The Navigating Dental Insurance Podcast

Podcast Summary (Show Notes Style)In this episode, Jordon Comstock talks with Dan from Elevation Association about why dental insurance—especially Delta Dental—is becoming a bigger threat to independent practices, and how practices can successfully transition to fee-for-service without destroying their schedule.Dan explains that Delta is making aggressive moves, including owning dental practices, which gives insurers more control locally and reduces their reliance on independent offices. He also warns dentists not to assume associations will protect them, arguing the industry landscape is shifting fast.The conversation then turns practical: Dan breaks down what it really takes to exit PPOs strategically. The key is preparation—especially having a patient membership / benefit plan in place before going out of network, so patients can move “laterally” into the practice’s own plan. He emphasizes aligning the entire team around the mission, using incentives when appropriate, and building strong patient communication to counter misleading insurer letters that make patients think they “can’t” stay with the practice.Dan shares that the transition isn’t instant—it can take about a year to stabilize, with the first quarter or two feeling messy as hygiene schedules fluctuate and patients test the financial impact. The practices that win dedicate staff to proactive recall/outreach, driven by real data (they use Dental Intel), to refill the schedule and reduce attrition.The episode closes with the payoff: the move is described as freeing and energizing, with fewer write-offs, more control, and the ability to slow down while improving focus and profitability—especially when practices don’t try to do it alone and instead leverage coaching, tools, and a clear plan.TL;DR (30 seconds)Delta is tightening control (even buying practices), so dentists need a strategy to regain power: prep your team + track key KPIs + build a membership plan first + over-communicate + run recall/outreach, and expect a ~12-month stabilization period after the PPO exit. The result: less write-off pain and way more freedom.

Tessina disuses how to effectively use an insurance commissioner. Most dental offices do not use the insurance commissioner and most are missing out on a type of advocacy that is proven to reduce claims denials, as well as many other challenges dental offices face when dealing with insurance. To contact Tessina, email her at tessinabarney@gmail.com. Visit her company website at www.VerusDental.com

In this episode, Jim focuses on his work as a dental specific CPA. He talks about advantages of using a dental specific CPA over general CPA's. Jim shares advice on how to work with your CPA in a way that is productive and allows for you to take full advantage of tax codes, and other perks that come with proactive tax planning and tax mitigation strategies. Jim also talks about fees and how they impact dental practices and his shock when comparing his client's fees with area percentiles. His advice is to be proactive at reviewing and assessing your fees often and in a way that will impact revenue and profitability.  To contact Jim, send him an email at jim@tridentcpa.com

"How to Scale a Membership Program to 365 Members in Just One Year: Lessons from Pioneer Valley Dental Arts"Read my article for this podcast!Summary:In this episode of The Automatic Patient Podcast, host Jordon Comstock chats with Gina Kiner, Office Manager at Pioneer Valley Dental Arts, about her incredible success in growing their patient membership program to 365 active members in just one year. Gina shares her strategic insights, emphasizing the power of empowering clinical teams to promote the membership program alongside the admin staff. Together, they discuss the importance of patient experience, the role of membership plans in reducing financial barriers, and how effective communication fosters trust and treatment acceptance.Key highlights include:How integrating clinical teams into the financial discussion boosts program adoption.The importance of creating seamless patient experiences and building trust.Specific strategies used to educate both uninsured and insured patients about the membership program.The overwhelmingly positive feedback from members and how it fuels continuous improvement.The significant advantages of membership plans over PPOs, including increased treatment acceptance rates and simplified processes.Whether you're looking to enhance patient care, boost recurring revenue, or learn actionable tips for scaling a membership program, this episode offers invaluable advice from a practice that's successfully done it.How to Scale a Membership Program to 365 Members in Just One YearJordon Comstock - BoomCloudapps.comAutomatic Patient Podcast

"Mastering the Patient Experience: Navigating Dental Insurance and Membership Plans with Deborah Nash"Summary:In this episode of the Navigating Dental Insurance podcast, Jordon Comstock hosts dental consultant and coach Deborah Nash for an insightful discussion on enhancing patient experiences while addressing the complexities of dental insurance. The conversation delves into effective communication strategies for handling common patient questions about insurance, the benefits of in-office membership plans, and the importance of relationship-based care over transactional approaches.Deborah shares practical advice on how to shift from policy-driven to patient-centered conversations, emphasizing the need to educate patients about insurance limitations without alienating them. The duo also explores key differences between PPO, cash-paying, and membership patients, backed by data insights. Deborah offers actionable tips for building trust, creating a seamless patient journey, and maintaining a high standard of care.This episode is packed with valuable advice for dental professionals aiming to foster loyalty and achieve financial clarity while navigating the challenges of the modern dental landscape.www.boomcloudapps.comDebra Nash

Maximize Your Practice’s Revenue with Smarter Financial StrategiesIn this episode, we dive deep into actionable strategies to boost your dental practice’s profitability. From mastering financial KPIs to implementing membership plans, learn how to retain more revenue and reduce write-offs with insights from a seasoned dental CFO.Key TakeawaysWhy KPIs Matter: Understand the financial metrics every practice owner should monitor.Membership Plans as a Revenue Driver: Explore how membership plans can increase recurring revenue and improve patient loyalty.Reducing Write-Offs: Tactics to minimize the impact of insurance write-offs on your bottom line.Scaling Your Practice Profitably: Learn how to align your growth strategies with sustainable financial outcomes.Resources & LinksRevenue & Retention Blog – Articles on optimizing revenue and patient retention.BoomCloud Membership Platform – Simplify your practice’s membership plans and grow recurring revenue.DSO CFO Website - https://dsocfo.comVeritasdentalresources.com - Negotiate PPO Contracts

Episode Noteskey topics for a podcast summary:Technical Setbacks and Humor: The podcast kicks off with some lighthearted moments as Dan and Jordon troubleshoot microphone issues, setting an engaging and relatable tone for the conversation.Strategies for Defining an Ideal Patient Profile (IPP): Jordon and Dan dive into the importance of creating an Ideal Patient Profile, emphasizing how understanding demographics, psychographics, and payment preferences can elevate the success of a dental practice.The Value of Membership Patients vs. PPO and Cash Patients: They discuss the financial and operational impact of different patient types. Membership patients are highlighted as the ideal, with higher conversion rates, more predictable revenue, and fewer limitations compared to PPO patients.The Psychology Behind PPO Limitations: An in-depth explanation is provided on how insurance companies influence patient spending behaviors and the drawbacks of being heavily reliant on PPO patients.Marketing Tips for Attracting Membership Patients: The conversation includes actionable marketing strategies, such as using local SEO, social media, and educational content to bring in more high-value, membership-based patients.Community Engagement and Referral Programs: The hosts discuss ways to build community trust and loyalty, emphasizing how involvement and patient referrals can significantly boost practice growth.These topics set the stage for a dynamic and educational episode packed with actionable advice for dental professionals looking to transform their patient base and increase profitability.Jordon's Company - Membership Platform for dentistry: BoomCloudapps.comDan's Company - Coaching practice owners for success: https://www.elevationassociation.com

https://www.180dental.nethttps://www.boomcloudapps.comVeritasdentalresources.comFire the PPOs E-book

During this episode, Rebecca opens with talking about the importance of strong brand identity. Your brand is not just who you are as a dental professional, it's creating an image and a story about who you are but in a way that attracts the type of patient you are looking for. When your branding is strong, using effective marketing channels will help you drive the type of patient you want to see and the type of patient that will resonate with your personality and brand.Rebecca explores the real of patient education and applying some of that educational messaging in your marketing. This helps when patients experience you in real life to where your brand positioning and marketing can play a big role into the patients experience when they visit you in person for treatment. Rebecca talks about how marketing strategies are not just for patient acquisition; it's about patient retention: it's about case acceptance - it's about long term relationships. When it comes to dropping insurance, Rebecca recommends having a very strong brand positioning to give patients a solid reason to stay with you, even if you go out of network. She talks about communication protocols that are helpful in preparing patients for out of network transitions. To Rebecca, relationships matter greatly when it comes to out of network transitions and proper communication with existing patients will hep influence really great patient retention. In short, we learn from Rebecca that marketing is not just about putting your name out there, it's about fostering long term relationship with your patients and in a way where your own patients are promoting you and doing your marketing for you.Contact Rebecca by visiting www.verasoni.com  

Check out Brian's podcast and websites:  https://practicepurchased.podbean.com/https://www.dentalbuyeradvocates.com/team/ This episode is packed with a lot of great information about trends with patient attrition/patient retention as it pertains to PPO and FFS (fee for service) practice purchases. The key message Brian shares is that both practice types are totally worth pursuing as the net patient attrition numbers lean in favor of the new practice owner. Among the many practice transition experts we interview, Brian's processes are among the best in the industry as it pertains to practice acquisitions. What's crazy is that among his clients,  the average patient attrition trend for new practice buyers after 12 months of ownership is -2.3%. This is the best percentage we've seen in the industry as what that means is you are 2.3% ahead in overall patient count after the first 12 months of of ownership. We've always been a fan of Brian and highly encourage listeners to check out his podcast and website. 

Bob was a hospital CEO before he found his second calling, dentistry! Bob brings decades of experience into dental and takes a deep dive on leadership styles as well as relationship dynamics in dentistry. Both he and Bryton share their knowledge on how and why partnerships and associateships tend to not work well in dentistry. Arguably, most partnerships outside of dentistry tend to follow a same pattern of failure over time. With key positions like an associate dentist or partner, Bob and Bryton provide feedback on how to ensure that such relationships are set up for success the first time around. To contact Bob or Bryton directly email them at bob@dentistpartnerpros.com or bryton@dentistpartnerpros.com, or visit www.dentistpartnerpros.com to learn more. 

As a hygienist and a biller/coder, Jen covers the topic of hygiene coding and underutilized hygiene codes. With her years of experience as a hygienist, Jen talks about missed opportunities as it pertains to hygiene coding. She shares a number of underutilized codes that many dental practices can implement right away. Jen's knowledge on coding is quite impressive as what she covers is not discussed widely in the industry and are areas of hygiene related coding that can make practices more competitive and more profitable. To contact Jen, email her at jen@hiddendentalprofit.com 

During this episode, Ericka talks about different areas of coding and billing that are holding dental offices back, from a revenue perspective. Ericka talks about how insurance companies pay more for a prophy compared to a gingivitis cleaning (D4346) where such a cleaning is more extensive than a prophy. She talks about how perio billing in general is low for most practices. Ericka provides insight on solutions to help with accounts receivables in general and shares her top 5 Key performance indicators for dental billing. To contact Ericka please email her at billingcoach@hiddendentalprofit.com or visit www.hiddendentalprofit.com.

Join the Webinar!https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/8417114682617/WN_Q7sGAPbhQGODKJAfF7gv1g

Bob Speil: robert@spielconsulting.com

Check out Tessina at www.verusdental.com

Check out Tessina at www.verusdental.com

Insurance verification is a common activity in dental offices. Such a process allows team members to gather important information from insurance so that the team can give accurate benefit information and accurate quotes to patients based upon what their insurance covers.With many dental offices struggling to find qualified people to fill any practice need, Tessina has developed a company called www.VerusDental.com to help doctors with insurance verification needs. Tessina's offering to listeners is a grandfathered $15/hr for full insurance verification and such pricing will be locked in over the next 3 years.To learn more, email Tessina at tessinabarney@gmail.com. 

During this episode, Dr. Morrow shares his experience in dealing with tongue-tie by sharing a person story on how he was able to treat his daughter. Tongue-tie appears to be a common issue as medical agencies report that nearly 25% of newborns deal with tongue-tie. Russ found that by using laser techniques, not only can he treat tongue tie but do so in a way that is non-invasive compared to surgical outcomes when using traditional methods.Russ further explains the use of laser and how laser technology boosted his own practice revenue. Russ believes that acquiring a laser is one where the laser itself should be considered a major asset in the practice and a tool that is proven to improve clinical outcomes, thereby positively impacting the bottom line for a practice.To learn more about lasers or the use of laser for a number of different types of clinical procedures, visit Biolase.com.

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