am I the only one scared?

[pinkhottie]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Am I the only scared opening a practice?
I work as an assistant so I help with insurance.
OMG, I didn't know dealing with insurance pain in my A!
So many types of insurances out there and many plans(duh)
and they are seriously so cheap. SERIOUSLY

and patients don't wanna pay deductible, co-insurnace, and hate bills.
and they complain freaking much.

I understand they wanna received good services but when they come in 3 times for the filling color,,,

And, income tax is so high on dentists. What about sales taxes? Why there is no sales taxes on medical bills when insurance companies take out taxes before they pay dentists?

and with dental offices, patients think they can negotiate prices of services. Why don't they do that at hospitals or at family doctors?

I am getting scared.

 

[oralcare123]

There is always an option of not opening a practice. Friend of mine is working as an associate and makes enough to not want to have his own ever

 

[DrJeff]

Step #1 - and this is one of those "dental life lessons" here - Patient's will ALWAYS complain about your fees, so don't stress over it

 

[charlestweed]

You need to hire the right employees, whom you can trust, to help you so you can focus more on the clinical aspect of dentistry. I started my first office in 2006. I currently have 4 small offices. I am still clueless about insurance billings. Every time a new grad orthodontist asks me which insurance plans he/she should accept, I usually tell him/her to ask my office manager because I don’t know anything. If my office manager, who handles insurance billings, collections, and day-to-day office operations, ask me for a day off, I will have to close the office for that day. I can treat patients without my assistants but I can’t work without my office manager. I’d be very scared, if my office manager gave her notice. She is 3-4 years older than me. She and I will probably retire around the same time.

I am clueless about taxes as well. I pay my CPA to help me with booking keeping, pay roll, personal and corporation tax filings.

My office manager, my receptionists, and my chair side assistants help me deal with all the patients’ complaints. I rarely have to hear the complaints directly from my patients. If one of these complaints reaches me, it must be a serious one.

As a business owner, you also have to worry about bringing new patients to your office. Without new patients, your business will fail. That’s why I have to keep working very hard to provide high quality care (at reasonable fees) to keep my patients and my referring GPs happy. Doing ortho is easy but it requires a lot of efforts to make people happy. It’s stressful to run your own practice but I’d rather do that than working for someone else.

 

[Daurang]

The average net worth of those with their own business is five times those that work for someone else. The best surest way to become millionaire and retire early is to have your own business. Yes there is a 3% obamacare tax on labworks and supplies; if you do the ordering you will see it or it's absorbed into the price increase.