dental practice coaching & consulting
Jody
Travel is a big part of being a consultant. Luckily, Jody Catalanello loves to travel and she relishes new experiences. She’s been traveling around the world with her parents since she was a child when her father—a now retired professor of management—took the family on extensive international trips for his career. These family trips inspired Jody to enjoy what the world has to offer. And she still loves to travel with her parents (now in their 70’s) whenever she gets the chance. One of Jody’s favorite parts of traveling is being introduced to regional delicacies. She grew up in the cornfields of the Midwest and knows good sweet corn. Some of her fondest experiences with clients include feasting on fried Mississippi catfish, crabbing in Alaska, greek salads in Detroit, green chili stew in Pueblo Colorado, 5-way chili in Cincinnati and provel cheese from St. Louis. Of course Chicago is a world-class city and there is nothing like being home and enjoying all an urban metropolis has to offer. Jody has more than 20 years’ experience in business management and dental practice management consulting. She is also a member of the Academy of Dental Management Consultants, a prestigious cadre of consultants with high standards for membership. She is focused, practical, and task-oriented. In any given situation, she looks for solutions to problems and this helps her to find the most efficient way to accomplish goals for herself and her clients. She knows your greatest strength can be your greatest weakness. A drawback to being pragmatic is being perceived as less sensitive to personal feelings involved in a situation. This is why she and Linda make such a dynamic team. Her ability to focus on solutions and Linda’s ability to enroll the team, ensure successful implementation. In her personal life, Jody has Kevin—her significant other—he counterbalances her goal-driven nature and encourages her to enjoy life in the moment. A graduate of the University of Iowa, Jody spent time as an international business management consultant prior to embarking on her dental practice management career. Since 1988 Jody has specialized in the business of dentistry, where she enjoys: * providing personalized in-office consulting to dental practices. * coaching doctors and team members to new levels of success. * presenting motivational programs to study clubs and dental societies. Jody loves to learn and believes that one of the best ways to become open to new ideas and to challenge herself is to read as much as she can. This practice keeps her in a state of constant growth both personally and professionally. You can check out the Resource Store in the main menu of this website to see some of the books she finds most inspirational. And she also takes guilty pleasure in trashy beach reads and the escapism of fiction. Additionally, Jody loves dental office design and has had the honor of being one of the judges for the Annual Competition for Dental Office Design of the Year, sponsored by Dental Economics. Jody appreciates the joys and the challenges of working with a team. She believes teamwork is the foundation for practice success. She also knows it takes courage to work on relationships and to work on one’s self. This reinforces how important, and critical, coaching is for greater success in life.
Homepage: http://www.mosaicmanagementgroup.com
Posts by Jody
What can be shared on email with patients?
Feb 14th
The following question was posted to the Academy of Dental Practice Management Consultants which Linda and I belong to. I thought you would all want to know the answer.
How specific can email to patient be reminding them about treatment? Can you mention specific treatment needs or only make a general statement to contact the office? Is this covered under HIPAA?
The answer below is from: Linda Harvey, MS, LHRM, DFASHRM •
Email is a great source of confusion for everyone.
HIPAA requires that patient info must be kept secure. Regular email transmission which includes responding to email received from patients is not secure.
That being said, there are several options:
1) use a secure portal such as eDossea or subscribe to a service thru Eaglesoft or Dentrix (I believe they both offer such a service).
2) use an email encryption service (there are free ones)
3) implement an office policy that limits what you are allowed to email to patients such as appointment confirmation. I just met the Practice Administrator who said they have a strict policy against emailing patients or responding to patient emails.
4) get the patient’s permission to communicate via unencrypted email. This is an important piece of information one can gather on the Acknowledgement Form new patients sign. BUT, I would still limit the type of information emailed.
Referring back to your question about treatment, I would not mention specific treatment in an email. For example, an email reminder that the pt has unused benefits would be better than saying “are you ready to schedule for those extractions and implants.”
HIPAA is quite serious about enforcing the regulations; plus the random audits are in full force. Have already met one dental Business Associate that was audited. I just got back from Tampa working with a doctor whose staff gave a patient the wrong records on a CD…patient then complained to the Office of Civil Rights. They are now under investigation and have a narrow window to correct and reply to the complaint.
Linda Harvey is a great source of information regarding risk management and being HIPAA compliant. If anyone needs a speaker for a study club she would be fabulous! Her website is: http://www.lindaharvey.net
Happy Valentine’s Day to all!
Growth
Feb 1st
Most practices we work with believe in continuous personal and professional growth. They realize they and their team have lots more potential to unlock. So…ask yourself:
How do you want to grow personally?
Are you a better person today than you were yesterday?
What are you doing to get your team to grow personally?
Are you learning something everyday? What? Is it positive?
What can you do to help your team better understand the practice mission and vision?
How are you planning to grow professionally this year?
How are you challenging and stretching yourself?
These are not easy questions, most require thought and introspection. Really think about it, “Are you a better person today versus yesterday? How?” It is a challenge, it means focusing on personal growth as much as professional growth or the latest clinical courses and procedures. Improving your clinical skills or learning a new procedure to add to your mix of services certainly helps growth and production in the practice. Personal change is by far harder, and it is what will put your practice head and shoulders above the rest. Numbers are important. How you and the team feel about yourselves and what you are contributing to your community, is far more rewarding. We challenge you to spend the time you need to get your team onboard and focus everyone on working on improving themselves. Growth in production will happen naturally as a result.
Insurance Processing
Nov 6th
We have been in a few office recently that were not using some of the tools we commonly recommend to assist in processing of insurance claims- to refresh your memory here they are again:
1. Insurance Solutions Newsletter – find it at: http://www.dental-ins-solutions.com
2. “Coding with Confidence” by Dr. Charles Blair – also found on the above website. We recommend using the most updated version due to insurance codes changing.
3. Marianne Harper’s Book “Cross Walking – A guide through the crosswalk of Dental to Medical Coding” found on her website: The Art of Practice Management
http://www.artofpracticemanagement.com
4. The website for the National Association of Dental Plans and specifically the free subscription to FastLook which provides current attachment information by procedure code. Sign up under the FastLook tab at http://www.nadp.org
5. For those we have seen since the ADA Meeting know we are recommending you look at “Practice Booster” which includes our first two recommendations. It is more important than ever to be sure you are using the right codes. Take a free test drive of Practice Booster and see what it can do for your administrative team. http://practicebooster.com
6. Always use the latest version of the ADA CDT code book for claim submission
Insurance processing is becoming more complex. From a risk management standpoint you must do all you can to ensure you are using the right codes for the procedures you are doing – it is your license that is on the line. Be sure your team is properly equipped to do the job you think they are doing.
Great Quote from Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh of Zappos
Oct 16th
If you have not ordered shoes from Zappos you are missing an experience – it is a great lesson in trusting the customer as well as providing top notch service. Here is the quote from the book Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh. It is in our resource store and a interesting book to read on how Zappos came about.
“There’s a lot of buzz these days about “social media” and “integration marketing”. As unsexy and low-tech as may sound, our belief is that the telephone is one of the best branding devices out there. You have the customer’s undivided attention for 5 to 10 minutes, and if you get the interaction right, what we’ve found is the customer remembers the experience for a very long time and tells his or her friends about it.”
When is the last time you talked about your patient intake calls as a group? Are your patients and potential patients excited and happy about their interactions with the practice over the phone?
Raising your Fees
Aug 2nd
Many Doctors have hesitated to raise their fees. Whether it was fear that lower priced competitors would take their potential patients or that they “could not raise fees in this economy”, fees have remained the same since 2009 for many practices. Other practices feel they should “maintain the status quo” because they will only take a bigger write off from an insurance plan. Some doctors have gone so far as to “negotiate” a lower fee with some patients, thinking that if they could get this patient and the case, it would fill the book. Somewhere in this belief is the idea that more patients will offset lower fees, and will lead to higher profitability.
We look at profitability numbers each month with our clients. Our busiest practices are not the most profitable, and the practices that do the most large fee cases are not as profitable either. Why is that? In a word, overhead. The more patients you see, the higher your overhead. The more large cases you do, the greater the likelihood of not pricing the case right for the amount of time it takes and more likelihood there is of providing one or more of those crowns in a multiple unit case, for only the lab fee.
Overhead has not stopped increasing because of the economy. You and your team would like raises, the lab wants to be paid, supplies are costing more – you cannot not raise your fees. We recommend raising fees on an annual basis. Many teams struggle with raising fees because of the anticipated reaction from patients. We hope you are subscribed to Words Matter for some suggestions on how to handle this challenging topic.
Raising your fees is one of the best steps you can take to improve profitability. The chart below shows the relationship between a specified percentage fee increase and the effect this increase will have on profitability.
% Fee Increase
| 3% |
5% |
10% |
||
| 80% |
15% |
25% |
50% |
|
| 75% |
12% |
20% |
40% |
|
|
Overhead |
70% |
10% |
16.6% |
33% |
|
% |
65% |
8.6% |
14.3% |
28.6% |
| 60% |
7.5% |
12.5% |
25% |
|
| 55% |
6.7% |
11.1% |
22.2% |
|
| 50% |
6% |
10% |
20 |
When is your next fee increase?
Dental Fees are on the Web for your Patients
Jul 21st
There are websites designed to help consumers estimate what dental services will cost them. One for you and your team to check out is:
http://www.fairhealthconsumer.org
On their website they state: “Fair Health is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to help consumers understand the out-of-network reimbursement system and estimate out-of-network medical and dental costs. Our free website has an easy-to-use cost estimator tool to help with your health care expense planning. We also offer clear and unbiased educational articles and videos about the medical and dental reimbursement system.”
Fair Health was formed in 2009 as a result of a fraud investigation by then NY State’s Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. The ADA granted access to the CDT codes in February of 2011. They will have medical information available in August of 2011.
We have always recommended that you submit your full fee to the insurance company on a dental claim form. It now becomes even more important to not submit contractually discounted fees. Not only because this will skew the maximum allowable fees determined by carriers based on data submitted by practices but it will skew the costs posted on websites like Fair Health. This will cause consumers to question the fees you are charging when they have a “non-biased” resource about what your fees “should” be.
Have a team meeting and make sure everyone knows about this website and how your fees compare to what is posted on the Fair Health website. Talk about how to deal with patient’s concerns and what to say. As always if you need help, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.
Part 2: What Questions to Ask when Networking. More low cost ways to market your practice
Jun 6th
When networking you want others to feel good about themselves, and, to feel good about being in a conversation with us. We want to ask questions that make others feel good about us as people, even though we have just met and they hardly know us.
Here are our top 10 questions that are not sales oriented in any way. They are friendly and fun to answer and they will tell you something about the way a person thinks. In one conversation you will not use all these questions. We recommend knowing them well enough to ask the ones you feel are appropriate for the conversation and the time frame available at your networking function.
Here are the 10 questions:
1. How did you get your start in your business?
- People like to share their story
2. What do you enjoy the most about your profession?
- The people you want to associate with will love to answer this question
3. What separates you and your company from your competition?
- Gives them permission to brag
4. What advice would you give someone just starting in your business?
- Mentor question
5. What one thing would you do with your business if you knew you could not fail?
- What are your dreams question
6. What significant changes have you seen take place in your profession through the years?
- Mature business owner question
7. What do you see as coming trends in your business?
- Be a speculator question
8. Describe the funniest (or strangest) thing you’ve experienced in your business?
- War Stories question
9. What have you found to be the most effective ways to promote your business?
- All small businesses market in some way
10. What one sentence would you like people to use when describing how you do business?
- Customer service question
These are questions people will enjoy answering. You are not being nosy. Again, don’t plan to ask all 10 questions in one meeting. This is not an interrogation, these questions are meant to establish initial rapport. When someone answers a question use genuine curiosity, try saying “tell me more”. Learn as much as you can about your fellow business owners in your community, there may be opportunities to cross promote your business or create a small business breakfast group. The more people you know, the more people who know you, the larger your practice will become.
What is one networking event you could attend in your community?
Part 1: Networking at business functions or social events. A low cost method to promote your practice
May 26th
Chamber of commerce, or other business functions, and social events, are excellent sources of networking if used correctly.
Follow these 10 tips for successful networking:
1. Adjust your attitude. Realize that the purpose of attending this function is to work and build your network.
2. Work the crowd. Be pleasant and approachable.
3. Prepare a quick 30 second introductory “elevator” speech to help others understand what you do for patients and how your services benefit others.
4. Introduce yourself to someone new. If possible have that person be a center-of-influence person or someone who is in a complementary profession. Look for cross-promotion opportunities.
5. After the introduction, invest 99.9% of your time asking the other person about their business. Refrain from talking about you or your business.
6. Ask for their business card. (Never attend a function without your business cards)
7. Introduce this person to other people you know at the function.
8. Follow up with a “nice to meet you email”
9. Follow-up regularly with articles or information relevant to their business or your shared business concerns.
10. Give referrals to others.
Keep in mind networking is first about what you can do for someone else, not what they can do for you. If you help others, you will receive help in return, it may not be an immediate payback but it will come with time.
Always remember people find it irresistible when you recognize them and know their name (not just their teeth or dental challenges). This quote says it all:
We are all so vain that we love to have our names remembered by those who have met us but once. We exaggerate the talents and virtues of those who can do this, and we are ready to repay their powers with lifelong devotion. The ability to associate in the mind names and faces is a tremendous asset to a politician, and it will prolong the pastorate of any clergyman. William Lyons Phelps
What are the benefits of your services?
May 16th
When Linda and I observe teams we are consistently struck by communication skill opportunities. Asking questions, listening, and using benefits are the top three areas all practices can work on. Teams are excellent at explaining the technical aspects of what they are going to do, how strong a crown will be, how beautiful a smile will look but the benefits the patient will receive, that deeper core issue, is generally not delved into. Benefits are why your patients buy.
Think about the following. If I asked you what you wanted (business related) in the next 90 days, many of you would say you wanted more new patients or better cash flow. What does that really give you? Does it actually give you more than money in the bank, or a wallet filled with cash? I’ll argue that what you are really looking for is financial freedom, peace of mind, more time with your family, reduced stress over making ends meet, or some combination these. That’s why most of you hire us, to help you get to the benefits that are most important to you.
The same is true in your practice. Identifying benefits allows you to speak to your patients on a much deeper, more personal, and emotional level. The more questions you ask, the more benefits you uncover, the better the relationship, the more likely it is that you will have case acceptance. As challenging as it is for most teams to believe, patients are buying the benefits they receive first and foremost, not the technical quality of your work. Your role is to understand what benefits the individual patient is looking for and to help them understand how your high quality dentistry will get them those benefits.
When you look over the services offered by practices, the easiest “sell” is the whiter brighter smile, relief from migraines or headaches, (or other pain), or better sleep. Patients don’t know why they would want to replace a filling. How often in your practice do you hear “it doesn’t hurt”? Most patients don’t care that replacing the filling now is better for the tooth, will make it stronger and it will look better. What is the individualized benefit for that patient? Is it so they don’t have a painful experience, is it so they don’t miss work unexpectedly, or perhaps it is so they don’t incur a larger personal expense, or is it something else?
Think about benefits as motivators or concerns. A patient can be motivated to come to the dentist by: their appearance, their spouse (or lack of spouse), pain, embarrassment, or what else? Concerns are those things that prevent the patient from moving forward with treatment (money/insurance benefits, fear, distrust, time and others).
By really listening for a patient’s motivators and concerns you will understand what you need to explain to help them make a decision regarding treatment. This also helps your patient’s feel you really understand them and they will be more strongly connected to your practice. This is the foundation of having a relationship-based practice.
Here is some homework: Identify the potential motivators and concerns of your patients regarding your treatment recommendations. See how many times in the next week you can hear your patients indicating a motivator or concern. Watch how using the patient’s motivators and concerns in conversation helps patients and improves your connection with the patients. Enjoy!
Create and Keep Your Dream Team
Apr 21st
Keep your patients coming back!
What is the key element to keeping your patients coming back to your dental practice? Your team! They are the backbone of your practice and they are the “face” of your practice. They manage every phase of the patient experience, from answering the phone, answering questions, delivering care, and saying goodbye at the end of the visit. Your team keeps your practice running smoothly, your systems working, your patients happy, and the dentist happy. This will not happen without a team that is working together with no drama. Here are 5 tips to ensure you have your dream team.
1. Don’t hire the first warm body with an impressive resume.
Your hectic schedule and the time you devote to patient care are not an excuse. Invest in finding the “right” person for your practice. Without the right people on your team, you will constantly hire and rehire. This makes your team unable to focus on delivering the level of care you expect. We recommend holding a “Job Orientation”. This 2 hour meeting will allow the cream to rise to the top, and the superior candidates to standout. It takes the pile of received resumes and allows you to see who they are as compared to all the others. This will determine who is given your valuable time in a formal interview.
2. Use behavioral based interviewing questions and check references
There are two terrible places to sit during an interview. In front of the desk as the interviewee wondering what is going to happen next, and behind the desk as the interviewer wondering the same thing. The best applicants will be interviewing you as well, don’t show up unprepared, unkempt, or disorganized. Plan the questions you will ask to help you understand their willingness, emotional maturity, manageability, ability to prioritize, and personality. Really listen to their response, don’t focus on your next question. Check references and their previous salary. Realize that some people interview well and become someone else on the job. Let the “Jekyll and Hyde” hire go sooner rather than later.
3. Hold Performance Reviews regularly
High performing team members want feedback. What holds you back from helping them analyze how they are doing on the job? Have performance reviews at least annually and in a way that makes sense for you. Everyone in one week, or on one day, spaced out throughout the year, or on each team members’ anniversary date. Make the team accountable for scheduling the reviews. Set a deadline for their portion of the review to be turned in to you a week prior to your review with them. Start now to define your system for a formal annual performance review. Know some team members will need more than annual review. Coaching the team to improved performance and ensuring everyone is working toward practice goals, is the priority for the leader of the practice.
4. The “Team Integrity Agreement”
This commitment between all members of the team consists of appropriate and acceptable behavior standards for the practice. It includes statements such as: I will treat all patient information in a confidential manner, I will turn off or silence my cell phone during business hours, I will arrive at work on time and be a dependable employee, I will clock out when I am no longer working, I will use the internet for business purposes only. This creates a standard set of expectations for everyone. The Doctor included. When behavior is outside of the agreement, it is easy to discuss because everyone agreed to the standards. Ignoring unacceptable behavior only generates confusion amongst the team and passive aggressive behavior from the dentist or other team members.
5. Develop teamwork
Schedule team events outside of the practice. Do a murder mystery with your team, decorate Valentine’s as a group and have your patients vote on the “best”, go to a sporting event, amusement park, or dental meeting. Be involved in your community by sponsoring or participating in a local event. Go bowling or play softball. Do something together. This allows people to get to know one another on a personal level and have fun!
The interest you take in your team member’s lives outside of the practice is given back. Take each individual team member out to lunch twice a year. Talk about them as part of the practice and about their lives, what’s going well, what they want to see different, how their job impacts their life outside. With genuine curiosity and devoted time, you will get a return on your investment in the form of a committed and dedicated team.
To build a tight knit team takes time, energy, and effort. Once you have a strong team, everyone reaps the rewards. Better interactions with patients, feeling like the team is helping to achieve the practice vision rather than you pulling the team along, and less stress. Follow these 5 tips and create your dream team. If you have questions or need more information, contact us!
