Hey everyone,
I am making a list of things a dentist can do to raise/lower his salary for my website. I would be thankful for any thoughts on what I've got so far. These are generalizations of course, I know there are exceptions but I want generalizations.
Raises:
- Owning your own practice
- Having business skills
- Working more hours
- Performing cosmetic dentistry
- Doing complicated dental procedures
- Getting advanced education in dentistry
- Specializing (becoming a orthodontist etc…😉
Lowers:
- Working for the military
- Working for a large dental chain
- Working fewer hours
Thanks so much!
The insurance industry will severly lower your income. In some states they can dictate price for procedure, decline procedure down grad procedure, add steps that makes filing a claim difficult, like using the term medical necessity and then not defining medical necessity for you... lol seriously i have had claims for extraction of an abscessed tooth denied bc they deemed it not medically necessary.
i think the insurance industry has hurt dentist income, while at the same time skyrocketed their. The number of for profit dental schools is also lowering dental income in the long run. many students with the ability to pay can get in regardless of undergrad grade, so they are flooding the market with dentist (this seems to be occuring in other firlds as well like law and medicine). Corporate dentistry is also lowering your income, they can undersell procedure by providing payment plans as little as $10 per month, patients unaware they are walking into a dental mill usually chose the chain bc of the low payment plan while the single family practioner does not have the means to offer services that low bc you have an overhead. On the topic of lowering income corporate dentistry can also lower your income in a different indirect manner. I had a friend who worked for a chain. He was about to deliver a partial. The partial did not fit and told her to return to have a new one. She had a balance, and in my friends state if you start a procedure u must finish it (this can vary from state to state) regardless of ability to pay. Well the corporation refused to let her return bc of inability to pay. She sued, and since it becomes an issue of malpractice it landed on my friend, even though he wanted to do a new denture as a result of it he had a claim on him and his malpractice went up. and unfortunately the chain is immune in my state bc malpractice lands on the doc not the corp, and they were just trying to collect. so malpractice claims can lower you income, bc claims even if dismiss is seen as increasing your risk of liability.
economy can also lower you income. People are less reluctant to have work done, when they dont have the money.
A GPR or AEGD can raise your income. Many of my class mates who did one of the two dont refer many patients bc they have been exposed to more complicated cases in the program, friends that did not do one of the programs refer a lot, and when you refer to much that money out the door. Many patient who are refered dont return.
Working weekend can increase your income. Many doctors hate working weekends and even friday, so there is an opportunity there. In one of my clinics I shut down monday and sunday and Saturday is our busiest day.
Being able to do same day emergencies can increase your income. Emergencies is a major source of new patients for me. I had a lot of emergency training in my residency so getting patients out of pain is one of the best ways of getting and keeping new patients. Also many emergencies are higher production procedures so its a double win.
A good staff is also key. to generating raport. you want the person at the front to be a people person that can remember the patients name when they walk in is key to to building a relationship, look at starbucks they tell their employees to learns clients names, its the same in dentistry.
Keep your clinic clean... Many people have a clinic that looks cluttered, they want to show off equipment but they over do it and it looks clutter, so keep it clutterless but appealling in my clinic I dont have traditional white walls I have nature color clinic and plants (sort of looks like a very comfortable living room)
Another thing to learn that could potentially save you money is to know how to do what you delegate. for example if you decide you want to accept insurance you want to know how to file claims yourself and not really on your front staff. I have seen many doctors who never filed a claim nor knew how to file or verify insurance and loss tons of money. I know one lady who lost 70,000 yes 70,000 in unfiled misfiled claims. I have seen docs who had a fallout with the front staff (the one doing the ins filing ), the front staff quits, and they dont know who to file ins claims so no money is coming in until they higher some one to file the claims for them.
Take a book keeping class, this i say is a must for anyone who wants to open a clinic, book keeping classes are cheap i take one every two years just to keep fresh in my mind at a community college as a non degree seeking student. The book keeping class will teach you how to manage and follow the money, it can help detect fraud, or stolen money (stolen money by staff is very common) it teaches you how to set up your books and know whats tax deductable or what to do to make it tax deductable. It also makes talking to your accountant easier bc you will know what they are talking about... YOu may ask y study the class if your hiring an acct. The accountant is useful bc they must stay uptodate with tax laws. Tax laws are always changing. If you have your acct do your books and file your taxes you can spend anywhere from 3000 to 6000 dollars a year to have all the work done. Since I already know how to set up the books I have the staff enter things into the computer a certain way to fit my books and only need the acct to veify and file my taxes, so Im only spending about 700 dollars on acct fees.
