numbers in the region have rebounded from just a few hundred in the 1970s to nearly 1,000 today, meeting recovery targets set back in 1993. Advocates argue it's time to return management to the states, allowing for more flexible and responsive action on local issues — especially as livestock conflicts rise. Last year, grizzlies killed 91 cattle in Wyoming, the highest number on record. The bill also aims to cut through federal red tape, reinstating a Trump-era delisting rule and blocking future legal challenges that have stalled similar efforts. Supporters say it will free up resources at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and help speed up energy development and wildlife responses. While environmental groups warn that grizzlies still face genetic and habitat threats, Wyoming leaders say the bear has recovered — and state wildlife agencies are ready to manage them responsibly. Wyoming's stance? Grizzlies have recovered. It's time to let states take the reins. Reference: https://kiowacountypress.net/content/wyoming-leading-charge-delist-greater-yellowstone-grizzlies Rare “Pink Meanie” Jellyfish Swarm Texas Beaches — What to Know and How to Treat a Sting If you're heading to the Texas coast, watch your step — a surprising surge of rare pink meanie jellyfish has marine scientists scratching their heads. These jellyfish are no joke: they can weigh up to 50 pounds and their tentacles can stretch as long as 70 feet. From Port Aransas to Corpus Christi, beachgoers are spotting more of them than ever before. Marine biologist Jace Tunnell from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi says it's unlike anything he's seen in years of beachcombing. “I grew up on the beach and had never seen one until this year,” he said. The “pink meanie” was only officially recognized in 2011 and is known for its cotton candy color and its appetite for other jellyfish — especially moon jellies, which are currently blooming in Gulf waters. What to Do If You Get Stung While the sting isn't life-threatening, it can hurt — lasting about 10 minutes with red marks that stay for a couple of days. Here's how to treat it: Get out of the water immediately. Remove tentacles carefully using gloves or a tool — don't use bare hands. Rinse the sting with seawater, not freshwater. Pour vinegar over the sting to neutralize any remaining stinging cells. Apply hot (not scalding) water for 20 minutes to ease the pain. Avoid rubbing the area, and watch for any signs of allergic reaction. Experts say these jellyfish likely won't stick around — once cooler weather hits, both moon jellies and pink meanies are expected to disappear from Texas shores. Reference: https://www.foxnews.com/travel/surge-rare-jellyfish-sightings-across-multiple-beaches-stumps-experts OUTDOORS FIELD REPORTS & COMMENTS We want to hear from you! If you have any questions, comments, or stories to share about bighorn sheep, outdoor adventures, or wildlife conservation, don't hesitate to reach out. Call or text us at 305-900-BEND (305-900-2363), or send an email to BendRadioShow@gmail.com. Stay connected by following us on social media at Facebook/Instagram @thebendshow or by subscribing to The Bend Show on YouTube. Visit our website at TheBendShow.com for more exciting content and updates! https://thebendshow.com/ https://www.facebook.com/thebendshow WESTERN LIFESTYLE & THE OUTDOORS Jeff ‘Tigger' Erhardt & Rebecca ‘BEC' Wanner are passionate news broadcasters who represent the working ranch world, rodeo, and the Western way of life. They are also staunch advocates for the outdoors and wildlife conservation. As outdoorsmen themselves, Tigger and BEC provide valuable insight and education to hunters, adventurers, ranchers, and anyone interested in agriculture and conservation. With a shared love for the outdoors, Tigger & BEC are committed to bringing high-quality beef and wild game from the field to your table. They understand the importance of sharing meals with family, cooking the fruits of your labor, and making memories in the great outdoors. Through their work, they aim to educate and inspire those who appreciate God's Country and life on the land. United by a common mission, Tigger & BEC offer a glimpse into the life beyond the beaten path and down dirt roads. They're here to share knowledge, answer your questions, and join you in your own success story. Adventure awaits around the bend. With The Outdoors, the Western Heritage, Rural America, and Wildlife Conservation at the forefront, Tigger and BEC live this lifestyle every day. To learn more about Tigger & BEC's journey and their passion for the outdoors, visit TiggerandBEC.com. https://tiggerandbec.com/  

The End of the Bench with Rob Breaux and David Collier read your comments from the chatline. The EOB guys preview the MLB home run derby that is tonight and select who they think will win it. Lucas brings the burning questions today, one being since UNO is now going to be in casinos what other card or board games would be fun in the casinos as well? The MLB draft is going on and we predict when a Red Raider will be drafted, and they take your question to end the show with Ask The Benchwarmers.

@JeffreyTheGreek continues the EoB summer series of interviews with another good one: @jessetemple of Badger Connect. Jesse has been cheese-deep with the Badgers since 2011 and provides GREAT insight to the current state of Luke Fickell's squad.  Take a listen! #AskForAmador

Episode 46 titled "What Are Extreme Overvalued Beliefs?", has Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Dr. Tahir Rahman, explain how beliefs and not delusions are responsible for attacks.Episode Summary:This episode of The Simple Questions Podcast features a discussion with Dr. Tahir Rahman, an award-winning author and physician-scientist at Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Rahman is recognized for helping develop a threat assessment framework centered on obsessions, delusions, and extreme overvalued beliefs.Listen as Dr. Rahman shares his insights on the impacts of extreme overvalued beliefs (EOB).In this episode we discuss:00:29 - Introducing Dr. Tahir Rahman01:54 - Psychiatry Beginnings 08:08 - History of EOB16:00 - Escalation to Violence (Lee Harvey Oswald)30:13 - Warning Signs47:28 - Good vs. Bad 59:21 - Advice for Average Person1:06:08 - Learning More1:07:30 - ConclusionResources:⁠Dr. Rahman's WebsitePsychology Today ArticleExtreme Overvalued Beliefs BookThis episode includes the track 'RSPN' by Blank & Kytt. The song is used under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. You can find more of Blank & Kytt's music ⁠here

‍What happens when patients don't pay their bill? In today's episode, I'm diving into a revealing conversation with Andy Grover Cleveland, the expert behind Collection Agency Ninja. Forget everything you've heard about the conventional timelines for involving collection agencies. Andy advocates for a proactive approach, suggesting engagement as early as 60 to 90 days post-EOB. This strategy not only streamlines financial operations but also nurtures patient relationships through clear communication.Andy reveals the secrets to choosing reputable collection agencies that enhance, rather than hinder, patient rapport. You'll learn why early intervention is a game-changer in maintaining your practice's financial health without compromising on patient satisfaction. From identifying common pitfalls in the collections process to crafting effective patient communication strategies, this episode equips practice owners with pivotal insights for balancing financial well-being and patient care.What You'll Learn in This Episode:Why early intervention with collection agencies can benefit your practice.The importance of notifying patients about balances promptly.How to choose the right collection agency for positive patient interactions.Best practices for encouraging patient payments gracefully.Common mistakes dental practices make in collections.Strategies to balance financial health with patient relationships.Listen now to master the art of patient payment collections in your practice!‍‍You can reach out to Andy Grover Cleveland here:Website: collectionagencyninja.com‍If you want your questions answered on Monday Morning Episodes, ask me on these platforms:My Newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/The Dental Marketer Society Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2031814726927041‍Episode Transcript (Auto-Generated - Please Excuse Errors)‍Michael: Hey Andy, so talk to us, what's one piece of advice you can give us this Monday morning? Andy: I'm going to give something that probably goes against everything that everyone has ever heard in the dental business. I Believe you should use a collection agency at 60 to 90 days. After the EOB, which is probably very unpopular, but it's really crucial in the business of dentistry.Michael: Interesting. there specific communication strategies that we should implement at 30 or 45 days mark or to avoid escalating to the 60 days? Andy: Yeah, great question. Of course you want to notify. You don't want this to be blind. you do want to notify them that they owe the balance.And even before that, you want to try to collect it at time of service so that you never create the problem. However, you know, you have a real world and you have the perfect world. And sometimes those planets are just not aligned. So if someone does not pay that full balance, After that service is provided, you definitely want to notify that patient at least a couple of times that they owe, letting them know to please pay, but about 60 or 90 days, that's when the tide turns, Michael.That's when people decide, Hey, I'm either going to take care of this obligation or I'm not. So that's the ideal time to use it. Now, if you had interviewed me five years ago, Or 10 years ago, I wouldn't be as staunch on this opinion. It's kind of like merchant services. I don't know if you've seen this trend where now merchant services fees are being passed on to the patient.Have you been keeping up with that? Michael: Yeah, I've seen that. Andy: Okay. So if you asked me five years ago, I would say that's the worst idea. It's cheesy. Don't do it. It totally devalues your practice, but guess what? Every time I order tacos, every time I go to the doctor's office, every time I go to the car dealership, and now every time I go to the dentist, it's passed on. So we're in that kind of spot where it was unpopular, but now everybody's doing it. So why shouldn't the dentist? Michael: Okay. Interesting. So then three steps points or takeaways that you have to streamline this or make it easier, smoother. What would be number one then? Andy: one of the first takeaways is by implementing some type of collection agency strategy that's going to reach out.Number one, it doesn't make you the bad guy anymore. When you think about it, do you want to be known for chasing people for money or do you want to be known for treating patients with clinical excellence? So it's nice to have a scapegoat that you can blame for reaching out for the balance because it's strictly a financial driven practice.So I guess the number one is, it's much more convenient to blame your billing company. Then is for people to complain about someone in your office reaching out too frequently. I think we can both agree the optics aren't that great. Michael: Yeah. I think that's where I guess the patient relationship can get iffy, right?how do you do that then Andy? How do you balance maintaining patient relationships with the need to use a collection agency? Andy: there's no one right answer, but at the end of the day, if you hire someone to help you with the financial part of the practice, you can basically, just stay out of it.So if you're clinically driven, to help patients. That's your focus. Let someone else basically deal with the headache. Now, another part of how that works is it will motivate a certain part of your patient base to come back to be a patient of record. So a lot of times when dentists are doing these procedures, patients will say anything to get out of pain.So once you make that pain go away, it's sometimes could be a little too convenient to not pay. So by having a company reach out, you can actually help motivate that person to communicate with the practice and pay. And ultimately, You want that patient to be a valuable member of your clientele. So you have a divide where you can motivate people who generally value the service you're providing and keep them as a good patient of record. Also, if people choose not to pay the bill, they probably don't value the services that you rendered anyway. And arguably they're going to go somewhere else. So that kind of helps push them in another direction to maybe go down to the practice down the road and not pay them rather than come back for more service and not pay you.Michael: Does that make sense? yeah. So then I guess break it down for me. How does it motivate the patient versus sometimes like, stress them out or irritate him or anything like that? Andy: So it's pretty simple, Michael. If you, you got two phone calls today, once from someone, you owed money to.And it's just their office calling you, Hey, Michael, please pay. And then you get another phone call, Michael, from a collection agency. Again, same thing, you know, you owe the bill, but the collection agency is calling. Who are you going to pay first? Michael: one's a friend and the other one's the collection agency. Andy: They're both the same. you owe two parties. You have no preference one or the other, but one is that business calling you for money, the other one is a collection agency calling the question is, who are you more inclined to pay first? Michael: Oh, I don't know. That's a good question.What are the, data show?Andy: Generally speaking, people are going to pay the collection agency first. Middle class America wants to protect their credit. Michael: So Andy: generally speaking, people are going to pay the agency first. They're going to give it more importance because there's nothing negative that happens if they choose not to pay that original vendor, they'll get another statement or call next month and they'll address it Michael: Interesting. Okay. I like that. So then can you walk us through the process of selecting a reputable collection agency? Like What key factors Should we consider? Andy: Yeah. I mean, You really want to, interview multiple agencies. I would say the number one most important thing that you can do, assuming that people are being ethical, providing good service and being cost effective, which most are is having an agency that works directly with. Your practice management software. So we're in, a digital age and the collections business as a whole has done a very poor job on getting involved with technology. So I would definitely steer any dentist to work with the company that works with the technology. Well, You might ask, why is that important?There's numerous reasons. That's important. Number one. You're going to ensure safe and secure and rapid exchange of information. So accounts will be sent by their team by pointing and clicking, not manually updating a web form. The second thing it's going to do is it's going to tell who's paid. So in the collections business, Michael, and it's obvious you haven't been in collections from some of your responses, which is great.We don't want that for anybody. But sometimes the patient will actually pay as a result of that collection company contacting them. So with companies that work within the software, they should be notified when that happens. So let's paint a picture. Let's just say you're working with a collection company manually. Okay. You've sent patient ABC over for collection and the collection company has been calling them and they will call them incessantly to motivate that person. And let's just say that person paid the bill. Well Guess what? If your front office doesn't contact that agency by logging into the website, calling them, emailing, however that feedback loop is. That agency is going to continue to call that person for money. And it's going to further damage that relationship when they did the right thing and paid. So you want to have like an automatic feedback loop so that if someone does pay, it's automatically reported to the agency. So the agency doesn't cause any further harm. Those are probably the two top biggest reasons. There's many more. Michael: Gotcha. Okay. So collection agency is just essential to have in this process, So number two, what would that look like? Bullet point number two. Andy: Yeah, so that was identify and motivate your ideal patients coming back into the practice as opposed to people that are just dentist shopping So we want to motivate people to pay and also be a patient of record. So when you turn people over to collection Granted, they're not happy about it, but it will motivate people that value that relationship with you to communicate and pay the bill. It will also motivate some people to leave the practice because they had no intention of paying to begin with. Michael: Okay. Got you. Got you. Now, how do you measure any of the success of a collection agency? What benchmarks or KPIs do you track? As a practice owner. Andy: So any agency that has technology to support you is going to give you metrics on how you can judge their efficacy. I will share with you as weird as this is, it's not all about the money. I specialize in working with independently owned dental offices. So it's a little more holistic and how they judge you. I would say that most independently owned practices, it's not about the money. That's more of a group practice thought process.Yes, money's important, but not the most important thing. Independent dentists, they don't compete. With corporate offices on cost, right? They can't, the economies of scale are not there. The flip side is also true. corporates can't compete with independent dentists on culture, right? They have turnover, you're getting new associates every six months. It's just a constant churn. So they don't really compete with one another, but at the end of the day, I think most dentists, will gauge the efficacy of their collection company, not only on the money recovered. And of course it has to be cost effective, but even more importantly than that, does it generate negative reviews?Does it motivate people to accept treatment? Does it allow their staff to focus on other things that are more important? So there's an opportunity cost To chasing your own accounts receivable. So it's much more multifaceted than just dollars in dollars out. Most dentists will hire a collection company basically to make their office run better.Michael: Have you seen that a lot, Andy, where some are hesitant to, bring on or call or ask about, money more for the review. Like, Oh man, I'm going to get negative. Andy: Yeah, of course. But in my experience, if you continue to chase your own money, you're much more likely to generate a negative review for yourself.If you hire somebody else to do it for you, they can give a negative review on that collection agency. Michael: Yeah. Andy: And certainly they could tie it back to you, but you can always, claim indifference, right? Hey that's what our billing department's for you know, you need to deal with them and it absolves you from some of that responsibility. Michael: Interesting. Okay. So then what are the financial risks and rewards of sending accounts to collections at 60 days versus waiting longer or not using collections at all? Andy: Great question. So you have this kind of traditional paradigm with collection agencies working with dental offices and that one is a very traditional approach where the office will work the account for months and months and months and years and years and years. And then they turn it over to collections, and then that company's working on a percentage basis. That's the way it's always been, but that is just not an effective way of running a modern or contemporary dental office. Sometimes you cause more harm than good there because if you wait that long, the accounts aren't collectible anyway. Right. If you wait a year or two, they're basically uncollectible. So I'd recommend just writing the accounts off if you're going to do that. The advantage to turning it over at 60 to 90 days is that's a very fresh account. It's still top of mind for that consumer and from a statistical perspective, it's much more collectible than something if you wait a year or two down the road to go after.So it's more about being proactive with that balance. The other thing you also have to measure in here, Michael. is a lot of times these practices are already getting hit with the PPO fee and basically reducing their billable amount. So they're already losing 30 or 40%. And then if you let that patient balance go unpaid. You're losing the rest. So in this environment, it's just too competitive to run a business like that anymore. You have to be responsible with not only the insurance portion, whether you're in network, out of network fee for service, but you also have to address that patient portion. It's crucial because again, you're taking such a big write off a hit in the beginning. It's really not cost effective for you to take another hit later down the road. You're essentially giving it away. Michael: Interesting. So then what common mistakes do practices make that you've seen when sending accounts to collections and how can they avoid these pitfalls? Andy: one of the things that clouds all of our judgment is emotion.So a lot of times, People get upset, and listen, if someone owes me money, I get upset about my own business, right? It hurts, but people still have that mammalian part of their brain that wants revenge, or maybe the patient was really rude last time they came in. So you have this, Emotional part of being owed money that clouds our judgment.that's a big mistake I see some practices, they just want revenge. That's usually where bad things start to happen when you think along those lines. So as a practice owner matures and goes through practice ownership, there's developmental stages where right in the beginning, it really hurts. Then you can start to kind of objectively step back and look at things more objectively. But at the end of the day, recommend the practice owners look at this from a very non emotional, like a CPA would, right? If you're producing a million dollars in revenue annually, and you have less than 1 percent of the people that owe you money, not pay you, write it off.You're collecting 99%. No one gets a hundred percent. I don't care how cool it is to say in the Facebook groups, nobody gets a hundred percent. There are times where it makes sense to write things off rather than pursue it. Especially if those services are disputed or you're dealing with a really difficult person, a lot of times it's just not worth it and you just have to let it go.Michael: Interesting. I love that. Thank you so much, Andy. I appreciate your time. And if anyone has further questions, you can definitely find them on the Dental Marketer Society Facebook group, or where can they reach out to you directly?Andy: Probably the best way to do it is going to my website. collection, agency, ninja. com spelled just like it sounds. Michael: Awesome. Collection, agency, ninja. com. that's going to be in the show notes below. So if anyone's interested, want to pick Andy's brain a little bit more and so forth, definitely reach out to him there and Andy.Thank you so much for being with us on this Monday morning episode. Appreciate you having me. Thank you very much and keep up the great work. I'm honored to be here.Andy: Thank you.

Tiff and Dana discuss the importance of coding accuracy in dental practices. That includes universal codes everyone can understand, how to stay up-to-date on resources, the best way to know team members are getting paid for all their work, different codes across specialties, and more. Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Dana Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01.11) Hello Dental A Team listeners, we are back at you today. I have the one and only Miss Dana here with me to podcast. I love pulling Dana in. I love pulling all the consultants in, but I truly love pulling in Dana. think I shouted you out this morning. do. Wednesday core value shout out in our.   I know that we've done some podcasts on that. So if you're not already doing a core value shout out every day or every week, please by all means go listen to those podcasts because it's freaking incredible and Dana you truly are the epitome of ease within our company and for your clients and I just think you need to publicly shout it from the rooftops be Just recognized for that aspect of your personality. You truly do make life easier I know a lot of your clients feel the same way you are   so good at finding the easiest path for the systems implementation for whatever it is that needs to be done for us as a company. So Dana, welcome today. I'm so excited to have you here with me. Thank you for joining me on this beautiful Wednesday. I don't know what day this is gonna air, but it's a Wednesday today. And it's absolutely gorgeous here in Arizona. How are you, Dana?   Dana (01:08.193) doing good, Tim, doing good. love days like today.   The Dental A Team (01:11.629) I do too, I do too. It's starting to get fallish in Arizona, which means 85 degrees instead of the 105 that we had last week, least up in Phoenix. I know you get a little bit more fall down where you're at, but I'll take the 85 over the 105 for sure. Today, Dina, I wanted to pick your brain.   I've got some information today I wanna share with the doctors. It's also for billing departments, for treatment coordinators, for whomever wants to listen to this. But I really wanted us to shout out our doctors for really, really just knowing everything about their businesses. I know that you guys are all here listening. I know you're watching, whatever it might be, to really learn more about the business side and about what the team is doing to help support your practice. So I wanna shout you out for that. And I just think it's a really incredible tool.   and resource to have to truly know what it is that's going on, the inner workings behind the scenes of your practice, aside from just the dentistry that you're performing. So shout out to you guys for being here, for listening. Team members, if your doctor's not listening yet, please share it with them. Dana, today I really wanted to pick your brain and go over some coding information. I know it sounds super boring, you guys, but stick with us. We've got some great tips and tricks and some tools, especially for you doctors who are out there to really   focus in and pay attention to the things that are being input into the system and sent off to insurance companies, or if you're fee for service, you still need to be insanely accurate within your system and making sure that we're using the right tools. So doctors, again, this one's for you as well. Billing representatives, treatment coordinators, front office representatives, office managers, whoever you might be, whoever might be touching a ledger or an account or a code in general dental assistance, hi, Genes, you guys.   This is all gonna be really great information for all of you. Coding with Accuracy happens to be a book, by the way, you can purchase that. But honestly, coding with accuracy is incredibly important and valuable to your system, not only for the billing portion to ensure that we're accurately sending things off to insurance companies, accurately getting paid, but realistically to show super accurately what you've actually done with your patients to your patients. That way, if anything were to ever come about and anyone needed to look into it or   The Dental A Team (03:28.327) your patients had questions and they asked for the account, it makes sense to the next person who's looking at it. And you can say, yes, I did that, that was me. I did that filling, I did that crown, I did that crown seat, I did those pieces. I know a lot of practices, and Dana, I think you've probably seen this too, a lot of practices will overuse, in my opinion, an office visit or a palliative treatment, to certain codes like that and unspecified, because they're just not sure.   what to use. And so they throw one of those, especially office visits, and I'm like, what is this office visit? How many, this patient's been in for 20 office visits. They're like, most of those are crown seats or like if a filling needed to be adjusted or like, and I'm like, wow, so we don't have any documentation right here that we ever sat any of these crowns.   That's an issue. looking at those pieces and making sure that we're super accurate with what we're calling things is something I really, really want to talk about today, Dana. Have you noticed that as well? I know you see a lot of clients, you do a lot of virtual clients, but you see a lot of ledgers, you get a lot of things sent to you, and you have been traveling a ton this year in office to practices as well. So what are you seeing when you're out there when it comes to coding and just kind of like randomness that you're seeing thrown around?   Dana (04:40.983) Yeah, I agree with you on just like the miscellaneous codes. I delivery. What did we deliver? Because we need to know exactly what we delivered today. And then a lot of just like 999 things and sometimes a 999 code you absolutely   The Dental A Team (04:47.133) Yeah.   Dana (04:55.967) can utilize it, should be utilizing it, but oftentimes too, it's like, no, there's actually a code for that. Like we don't have to send a 999 with documentation and notes, there's a code specific for that. So making sure that offices really are up to date, also to like when things change because they do change occasionally. And so just having somebody who knows those things in and out has resources to spot check and that we are billing what we're doing and coding exactly what we're doing.   The Dental A Team (05:25.511) Yeah, I totally agree. The 999 code, I love that one. It is thrown in there for everything and I am guilty of the 999 code because I'm like, don't know what he's even talking about. 999, that sucker. And I'll explain, I'll say exactly what he just said to me. I have no idea what he said, but I've got this. So I'm surely, surely guilty of that one. I do love the staying up to date and doctors, I really want you to know and understand within dentistry.   There's not, like we have a course for billing that will review billing for you and will go over the basics of billing, what it needs to look like, how to send a claim, how to input an EOB and a payment and all of those pieces. But there's really not a good school for billing where it's like, gosh, I'm gonna send them to a billing school and now they've got this accredited school has shown them this kind of like medical billing, right? You can go to medical billing school and now you're a medical biller.   to be a dental biller, you just needed someone ahead of you to show you how to do it. So within this world, it's just super important, like Dana said, that we stay on top of it as best we can. So making sure that we're getting ADA emails sent to us and that we're watching for any codes that change, because they will let us know. Whatever your state's dental association is, I know here it's the AZDA, the California Dental Association.   Whatever it is, make sure that you're signed up for those auto emails, because that's going to be the best resource. And then as those yearly conventions come around that we all love to go to, that we hate taking boring classes, look for any updates. I wouldn't say you've got to hit the billing courses yourself, or you have to send your billing rep to the billing courses. Sometimes they're a bust. Sometimes they're super insurance prone or driven. I don't love that. But if there's anything that's like coding updates or   New laws things like that. It's always a good idea. So I do want to preface it with that Just know always staying up to date just getting those resources sent to you is going to be super super important And now aside from that there are things like coding with confidence coding with accuracy All of those different books that you can get I believe coding with confidence you can order from Amazon or ADA I think both of them have it. I think it probably comes from the ADA when you do it from Amazon, whatever you choose   The Dental A Team (07:37.7) It's a fantastic book and having that resource, there's a companion book that goes with it as well. I always had that resource with me. It was literally in a drawer behind my desk and as soon as I had something pop up for an implant or gosh, when we were doing over dentures and there's just so many parts and pieces and little things that need to be accurately coded.   There's no way I'm gonna remember all of these things or intuitively know it. So I would pull those books out constantly and I would go through it with my doctor and I'd say, okay, does this describe, is this what you're saying? Is this describing it? Because even just for regular dentures, there's different codes that can be used. And if you use one that's a maxillary but you're doing a mandibular denture, you're not gonna get paid, right? And even if you put upper denture in the thing and you did a mandibular code, they're still not gonna pay it because it doesn't match.   So just making sure that those codes are super accurate. Now from a doctor's standpoint, why is this important? Super important because you need to be paid, right? So my owner doctors, you need to be sure that your practice is being paid, that you're being paid for what you're doing, your hygiene team's being paid for what they're doing, and that if, again, anything were ever to have been and come about, somebody looking at the ledger, looking at the account, looking at the chart, can accurately and confidently see exactly what you performed. So not only do you need to get paid,   you need to cover your tail. For my associate doctors and even my hygienist who might be listening, you really, really wanna watch your production and your collections, because typically, especially my associates, you guys are gonna be paid off of that in some form or fashion. So making sure that the coding is correct and that it accurately, actually reflects what you've done is key. Otherwise, you might get paid for a filling when you did an onlay.   Right, and the billing representative, has, or he has no idea, they were not chair side with you. So if it's not fixed chair side, or if you, gosh, Dina, how many times have you seen this one, where chair side, you know, we were scheduled for an MO, chair side, doctor's like, this went into the distal, we've gotta update that. So we update it, we tell the patient, we're like, got another service added, get the treatment plan going, lay them back, finish the filling, and then they go up front, and then they get paid on an MO.   The Dental A Team (09:51.99) because the MOD was never switched out and the appointment went before it was set complete. again, the billing representative, he's not chair side. They have no idea that that billing changed. The dental assistant needed to update and change it. So making sure that that's accurate in there. Now, Dina, I know you have a lot of practices and a lot of associates. You've got a lot of big practices that have a lot of associates. How do you make sure at the end of the day, at the end of the month, at the end of everything, that these guys are knowing exactly what their   being paid on? Like how do you make sure that they know with confidence that they're getting paid for everything that they did?   Dana (10:28.329) Yeah, I have them usually daily check their provider production and check their individual provider day sheet just to make sure that everything was accounted for. If there were changes, if something was walked out inaccurately, catching that from the very beginning is super important because honestly, like you pointed out, the difference in some of these codes is hundreds of dollars worth of production. And that can be even within implant parts, even with indentures, like a difference in that   that coding can majorly impact production. So making sure that everything is accounted for, everything that they did is on there and everything is walked out and ready to submit. So that whether it's insurance based or we've got to call a patient and say, hey, you know, we under collected that service did change, we had added. whether it is patient portion that we've got to update or insurance portion, just making sure that we're catching that. And I like to do it daily because   Claims are submitted daily. We're reaching out to patients and we don't want a patient to go till the end of the month before we're like, hey, by the way, you missed a thing, right? So I like my, especially my associates and hygiene to just look and make sure everything's accounted for each and every day.   The Dental A Team (11:34.98) Yeah. Yes.   The Dental A Team (11:47.01) Yeah, I agree. think that's perfect because pulling that sheet, especially like Dentrix and Eagle Soft and OpenDone, like all of these programs have a super easy sheet to print at the end of the day or even like print screen and then just look at it. So we're not using all the paper all the time. I've definitely had it where a doctor will come back like a week later and be like, we didn't actually do a buildup because we just, you you treat and plan a crown and we should plan a buildup just in case, or you have your doctors who treat and plan only a crown and then add a buildup.   if we needed a buildup and so vice versa. A week later, we're like, I didn't build up on that crown. I'm like, well, bro, she gone, she lost. There's no way, it's so uncomfortable to call a patient and be like, by the way, we forgot to charge you for that billing that's underneath the crown that's to build the tooth back up because of the K. And now I'm in this whole conversation of like, why didn't this just get done the first time? So I totally agree. I think that's brilliant. And doctors also, looking ahead at your schedule,   Dana (12:21.687) It was true.   The Dental A Team (12:43.172) Prepping your schedule in conjunction with that is gonna be huge. We get really comfortable. Our dental assistants are incredible. I was a dental assistant near and dear to my heart. It's my favorite position. If I were ever to like quit everything in life and go back to in-office dentistry, it would have to be as a dental assistant. I would not do anything else. It's my favorite space. But you guys, I messed up sometimes. Like it happens. I would get forgetful.   Like how many times did I forget to grab the bond? And I'm like, you can't do a filling without a bond. How did you forget that? And then expecting me to change it every single time in the chart or make sure that it was accurate ahead of time. Things flip through the cracks. So we've gotta have checks and balances. We can't just rely on one person to get it right every single time. So your dental assistants prepping the charts, prepping your schedule for the next day is huge, but I really wanna implore that you guys, you doctors,   You are looking at your schedules as well. You know what's coming up and you know that it's accurate. I had a dentist that worked in our practice. He's fantastic. He's gone to all of this oral surgery, like extracurricular. He's just, it's insane. I watch his videos on Instagram and I'm like, that's so gross. I always must do him. Like I remember the first time I did a bone flap with you and I was like, what? I can't do this, but he's so good. He did all of these like perio surgeries, oral surgeries. He did so many things in our practice and holy cow.   A GP girl over here, learning how to code for all of these extensive procedures that he was doing. He was doing, you know, he's doing the blood draws before it was even a thing. I am like, are we allowed to do that? Like I'm in my practice, like what the heck? This is crazy. And now I'm having to code things that to me are like outlandish.   and I'm sitting there Googling things. Like, this doesn't make sense. So I'm pulling out my little code book and like, gosh, it is in here. This is a dental thing. We can do this, but there's no way those added procedures would have been accurately coded if I didn't take those extra steps to ensure it. And if he didn't, bless his heart, come to me every day.   The Dental A Team (14:47.322) with a list of the things that needed to be added to tomorrow that wasn't accurate or things that we missed today. He would double check his treatment plans just because they were so extensive. And honestly, there were times, like he did GP work in our practice as well. So there were times too where he would catch a filling surface was missed or an onlay surface was missed. And I'm like, dang, not only are, you know, did we miss something on your giant surgery over here that I literally cannot assist with, cause I will pass out.   But we also miss like a surface on an online, like, goodness gracious, right? But he is my example because he was so diligent about making sure that the charting was accurate. Like, of course he wanted to get paid for the things he was doing, but he's like, I need to make sure that whatever it is that I'm doing, it's all here. It's all accounted for. And when he went to go do all of the accrediting with the oral surgery boards and implant boards and like, he's got all this crazy stuff behind him now. He needed all of those things. He called me from Texas years later.   And I was like, remember that patient that we did that thing? And I'm like, my gosh, yeah. So I'm like looking for this patient. He's like, I need all of their notes and I need all of their ledger and I need everything to submit to the implant board. And I was like, my gosh, thank goodness we went through and did all of those things. So you guys, it doesn't matter what you're doing. You don't have to be doing crazy dentistry or crazy oral surgery within your practice. Those minor things need to get caught as well. And Dana, earlier you mentioned like the 999 code.   And I know we have to go in or have the auto updates done and make sure that the codes are being updated. But I did notice there are more and more systems that even have as simple as broken appointment code already in there, Crown Seat Code, Denture Seat Code, all of these pieces. So when you're working with practices and you're seeing this, or they ask us, we'll get text messages from office managers that are like, this is what he said, what do I code that as?   I don't know, right? But what are you doing? How are you helping them to figure out, this is probably not a pallet over 999 or what an office visit, this is probably X, Y, or Z.   Dana (16:52.117) Yeah, I mean, I'll be honest, if a lot of times I am pulling like a coding with confidence, or I'm googling things and, I'm trying to piece it together or I'm asking, you know, okay, well, like, walk with what does that look like? Walk me through like, can you explain the process to me? So maybe I can find it in here or send me a picture of the part that maybe I can look it up. But it's really just doing due diligence and combing through the codes that are available. And then determining   The Dental A Team (16:58.797) Yeah.   The Dental A Team (17:10.987) Yes.   Dana (17:20.083) If there is a specific code for that procedure and if there's not, then yeah, you do a 999 code with lots of documentation, IOPs, all the things, so that once it gets to insurance, they can determine if it's something that they're covering.   The Dental A Team (17:35.266) I agree, yeah, I love that. I do love Google, I have Googled so many times. I've been in office trying to help them come up with cheat sheets, which is the next little topic here, but that I'm like, what is this? Or give me a picture of this so that I can put it on their cheat sheet. And doctors who are doing things like implants or dentures even, crowns, anything you're doing, having those cheat sheets is super helpful.   I have a lot of my practices throw those into their operations manual. So with the crown setup or whatever, it'll also have the steps and the codes that would be used. We have to update it when they update, but have all of those available there side by side with it. So it'll be like, crown seed, and it'll be the setup, and then it'll be all of the codes. The ones that get wild are our implants, right? Our All-On-X denture cases. Those ones get wildly insane.   dentures, right, start to finish because what happens is in the treatment planning mode, let's use denture, right, as a treatment planner, right, so I'm a dental assistant and the doctor says we need to do a full denture. Cool, maxillary denture. And then I'm like, treatment coordinator, here you go. And they're like, cool. And then they schedule a denture. There's like 16 steps sometimes to a denture.   Right, so having that and being able to break it down and break it apart shows that all the steps and processes were done and then having a cheat sheet that goes along with it helps not only your treatment coordinator and your scheduler, but it helps your biller and your dental assistant, even your hygienist. I've had so many hygienists come to me and say, what step are we on? And I'm like, well, I'm not sure, let's look. Like, let's look at our checklist and see where we're at. So even within that denture, having the denture treatment plan for pricing.   Dana (18:56.011) Yes.   The Dental A Team (19:24.294) Obviously, right, any extractions, any bone grafts that need to be done. If you're doing a temporary denture before the final is done, if you're doing, gosh, if you're doing a scan and a final delivery, like they're getting much faster. But before, remember, we had to have a wax rim, we had to have teeth and wax, we had to have the color shade, we had to have a try-in, then we had to have a realign. Like all of these pieces needed to be segregated out in there so that we treatment plan.   the one thing, but we have those steps readily available so that it can be scheduled correctly and in order. And then having those cheat sheets with those codes lined up is super helpful. I have a practice in Wisconsin that was just getting so confused on the implant process and an ortho process. And I was like, easy peasy, let's just like section this out. And now every single time they've got it laminated and they just pull it out. They're like, I've got my implant sheet. I've got my ortho sheet or whatever. So I always have them add that as well. So Dana.   Wrap it up for us. So we've got coding, checking, all the pieces. What could an office do, a doctor do to ensure maybe even adding it to their operations manual? What's the process they should make sure that is being followed and updated yearly within all of these pieces that we've talked about today?   Dana (20:42.627) Yeah, I think it's added to your yearly calendars that you make sure that you do know the updates you have the codes every year and just like we get Insurance fee schedules and we do all of our insurance updates just add that to that list one So add and make sure we've got do we have the resource for it? And do we know what they are? I think to any time that you are adding a new service just checking and double-checking that you know what the codes are So if you're bringing in a CBC team, make sure that those codes are in there and you've got fees attached to them   and all of those pieces. I love your cheat sheet idea as far as especially where there's a there's a lot of nitty-gritty things that need to get built out for specific things like ortho-like implants making sure that you've got cheat sheets and you make it really really easy and then make sure you've got a very clear communication system for when treatment changes so that it gets changed all the way okay and then I think daily having people look at them and just one   Final tip I guess in in with your cheat sheets oftentimes we call things things that like are not in the code, right? The description of the code is not that and then we're constantly like, what are they actually? What do they actually call right? A lot of your systems will allow you to add notes to like those procedure codes put in what you call it in the office so that it's easy to find it will still put the actual code definition on your piece going on your claims go out, but if you call something something specific   just update it in your system so it's easy for the team to buy.   The Dental A Team (22:12.623) That was brilliant. I know my dentist had like five different terms for a hater bar and I never, was like, I don't know what you're talking about. And the Ribon, he would call the, you know, the Perio procedure by the name of the material he needed. And I was like, so, and he only do this once every, I don't know, 10 years. Like this procedure is never done. He's like, we've got to do a Ribon. Where's the Ribon? I'm like, I don't even remember what this is.   I don't know what that says. So yes, I agree. I love that idea, the descriptions and making sure too then I would transfer. We do this in our Google Drive, you guys. Whatever you might call it, also probably put that on your cheat sheet, maybe in parentheses. Like this is what it is. These are the five different terms that any of our doctors may call it so that it is easy to find and easy to figure out. I think that's brilliant. Awesome, thank you for wrapping us, Dana. I think this was insanely beneficial for all of our doctors out there and our team members again.   Doctors, if you're here listening, congrats. I think that's so huge. It's really important for you to know and understand these things. Share it with your team, because they can use these pieces too, especially anyone who's doing your billing and your practice. And then team members who are out there whose doctors haven't heard this one yet, share it with them. Make sure that they understand what they're getting into as well, and that they're supporting you in your position as a team member to be super accurate, because you're depending on them.   to get things right so that you can do your job. So share it with them. Make sure you guys are all up to date and as always, reach out for any questions you might have. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. We are not code masters, but you guys, we are solution masters and we will find the answers or find the way and we can help you with just about anything you can think of. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. We can't wait to catch you next time.  

Happy Halloween! In this episode, Kiera lists four “tricks” in dental practices that might scare a practice owner off, and gives advice on how to turn them into treats. Leaking revenue A team that doesn't care about company goals Untapped potential holding you back Low case acceptance and high overhead Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:01.09) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and happy Halloween -y. man, I love Halloween. This year, I'm so excited. We have some really, really, really special neighbors and they have two kids and they have definitely allowed us to be a part of their family. And so they're now six -year -old son. They have a six -year -old and a two -year -old. Their six -year -old plans our Halloween costumes for us. If you know anything about Kiera Dent or if you don't, my mom was very much not.   pro having her kids trick or treat. My mom is very, very, very conventional and she did not want to teach her children. She felt like trick or treating was slightly like begging and she did not want her children to be that way. And so I do not, I do not endorse that nor agree with that. And my mom has since changed, but that was her beliefs as a young mom. so trick or treating, she had us go what's called pick a treat where we would actually take treats to our friends instead of trick or treating. And so   Actually last year, 2023 was the first time that Kiera Dent actually went trick or treating. And it was with this family that takes us with us. Last year we were Incredibles. And this year he has given, this little boy has given all of us the assignment of something from Toy Story. He plans every one of us who we're going to be. So this year I get to be Little Bo Peep. My husband's Woody. Don't worry. We'll definitely post up some pictures for you guys, but happy Halloween. I hope you have the best time. I hope it's fun, but.   What I wanted to do today is one, thank you guys for being a part of our podcast family. But two, remind you, please share this podcast with someone fun. Today's gonna be a fun one. These are things that should scare you as a dental practice owner. Our goal is to help you learn to overcome them and running practice does not need to be scary. So come and join our consulting with us. There's no tricks, just treats for you guys. And I'm gonna give you guys four little things that probably do scare you as practice owners and ways to overcome them.   We're going to do a little trick or treating here where I might trick, I might treat. Of course I'm going to treat guys. Here we go. but please share this podcast with those around you. And thank you for being a part of our Dental A Team podcast family. If I could give you a giant hug right now and just tell you how much I love and appreciate you for who you are and the special things that you bring to dentistry and to this world. And, just you being here, no matter what you do or don't do is a huge blessing to those around you and in my life as well, even though I might not know you personally.   Kiera Dent (02:26.07) I feel you, I feel your energy and I'm so grateful for you. just share this with someone that you feel could use that huge giant hug of love and appreciation and probably just like some fun and some support. with that, right. Number one possible scary thing in a practice is revenue leaks in your practice. So what are some of those things that are leaking out revenue that if we just were able to patch up that hole might actually be able to help you. So things such as inefficient scheduling, billing errors, uncollected payments.   So I want you guys to look at your practices and see where are our revenue leaks. I think this could be a really fun almost scavenger hunt for you and your team to think about like, where are all the ways that we might be losing money on imperfect handoffs, on not billing out all the procedures that we do, on not having the correct dollar amounts attached to those. Keir Dents practice definitely sent out a $0 crown. We billed it straight to insurance. You better believe they were so happy to send me the EOB on that. That is a revenue leak in our practice. so,   on our inefficient scheduling? Have you built in the block schedules? Have you created a perfect day schedule? Are we working and role playing on how we can get people perfectly in there? Are we looking for same day treatment opportunities? That's a huge revenue leak within your practice. Looking for those same days, you get raving fans out of it and you're also able to help a ton of people with it. So can we actually help you guys close up that revenue leak and make it even better? What about the billing errors? Like I mentioned, attaching the correct things to our procedures so we get our money in within those.   20 to 30 days the first time and we're not having to rebuild or reattaching like setting up a process and a policy that we all follow every single time. Make that quick checklist, have it in the notes. We just grab it and go and everybody's there with it. It makes it so much easier. Uncollected payments, I can't tell you how many offices just let patients leave without stopping at the front desk or getting credit cards on file so that way we can bill these patients very quickly and collect. It's so easy. You guys, I have all of my stuff on autopay. I go to the therapist, I credit card on file, click, paid, done.   At my chiropractor same thing at my therapist my my physical therapist same thing at my gym person All these quick ways like you guys we live in a world of credit cards on file. We have Apple pay We have all these different pieces. Can we do that there? And what are the revenue leaks within your practice? Those are just some to get your your mind spurring But really look at that because that could be very scary in a practice. You're doing the work Let's make sure you're getting paid for it. Like I said, no tricks just treats. It does not need to be scary   Kiera Dent (04:50.132) Number two, your team not caring about your company goals. Well, that can feel scary because doctors can feel like, I'm rowing this boat all by myself and it can feel awful. And so let's get your team to care about the goals. How can this help give them a better life? How can this help them help more patients? How can we get them on board and excited? I have an office right now and we're rolling out sleep in their practice and I cannot wait. We're making it all fun. They're going to get like part of the bonus and the rewards of helping more patients not die from sleep.   That's incredible. That's such a fun way to do it. And so looking for ways, people don't care about things that they're not passionate about. No surprise, right? Like that's a very easy thing. Kiera, give us some wisdom here. But I think sometimes simplicity and remembering what we already know is half the point of learning. And a lot of times learning is just remembering what we already know. And so getting our team, like what inspires them? Why do we want to hit these goals? How many patients do we want to serve together as a team? And oftentimes if your team doesn't care about the goals,   guess what, they might not be your right team. You want people that are obsessed about hitting these goals. You want people that are excited about building this practice. It's gonna serve so many patients. And so you also, as the owner and the leader, need to feel that way about it. Oftentimes when teens don't care about goals, it's because the owner doesn't actually care. And I say that with love and a huge giant hug and no judgment, because sometimes it's hard to stay motivated as owners. Sometimes we need someone to pick us up.   You guys, am so appreciative over these last couple of months. I've had some personal things in my life and so grateful for the coaches in my life that literally have like lifted me up with love and support and helped me figure out what is my vision? What is my path? I have probably five really strong people in my life and I'm so grateful. I happily pay them. so, I could not do this without all five of them. And just so thankful that I have that support system around me because   A lot of times it is hard to keep trying to figure it out on your own day in and day out. And so really being able to have that from your team and have that support is something absolutely magical. All right, number three is untapped potential losing you money. So things like, could we do some CE within our practice? Could we do helping a lot of our team start like learning to scan or taking impressions, or could we add Invisalign or could we add sleep to our practice?   Kiera Dent (07:09.886) Or what other things are untapped potential within every team member? Could we do better with our treatment plan acceptance? Can we do better with how we schedule our practice? But what is this untapped potential? If I was looking at your practice today, what I think that your practice is a brand new baby, like in the life cycle of a business. Is it maybe a toddler? Is it maybe like a teenager? Is it a young adult? Is it like in its prime? Is it a dying practice, like getting a little bit older to retirement? Or is it on its way to death?   There's untapped potential within all of those lifespans. And so what's our way that we're able to find that untapped potential because there's so much opportunity. I have offices right now that are, we've just added very simple things to the practice and we've been able to take them from a $2 million practice to a $4 million practice just by adding in some untapped potential with them. Are there untapped potential within like the operatories in the space within your practice?   Is there untapped potential around your hygienist being able to offer fluoride to every patient or fluoride therapy where it's toothpaste and fluoride treatments? Is there untapped potential with us scanning for night guards? Is there untapped potential with us looking for same day treatment opportunities? These are fun little things that could be spooky and scary, but if we look at them, make them fun. Now, I'm gonna put a huge like asterisk caveat with this.   We do not wanna add all these things at the exact same time because that is very scary and daunting for our team, but we can brainstorm and like throw everything on a board and then pick the thing that's the easiest, least amount of effort with the greatest impact. And that's what we wanna go implement and execute on our practice. right, number four of things that are scary, no tricks, just treats today, of low case acceptance and high overhead. So kind of technically two in one.   So low case acceptance, that can feel really scary. It can make doctors feel like patients don't like me. It can make treatment coordinators feel like, we're just not closing cases. Case acceptance to me just tells a story. One, are we doing incredible with how we're presenting treatment? Doctors, are you using that NDTR next visit date, time, the re -care, there we go. Are you doing that and putting the bow on every single treatment plan that you're giving?   Kiera Dent (09:20.032) Are you diagnosing with confidence? Are we doing quadrant dentistry rather than solo tooth dentistry? Are you confident on how you're presenting it to the patient? Are you possibly planting weeds in your flower garden by giving them obstacles as opposed to opportunities without realizing it? After doctors give this the most amazing confident treatment plan, they put the bow of NDTR on it. Team members, are we all taking that perfect hand off, scheduling them first and then having our team present the treatment plans and the finance?   Are we leading with insurance? Because if you better believe if I'm any part of your life, you will never lead with insurance. You will always lead with what we need to do. And then we will help the patient say yes to the treatment. Low case acceptance to me tells what are the doctors confident in, what's the treatment coordinator confident in, and where are awesome opportunities to grow. I love case acceptance. I'm obsessed with it. I'm obsessed with helping offices. I have literally taken a practice from 9 million.   to over 40 million just by working with them on case acceptance. I kid you not, there's multiple practices in it. They are incredible. And we just work on case acceptance over and over and over over over and over and over and over over again, because we know that that's what's gonna help more patients have a happier life. So when I look at this, I love it. It tells me what is that treatment coordinator afraid of? What does that treatment coordinator need to break through? What does that doctor need to break through? I can look to see the type of treatment plans just by looking at your case acceptance.   And so looking at this and how can we boost it? Now, if it's too high, I know we are actually not diagnosing enough. If it's too low, I know we're not closing and it's a happy medium. If you're presenting implants and high cases, it should be a little bit lower. If we're doing a single tooth dentistry and general dentistry more so, you should have a much higher case acceptance. So looking at that, because that can feel very eerie in a practice of like, what are we doing wrong? Oftentimes it's not what are we doing wrong? It's what are we saying? That's actually not helping us get to our case acceptance that we want.   So play the game, have fun with it because that case acceptance fills the schedule. Now if our schedule is too full and we're not hitting our goals, let's look to see what are we diagnosing doctors? Let's see, are we truly diagnosing full comprehensive care or are we diagnosing what we think they want? No, those are questions for you to answer that can feel spooky and eerie, but they do not need to be. Just be confident, the patient's there. It's not your fault they're there. It's not your fault that they have this treatment. It didn't get there overnight and now you have the amazing opportunity to educate them.   Kiera Dent (11:40.93) help them get healthy again and become like so fulfilled by having that confident smile again. And then that in turn can also reduce your overhead. Looking at our P &L consistently, making sure that we're not overpaying for things that we don't need, but also making sure that our revenue we're producing what we need to be producing for our practice. These are things that I am obsessed with. I love them. It doesn't need to be spooky for you. It really just needs to be fun for you. And so that's why at this Halloweeny time,   No tricks, just treat. And within our consulting, we have our online version and we also have our in -person version and both of them give you a way for these spooky things to actually be done with ease. So I'd love for you guys to come try it out. Like, what's it gonna hurt you to come and be a part of a community of people of like -minded dentists, to have consultants at your fingertips that literally will give you the answers to all these spooky things and also get your team on board with you.   to come and either be in person and meet us. We're literally getting ready to have our doctors in person together and work on your business from the minds of brilliant people to be able to lift you and your practice to the highest heights that are out of this world, to be able to have consistent accountability in your practice of people that hold you to a higher standard and grow you. Come join us and be a part of it. I'd love for you to come try it out. Running a practice truly does not need to be scary. So come try us. I'd love to have you.   No tricks, just treats for all of you. You guys, I am obsessed with dentistry. I'm obsessed with helping you guys have the life that you deserve to live and that you're worthy to live and that you have every capacity to have. I'm obsessed with getting your team on board with you. So come try us out. Hello @ TheDentalATeam .com or just go to TheDentalATeam.com. Book a call with us. You guys, it's not scary. We literally like meet you with open arms and a huge hug. And we're there, whether you are on the top of your game or you are at the bottom of your game, anywhere in between.   We're there for you and I can't wait for you guys. end of year. It's a great time for you to be looking at these things, to make decisions, to make sure that next year that you are successful without knowing that it's maybe going to happen or not, but being confident that it will happen for you. Now is the time for you to take action, to not have it be scary and to have the best, best life that you could ever imagine. Reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.  

Ever received an EOB (Explanation of Benefits) from your insurance company and thought, "What even is this?" Spoiler alert: it's not a bill! But it is your crystal ball, giving you a heads-up about any upcoming bills. Join us in this quick, fun, and enlightening episode as we break down the mystery of the EOB. We'll walk you through the key info it contains, how to read it, and what it means for your wallet. Episode Highlights: - What exactly is an EOB and why should you care? - The must-know parts of an EOB to look out for. - How to use your EOB to anticipate bills and avoid surprises. For more hands-on learning, check out these sample EOBs: -- Sample EOB 1 - https://www.cms.gov/files/document/11819-sample-explanation-benefits-508.pdf -- Sample EOB 2 - https://www.patientadvocate.org/explore-our-resources/interacting-with-your-insurer/what-does-an-eob-look-like/ Join us for a bite-sized dive into the world of insurance paperwork that's both informative and surprisingly fun. By the end, you'll be an EOB-reading pro, ready to tackle your insurance mail with confidence. Hit play and demystify your EOB today!

Consultants Tiff and Dana talk all about accounts receivable and why knowing your numbers is so critical to practice success. Hint: Once you know where your numbers sit at, you can develop systems to improve the areas in need of help. Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Dana Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Tiffanie (00:08.706) Hello everyone! Welcome to today's podcast. I am here with my fave Dana. Dana thanks for being here with me today. I know we have busted out so many podcasts recently. You have been my like go -to gal for months now. So thank you for taking the brunt and the load of all of the podcast needs that I keep sending your way. I truly appreciate you Dana. How are you today?   Dana (00:30.92) Doing good. Absolutely. You're so welcome. And I feel like podcasting with you is so easy Tiff So it's never a burden on my end.   Tiffanie (00:37.666) Thank you, thank you. And it's our time together. We got to spend some time together at Retreat and I was like, my gosh, I really do love just like the moments that we get together. So it's perfect. And I have...   You're down more southern in Arizona than I am, so you're closer to this beautiful hike, Seven Falls, and it has been so hot on my mind. I mean, it's way too hot outside right now, so we have to wait. But we're projecting that one for the fall, and I just cannot wait to do it. As soon as we have a date, I'm going to make sure that you know so we can go together. We'll have to take some photos for our podcast listeners so they can see these beautiful falls. Love it.   How is everything in your world from a client standpoint and just from a consultant standpoint, how is the mid -year going for you as a consultant and what kind of trends are you seeing aside from, I know we chatted about hiring on another one, on another podcast, but what other kind of trends are you seeing? We've been talking a lot of finances the last couple of months. Are you seeing anything within that with your clients right now, Dana?   Dana (01:47.112) I think, yeah, the finances right now are a hot topic and I think we're looking at numbers more than ever and a lot of those numbers are including expenses and so I think that conversations have shifted absolutely to be more heavily related to numbers and halfway through the year, right, this is a big time where I look at, okay, let's check on goals, like where are we halfway through the year and let's build out the rest of the year. So really looking at numbers right now at time with clients.   Tiffanie (02:12.45) Yeah.   Yeah, totally. And we've done a couple of numbers podcasts recently as far as like budgets and overhead and really figuring out how to get those numbers down. So I know, I know when those things come up podcast wise, it's usually because it's relevant to some of the consulting that we've been doing. So I think we both have seen that a ton this year in general for a lot of our practices. I think people are just starting to get a little bit more business savvy. It could be, you know, the DSO market is on the rise and, and, and   and my GP owner doctors and my specialty owner doctors even are really starting to try to get a handle on what their overhead looks like, what their profitability of their business is and what that might look like, not just to sell, but I always say, and I learned this from Ms. Kiera Dent, that any business should always be set up to be sold if in the event they do ever want to. It doesn't mean that they're going to sell, but you should always have yourself set in that way so that you're the best and the most profitable that you possibly are.   possibly can be. So I think it's really brilliant that a lot of the doctors and the trends that I'm seeing are more business savvy in that way and really trying to get a handle on the knowledge so that they can move forward and be their most profitable. So on the topic of profitability, I really wanted to discuss, we've chatted a lot about like overhead, how to manage it, how to control it as best we can, manipulate the pieces that we can within overhead, but I really wanted to talk about   talk today about looking at our AR as a way to also increase profitability. I think that I've seen a lot of people miss this. And if I'm blunt and honest here, I've had a lot of consultant interviews that have missed this as well. And so I know it's not a super common thing to look at because it is something that's so drastically overlooked a lot.   Tiffanie (04:12.578) I know, Dana, when I have doctors that are trying to increase profitability, most of the time, and I've had interviewees, you've seen this too, where we're like mock interviewing, we're trying to guide them to the right answer. We've seen it a lot where people, we want to increase the profitability. We want to decrease overhead, increase profitability, and people tackle production. They're like, well, you have to produce more. But you can't.   out -produce the problem. We've been saying this for years. You cannot out -produce the problem because the problem is not typically in your production. Dana, where is the problem typically found? My all -star lovely consultant of the Dental A Team that would know this and did know this, where is the problem typically found when profitability is low and overhead is high?   Dana (04:57.896) Yeah, absolutely. You're going to look at your collections for that. And great news is AR can add to collections month over month.   Tiffanie (05:06.146) Yeah.   Yeah, exactly. Spot on. Nailed it. She's hired. She's staying for a lifetime. She's here forever. Yes, your AR, you guys, your collection. So a lot of the times, practices don't know what your collections should be set at, like what your projected collection should be, what your percentage should be. So for a standard GP practice, meaning we're general producing, we're doing a lot of bread and butter, maybe implants, maybe surgeries, things like that, but not a ton of ortho.   were PPO or fee for service, you should be 98 % or higher in your collections percentage every other month. So that means that your team is collecting 98 % of the production for that month. 100 ,000, you got $98 ,000 in collections. Now caveat, doctors, because this comes up a lot.   your collections from your software is not always going to match your collections in your bank account. Sometimes there's a week or so that it takes for something to post on the bank account that's come through, so it's in a different month. That's always a caveat. And then also, you have your merchant services fees that are deducted from your deposits when you have credit cards ran, or if you're doing credit, or any other kind of merchant services. Those fees are deducted from your deposit. So you're always going to be a little bit skewed there. So   minimum of 98 % or higher is going to keep your profitability and your deposits pretty standardized high, if I could say that. Now, AR, this is your accounts receivable. Most doctors don't know a ton about AR, and that's OK. You didn't learn it. But the sad part here that I'm going to announce,   Tiffanie (06:50.754) Most dental professionals, most of the front office team, the dental assistants, the things that we know about these systems and these processes like AR, accounts receivable, was taught to us from the person who did it before us at the practice where we learned how to do it.   And hopefully, that person knew how to do it. And hopefully, the person who was trained how to do it next did some more research and learned how to do it even better, took some courses, went to some CE. There are courses and things out there. There are ways to learn it. But it's not always happening. So doctors, it's really important to us as a company, the dental A Team, we spend a ton of time with our doctors ensuring that you guys know and understand what these numbers mean because they can affect your profitability so much.   So you should have 98 % or higher collections rate. And then your AR, your total outstanding money, meaning the total amount of money that you're waiting, it's out there in the universe, and you're just waiting for it to fall into your lap, should be less than one month's total production.   So I've had a doctor, I've had a couple times, I've had a couple practices come to us, but I had a doctor, he is one of my favorite human beings in the entire world. He is the most genuine person I have literally ever met. And he came to me a few years ago and he said, I think something's going on, I have no money, but I have a ton of production and I feel like my AR might be high. And I said, okay, cool, I'll get in, I'll dive into it. And I get there for his first in office visit, this was like,   years ago, I think 2018. And I opened it up and I was like, my gosh, I think I'm going to cry. This is a one and a half doctor, like his associates, I'm going to count them as like a half doctor, and two hygiene. And their outstanding AR was like $270 ,000, I think.   Tiffanie (08:41.89) And I was like, my gosh. And so much of it was untimely filing from insurance. So much of it was patients hadn't had statements in years. So there are balances here that are five years old that they just haven't gotten taken care of. So much of it was just a disaster. And it was so scary. And I was like, we're going to get a handle of this. And it's OK. We're going to figure this out. We're going to get your profitability up. So looking at it.   at that 98 % or higher on collections rate and your outstanding AR less than one month's production is going to help that. So knowing those stats though doesn't change the game. So if you know those stats, you look at it and you're like, OK, Tiff, Dana, we're at 92 % collections. It's really close, for sure. If you're doing ortho or if you're a Medicaid accepting practice, I want 95%. So you've still got 3 %   higher to get to. And you've got quite a bit of ways to go for that 98%. So Dana, when you're working with practices, because I know we both see this a lot, where practices come on for systems. And they're like, these are the things we think we don't know. And we dive in, and we're like, gosh, we need to start here, because we've got to get your profitability up before we start working on new patient phone calls. We've got to make sure that the money is being collected on the back end. So what are some systems that you put into place? What are some things that you've   things that you do to help doctors find that profitability in their AR and to really get their billing department working for them and not against them.   Dana (10:16.936) Yeah, yeah, I think first it is like pulling those reports regularly and looking at those numbers and then knowing of that what is collectible so having a system to if you have agreed upon payment plans like if you have ortho or you do some in -house payment plans knowing how much of your ar is sitting on those that really like We can't count on collecting now because we agree to take that over time   Then once you know what you have that's collectible, just kind of knowing where it sits and knowing how quickly we're getting insurance claims paid and kind of looking at trends is most of that patient is most of it AR because when you know those things, then it helps you create systems to improve on things so that you know basically like where you want to put your effort as far as reinventing the wheel or coming up with systems. So it is, I think, pulling those reports and knowing where that money sits, then you can start creating   basically a cadence right for your billing person to really follow to ensure that the bulk of your AR is sitting in current and you have clear processes for the aging especially when we get to that 90 point I see so often in offices they don't have a cleanup process really for AR so AR continues to grow and money continues to sit there and we have   hopes that we can collect it, right? Or we say, well, I've got a lot sitting in AR and that will come in. Well, that's really not collectible and we've done everything that we can at this point, then having a cleanup process too, so that you have accurate numbers when you're looking at your AR.   Tiffanie (11:51.874) Yeah, totally agree. Totally agree. I think something that a lot of practices miss is creating a cadence for statements for patients. And number one, you shouldn't have a lot of statements, you guys. Doctors, if your billing department is sending out a massive amount of statements, you're like, gosh, why am I always buying stamps? Why do we need more envelopes? What is happening right now? It's 2024, right? We shouldn't have this many statements. Or why am I sending out so many texts to pay? What is going on here? You shouldn't have a lot of statements.   and dive into the root cause of what's going on every single time. And Dana's pulling the reports and look, that's what she's talking about. She's talking about, let's see what's happening here. So if we're not profitable and we're like, gosh, employee cost is high and supplies are high and labs are high, all of these things are high, how do we change this? First, look at your collections and say, am I at 98 % or higher on my collections? If you are, that's a separate conversation.   will happen a minute. Most of the time you're not, or you've got a ton of money sitting in AR that wasn't collected before and you're trailing that, and so your collections is still not in a healthy standpoint and it could be better. So first look at that piece and then dive into those pieces that Dana's talking about. What is collectible? So maybe even have a spreadsheet. A lot of billing representatives love to work off of spreadsheets. That's just kind of how their brains work. So have a spreadsheet maybe that says this is how many ortho accountants   We have this is how many in -house savings plans we have We've got this many patients that are making three months worth of payments, which I am NOT an advocate for I would much rather pay I would much rather you pay the percentage to care credit to be the banker than for you to be the banker and chasing money forever So make and make a good decision for your practice, but that's always what I advocate I know all of us here at the Dental A Team do we don't advocate being the bank or the lender It's just not who you are. You're a dentist not a bank and you don't have a bank   a banking facility. So go through and see what is collectible and then go through and see what's insurance and what's patient due, right? So what's outstanding from patients? If you have a high patient outstanding situation going on there, you really want to look into that and figure out what's creating that. Something before the patient statement is creating this situation. So oftentimes it's bad information in our computer. Oftentimes it's not the right   Tiffanie (14:21.3) Insurance verifications not the right information and we're not able to give a good treatment plan So we're giving bad information to our patients And so they're not actually truly paying what they should be or close enough to what they should be I'd rather you have credits that have to be returned than statements and we're chasing money We can always say hey, you've got more treatment to do. Let's use it for that or hey good news We've got a credit on your account. I'm so excited to return this back to you rather than hey, by the way, you're   Your insurance paid less than we anticipated they would, and it left you with a balance. Much different conversation. So if you do have a high number of statements going out, or you feel like your patient outstanding is high, I want you to dive into those reasons and really just ask your team. Like, hey, guys, I don't want you to have to chase all this money. I don't want you to have these hard conversations with these patients. It seems like it'd be incredibly uncomfortable.   It is. And ask them, what are we doing prior to the statement point to make sure that you guys don't have to do this? Now, I want you guys to pay attention to how I worded that, because it's much different than saying, what are the systems that aren't working that's creating these patient balances where patients have to pay us? I know it sounds the same. It sounds very similar. And to you, you're black and white, and you're saying the same thing. I'm saying, let me help you not have to make these hard conversation calls and tell patients they owe us money. Let's make it work.   make sure our systems are in line and that they're actually working for us because the result that I'm seeing means that something along the way isn't working and it needs to be changed. I don't want you guys to have to do these hard conversation phone calls. So look into that and look to make sure your systems are working. Now,   Flip side, maybe your patient base is super clean, and I'm super impressed, and I'm like, Fran, freaking fantastic. You're getting the right information in the system to produce the right information to collect from the patients. That's fantastic. Now it's held up in insurance. Now.   Tiffanie (16:16.354) Y 'all know 2024, we had a whole insurance mishap early this year. Okay, so there's still a lot of stuff caught up in there. And there are a lot of practices that I have that I work with that were like, it's the change health thing to like, I'm just waiting for that to clear up. And I'm like, wow, okay, cool. But if you're still not calling on it change health situation or not, if you're not calling and following up on these, they're likely not.   to get paid. So making sure no matter what the situation, what the climate is, we're always following up on these insurance claims is what Dana's talking about there. Like making sure we have a cadence and a system. And Dana, I think you and I probably work very similarly this way. And you guys, this is where you're going to see we're two consultants at the same consulting company that could do this slightly different. So there are a million ways to do this and to do it right. You just have to find the way that is going to work the best for you. So Dana?   Typically, what I'll do is I'll have an office manager or a billing representative pull those reports at the beginning of the month. And each week, they're going to work a different section of those reports. So the first week, they'll probably work 0 to 30. Then they're going to do 31 to 60, then 61 to 90, and then 90 plus, and then restart again. Now, I have them working those chunks and then also sending a chunk of the alphabet because.   Oftentimes I see practices, and this is how we did it in my practice years ago. It was like, okay, the first Thursday of the month is statements day. They've got to be out by the 15th, so I'm going to give myself a week to work through all the statements. And then that second week of the month is insurance follow -up, period. And it was like bombarded with so many questions about statements for a week, a full week of bombarded with billing questions. And then,   a ton of insurance claims still fell through the cracks because we weren't giving ourselves enough time and we were trying to bite off more than we could chew at one time. So Dana, how do you split it up with your practices? I say this all the time, you guys, Dana is my systems queen. We all have systems. We have systems for dental lighting we know are tried and true and that they work. But Dana, she teaches, preaches, and just coaches systems.   Tiffanie (18:39.81) Constantly with the type of clients that she is working with virtually that's mostly what she's doing So I lean on you Dana a lot to just make sure like what is it that you're seeing? And what are you seeing is working the best for your clients as you're creating these systems for AR with them?   Dana (18:56.52) Yeah, it's very similar to yours, Tiff, in that the first thing is first is the second that you get an EOB and you know that the patient has a balance, right? You're going to send something right then and there so that they get that initial contact. I also usually to kind of preemptively try to avoid some of those phone calls, template notes or add notes to your statements to let patients know why there is a balance, especially if it is an unexpected balance. Okay, so that should help reduce the bombardment of those   Tiffanie (19:25.89) Good.   Dana (19:26.474) calls. And then it is it's working insurance AR every single week. And then I do split it up so that we aren't what can happen is, okay, I'm working 30 this this day, or this week, week one, and I get so far into it. And then when I work current again, I call on those same ones and the ones that are lower down the totem pole, I'm not hitting for a month or two. So I do tend to break them up and alphabet is an easy way.   Tiffanie (19:45.826) Yeah.   Tiffanie (19:51.906) Yeah.   Dana (19:56.394) to break them up so that we ensure every claim or every patient gets that consistent follow -up.   Tiffanie (20:03.394) Yeah.   I love it. I love it. And it works, you guys. So then what happens, like that's wonderful systems for your AR. And we'll do, we'll always do AR system, like podcasts, we'll always do those for your teams as well. And we train the teams how to do it. But this, you guys, is to increase your profitability. So when you have these solid systems, I hope you see that kind of snowball effect. How if it's not a good system and it's not working, it snowballs and snowballs and snowballs into more debt, basically, right? Your practice has this outstanding money.   that's not been collected it's like debt from all of your patients and your insurance companies to you which decreases your profitability because profitability is about money in the bank not production on the schedule.   So I hope that you're seeing that and I hope that you're seeing the snowball effect of good information in means good information out, which ultimately means the correct collections is happening, satisfied patients, everyone's happier, team doesn't have to like chase money, doesn't have to have these hard conversations and your profitability goes up. Happy people, happy money, happy all of the things and really see that.   It's not always about the production. Now I did promise you, if you do have your high collections and you're like, you know what Tiff, like my AR is not horrible, but my profitability just isn't there. Now it's the time to look at your production and look at your schedule because you could be missing some huge opportunities on your schedule. Now we talk a ton about blocked scheduling. Dana's a freaking whiz at.   Tiffanie (21:32.482) implementing block scheduling. So many of our consultants do it with almost all of our practices, I would say, are on some form of block scheduling within their practice because it guarantees the profitability, right? Or it guarantees the production, I should say. And if your practice is on top of the collections, like you're saying they are, it guarantees the profitability. I've had practices, and Dana, I know you have too.   implement this block scheduling and find not only thousands of dollars on their schedule, but also hours of time. With the right efficiency, with the right mold and the right model, you can save time, create space for more patient treatment.   And with the right collections, it increases your profitability. I did have a dentist text me yesterday, and he said, should I start pushing my PPO, like low paying fee schedules out, because today's production was junk. And I said, well.   No matter what the fee schedule is, no matter what the insurance is or non -insurance, if we're scheduling to a productive schedule based on our blocks and not just scheduling to get a crown on the schedule, no matter what fee schedule it is, it should work.   So if we're not to production yet today, or tomorrow, and we're $3 ,000 off, but your crown you're trying to schedule is $1 ,200 only, then probably don't take that whole block.   Tiffanie (23:03.01) or a week from now. You're going to look for the spaces that it makes sense for the financial aspect of it to go in. We're treating all of our patients. Our patients are all getting the treatment that they need. And no one's being forced to wait longer than they should. They're getting put into the schedule where they should be put into the schedule. And he said, yeah, we usually do that. Today was an anomaly. I'm just in a sour mood. I'm like, OK, fantastic. Then I don't need to call the practice and figure out what happened to my blocks. They're working. But that's the same thing.   space you guys that if the collections is there the AR is fantastic in this practice the the one I'm talking about that texted me we worked I don't know 18 months hardcore   on overhead AR collections and profitability and figuring out his money. So for him to be texting me complaining that he had a rough production day, that was a blessing. I was like, fantastic, if that's the least of our worries right now, we can get back on track. But if that's where you're at, and Dana, I think you've probably seen this too, where doctors are like, we're clean. My AR is clean, we're collecting the money we're supposed to. Our systems are fantastic, but we're just not producing enough. And have you seen, I know,   scheduling is a really huge, huge aspect of it. But have you seen even in like diagnosis and watching those numbers, have you seen that you've been able to increase that for doctors to really help that profitability?   Dana (24:26.375) Yeah, and it's just it's really just a series of questions. Okay, what are the obstacles to getting to where you want? One, do you have enough patients, right? Because it can be new patients. What is our case acceptance of the patients that we have? And what's our diagnosis rate? Oftentimes, that's the one that's overlooked. It's the hardest probably to talk about or for doctors to maybe admit or take a look at and that's okay. But knowing that like, hey, if my goal is $5 ,000 a day, and I know our case acceptance rate is, you know, 55 to 65%,   Tiffanie (24:35.682) Yeah.   Tiffanie (24:44.61) Yeah. Yeah.   Dana (24:56.282) what does that look like for diagnosis and then what does that look like per patient and no that doesn't mean we're forcing diagnosis on patients but it gives us an idea and we know what we're striving for it helps us get there so absolutely all of those pieces lead into production so there's lots to take a look at when we say hey we aren't profitable that doesn't have to do with AR for sure.   Tiffanie (25:02.466) Yeah.   Tiffanie (25:16.834) Yeah.   Yeah, I love it. I love it. Thank you, Dana. So we've got a ton of tips in here for you guys. Today, I want you to go look at your collections. I want you to get used to looking at it and know what that percentage is. Have those conversations with your billing department so that they know that you're watching it too and that you want to know and be a part of it. So look at the systems and processes, you guys, by pulling your reports first. Dana said pull those reports. Look at what is collectible. What's your outstanding look like? What's your percentage? And then work backwards from there. What are the systems that got you here?   or trouble point, like troubleshoot, what is it that's pointing to the root cause of whatever it is that you're seeing, and then dive in from there. Okay, so pull your reports, do your due diligence, and break it apart, like Dana said earlier. I want you to be in communication with your billing department or your office manager, whomever is the one that's reviewing these accounts and taking care of it, and ensure that you guys have a good system and a cadence that spreads these things out so that whomever is responsible for it has the time to   actually get it done. Go do those things. Make sure that your team knows you do not want them to have those hard conversations with the patient. So let's do everything in our power to make sure that we don't have to have those. When they do come up, it makes it much easier because they're few and far between.   As always, Dana, first and foremost, thank you for being here with me today. Thank you for sharing your tips and your systems. You are honestly a fantastic consultant, and your clients are just so lucky to have you. So thank you for being here with me today, Dana. Anything that you want to add into their action items before I wrap up today.   Dana (26:55.592) Not anything I want to add. I just want to stress the point that you made and that is asking the questions and figuring out and coming from curiosity. Oftentimes doctors steer away from this because they know nothing about billing, right? Or they don't know anything about AR. So it's, they avoid conversations because I don't really know what they do. So I don't know what questions to ask and just don't let that hold you back. Just come from curiosity. Like you said, tell me what you do. Walk me through this, right? And how can we make those pieces better to get better results?   Tiffanie (27:05.89) Yeah.   Tiffanie (27:24.962) Yeah, I love it. That was a fantastic statement. Thank you, Dana. All right, guys, go do the things. Go figure it out. As always, we want to hear from you. If you've got a system that's working and you're like, guys, I think people need to know about this, let us know. Drop us a five -star review and let us know what you're doing. Or email us at Hello @ TheDentalATeam .com. We are here to serve the dental community in the best ways that we know how. And one of those ways is just pumping out massive amounts of information that you guys can implement if you need help training your teams on these kinds of things. things.   systems or if you need help learning them, this podcast was a good start, but you need a deeper dive and you need more knowledge, please reach out. The team that gets the emails, Hello @ TheDentalATeam .com. You can schedule a call on our website. We do know what we're doing. And those beautiful ladies and gents that will take those calls will point you in the right direction. We are here to help you. We just want you to have the best, most solid information and the best business possible. So go get your profitability up. And until next time, we'll see you later.

We get asked this question all the time. Well, it's time to remove the obstacles. Say goodbye to providing free dental services, due in part to the confusing and often misleading EOB guidelines and contractual language from dental insurance companies. It's also time to say goodbye to the dental consultants and other individuals who truly lack the expertise you need to navigate the business of dentistry.Support the Show.

In this enlightening episode, we sit down with Jennifer S. Then, my very own sister who is a Registered Nurse and Certified Professional Coder, to unravel the complexities of insurance language and billing. The purpose of this episode is to  listeners to navigate the system with confidence and clarity.Jennifer brings her wealth of knowledge and expertise to the table, providing invaluable insights into understanding insurance which promises to be an indispensable resource for anyone seeking to gain a deeper understanding of insurance billing.Key Points to Expect:

The US National Debt is at nearly $35T dollars. In the 10 seconds it's taken me to read this line... it's gone up $400K dollars. EOB yesterday... to now... $20B. Dave wanted to know... how to do you pay off the national debt? Is it like your credit card? You have a minimum you have to pay... and anything above and beyond goes to principal? Nope... it's not that easy... but it's also not that hard. Dave walks through what he learned from a conversation with BYU Professor of Economics,  Mark Showalter.

Dive into the world of vocal artistry with Monique B. Thomas in episode 19 of Monique on the Mic. This session, we're getting into a deep and revealing chat with Sandrine Crescini, an incredibly gifted artist. Discover why starting vocal coaching early can make all the difference, how to handle the pressures artists put on themselves, and the significance of having a team that's got your back. Sandrine opens up about understanding vocal registration and shares her personal experiences with the studio's unique challenges, offering priceless advice for emerging talent. This episode is a treasure trove of insights on the ups and downs of a music career, finding and owning your vocal identity, and the life-changing impact of music. Don't miss out—tune in to uncover the strategies that can unleash your artistic potential.Resources : Sandrine CresciniInstagram page : EOB : https://www.instagram.com/eob.music/Step up your vocal game with 'Elevate Your Singing: The Ultimate Guide to Unlocking Effective Practice.' This 26-page guide is distilled from over 25 years of vocal coaching wisdom, offering a laser-focused approach to revolutionizing your practice sessions. Discover how to customize your routines for peak efficiency, grasp the critical elements of effective practice, and learn the optimal timing and duration for your sessions. Plus, get insider tips on creating the ideal environment for your vocal workouts. Don't let your practice become a rut. Click the link to grab your guide now and start practicing with purpose!Get the Practice Guide

For Allegheny Health Network (AHN) and Highmark, the goal isn't just to reinvent health care, but to also provide a seamless and supportive patient experience right down to the details of patient billing. After all, patients can get overwhelmed by the disconnected bills and explanations of benefits piling up in their mailboxes. Not only can it compound stress patients already have about their health, but it can also lead to missed payments and costly customer service inquiries. In this episode of Health Care Reinvented, we explore how ANH and Highmark leveraged technology and a leading-edge health care IT company, Cedar, to deploy a solution that not only increases payments but reduces patient stress around the billing process. Listen in to Neil Kulkarni, Vice President of Customer and Clinician Experience Solutions at Highmark Health; Kimberly Wilkinson, Director, Central Business Office, AHN; and Shanti Krishnan, Vice President of Sales at Cedar, detail their journey to radically simplify their customer financial experience by implementing Cedar Pay. With the Payer Intelligence Layer, Highmark members who receive care at AHN have access to uniquely integrated billing information and insurance data. In less than one year with Cedar Pay, AHN added $17 million in patient payments, thanks in part to the integration with Highmark. But the clearest signal that payer-provider partnership was working came from patients themselves, who gave the integrated experience a 90% satisfaction rating. Listen and learn how embracing technology can create so much positive impact and how more projects are in store for the future. Transcription: You're listening to the healthcare reinvented podcast series. And I'm your host, Jonathan Kersting. With the Pittsburgh Technology Council. This podcast is all about the intersection of technology and healthcare. And we talk about it at every single level, whether it's in the operating room, whether it's about virtual visits, and everything in between. It's where technology is making a positive impact. And today, it's all about how technology is simplifying the payer provider system. Simplifying just makes it sound, dare I say too simple, because it is super complex. But you want a streamlined system, you want a sensible system, you want an easy system and understandable system, so the customers don't have to be stressed out when it comes to paying and understanding their bills. And joining us on the podcast today is Neil Kulkarni, who's the vice president of customer and coalition experience solutions at Highmark Health. We have Kimberly Wilkinson, who is Director of Central Business Office at Allegheny Health Network. And we have Shanti Krishnan, who is vice president of sales at Cedar. Thank you so much for hanging out with me today. I'm excited to explore this conversation. And I always love starting with introduction. So our listener knows who is who. So why don't we just start down the list and I went through Neil, let's start with you your background real fast, and what you do, how you do it off the ball, Jonathan, thank you so much for having us and really excited to be able to kind of talk about this with the group today. I've been at Highmark, for a little under five years. And really what my role is all about is how do we transform our delivery system? And how do we make things easier for our customers? How do we make it easier for our clinicians? How do we think about simplification experiences being more practice personalized, and then working with our provider partners to really deliver a seamless and blended experience for people and so we say customer because it doesn't really matter if it's a insurance member or a provider system patient than today, it's a person. And healthcare is really complicated. And so I'm excited and unfortunate that I get to spend kind of my day thinking about how we think make things easier from a system perspective. And you make it sound easy. And that's very complicated, because it's like, like I said, In the beginning, it's one of those deals where it's like, you're dealing with people here, we need simplicity from a very complex system. And that's when you get to work on every day. And that's just improving the quality of people's lives. I love that is so cool, Neil. So Kim, how about yourself and what you do at Allegheny Health Network? Hello, everybody. I'm Kim.  I'm the director of the Central Business Office for Allegheny Health Network. And my team is compromised of our Customer Care Center, which is our call center where patients are calling in inquiring about their bills, our Single Billing Office cash management, enrollment and credit balance. So as you can imagine, my areas are very involved with the patients and answering their questions as healthcare is very complicated. And we're, as Neil said, trying to make it uncomplicated for our patients and it easier for them to navigate and understand their bill. And not make it so stressful, because they're stressed enough. That's what I was gonna say. I mean, you're often talking to customers that are at an inflection point in their life where they're dealing with maybe a medical crisis or something and you're just stressed out like crazy. And all of a sudden, they you're getting some, some bills, or some get some questions, and you can't figure it out. So it's just increasing that stress. And you don't want your folks to be stressed out. So that's why I love what you're doing, because let's bring the stress down and help people heal. Right. Right, and make it easier for them make it easy. That's what I'm talking about. And of course, we couldn't have this conversation without our friends from cedars. So Sean cheap. Tell us about yourself and really like what cedar is all about, because I love the fact that like Highmark comes in and uses these tech partners like this to make these things happen to make that simplicity happen based on a technology platform. I'm Shanti Krishna and vice president of sales at Cedar I've been with the company for almost four years now. So we've evolved quite a bit over that time. But really thrilled to be here today. And of course, just so excited to have such wonderful partners in Miele Kim and the rest of the Highmark and AHN teams. What cedar does is that we have a platform that really aims to make it easier and more intuitive for patients to navigate and ultimately fulfill their financial and administrative obligations in health care. We know this is a real pain point for patients and as Kim just alluded to, it's often coming at a moment that is already stressful because of some sort of healthcare incident. And so our view is if we can take the stress out of what is already a pretty stressful situation, you know, we're doing our job. And so, we aim to do this in two kind of key related ways. One is just bringing the best of other consumer industries to this known pain point in the patient healthcare experience, making it more personalized, more intuitive, really leaning on data and design science to help inform the experience And the second is really bringing disparate parties such as payer and provider together on one platform because we know that patients don't see these things as being entirely separate. They're actually very related, yet our system treats them as totally separate. So, again, an area where agent and Highmark have just been such fantastic partners and really helps us to realize this vision. Yeah, I was looking at your website. And you have, I mean, you have the biggest clients out there. And of course, Allegheny Health Network. Highmark, they're right there with you guys. So you're, you're helping lots of lots of big organizations solve these very tough problems. So that's, that's cool stuff. Certainly a privilege. Most definitely. So let's get the conversation rolling. I guess maybe starting off with talking with with Neil Kim about maybe some of the problems that were that Highmark was looking at knowing that you needed to find a solution around this. Can you guys set the stage for us? Yeah. So happy to kind of chat through that. So I think the last couple of years, as we've been looking at how do we drive a better experience for our customers, I really started to break that down into a bunch of buckets of things that we want to focus on. But one of the major ones is around kind of the end and healthcare financial experience to say, hey, people struggled to understand financial costs, they struggled, they don't get treatment at times, because they really don't understand that as well. So that relates is often delayed care, when they actually get then care, then there's really complicated payment processes, we don't do a good job of connecting people to financial services and advocacy programs that they might have access to. So that entire ecosystem is really, really complicated. Everything from kind of understanding what costs are known, giving, comparing cost options, making it easy for people to kind of pay their bills, helping them understand the benefits that they have, as well. And so once we started kind of looking at the space, we said, hey, this is an area that we really need to kind of dig in and and tackle, and we're not doing a good enough job today. And so about three years ago, we really started kind of looking into, Hey, what are the set of partners because this is it's complicated, like it's talked about, it isn't something that we're going to solve completely on our own. And we know that there are other organizations and kind of other companies that are really partnering to drive this experience. And so we started looking at who are the center partners that are doing that. And so through that process, we identified initially, a company called boot up as a place that we wanted to start and that transition into cedar. And so I think one of the interesting parts, which I think we'll talk a little bit further about, and kind of our discussion is, one the place to start might not be completely the place that yet. And so if this was a one where hey, everyone solve it in healthcare, it's easy, go do it, just go implement a solution, and we're good that it would be easy to go saw. And so we started experimenting and working with the senior team on Hey, initial concept, here's what we think, how would you scale it? How would you deploy that? And so we iterated on that with them. And with hm, team over time on how do you start making these things really easy? How do you bring the best of kind of other experiences that as a person, you've gotten used to whether it's financial services, whether it is retail, other things in your life that you're doing, and we really worked collaboratively to go through that with them. But that was been a three year journey to say where we started and the product that the solution that we started with right now is very different than what we actually have live. But I think that's a good part of this partnership to say, hey, continue to iterate, change, really meet the customers understand what they need, and deliver a set of capabilities or experience to a customer that really makes it easy for them to understand on the provider side, what they need to pay on a payer side, does that match what their payer has paid their EOB and really bring all that together in a really seamless way. So that's, that's really kind of what brought us to Cedar in the partnership between cedar age and a hybrid on ours. That's super interesting. And you bring up the point of fact that like, it's not like this is one of these places where you go, you buy the software, you plug it in, and though your problem solved, but know that this has been an iterative process, you don't end up where you think you're gonna end up. Because as you're discovering things along the way, it changes and of course, time changes, the industry changes, and that you got to, I guess, continually be addressing this as an issue as it goes along. Because you never fully get to like, let that's the one solution. We're done. So, Kim, I'm curious. From your side, obviously, you're much on the front lines, when you're hearing from the customers and so forth. What were some of the key things that they were kind of bringing up realizing like we got to keep improving? Like, how can we make sure that our customers are number one, and that we can we can do right by them all times. The one thing that we were lacking was the ability to provide an electronic communication, ie the text messages, the emails, or QR codes, things like that. So that partnering with theater has given us the ability to do that and evolve. And as you said, healthcare is ever changing. So as soon as we're getting one thing implemented, there's another section that you need to work on. And adding that payer intelligence for our Highmark members, has been a game changer for us, letting them know What their HSA and FSA balances are, and having that EOB comparison so that they can see. And again, helping them understand, as Neil was saying, with the payer and the provider, and linking that to that they can see that they are matching, you know, and helping eliminate that confusion. And just giving them access to some self serve options that they did not have before that we're now able to do has been a game changer for us as well. It's very empowering for the customer as well. I mean, I love that. But to get it makes, it seems like it's so easy, but you need a partner like cedar here. So I'm curious to hear from Shanti. And he obviously you come together with a client like this, and you know, this is a big project, right? And then it's going to evolve it. And it's what was it like kind of kicking this project off and kind of walking through this journey, as you're able to, you know, go through each step and then see ours as needs change, and then use those cedar products to help solve this problem. Yeah, I mean, I think to Neil's point, when we started out this started on this journey over four years ago, I think it really came from a place of collaboration. And, you know, at the time, Gouda really wanted to solve this problem of payer and provider collaboration, payer and provider coordination for the benefit of patients, but obviously not wanting to do that in a vacuum wanting to do it with a partner that could really inform us of the key pain points, and really what was most feasible out of the gates. And so that's kind of how this journey started. And so where we are today is that the cedar platform is live on the post visit billing side at Allegheny Health Network. And we've incorporated additional functionality known as the payer intelligence layer, which is both Neil and Kim alluded to, enables patients to see elements of their benefits information alongside their bills, so they can see it, their EOB and Bill have been reconciled, they can see their deductible status, and they actually have the ability to pay their bills out of their HSA. So this is available for Highmark members presenting at h n, we're continuing on this journey. This is really just the start. I was gonna say found, yeah, we found that even just this this what seems like a very small kind of tweak and an otherwise typical billing experience has led to really, really, really positive impacts for both a financial perspective for both payer and provider as well as the patient and member experience perspective. So I would say throughout the entire journey, the entire the, the approach has been extremely collaborative. And we've really leaned on both these teams to kind of help direct us and where we can have the most impact. Without a doubt, as I mentioned before, I was sneaking around on the cedar website, and I did come across that case study based on what we're talking about today. And the results have been pretty, pretty, pretty substantial. So far from these initial, you know, first steps of the rollout. Can you talk a little bit about some of the the results for lack of a better term so far? Sure. So we've definitely increased our pace patient satisfaction, we put several initiatives in place to contribute to that we have flexible payment plans, allowing for Apple Pay as a source of payment or the QR code. Again, as we mentioned, the payer intelligence for Highmark members, the ability to do your cell service options, we've updated our statement format, enhanced our payment plans to allow patients to consolidate their many visits into one payment plan so that they're not making multiple payments. And cedar has also assisted us with our customer service area. And this has helped us tremendously with reducing our abandonment rates. So when patients are calling in, you know, we are under the industry, industry standards for our abandonment rate now, which is that the standard is 3%. And we are well under that at an average of 1.3%. Our POST call surveys. And the results were first call resolution are up a percentage of 82%. And again, our satisfaction scores tend to increase as well. So I feel like we're servicing the patients in a better fashion, answering their questions. And again, giving them that ability to self serve as they feel need. Yeah, I think some of the other things, at least kind of but also more broadly, I think we've seen a big impact on collections. So I think it's over 17 million in income, incremental patient payments. That's not even accounting for it. We have a huge influx of people that are out on payment plans that didn't have payment plan options before. And so I think even from a customer experience perspective, hey, cost of healthcare is high and it has an impact on affordability that has an impact on the rest of your life to say Hey, can you pay your mortgage, can you pay your phone bill, you need to make a trade off decision on on some of that type of stuff. So really that payment plan functionality and things that we've done have been really impactful. I think the two other really big ones for us that we've seen is really a 33% lift in HSA FSA. So health spending accounts, utilization. And so to me, that's a big thing to say people in identical plans, they have these things, but I know what happens for me, I forget my car, I forget that you have that available. And then actually, right by reading my mind, Neal, you're reading my mind. If I remember, I was like, where's my HSA card and said, I don't keep it in my wallet with me at all times. And so one nudging and reminding people that they have these funds available to use for a payment has been really, really big. And so we've seen a big effect of that. Also on the Highmark side, we look at it in terms of what is our net promoter score or customer experience holistically in a segment and industry in a market right now. And so we've seen really good improvements overall in western Pennsylvania, with our net promoter score with the types of solutions that we're implementing in the space. So I think it's been a win win all round to say, a big impact for HN, but also a really big benefit for Highmark, in terms of making it easy for our customers to access care and pay for Kevin, you get to have so much fun doing what you're doing, because you're actually seeing a positive impact. It's only got us invigorate you more and more on both sides on the theater side on the high marks actually, like basically, we came together we're going through this journey, we're actually seeing the results we wanted. And we realized there's still more opportunity to do more. So you must be pretty stoked. We are really excited, we have a big roadmap and backlog of things that we want to tackle. So I think some of the things that we're we're really starting to lean into. So Shanti alluded to something that we call the payer intelligence layer. And so that is the component that is a Highmark insurance oriented to say, how do you provide a differentiated and unique experience for a high mark customer that might be going to a system like Allegheny Health. And so if we want to make it so much better, so much more streamlined and easy that you don't need to think about certain things, if you have a that type of a partnership? So a couple of things that we're working on, one is continuing to expand and scale that payer intelligence layer to other providers systems in other parts of the market to say, how do we work with not just ah, and in western Pennsylvania? How do I work with other systems and other geographies that Highmark operates in to really offer the same types of capabilities that we're really offering in this place. But that is one of the things that we're kind of working with the Cedar Key more holistically to expand that, I think we also have, I'll say, new capabilities and new use cases and new experiences that we want to launch as part of that payer intelligence layer that can go directly to a patient specifically with age as well. So a good example of that would be, hey, there's a treasure trove of information and things that we know, on an insurance side about a person, and we actually want to allow them to engage in those types of things. And so cedar and HN, they have eyeballs they have, they have engagement. And that's a moment that matters for a person when they're paying a bill. And so can we remind them to say, hey, you might have a need for colorectal screening, you might have a need for getting your flu shot. And there are certain things that we think are really valuable to help people manage their healthcare holistically, that we really want to use this platform to kind of start offering to our customers as well. So that's a second thing that we're kind of looking at in terms of a payer intelligent expansion of those capabilities. And I think the third one is, when you go to a system like Allegheny Health, there's still a lot of I'll say, secondary or tertiary providers that yet to say, hey, might be called a Gen, you might still get a separate bill right now. And in your mind, as a customer, you don't necessarily see that as up that was a 10 as a system, why am I getting a separate bill from this doc for a thing? You don't always know that? Are they employed? Are they not employed? And as a customer, I would not expect you to know that or figure that type of stuff out. And so how do we start working on things like consolidation of those types of bills to say, hey, it's all together, whether it is a different different entity that operates our end, if it's a different entity operates our neighbor and hospitals, but all of that if that sits under that age, and banner and brand, how do we start really making that experience really seamless as well. So just a couple of examples of that the types of things that we're looking at our our roadmap for the next year to be able to continue expanding on this capability. That's amazing. When I hear that you're able to take this and keep building on it and scaling it out for more impact me so exciting. Oh, my goodness. So yeah, like I'm confirming that you could have a lot of fun at work doing this. As far as that goes. How do you like prioritize and because I get it seems like the world just keeps opening up. How do you prioritize make sure that you can actually follow through on these things to make sure they happen because I'm sure it's got to be tough. And so it kind of goes with, hey, at the top kind of whether it's President leaders of the organizations, is there a strategic alignment in the direction that we're moving? And so we spent a good amount of time to make sure our leaders are kind of aligned at that level and are really working through that. I think then the next step goes into exactly what what Kim talked about, hey, we spent a lot of time right before the holidays on Hey, joint brainstorming and collaborative brainstorming on hey, let's throw 80 ideas over them. And let's see, what are all the things? Do they make sense for a provider system like Allegheny Health? Do they make sense for Highmark, but they make sense for Cedar? What's the Venn diagram of those types of opportunities? Let's start kind of figuring out what's the value? What's the impact on experience? What's the impact on financials? What's the impact on operations? And let's kind of collectively prioritize what makes the most sense across that organization? And then let's also short than that on a, what does the next 12 to 18 months look like? Well, we try to keep a forward looking roadmap across our organizations of the things that we want to go do. And then part of that turns into what am I learning from something I might be doing in a different space, my bringing that board to this discussion, other things that Allegheny Health Network is seeing in a completely different era that they think kind of makes sense on our roadmap as well. Then for Cedar? What are they seeing with other maybe payers or providers that they're working with as well? And how does that impact the things that we think that we're really what the I'll say, click into market and really deliver from a better experience for our customers. I like it, I tell you what, we've been doing this podcast series for almost five years now. And we've covered so many different topics like technologies in the operating room to you know, virtual health and everything, and I'm always my mind is mesmerized. Now, I think this has been one of our most important conversations, because we're talking about technology at a level. That's that's all around just how like a customer is able to interface and understand what's going on, you know, as as the as they go through the pay experience. And to me, that's just so important, and the amount of horsepower it takes to do that, and the complications behind it. Once again, it just goes to show you how technology and healthcare just they go hand in hand and they intersect in such a cool way. at every single level. I have been blown away, but with today's conversation, because these are things I just didn't know. And now I know I'm kind of excited. So if you have any parting words, anything we haven't covered, the people just need to know about this collaboration. And really, I think the excitement that as this moves forward into 2024 and beyond. This has been a great conversation. And again, I'll just kind of plus one to what Neil and Kim said, I think, for partnerships like this to work, there has to be some shared accountability, but there also really has to be alignment of mission and values. And, you know, I think at least from our side, we've definitely felt that and it's really enabled us to do what we've done so far. And we're excited about what's coming next. I love it. I'm so glad you guys are working together. I had so much fun having this conversation and learning what it takes to make something that seems as simple as a bill and it being understandable to have that happen in a seamless way. I think it's just awesome. I can't thank you guys enough for hanging out with me here on healthcare, reinvented, fantastic stuff, everybody. Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Happy January 31st to those who celebrate! I am not an accountant, I am not a lawyer, I am not an IRS agent, merely an EA in a small company who is responsible for tax form distribution. Should this task fall to you, make it a priority to print and postmark W2s and 1099s before EOB on Wednesday, January 31st.  I promise I'll post next year's episode a bit earlier than the actual deadline.  ;)

Join Practice Booster's Dr. Greg Grobmyer as he talks with Dr. Dominique Fufidio about the use of Artificial Intelligence in dental insurance claims adjudication, document scanning, image interpretation, and more! Dr. Dominique Fufidio, DDS, FAGD, is the founder and main coach at Fufidio Consulting Group (FCG). Dr. Fufidio has pioneered a unique coaching experience focused on teaching an understanding of the dental insurance claims review process and the rationale behind the decisions on the EOB. Dr. Fufidio has established herself as a successful, fee-for-service, former private practice owner, dental artificial intelligence co-creator, and top-performing dental claim reviewer and Utilization Review Director for the largest Utilization Review Agent in the United States. Now, she is on a mission to bring clinical alignment to dental providers and the dental insurance payor market, helping dental offices get paid for what they do! Each insurance carrier is different and each reviews claims differently. Each payor selects claims to review differently and has clinical criteria that are different from one another, albeit largely similar. The concern across the industry is that the clinical documentation submitted needs to substantiate a “proof of loss” and true “medical necessity” for the treatment rendered. It is crucial to understand that the decision from the insurance payor is a benefit determination, not a treatment recommendation. The treatment recommendation is clinically yours, and yours alone. You must make the best recommendations for your patients and submit your diagnostic evidence in support. Practice Booster is the leading resource for information on how to best utilize the CDT code set; featuring the Code Advisor database, the Insurance Solutions Newsletter, administration resources, coding support call center, and more. Visit us online at http://www.practicebooster.com. The CDT codes are the property of the American Dental Association. Interpretations of the CDT codes in this podcast represent the opinions of our experts. Always refer to the latest CDT codes for use in your practice and contact the ADA directly for the ADA's interpretation of the CDT codes. You are responsible for your own use of the CDT codes. For more information, refer to ADA.org.

This episode is sponsored by New Leaf Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy - oxygen therapy that's non-invasive treatment that strengthens your body from the inside out. Our next guest, Sandy Kibling discusses the importance of understanding medical bills and the prevalence of errors in billing. Sandy shares her experiences working in a large health insurance company and witnessing the lack of accountability and attention to claims issues. They also explain the difference between a bill and an explanation of benefits (EOB) and provide tips on what to look for when reviewing medical bills. About Sandy:  Sandy is a health care professional having served in numerous roles including physician consulting and working for a large healthcare insurance company. She has worked on the frontline addressing physician and subscriber issues and has heard first-hand the frustration and concern about affordability and navigating a complicated healthcare system. Sandy's passion is to create a trusted source with Get Savvy…Demystifying Healthcare – a podcast that breaks down the complexity of healthcare and empowers consumers to navigate the healthcare system. This is where to find her online: Website: www.savvyhealthcareconsumer.com FB: https://www.facebook.com/Savvyhealthcareconsumer Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/savvyhealthcareconsumer/ TW: https://twitter.com/SavvyHconsumer TilTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thesavvyhealthcarelady?_t=8ZIQ8ILjL7T&_r=1 Looking for something specific? Here you go! 00:01:30 Understanding medical bills is essential 00:09:05 Verify insurance coverage and understand 00:11:13 Understanding insurance can be confusing 00:17:29 Advocate for itemized medical bills 00:20:25 Healthcare costs vary widely 00:25:42 Take advantage of preventative care 00:30:36 Check drug websites for discounts 00:37:06 Insurance companies determine physician reimbursements 00:42:51 Knowledge is power in healthcare 00:50:30 Complexity of healthcare billing 00:56:53 Knowledge is essential for advocacy 00:57:24 Complexity of healthcare insurance decisions 01:02:32 Negotiate medical bills for savings 01:06:39 Amazon may launch Amazon Rx. Our Advice! Everything in this podcast is for educational purposes only. It does not constitute the practice of medicine and we are not providing medical advice. No Physician-patient relationship is formed and anything discussed in this podcast does not represent the views of our employers.  The Fine Print! All opinions expressed by the hosts or  guests in this episode are solely their opinion and are not to be used as specific medical advice.  The hosts,  May and Tim Hindmarsh MD, BS Free MD LLC, or any affiliates thereof are not under any obligation to update or correct any information provided in this episode. The guest's statements and opinions are subject to change without notice. Thanks for joining us! You are the reason we are here.  If you have questions, reach out to us at doc@bsfreemd.com or find Tim and I on Facebook and IG. Please check out our every growing website as well at  bsfreemd.com (no www)  GET SOCIAL WITH US! https://www.withkoji.com/@bsfreemd

"God & Wrong Thinking" Watch Here: https://youtube.com/@GodSexandLove?sub_confirmation=1 Listen Here: https://anchor.fm/godsexandlove Supporting Verses: Lamentations 3:25, Job 34: 14-15, Colossians 1:16 Go Deeper: gotquestions.org "What are the attributes of God?","Is God a cosmic killjoy?" "Is God a person?", "What was Elihu's message to Eob?" Bible Verse of the Day: Proverbs 13:20 GodSexandLove.com Support Us! https://anchor.fm/godsexandlove/support --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/godsexandlove/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/godsexandlove/support

Healthcare transparency is essential for patients to make informed decisions, yet price disparities in the industry remain a major issue. In this podcast episode, we explore how financial incentives and contracts between hospitals and insurance companies can misalign the incentives of brokers, employers, doctors, and patients. We discuss the importance of understanding the influence of these incentives and the need for accountability in developing an equitable healthcare system. Through transparent communication and a focus on an equitable system, we can help ensure that patients receive the care they need and deserve.Episode Outline:(00:00:02) Healthcare Transparency(00:04:42) Price Disparity in Healthcare(00:09:37) Health Insurance Incentives(00:14:21) Doctor Compensation Metrics(00:19:05) Incentive MisalignmentQuotes:(00:03:21) The thing that boggles my mind about healthcare is that in most of healthcare, neither the consumer, which in healthcare is the patient, nor the provider of the goods or services, which in most cases is the doctor, neither one of those parties know what the price is going to be until long after the services are already rendered.(00:09:10) You might only be paying a copay or you might only be paying your $200 and $5500 out of pocket that's falling off of your coinsurance. And they have no idea until they get the EOB what the build charges were and what the allowed charge was. So I think they're so disconnected from how much health care actually costs.(00:12:23) But I'm going to put it really bluntly and I think I got this from Dave Chase, this little metaphor here. But imagine for a minute if fire departments only got paid when there was a fire, they would want as many fires to occur as possible. And the bigger the fire, the more money they get.(00:17:22) And not only that, I think to deny that you're influenced by the financial incentives is to deny you're human. I mean, we've operated on financial incentives long before currency even existed.(00:21:08) I challenge you, if you are not already, if you're a consultant, even if you're a patient, if you're an employer, figure out what you can do. What one thing can you do differently to turn that incentive around?Social Post:Are you tired of feeling like you have a healthcare hangover? We've all been there. That's why we created the Healthcare Hangover podcast. We dive into the headaches we've been encountering in the healthcare system that are leaving us feeling a little hungover. In our latest episode, we talk about the importance of healthcare transparency. We heard a story about a patient who was charged $475 for an X-ray at a hospital, when they could have gotten the same X-ray at a chiropractor's office for less than $75. We also spoke with a hernia surgeon who was able to do the same procedure for $7,200 instead of the $20,000 quoted by a local general hospital. Tune in to the Healthcare Hangover podcast to learn more about the importance of healthcare transparency and how it can save you money.Are you curious about how doctors are paid? Tune in to the latest episode of The Healthcare Hangover podcast to find out! From patient volume to RVUs, David Contorno and Emma Fox break down the complex system of doctor pay and how it influences health care decisions. Plus, they discuss how traditional brokers are put in an unfair position and how financial incentives can be used to deliver better outcomes. Don't miss out on this eye-opening episode! #TheHealthcareHangover #DoctorPay #HealthcareAre you tired of the broken healthcare system? Tune in to the latest episode of The Healthcare Hangover to learn how the system was designed to benefit certain people and how you can help turn the incentives around! From the perverse incentives of commission-based compensation to the Cigna CEO's 20 million dollar salary, David Contorno and Emma Fox will take you through the details of the current system and how you can help build an alternative. Don't miss out! #TheHealthcareHangover #BrokenHealthcareSystem #IncentivesBlog Post:The healthcare system is broken, and it's time to start fixing it. In this episode of Healthcare Hangover, hosts David Contorno and Emma Fox explore the lack of price transparency in healthcare, and how providers are taking advantage of patients by charging them more than necessary. Insurance companies make money by renewing plans every year, regardless of how much they pay out, and people often think that more expensive care results in better outcomes, which is not true. Unfortunately, people often cannot afford their out-of-pocket costs, leading to debt or even lawsuits. Insurance companies do not provide any positive benefits to doctors, employers, or patients, and people have been led to believe that they need health insurance to get quality health care, which is false. The hosts also discuss how fire departments operate on a fixed budget, while health care systems make more money the sicker people are. Health insurance companies have a massive workforce that they pay very little to, and they have bonus programs for brokers that are available on their websites. Hospitals are not changing their practices due to lack of consumer demand, and MRF (Machine Readable File) is not human readable, requiring a middleman to translate the data. Additionally, hospitals often put programming on their website to prevent spiders from finding the data. David Contorno and Emma Fox also discuss how cash prices are almost always the lowest prices on hospital spreadsheets, and the disparity between prices for the same procedure from different carriers is outrageous. Commercial carriers pay the highest reimbursement rate to hospitals, and patients are disconnected from the cost of healthcare due to copays and coinsurance. To illustrate this, David Contorno visited a chiropractor for an X-ray of his shoulder and was asked if he was okay with the price before the X-ray was taken. The X-ray cost $75 at the chiropractor's office, but the same X-ray would have cost $475 at Atrium, the hospital system next door. Michael Reinhorn, a hernia surgeon in the Boston area, charges $7,200 for hernia surgery, while a local general hospital charges $20,000. The hosts also compare the healthcare system to the veterinary system, noting that veterinarians often give customers options and prices up front before giving any treatment. Doctors, on the other hand, are typically paid based on two metrics: patient volume and RVU (Revenue Value Unit). Patient volume is the number of patients seen in a day, with some doctors having minimum patient volume requirements of up to 30 patients per day. RVU is a measurement of how much revenue a doctor is helping generate for the health system, often in areas outside of their office. Doctors are incentivized to prescribe opioids to deal with pain, and to send patients to the most expensive care, regardless of whether it is the appropriate treatment. The most likely outcome of back surgery in the US is a second back surgery. Additionally, traditional brokers are paid more when they retain their book of business and cross-sell additional products that benefit the carrier they represent. Healthcare and health insurance employees often think they are doing good, even though the results they keep delivering are bad. The company bills their clients and has a performance bonus for achieving the client's goals of paying less for healthcare. Ultimately, the hosts conclude that people should focus on changing one thing at a time to build an alternative system that is more affordable. The Cigna CEO made 20 million dollars last year, and the sicker people are, the more money they make. It's time to start demanding more transparency and accountability from health insurance companies, and for patients to take control of their own healthcare. We have the power to create a system of trust between providers and patients, and to make healthcare more affordable and accessible.Episode Links:Connect with Emma FoxWebsiteEmma's WebsiteConnect with David ContornoLinkedInWebsiteOther MaterialsThese materials help you promote your podcast. Quotes can be used for audio & video grams or quote cards. Blog and social posts will help your website and social media presence.

The Big Mates discuss Interstellar, U2, hats, and Earth by EOB.Adam, Steve, and Lucas continue their deep dive into the career and discography of Radiohead by discussing the debut solo album from guitarist Ed O'Brien. They look at how it was conceived, written, and recorded and select a few highlights from the album to talk about.They make predictions on what Ed will do next, explore the features of his Fender Signature guitar line, and have a look at a remix he did for Paul McCartney.What does and Ed solo album sound like? Is it cosmic? How do you do that on bass? Find out on this episode of What Is Music?Our next episode is out on Monday June 12th and we welcome Dr. Brad Osborn, author of Everything In Its Right Place: Analyzing Radiohead.Join the conversation on:Twitter: https://twitter.com/whatismusicpodInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/whatismusicpodE-mail: whatismusicpod@gmail.comGet access to more shows, exclusive bonus content, ad-free episodes of this show, and more music discussion by subscribing to our Patreon!Head to patreon.com/whatismusicpod and receive up to two new episodes of our various shows every week (including shows about Manic Street Preachers and monthly themed playlists!), ad-free archives of What Is Music?, and access to our Patron-only Discord server for even more music (and non-music) discussion!Support our show when starting your own podcast!By signing up to Buzzsprout with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=780379Check out our merch!https://whatismusicpod.redbubble.comDonate to our podcast!https://ko-fi.com/whatismusichttp://whatismusic.buzzsprout.com/Support the show

Welcome to "Powering Your Retirement Radio"! Today, I want to address one of the most frequently asked questions about the documents you should keep hard copies of and for how long. It doesn't matter if it's your tax return or investment statements; fortunately, digital copies are acceptable for many of these documents now. But you may have a concern about what happens if the drive fails. Many people still have banker's boxes or a filing cabinet hiding somewhere. And if you are like many people, it is overdue to be cleaned out. I will go over Tax, Healthcare, Legal, Asset and Debt, and Other Documents to keep track of. Let's start with Tax Documents, as outside of CA, tax season is over, and in CA, it is at least starting to slow down. A. Tax returns and supporting documents - 7 years. B. W-2 and 1099 forms - 7 years. C. Deduction receipts and statements - 7 years. D. Business expense receipts and statements - 7 years. E. Investment statements - until you sell the investments + 7 years. F. Property records - until you sell the property + 7 years. G. Retirement plan statements - until you close the account + 7 years. You should keep these documents for at least seven years in case of an audit. The same goes for your W-2 and 1099 forms. Deduction receipts and statements should also be kept for seven years, as should business expense receipts and statements. You might ask why? The IRS can audit your return up to three years after it is filed unless they are claiming fraud, and then it is seven years. Investment statements and property records should be kept until you sell the investments or property, plus seven years. Finally, retirement plan statements should be kept until you close the account, plus seven years. Now for Healthcare documents, things like: A. Medical records - indefinitely B. Insurance policies - indefinitely C. Explanation of benefits (EOB) - 1 year D. Prescription receipts - 1 year E. Health savings account (HSA) statements - 7 years Medical records should be kept indefinitely, as should insurance policies. Explanation of benefits (EOB) should be kept for at least one year, and prescription receipts for at least one year. Health savings account (HSA) statements should be kept for seven years. I got an EOB this week from May of last year. Since I switched carriers this year, it was good to be able to pull out the old policy and call and find out what the charge was for. Also, on HSA, since you can carry forward expenses into the future, it really is seven years after you have claimed the expense since that is when you would claim the deduction. How about those Legal-related documents: A. Estate planning documents - indefinitely B. Marriage and divorce documents - indefinitely C. Adoption and custody papers - indefinitely D. Wills and trusts - indefinitely E. Power of attorney - indefinitely F. Real estate deeds - indefinitely G. Vehicle titles - until you sell the vehicle. H. Lawsuits and settlement agreements - indefinitely This section is simple, keep everything. You need the current copies but also the old copies to document the changes and when they happen. It doesn't happen all that often, but when a distant relative shows up claiming they were promised or are entitled to something, having clear documentation of when a change occurred can save a lot of hassle and potentially money. Now for Asset and debt-related documents, basically for financial information: A. Loan agreements and promissory notes - until the debt is paid off + 7 years. B. Home purchase and improvement documents - until you sell the home + 7 years. C. Vehicle purchase and maintenance documents - until you sell the vehicle + 7 years. D. Investment and brokerage account statements - until you sell the investments + 7 years. E. Real estate purchase and sale documents - until you sell the property + 7 years. Loan agreements and promissory notes should be kept until the debt is paid off, plus seven years. Home purchase and improvement documents should be kept until you sell the home, plus seven years. This is important when you make improvements that will increase your cost basis. Vehicle purchase and maintenance documents should be kept until you sell the vehicle, plus seven years. Investment and brokerage account statements should be kept until you sell the investments, plus seven years. On this one, I tell people to keep their monthly statements for the current year and then keep the comprehensive year-end on file, and they can get rid of the monthly statements. Finally, real estate purchase and sale documents should be kept until you sell the property, plus seven years. Finally, all your other important documents: A. Birth certificates, marriage licenses, and other vital records - indefinitely B. Social Security cards - indefinitely C. Passports - until you renew. D. Education transcripts and diplomas - indefinitely E. Employment contracts and personnel files - indefinitely You should keep hard copies of these documents. Birth certificates, marriage licenses, and other vital records should be kept indefinitely, as should Social Security cards. On Social Security Cards, you can get a new one issued, but you can't get more than three in a calendar year and ten in your lifetime. Passports should be kept until you renew them. Education transcripts and diplomas should be kept indefinitely. Employment contracts and personnel files should also be kept indefinitely. That is a bunch of documents. It's important to note that the above recommendations are general guidelines and may vary depending on individual circumstances or jurisdictional requirements. Always consult with a professional advisor if you have any questions or concerns about document retention. I have attached a link here so you can download a checklist or fill out an online version. Until next time stay safe! You can visit the podcast website here: https://poweringyourretirement.com/2023/05/09/documents

In this episode of The Phia Group's Empowering Plans podcast, attorneys Katie Malkin and Jon Jablon take a dive into three aspects of TPA operations designed to try to make the TPA's job more manageable: simplifying EOB denial codes, sending family EOBs, and recouping overpayments by offsetting. These are three common strategies used by TPAs, but applicable law places certain limits on all of them that are not always so intuitive. Tune in as Jon and Katie discuss some best (and worst) practices, and examine critical issues facing TPAs and health plans in today's self-funded industry.

In this throwback episode of The Power Producers Podcast, David Carothers interviews Clayton Wood, Managing Partner at C.B. Wood Financial. Clayton discusses how claims are paid in the industry and how C.B. Wood Financial is helping brokers deliver savings.   Episode Highlights: Clayton explains that some clients and employees who go to the doctor to get a prescription or have surgery or imaging don't know how much their claim will cost until they get the EOB. (2:31) Clayton discusses the several factors of how claims are priced. (3:09) Clayton highly recommends Marshall Allen's book: Never Pay the First Bill because it provides a clear idea of how claims are paid in the industry. (8:27) Clayton explains C.B. Wood Financial's big win-win solution for its clients, which has been a huge success. (9:40) David mentions that finding individuals who are specialists in things you don't know about, in areas of coverage that you don't represent every day, will lead to significant changes in your book of business. (13:50) David explains that he was never interested in bringing benefits into the agency because it moves too quickly (14:43) Tweetable Quotes: “Glad we could help out some of these P&C brokers, learn how to help their plans, their client's plans. And ultimately, if we can show them that there's another strategy out there, they're the hero, you know, that's what we're trying to do make your the P&C broker the hero and deliver a ton of savings” - Clayton Wood “Find the people that are the expert in the little things that you don't know about in the areas of coverage that you don't represent every single day. And that ultimately is what's going to drive significant change in your book of business.” - David Carothers Resources Mentioned: Clayton Wood LinkedIn C.B. Wood Financial Book: Never Pay the First Bill David Carothers Kyle Houck Florida Risk Partners The Extra 2 Minutes

In this throwback episode of The Power Producers Podcast, David Carothers interviews Clayton Wood, Managing Partner at C.B. Wood Financial. Clayton discusses how claims are paid in the industry and how C.B. Wood Financial is helping brokers deliver savings.   Episode Highlights: Clayton explains that some clients and employees who go to the doctor to get a prescription or have surgery or imaging don't know how much their claim will cost until they get the EOB. (2:31) Clayton discusses the several factors of how claims are priced. (3:09) Clayton highly recommends Marshall Allen's book: Never Pay the First Bill because it provides a clear idea of how claims are paid in the industry. (8:27) Clayton explains C.B. Wood Financial's big win-win solution for its clients, which has been a huge success. (9:40) David mentions that finding individuals who are specialists in things you don't know about, in areas of coverage that you don't represent every day, will lead to significant changes in your book of business. (13:50) David explains that he was never interested in bringing benefits into the agency because it moves too quickly (14:43) Tweetable Quotes: “Glad we could help out some of these P&C brokers, learn how to help their plans, their client's plans. And ultimately, if we can show them that there's another strategy out there, they're the hero, you know, that's what we're trying to do make your the P&C broker the hero and deliver a ton of savings” - Clayton Wood “Find the people that are the expert in the little things that you don't know about in the areas of coverage that you don't represent every single day. And that ultimately is what's going to drive significant change in your book of business.” - David Carothers Resources Mentioned: Clayton Wood LinkedIn C.B. Wood Financial Book: Never Pay the First Bill David Carothers Kyle Houck Florida Risk Partners The Extra 2 Minutes

Insurance-Free: Is It for Me?Episode #546 with Shelley DeGroffInsurance is a game, and insurance companies have the upper hand. So, what can you do to win? To help answer that question, Kirk Behrendt brings in Shelley DeGroff, founder and CEO of PPO Advisors, a company that turns PPOs into profit. She shares insight into how PPO contracts work and advice for strategically dropping your PPOs. Insurance-free is the way to be! To keep more of the money you deserve, listen to Episode 546 of The Best Practices Show!Episode Resources:PPO Advisors: https://ppoadvisors.comPPO Advisors Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PPOAdvisorsLLCSubscribe to the Best Practices Show PodcastJoin ACT's To The Top Study ClubJoin ACT's Master ClassSee our Live Events Schedule hereGet the Best Practices Magazine for Free!Write a Review on iTunesMain Takeaways:Add and drop PPOs strategically.Do an EOB audit on a regular basis.Start credentialing as early as possible.Negotiating isn't easy, but everyone should do it.Understand how to stack and navigate your contracts.Quotes:“Credentialing and insurance contracts are not what they used to be. It used to be that you could sign up with an insurance company, and you were going to get a great rate, and you were going to get patients from that contract. It doesn't work that way anymore. You're signing up for a contract, or with a contract, and you're getting 50 other shared networks with that. And if you don't set yourself up into the right contracts, you're really backing yourself into a corner for successful PPO negotiations and contracting down the road. So, we really need to understand what we're doing so the success of our practice can continue to grow.” (3:02—3:42) “[Credentialing is] not fast. Nothing about credentialing is fast, so prepare yourself. If you're a new doctor doing an acquisition or doing a startup, you need about 120 days to get yourself a network. So, don't wait until you take ownership. Start that process as soon as you have the letter of intent signed and you know this practice will become yours, or your startup six months in advance, if you can.” (4:08—4:35)“As you're still building out, get your PPOs set up. You need a tax ID number, a physical address, a phone number — which, you can get a Google number and then we can transfer that somewhere else if we need to. Those are really the key things we need to get you set up with an insurance contract. So, get that process going as soon as possible. Don't wait around and think, ‘Oh, I've got 30 days till closing. I know this is in the bag. Now, I'm going to start the process.' You're going to overwhelm your staff and you're going to overwhelm yourself. It's hard. It's a long process. They don't make it easy.” (4:35—5:11)“Delta Premier is everybody's worst nightmare. We're to the point where now we're seeing most states do not honor Premier status through an

Are You Billing Your Full Fee?Episode #510 with Kirk Behrendt & Ariel JudayYou think you're billing your full fee — but you're not! So, to help you get the pay you deserve, Kirk Behrendt brings back Ariel Juday, an amazing ACT coach, to explain why billing your full fee is crucial, how to train your team members to do it, and ways to not be the limiting factor to collecting your full fee. Stop working one out of every three days for free! To start collecting your full fees today, listen to Episode 510 of The Best Practices Show!Episode Resources:Ariel's email: ariel@actdental.com Ariel's social media: @actdental Subscribe to the Best Practices Show PodcastJoin the To The Top Study ClubSee our Live Events Schedule hereGet the Best Practices Magazine for Free!Write a Review on iTunesLinks Mentioned in This Episode:AADOM: https://aadomconference.comMain Takeaways:Understand the consequences of not billing your full fee.Train your team members to always bill your full fee.Involve your admin team and ask for their input.Show patients the true cost of your dentistry.Check your fees annually to be up to date.Don't assume patients can or can't pay.Quotes:“The most important part is you want to show the patients the value of dentistry. If we're not showing them what it costs, they're not going to know. So, we're giving discounts, or we're showing our PPO fee. They're going to think, ‘Oh, this is normal. This is what it is.' So, we're not showing them the true value, and they're going to make up their own numbers in their head based off of what they're seeing.” (3:21—3:46) -Ariel“You can't make decisions off of your practice if you're not seeing the real numbers. So, if we're billing our PPO fees because we think that it simplifies our processes, we can't make true decisions because we don't really know what the fee is, what is our overhead for that procedure. We really can't make decisions, and we don't know if we're keeping up with our PPO fees. So, the easiest is to bill our fee and let the PPOs keep up with us.” (3:50—4:23) -Ariel“Your practice management software is going to try and tell you to put in the PPO fee and bill it. Because that way, when insurance pays, you don't have to do the individual write-offs, and your team doesn't have to focus on anything. So, they make it sound like it's super easy. A lot of practice managers and team members who don't really know the unintended consequences of not billing your full fee, they also think it's easier. They think it's saving them time. But really, the unintended consequences are they could be making mistakes.” (4:50—5:25) -Ariel“I've seen lots of dentists give back refunds to patients that were never deserved because we're doing multiple write-offs, because we don't know how to read the EOB and the ledger. So, that's why to keep it simple is actually to bill the full fee. When the insurance check comes in, then we can make the appropriate write-off. We know...

The power of ICD-10 codes used with CDT codes is what Ericka covers in this week's episode. She talks about how she recently saw an EOB that rejected a claim for fillings because the insurance payor wanted appropriate ICD-10 codes on the claim form. Listen in as Ericka breaks down why every office should be incorporating diagnosis codes into their billing departments. With gratitude,The Dental Billing College TeamFollow us on Instagram: @dental_billing_coachEmail questions: admin@dentalbillingcollege.com

In this episode of The Power Producers Podcast, David Carothers interviews Clayton Wood, Managing Partner at C.B. Wood Financial. Clayton discusses how claims are paid in the industry and how C.B. Wood Financial is helping brokers deliver savings.  Episode Highlights: Clayton explains that some clients and employees who go to the doctor to get a prescription or have surgery or imaging don't know how much their claim will cost until they get the EOB. (2:31) Clayton discusses the several factors of how claims are priced. (3:09) Clayton highly recommends Marshall Allen's book: Never Pay the First Bill because it provides a clear idea of how claims are paid in the industry. (8:27) Clayton explains C.B. Wood Financial's big win-win solution for its clients, which has been a huge success. (9:40) David mentions that finding individuals who are specialists in things you don't know about, in areas of coverage that you don't represent every day, will lead to significant changes in your book of business. (13:50) David explains that he was never interested in bringing benefits into the agency because it moves too quickly (14:43) Tweetable Quotes: “Glad we could help out some of these P&C brokers, learn how to help their plans, their client's plans. And ultimately, if we can show them that there's another strategy out there, they're the hero, you know, that's what we're trying to do make your the P&C broker the hero and deliver a ton of savings” - Clayton Wood “Find the people that are the expert in the little things that you don't know about in the areas of coverage that you don't represent every single day. And that ultimately is what's going to drive significant change in your book of business.” - David Carothers Resources Mentioned: Clayton Wood LinkedIn C.B. Wood Financial Book: Never Pay the First Bill David Carothers Kyle Houck Florida Risk Partners The Extra 2 Minutes

In this episode of The Power Producers Podcast, David Carothers interviews Clayton Wood, Managing Partner at C.B. Wood Financial. Clayton discusses how claims are paid in the industry and how C.B. Wood Financial is helping brokers deliver savings.   Episode Highlights: Clayton explains that some clients and employees who go to the doctor to get a prescription or have surgery or imaging don't know how much their claim will cost until they get the EOB. (2:31) Clayton discusses the several factors of how claims are priced. (3:09) Clayton highly recommends Marshall Allen's book: Never Pay the First Bill because it provides a clear idea of how claims are paid in the industry. (8:27) Clayton explains C.B. Wood Financial's big win-win solution for its clients, which has been a huge success. (9:40) David mentions that finding individuals who are specialists in things you don't know about, in areas of coverage that you don't represent every day, will lead to significant changes in your book of business. (13:50) David explains that he was never interested in bringing benefits into the agency because it moves too quickly (14:43) Tweetable Quotes: “Glad we could help out some of these P&C brokers, learn how to help their plans, their client's plans. And ultimately, if we can show them that there's another strategy out there, they're the hero, you know, that's what we're trying to do make your the P&C broker the hero and deliver a ton of savings” - Clayton Wood “Find the people that are the expert in the little things that you don't know about in the areas of coverage that you don't represent every single day. And that ultimately is what's going to drive significant change in your book of business.” - David Carothers Resources Mentioned: Clayton Wood LinkedIn C.B. Wood Financial Book: Never Pay the First Bill David Carothers Kyle Houck Florida Risk Partners The Extra 2 Minutes

In this Tuna on Toast Podcast episode, Ted Stryker welcomes the very funny and talented Brian Aubert from Silversun Pickups. SSPU release their 6th full length album titled Physical Thrills on August 19th. Brian talks to Stryker about working once again with the legend himself Butch Vig! This episode is filled with so many random and funny weird conversations..From Brady Bunch Trivia to discussing the movie Jaws, Godzilla, Universal Studios and the Fast and Furious franchise. Brian tells Stryker that The Rock IS the reason why those Fast movies are so good! Brian and Stryker discuss Silversun Pickups history, from the early shows in Los Angeles, to getting signed by Q Prime Artist Management and all the fun stories that go with it. The guys also talk about Kate Bush and Stranger Things, SSPU has been playing "Running up that Hill" pre-show for a while. Brian also tells Stryker about the email he sent to Ed O'Brien from Radiohead to tell him how much he appreciates Radiohead and the EOB guitar that he's been using. Ed wrote Brian back!  Brian Aubert is a talented, fun, self aware and cool warm gentlemen.  Thank you for listening to another episode of Tuna on Toast with Stryker.

When your doctor prescribes a new medicine, there's a pretty good chance that some snafu will crop up before you get it filled. Either your pharmacy doesn't carry it, or your insurance provider won't cover it, or they'll say you need "prior authorization," or your out-of-pocket cost will be sky-high. The basic problem is that the electronic health record systems and e-prescribing systems at your doctor's office don't include price and benefit information for prescription drugs. All of that information lives on separate systems at your insurance company and your health plan's pharmacy benefit manager, or PBM. And that's the gap that a company called RxRevu is trying to fix. Harry's guest on today's show RxRevu CEO Kyle Kiser, who explains the work the company has done to bring EHR makers, insurers, and PBMs together to make drug cost and coverage information available at the point of care, so doctors and patients can shop together for the best drug at the best price.Please rate and review The Harry Glorikian Show on Apple Podcasts! Here's how to do that from an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch:1. Open the Podcasts app on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. 2. Navigate to The Harry Glorikian Show podcast. You can find it by searching for it or selecting it from your library. Just note that you'll have to go to the series page which shows all the episodes, not just the page for a single episode.3. Scroll down to find the subhead titled "Ratings & Reviews."4. Under one of the highlighted reviews, select "Write a Review."5. Next, select a star rating at the top — you have the option of choosing between one and five stars. 6. Using the text box at the top, write a title for your review. Then, in the lower text box, write your review. Your review can be up to 300 words long.7. Once you've finished, select "Send" or "Save" in the top-right corner. 8. If you've never left a podcast review before, enter a nickname. Your nickname will be displayed next to any reviews you leave from here on out. 9. After selecting a nickname, tap OK. Your review may not be immediately visible.That's it! Thanks so much.TranscriptHarry Glorikian: Hello. I'm Harry Glorikian, and this is The Harry Glorikian Show, where we explore how technology is changing everything we know about healthcare.If you live in the United States and you've ever had your doctor prescribe a new medication, you've probably had the following experience.You drive from the doctor's office to the pharmacy.And when you get there, you find out that the pharmacy doesn't carry that particular drug. Or that they do carry it, but your insurance provider doesn't cover it. Or your insurance does cover it, but they require prior authorization. Which means you have to get back in touch with your doctor and ask them to tell the insurance company that you really do need the medicine.Or you already have prior authorization, but you haven't met your annual deductible yet, so your out-of-pocket cost is much more than you expected.If any one of these problems crops up, the chances that you'll actually get your prescription filled on the day you need it go way down.And it's not uncommon for several of these snafus to happen all at once.Fundamentallythat's because the electronic health record systems and the electronic prescribing systems at your doctor's office don't include price and benefit information for prescription drugs.All of that information lives on separate systems at your insurance company and your health plan's pharmacy benefit manager, or PBM.And that's the gap that a company called RxRevu is trying to fix.My guest on today's show is the CEO of RxRevu, Kyle Kiser.We talked about the software they've built to make drug cost and coverage information available within the major EHR systemsWhen doctors can see in real time which drugs are covered, at what price, for a specific patient, it    obviously solves a huge pain point for patients, because it means they're more likely to get the drugs they need at an affordable price.But it also solves a big problem for doctors. Because, fairly or not, they're the ones who usually shoulder the blame when it turns out the medication they just prescribed is too expensive or isn't available.The kind of information RxRevu provides is going to be more and more important as the U.S. enters into an era of far greater price transparency, as mandated by the federal No Surprises Act, which went into effect on January 1 of this year.RxRevu is based in Denver, Colorado, and I reached Kyle Kiser at his home in Seattle, Washington. Here's our full conversation.Harry Glorikian: Kyle, welcome to the show.Kyle Kiser: Thanks, Harry. Happy to be here.Harry Glorikian: So, you know, we were just talking. You're in Seattle and I'm in Boston. I don't think we could be much farther apart when it comes to this particular country. So but let's start with a little bit of background, right. So. You're the CEO of RxRevu. And can you tell us a little bit about sort of the origin story about how you got started here? I mean, I understand your co-founder, Dr. Kevin O'Brien, had an interesting experience trying to get prescriptions filled for his mother, Lucy, but. What's the rest of that story? What did that story reveal to you about what's broken or missing in the way that doctors prescribes medicines or, you know, where the way that maybe payers approve prescription?Kyle Kiser: Yeah, absolutely. So a little background on Kevin's story. Kevin was initially inspired to do this because he wanted to solve a problem for his mom. She had an outsized out-of-pocket spend for meds. Like any good son, he wanted to help solve a problem for his mom. He used his expertise to find sort of ways to save on those medications, and that inspired him to start doing that in his clinic for his patients more comprehensively. So he was, you know, way ahead of his time and putting in all of this extra effort to really help find prescription options for patients that they could afford more easily. And that was the initial inspiration for what we've done today, which is connecting the point of care and clinical decision making with costs and coverage information that's real time and patient specific and location specific and moment in time specific, because all those things matter as inputs into a price.Kyle Kiser: So, you know, really the challenge we've been focused on is, is largely that, you know, the clinical decision making process has been pretty, pretty much disconnected, right, from marketplace information. So, you know, anything that impacts the purchasing of that care. And that was okay in a world where deductibles were low, formularies were relatively inexpensive and simple. But that world has changed dramatically over the last 10 to 20 years, right, as consumer driven healthcare has become the way of the world. And first dollar risk is now at the feet of the patient. It's that patients are now demanding that providers can consider not just what's best from a clinical perspective, but also set expectations around costs, set expectations around any restrictions that exist, and be an advocate for access to care. And the problem we're solving. We're building an access network. And within that access network, we help drive affordability and speed to care for patients. And we're doing that with a number of stakeholders. But at a high level, that's what we're trying to accomplish.Harry Glorikian: Well, you know, it's interesting, right? You know, entrepreneurship 101, solve a real need, right? So that there's a market there because everybody wants it. But so, I mean, look, I think everyone in the United States has probably had experiences similar to Dr. O'Brien's mom. I mean, you get to the pharmacy, you find out that the medication your doctor prescribed isn't covered by your plan, or you find out that the co-pay is outrageously high. But behind their personal experiences, I bet most people don't have a concept of how big and widespread this problem is. You know, you have any maybe some statistics that might illustrate the scale of the problem or how much money is wasted in the medical system because of these disconnects. I mean, I'm wondering how many prescriptions get abandoned or how many patients don't get the meds they need.Kyle Kiser: Yeah, I mean, at a. A macro level, you know, the prescription drug market makes just over makes up, you know, just over a half a trillion. Right. And, you know, estimates are that a third, even as much as half of that is waste and waste in the form of, you know, medications that aren't taken as prescribed or aren't delivering the right outcomes. I don't it's hard to find actually a a stakeholder in the supply chain that's delivered more value than meds themselves. I mean, if you think about, you know, the innovation in that world over the last 30 years, it's second to none. But the, you know, the supply chain within which they exist is complicated and it's hard to navigate. And the consequences of that is waste. And, you know, a ton of administrivia and friction. And frankly, patients bear the brunt of that. Ultimately, it's health plans and PBMs and risk bearing entities making rules on one end. It's providers and care teams making clinical decisions on the other end. And both of those processes are largely disconnected. And the only way that that gets harmonized in any way is a patient advocating for themselves. And we just fundamentally don't believe it should happen that way. What we're building is the connectivity between those stakeholders so that whether it's a provider at the point of care making the decision, whether it's a care team member trying to help you overcome a prior, or whether it's a patient trying to advocate for themselves using their own technology, we want to put real time, patient-specific, moment in time specific information in their hands to drive affordability and speed to care for that patient, no matter where they are in the care continuum.Harry Glorikian: Yeah. I mean, so this lack of prescription cost data, I mean at the point of care feels like a real canonical example of deep systemic problems with the with origins that are buried like deep in at least three of these complex organizations. Providers, payers and EHR makers. I mean, once you guys decided what the problem you wanted to fix was, how the hell did you figure out where to like -- okay, let's start here and let's move forward, right? Because.Kyle Kiser: Yeah.Harry Glorikian: Not trivial.Kyle Kiser: No, it's exactly the right observation because ultimately what we're building is a multi-sided network. And what's difficult about building a multi-sided network is, you know, users on one end, in this case, providers, aren't going to engage if it doesn't have the appropriate information in it. And the data sources, the ability to capture that appropriate information, they don't want to provide that data to you unless you have the appropriate users. So you get stuck in this chicken or the egg problem. And that's job one in growing this business, is to overcome that chicken or the egg problem. And the way we went about that was we worked really closely with health systems, with provider organizations, primarily because that's where the trust exists, is that ultimately patients seek out their provider and their care team to answer these questions. And so we worked closely with them as strategic partners and brought some of them in as investors in the company and aggregated a group of meaningful collaborators on the health system side, which then helped us bring PBMs and payers to the table to say, how do we solve these problems together? And that's that's sort of how we got out of the gate.Harry Glorikian: So I mean, tell me if we could dig a little into I think the product is called SwiftRx, if I remember correctly, but at a high level. You know, if you could describe for listeners, what is it? How does it work? And. Where does it fit in relation to the overall system?Kyle Kiser: Sure. Yes. So SwiftRx Direct is the product you're describing. What it provides is, is that real time, patient specific, location specific, moment in time specific information in the provider's native ordering workflow. So we are a data network that's powering a native feature inside the EMR that provides that insight while providers are selecting medications. So a typical flow would look like, a provider selects a medication. They then place that into a pending status in the software that they use. When that happens, we're able to gain visibility to that choice. We send that transaction out to our network of data sources, payers, PBMs, etc.. And what we get back is the price that is patient specific. We have formulary insights, so prior auth, quantity, limit, step therapy, those sorts of things. Those are also patient specific. And then most importantly, we get back alternatives. And those alternatives come in two forms. They're either a lower cost medication or a lower cost pharmacy where the patient can fulfill that medication. And that's sort of the core information that we then render back into the e-prescribing workflow. And we only interrupt those providers' workflows, or we and our partners only interrupt those providers workflows, when there's relevant information to consider. Because as I'm sure, you know, being deep in this world, provider engagement stuff -- you really have to be thoughtful about when, when is the appropriate time to intervene and when, when do we want to sort of get out of the way and make sure that when we are intervening, it's meaningful and understood to be meaningful?Harry Glorikian: Yeah. So I'm going to I mean, I heard a lot of what you said. I'm I want to maybe summarize all the. A few of these areas that people run into problems. But to try to understand sort of what are the big problems you had to solve to get it to really work? Because I'm just trying to get my head around the magnitude of the data headache here. Right. So if if you'll allow me, I'll just try to break it down into parts and then you can tell me how you're bridging all of these. So for one thing, there's the patient specific data about what kind of insurance each patient has and what level of benefits they have. And none of that is stored in the EHR at the clinic. As far as I know, typically the EHR would only list the patient's group number, subscription number or maybe the RxBin number. And then separate from all that, every insurance has a formula of drugs that will cover and sometimes a, you know, a schedule of different copay amounts for those drugs. And those formularies change every year and even more often. Right. And then there's a patient's actual prescription data which may live in their EMR or may live in a different system at the pharmacy. And then on top of that, there's this obscure black box system of prior authorization criteria that insurers may use to deny a prescription if they don't feel like paying for it. So the fact that the system is so fragmented is a familiar story to anybody who listens to this show. But tell me, you know, how on earth you were able to sort of get all this data under one roof, so to speak? You know, is there a specific architecture of the Swift system that makes you good at collecting all of this changing data and presenting it to the providers in real time?Kyle Kiser: Yeah. The only other element I'd add to your complexity salad is also benefit design, right. Is that yeah, the, the out-of-pocket cost can be and is dramatically different based on where you are in your coverage. If you're a commercial member with a high deductible, you're bearing the, you know, the in-network negotiated rate inside that deductible. And that changes pretty dramatically once you reach a deductible. Or if you're a Medicare member, there's the donut hole. And all of those things are also inputs and complexity to add to this. So to answer your question, it's really working closely with the stakeholders that control those, that are the source of that data. Right. You really can't get to an accurate price without working with those with those data sources specifically. So we work closely with the PBM, with the payer, and we do more or less a mock adjudication. So the same type of adjudication activity that happens on their end when a patient arrives at the point of sale is happening when a provider is making a prescribing decision in this case.Harry Glorikian: I mean, I can tell you, like the last time I had to sit and choose an insurer, and you would think that I'd be better at this than most, I remember having to take two Tylenol, because when I got done, because I thought my head was going to explode. And I could honestly not say to you I made the best choice. It was at the end, it was almost like a Hail Mary, I guess with all the complexity. And the other thing that I keep thinking about is when I used to watch, I think if you have kids, you've watched The Incredibles and there's a point in the show where the manager says they're penetrating inside of our systems to understand how to get how to get the system to pay them or whatever. It feels like it's that level of complexity. And you really need a sophisticated system to sort of bring all that information together to make sense of it all.Kyle Kiser: Yeah, that's true. And it is it is dynamic, it is highly variable and it's very different from administrator to administrator. Right. And a specific example of that, right, is that responses we get back are not across the board consistent, that here's an error and here's what that error means. And that error message is consistent from health plan to health plan. That's just not the way the world works, right. The error messages are specific to those claim systems because ultimately on the other side of the fence, these are mainframe systems in some cases that were designed decades ago that they've then created a layer to expose to the outside world, in this case us. And, you know, it's not simple work for us or for them. So I think the thing also to point out here is that there's a lot of effort from the payer- rrPBM community to make this accessible and to sort of change the way they're doing business and to change the way their technology works to enable some of these things, which is which is progress and should be commended for sure.[musical interlude]Harry Glorikian: Let's pause the conversation for a minute to talk about one small but important thing you can do, to help keep the podcast going. And that's leave a rating and a review for the show on Apple Podcasts.All you have to do is open the Apple Podcasts app on your smartphone, search for The Harry Glorikian Show, and scroll down to the Ratings & Reviews section. Tap the stars to rate the show, and then tap the link that says Write a Review to leave your comments. It'll only take a minute, but you'll be doing a lot to help other listeners discover the show.And one more thing. If you like the interviews we do here on the show I know you'll like my new book, The Future You: How Artificial Intelligence Can Help You Get Healthier, Stress Less, and Live Longer.It's a friendly and accessible tour of all the ways today's information technologies are helping us diagnose diseases faster, treat them more precisely, and create personalized diet and exercise programs to prevent them in the first place.The book is now available in print and ebook formats. Just go to Amazon or Barnes & Noble and search for The Future You by Harry Glorikian.And now, back to the show.[musical interlude]Harry Glorikian: Interesting. So if I'm not mistaken, both Epic and Cerner have made it possible for providers to embed SwiftRx into their EHR. So if I understand it correctly, it even comes as a standard part of Cerner now. So those are two of the biggest EHR providers in the US.Kyle Kiser: And Athena.Harry Glorikian: And Athena, so question: how did you make that happen?Kyle Kiser: Well, you know, we've got a great team and the team executed ultimately. We worked really hard on those relationships. And I think it's both working with the right customers in small ways in the early days that leads to working with these types of partners and bigger ways. And frankly, some of the open programs at some of these places led to this. So early days, we were working in kind of the more open developer type programs with these EMR partners. We were working closely with some of their customers. Banner was one of our first customers. UC Health was one of our first customers, both a Cerner and an Epic user respectively, and, you know, is working in small ways to solve these problems together with those health systems that led us both to interacting with PBMs and ultimately building these enterprise level relationships with the EMR. It's, you know, it's, it's earning the trust, it's delivering for these customers and then earning the right to do this at scale. And we're to a point now where we'll do almost 100 million of these transactions this year. And it's you know, it's grown fast.Harry Glorikian: Yeah, that's a lot of that's a lot of data flowing back and forth. But so let's ask the money question, like, what's the business model? Who ends up paying you? Is it the provider buying SwiftRx as an add on to the existing EHR or how does that work?Kyle Kiser: It's the risk bearing entity ultimately. So think about that as payer and PBM. In most cases, there are cases where we work with health systems and there are some things we do that that are either channel related or related to specific needs that they have when they're that risk bearing entity. But at a high level, we follow the risk and we want to work with the customer that is bearing that risk because ultimately they're the ones that stand to benefit from an optimized prescription choice.Harry Glorikian: Okay. So that everybody gets a clear idea of like, can you give me a before and after picture at a clinic that brings SwiftRx into their EHR?Kyle Kiser: Sure. Yeah. So. You know, this is probably an experience many of many of the listeners have had. Right. Is that. Before such acts you interact with your physician, they diagnose you with whatever condition they've perceived. They select a medication. They route it to the pharmacy. You go to the pharmacy and cross your fingers that all of the requirements have been met. And that is at a price that you can afford if there is a prior or if that's too expensive. When you arrive at that site of fulfillment, you discover that, right, if there's a prior that's not been completed, then you've got to go through that prior authorization process and you're not picking up that prescription today. If it's a price you can't afford, you got to figure out how to pay for it. And there's a variety of ways that that happens. But ultimately, it's up to the patient to figure those things out. In a world where SwiftRx is installed, the difference is, as that prescription decision is happening, we notify the prescriber of the patient's out-of-pocket cost. In some cases, even the plan cost associated with that choice. Any restrictions that exist like prior or quantity limit or step therapy. And we also notify them of any lower cost alternatives. So in many cases, simple changes make big differences in in the out-of-pocket cost. And it might even be something as simple as, time release metformin can be hundreds if not $1,000, and regular old metformin is four bucks and has been four bucks for decades.Kyle Kiser: So it's some of those almost unintentional, I hesitate to call them errors on the provider side. It's just they're making choices based on their own sort of clinical expertise. But they don't they don't know these things, right? They don't know how a time release metformin might be reimbursed for one of the ten or 12 payers that they may see in a given clinic day. So it's just providing that insight upfront so that they can make those decisions and understand the trade offs. Is time release really important or is this patient going to be fine? And is that out-of-pocket costs for a med going to prevent them from being able to actually take that medication? And as a result, they're not going to receive any of the clinical benefit. So ultimately, the $4 option is probably better. So it's really connecting that clinical decision making process with all of the complexity that exists on the payer and PBM end so that we can get the decision right the first time. And when the patient shows up at the pharmacy, they know how much is going to cost, they feel comfortable that they can pay for it and they're either aware of the prior auth and have already completed the requirements or have some, some level of expectations set to how to complete those requirements.Harry Glorikian: So for all the reasons we've been discussing, doctors traditionally have been able to stay somewhat separated or maybe called it shielded from discussions about drug prices. I mean, they just prescribe a drug, leave it to their office staff or the patient or their pharmacy to figure out whether it's covered. But now, for organizations that are using your system that are built into their EHR, a clinical encounter, it can involve essentially going shopping in real time for the best drug at the best price. I mean, in your experience, how do doctors like being pulled into these decisions? I mean, I can see how it be great for patients, but I wonder if doctors are equally excited.Kyle Kiser: You know, one of the things that's been the most surprising to us around this subject, specifically patient out-of-pocket cost, is one of the most requested pieces of information in a primary care clinic, because it's so complex and it creates so many callbacks and it creates so much patient dissatisfaction. Because ultimately the patient's going to, at some level, hold that prescriber accountable for that decision. And if it's really expensive med there's an assumption that the provider knew that already or should have known that, whether that's true or not. And so what that's resulted in is primary care providers want this information, they want it. They want to have this at their fingertips when they're making decisions. It's the world certainly changed in that way. So I think, you know, it's becoming a part of the standard of care being able to consider cost. Because to the point earlier, the only medication that works is the one the patient can afford. And so you really have to consider those things because of the way our sort of health care payment infrastructure exists. Right. There's just, patients are bearing a dramatic portion of that cost these days and got to consider that as a part of the way you deliver care.Harry Glorikian: I mean, I almost feel like your company is is pushing. These providers and payers and to fix the prescription benefit system or making them more efficient or compatible.Kyle Kiser: Yeah. I think there is a, I maybe describe it as rationalizing. R I don't think that a clinical team and a PBM and PNT committee at a health system have dramatically different opinions on what medications should be prescribed, for what conditions. The friction exists in that they're making those decisions in isolation of one another. So I think I see our role as a connector to help, you know, in a value based world, the incentives start to align between risk bearing entity and health system. And many times the health system becomes the risk bearing entity fully. And so our goal is to empower providers to understand those things in real time, to manage the complexity for them, only engage them with the information that makes a difference in the decision they're trying to make and ultimately create a better experience for the patient, a better outcome for the patient, and a less burdensome process for the provider organization.Harry Glorikian: So as we all know, I mean, the American medical system is famous for sending patients surprise bills after clinical encounter or an emergency room visit, right. Where a bandage or an aspirin can carry some crazy prices that I've seen. And I'm trying to project onto where you are as a company and where you want to go. I mean, now that you've tackled the rrtransparency in drug pricing, which I would honestly like to see everywhere, because I think I've heard my wife complain all the time when she encounters some astronomical price. Right. Can you imagine trying to tackle or bring greater transparency to other medical costs, such as maybe a surgical procedure or hospital supplies. I mean, is there anything that you've learned about prescription benefits that's transferable to all these other types of care?Kyle Kiser: Absolutely. Yeah. We're already moving beyond prescriptions today and focused on labs, radiology services, generally. And see the dynamics of the payer-PBM end of the market five or six years ago as it relates to pharmacy real time benefit shaping up much in the same way around medical benefits. That payers are thinking about these problems in the same ways and are showing initiative and prioritizing putting this information at the point of care for for all of the reasons that we just described on the drug side are true in many ways on the medical side. So, yes, absolutely. That's where we're headed. And the regulatory tailwinds are there in a new way. Right. If you think about in the last 12 months, there's been more price transparency legislation than in the last 30 years. And that, combined with the no surprise billing legislation, really creates this this kind of pre EOB requirement for each of the stakeholders and they got to solve that problem. And we see ourselves as really well positioned to be a part of that solution.Harry Glorikian: Yeah. I mean, you know, it there was no way. I mean, the Affordable Care Act got put into place and there were certain things in there that just there was no way that you were going to be able to do that without some level of transparency and understanding what's going on.Kyle Kiser: Yeah. Yeah, that's right. But even further, right, before the end of last year there were price transparency regulations for health systems, for providers, for payers. And then the no surprise billing legislation has in it a component that says, you know, before you deliver care, you got to be able to give an estimation of cost. And so all of those things sort of work together from a regulatory perspective to start to drive the market in that direction. So absolutely, it's coming everywhere. It's going to be, it's going to be a part of the way that every health care decision is made in the future. And it's just a matter of time before that's the case.Harry Glorikian: Yeah. It's interesting because I have lots of conversations with, you know, lots of different people. And they I don't think they understand that. If you don't have that level of transparency, you truly don't have a competitive environment, right? You can't make choices because you don't have the information to be able to make that choice.Kyle Kiser: That's exactly right. Without it, there is no marketplace. Right. That's probably overstated. It's without it, it's a dysfunctional marketplace. And with transparency, we will start to see real competitive dynamics emerge. And I'm hopeful for that. Sunlight's the greatest antiseptic.Harry Glorikian: Oh, I totally agree. I mean, for me, it's always been like a walled garden. Like, you know, either you're here or, you know, you're out of luck, right? Because you don't have any information so you can go across the street. So. So. I guess I should be asking. I've probably reached the limit of my knowledge on the subject matter, but like, is. Is there anything I haven't asked you or anything, you know, that you would want to add to the conversation that would be enlightening to the people that are listening?Kyle Kiser: Yeah, well, the only thing I would sort of make sure we reframe a little bit is that this isn't necessarily about price transparency. Price transparency is a component of providing access to care for patients, and that's ultimately what we continually focus on inside of our company, that price is an input. Affordability is an input. Convenience is an input. The ability to actually receive the prescription is an input. We're ultimately trying to make sure that affordability and speed to care lead to better outcomes. And that's an access story, not just a price transparency story. And so that's the only sort of reframe that I'd offer is that ultimately this has to lead to better health, people getting healthier, getting the care they need, being able to afford the medications that they need. And that's the work. And we're going to stop at nothing to make sure that that happens.Harry Glorikian: Excellent. Well, it was great talking to you, Kyle. I wish you great success because, I mean, whenever I talk to anybody, I'm like, I know I could be benefiting from all of this, so I want everybody to be successful.Kyle Kiser: We appreciate the well-wishes and we'll be working hard to ensure that that's the case.Harry Glorikian: Excellent. Thank you so much.Kyle Kiser: All right. Thanks, Harry.Harry Glorikian: Bye bye.Harry Glorikian: That's it for this week's episode. You can find a full transcript of this episode as well as the full archive of episodes of The Harry Glorikian Show and MoneyBall Medicine at our website. Just go to glorikian.com and click on the tab Podcasts.I'd like to thank our listeners for boosting The Harry Glorikian Show into the top three percent of global podcasts.If you want to be sure to get every new episode of the show automatically, be sure to open Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast player and hit follow or subscribe. Don't forget to leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. And we always love to hear from listeners on Twitter, where you can find me at hglorikian.Thanks for listening, stay healthy, and be sure to tune in two weeks from now for our next interview.

A recent survey showed that more than one in three adults carry medical debt to some degree. Today on MoneyWise, we'll let you in on something that could help. STAGGERING MEDICAL DEBT That survey was published onHealthcare.com. It also revealed that more than half of those with overdue bills carried balances over $1,000. The total outstanding medical debt for the nation may be as high as$140 billion. But it might surprise you to know that you don't always have to pay your full medical bill. You cannegotiateto have the bill lowered. As Christians, we mustalwayspay our debts. Proverbs 16:8 readsBetter is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice. But it's certainly not a sin to ask for a discount. The truth is, many medical providers want to be paidnowjust as much as they want to be paidin full.More on that in a minute. You're probably wondering how exactly you go about asking to have your outstanding medical bills lowered. I'll give you the steps, and you can do these even after your insurance company has paid its part of the bill. STEPS TO SEEKING A REDUCTION OF MEDICAL DEBT Before you pay anything, first get an Explanation of Benefits, or EOB. You may have to ask for one from your medical provider. You need to go over every bill and the EOB to make sure there aren't any mistakes. Insurance companies and medical billing departmentsoftenmake mistakes, sometimes even double-charging you for a visit or procedure. If you find something that seems out-of-place, talk to the office manager to have the item explained. As we mentioned, medical providers are keenly interested in receiving their money as soon as possible, and that means you have negotiating power. They're often willing to give you a discount if you offer to pay a lump sum right away. A reduction of up to 20% isn't uncommon. But you have to do your homework before you ask for the discount. Let's say you owe $1500. You'd be plenty happy with a 20% reduction, but you should probably aim a bit higher to start, say 30%. Multiply your $1500 bill by 0.3. That comes to $450. You subtract that from the original 1500 and you get $1,050. Round it down to a thousand and offer to pay that now if it closes the matter. Expect some pushback. This is a negotiation, after all. And let's say they offer to reduce your bill by $300 instead of $500. The reduced bill is now $1200 or 20% off. You've met your goal. Your results may vary, of course, but asurveyby Lending Tree of more than 1500 Americans with medical debt showed that a whopping93%of those who negotiated their bills had them reduced or eliminated. And here's another tip: The higher the bill,the deeper the discount you should ask for. For instance, if you owe $5,000 or $10,000, start by asking for a 50% reduction if you pay the reduced amount in full today. When you agree on a new figure, get a confirmation number and make the payment immediately. Of course, you must have the money on hand to do that, and you should never put medical debt on a credit card. Your doctor usually won't charge interest, but credit card issuers always do. But what if you don't have a big chunk of money to pay even the reduced amount now? You can still negotiate a lower bill by offering to set up a payment plan. Once you have the new amount, you'll have to negotiate how many months you'll have to pay it off. When you reach an agreement, make sure you stick to it. Keep in mind that you may not be negotiating directly with your doctor's office. Many providers outsource their billing to third party operations. If they're not willing to negotiate, you can try calling the doctor's office directly and make your pitch with the office manager there. Here's another approach you can take: Many hospitals have financial assistance for low income families and individuals. If you meet the requirements, you could have your bill reduced significantly. Call the hospital to get more information about available financial aid. Now, a final note: As you go about negotiating a lower bill, always be polite and cheerful. As the saying goes, you catch more bees with honey than vinegar. On today's program, Rob also answers listener questions: ●How do you determine whether it's wise to use savings or investment money to pay off auto debt? ●How do you approach your tax requirements as an independent contractor? ●When does investing in an annuity make sense? RESOURCES MENTIONED ●Find a Certified Kingdom Advisor Remember, you can call in to ask your questions most days at (800) 525-7000 or email them toQuestions@MoneyWise.org. Also, visit our website atMoneyWise.orgwhere you can connect with a MoneyWise Coach, join the MoneyWise Community, and even download the free MoneyWise app. Like and Follow us on Facebook atMoneyWise Mediafor videos and the very latest discussion!Remember that it's your prayerful and financial support that keeps MoneyWise on the air. Help us continue this outreach by clicking theDonate tab on our websiteor in our app. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1085/29

In this installment of Evolution Revisited, I'm sharing some takeaways from my conversation with Swire Ho on Episode 046 of Evolution of Brand. I'll also go drop some more thoughts and perspective on customer experience and building a consistent customer onboarding process.And finally, I have a sneak preview of Episode 048 of EoB featuring none other than Vince Reginella.10 Tips For Becoming a Valuable, Fully Optimized Podcast Guest: Click here to learn more and get your free copyMUSIC CREDIT: "Victory" courtesy of purple-planet.com

In this installment of Evolution Revisited, I'm sharing some takeaways from my conversation with Swire Ho on Episode 046 of Evolution of Brand.  I'll also go drop some more thoughts and perspective on customer experience and building a consistent customer onboarding process. And finally, I have a sneak preview of Episode 048 of EoB featuring none other than Vince Reginella. 10 Tips For Becoming a Valuable, Fully Optimized Podcast Guest: Click here to learn more and get your free copy MUSIC CREDIT: "Victory" courtesy of purple-planet.com

Some stats say that up to 80% of medical bills have errors! With healthcare more expensive now than ever, it's important to understand exactly what you're getting charged and to understand how to argue it if you disagree.In this episode, Valerie talks about how she successfully argued her healthcare bill. She provides tips on what to do if you believe you had a billing issue on your claim. Also, is there anyway to prevent confusion?Like I've said before on the show, I do work in healthcare, and this is in no way affiliated with the work I do there. Checkout Family Money's YouTube Channel

In this installment of Evolution Revisited, I'm sharing some of my big takeaways from Episode 038 of Evolution of Brand featuring Rocky Buckley.I've also got some additional insight and commentary on beginning with the end in mind, mastering the inner and outer game of success, and vetting your ideas before investing time into bringing them to life.And finally, I have a sneak preview of Episode 040 of EoB featuring Charles Alexander.10 Tips For Becoming a Valuable, Fully Optimized Podcast Guest: Click here to learn more and get your free copyMUSIC CREDIT: "Victory" courtesy of purple-planet.com

In this installment of Evolution Revisited, I'm sharing some of my big takeaways from Episode 038 of Evolution of Brand featuring Rocky Buckley. I've also got some additional insight and commentary on beginning with the end in mind, mastering the inner and outer game of success, and vetting your ideas before investing time into bringing them to life. And finally, I have a sneak preview of Episode 040 of EoB featuring Charles Alexander. 10 Tips For Becoming a Valuable, Fully Optimized Podcast Guest: Click here to learn more and get your free copy MUSIC CREDIT: "Victory" courtesy of purple-planet.com