After three years as a Navy dentist, and 31 years of private practice, I joined the faculty, the Dental College of Georgia, working mainly with the senior dental students. The question that always would come up is, “Hey, Dr. Bolt, when I set up my practice, do you think I want to be fee for service or join insurance networks?” My answer has always been the same fee for services the best way to practice because the agreement is between you and the patient, and has the insurance companies on the outside looking in, and they don’t like that very much. If you decide to join in PPOS, being a network provider would help your practice, get new patients and be busier. Just know what you’re getting into. Make informed decisions. Have a partner like Dental Advocacy Group help you! I talk the dentists every week, that signed up hastily for insurance networks. Most of them are getting paid poorly. Some as little as 50% of their normal fees- 50%! So let me ask you this, what good is it if you get 60 new patients a month, if you’re treating half of them for free. Behind me is a new Grand Bohemian hotel in Greenville, South Carolina. They’ve been working on this for over three years, scheduled open this summer. Just like you, they spent a lot of time and a lot of money getting their product just right. I doubt when they open they’re going to let every other guests stay for free. Don’t treat every other patient for free- you don’t have to. Don’t give away your dentistry! Go to dentaladvocacygroup.com to see who we help, how we help them, and how much we can help. I think you’ll be glad you did!
I have been working with Dental Advocacy Group for just over three years now and could not be more pleased. In network providership allows for a razors edge margin for error and profitability. With that said, DAG is constantly working to negotiate fee schedules that allow maximum payment under the headings of a massive variety of PPO plans. Cornelia, Michael and their team take all the guess work out of credentialing and recredentialing that can be tedious to say the least. The fee schedules that are achieved are significantly greater than any I have been able to negotiate in the past on my own dealing with companies as a single practitioner. Whether you are in a 10 operatory, 2 doctor practice like mine, or a 3 op practice just beginning to swim in the PPO pool, constant fee negotiations are absolutely necessary. Without DAG I would not be able to achieve the results in PPO profitability that I now have. A Class A organization all around. I couldn’t be happier.
When our practice was looking for new ways to increase revenue, we hired a consultant that suggested we speak with Dental Advocacy Group regarding their program. We had tried to get fee increases from of our insurance companies and always hit a brick wall. Our fees were consistently being cut. When we met with DAG we were a little skeptical to say the least. We decided partner with DAG in hopes of seeing our revenue increase. Jaime, our account manager, has been wonderful in walking us through a somewhat complicated process. She is knowledgeable, well organized, patient and responds promptly to our questions. She kept track of our network participation status with the insurance companies while we waited for our fee schedules to switch over to the higher schedule. This process does take time, but we are already seeing significant changes in our reimbursements.