Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
This Dental Specific Podcast is dedicated to the Dental "Entrepreneur" Michael Dinsio, Founder of Next Level Consultants, delivers #TRUTH when starting up a dental practice. From the very first step to getting the keys of a dental practice, Michael shares his raw & unscripted playbook with you. Not only does this podcast provide you with "What To Do" but more importantly "What Not To Do". With over over 15 years of experience & over 150 past clients, Michael delivers an educational and informative program in a real and genuine way. Start w/ Episode 01 - as we go through a STEP by STEP process.
00:03
question is so low to John, I don't even know where to start with that question. guess the problem is, and by the way, I love that question. Interesting, interesting. This is an interesting topic. What's the solution here? Show up, understand your part, and just crush it. Pay per click, social media, we can talk about all this stuff, but what really matters is patient experience, that wow factor.
00:34
Startup unscritped, the questions you have with the truths you need to hear. Now your hosts, Michael Dinsio and John Bertagni.
00:50
All right, welcome, welcome. Today is going to be a super exciting episode because we got one of our favorites on the show today. you know, the whole season has been unscripted and I just have a feeling that this particular episode may be extra unscritped, which is why I'm pretty excited about. So as always, John, thanks for being on the show with me, brother. Good to see you this morning. Thank you.
01:20
We're having fun and you're right. There's going to be some passion words in this episode, I guarantee. this is like our potential R rating coming forth. But we'll put that on the screen today. That's what it should be because we're talking about real money on this show and not only collecting, but you know, providing patients with accurate EOBs and you know, getting the right money from insurance companies. So there should be superlatives when talking about an insurance company with our doctors. So
01:50
Uh, we've got an absolute expert and icon with beautiful red flowing locks for the people that are, um, that are not watching, but, uh, Danielle Ecclestone, which, you know, she has been dominating the market in terms of doing right. Remember this is our whole premise doing right by the industry. Right. And, you know, when, when I think about what she's doing with her company.
02:20
and her doctors, this is what it's about, right? This is exactly what it's about. So we're gonna cover a lot, credentialing, billing, but Danielle Icklson, is that right? Did I say it right? Yeah. With a dental account at ease with us today, and we're gonna get into all kinds of things, so welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. So happy to be here. Of course, of course. Let's jump in. We found that people have very short attention spans.
02:50
So if we don't get right in it, we lose everybody. So let's get like just right into it. You know, we were going through this process of a startup, right? And we've gone through vision and everybody's sick of hearing this that follows us, but we've gone through the whole thing, construction, equipment, technology. mean, now we've built the practice, right? And it's beautiful. And the patients are going to love it.
03:17
But now we got to actually do the hard part and that's actually create a sustainable business. And insurance is a huge part of a startup and being sustainable. So let's, let's get right into it credentialing. That's one of the first things and oh my God, things. This is before we even start the practice. You have to credential before you start your practice.
03:42
Not the day that you open the door saying, now we need to credential, correct Danielle? How many times does that happen? It is the worst when any startup starts and then they're calling us on week one or week two saying, I need to get credentialed. Are you a startup or acquisition? Because at least with an acquisition, could potentially build underneath the other provider. But when you go to that startup, you've got to have your stuff in place beforehand or you're not getting paid. And then you want to be fee for service.
04:10
you still aren't getting paid because even as a fee for service office, the plans want paperwork. And if you're not ready to put that paperwork in, you're not getting paid. So I hope you have some money sitting because otherwise we're going to be going back and forth for the next 90 days. Well, and here's the thing. What has to be understood about that? Yes, you use the prior person's NPI or yes, you are starting the process. That's all well and good. But the reality is,
04:39
It's a pain in the ass for patients to understand what they actually owe. If you are not in network and you say it's coming, everything is it. And guess who needs to be really smart and very, you know, verbose in terms of how they translate this. It's the person upfront. So that's why this is super important. The credentialing, the person upfront, the verbiage. But I think it's crazy that people
05:08
just think they can open their doors and then, oh, I need to be credentialed for all of these. And it happens more often, more often than not. 9.9 out of 10. Easily. 9.9 out of 10 startups literally have it unless they're working with someone like Michael, who's already on that phone prior to closing going, we got to get this stuff going. Yeah. So unless they have someone who's there through that process, they are making that phone call after week one.
05:34
And a lot of times people in the front don't even understand because they're coming from a in network office where they're not used to having to quote out of network. They're not used to how even out of network works. They think they're getting paid just off the office fee schedule. That's not how it works. You know, it's based off your area code, whether you're in network or not. The only difference between in and out is
05:55
In in network, the patient's co-pay is lower because the fee is lower on negotiation and out of network, the patient's paying more because you're still getting that same amount whether you were in or out unless you're sitting on a plan like Guardian. So and these plans are messing up. These patients are, you know, messing up. They're not understanding what they owe. The girls in the front aren't being, you know, and I should say guys too, aren't being, you know, informative and understanding out of network coverage. And it's just a mess. It really is the biggest headache of
06:24
any startup is right there in that credentialing. you go. Well, I was just I was just thinking like, there's a lot of credentialing companies out there that that costs a lot of money. And I get a lot of clients that are like, really $6,000 on top of all of this construction. And you know, like they've just got so burnt out on the expenses of the project. And then right towards the end where
06:52
where by the way, that money that you spend at the end of the project is really gonna propel the business. And John, we talk about this all the time that they get so crazy on the project spending, the crown molding and the beautiful ADAC and this and that. they- Don't give up Starbucks machines. That's right, that's right. They overspend, but then they don't spend the money where they need and so really quickly,
07:22
Can a dentist, and I already have my answer to this, but can they, do they have the skillset to fill out that paperwork on their own correctly? And do you see where I'm going with this? I can tell you. even their CAQH. They're like a CA what-age? Exactly. CAQH. You literally have to go in there and just fill out all your personal, your social, your school.
07:51
Well, Danielle, I don't know. And they're calling me like, what does this mean? So imagine giving them like the MetLife app is I think what 49 pages, the Delta 118. You know, imagine giving them that and something so basic as, but your date of birth, your social, your school years and your work history, your DEA number, MPI, tax ID, all into that CAQH and their law.
08:17
Yeah, I mean, honestly, I tried to credential for a couple of the practices for the couple of the doctors. said, no, this is not happening. I didn't have the patience and you just look, it's daunting. bottom line is, and Mikey brought up a great point. This is one of those buckets that people have to preserve money for. They have to preserve money for this because that fee schedule, that credentialing, all of these things are so important.
08:47
just like signage, just like marketing, all these things at the very end, they all get snipped. And it's actually much more important than some of the other things you talked about, Mike. So Danielle, thanks for doing this. I really mean it because this is so huge. I want to bring up this point. So we go through the credentialing process, right? So this doctor is now in network.
09:13
with the patients, you know, now, you know, MetLife people are calling or whoever it might be. How many times do you see this happen that people actually, once they get that fee schedule, correct, that in-network fee schedule, they actually don't put it in the software correctly so that then their patient portion and insurance portion, when the patient checks out, is not congruent and it's not indicative of the services rendered. How often do you see that?
09:42
and how important is that to do for the doctor? wait, wait, Before you answer, because... I was just about to go! John, you oftentimes use big words that I don't even understand. So let me, let me... Yeah, but I got this. I was ready. I was ready. was ready.
10:05
And so everybody understood. I want you to answer. You're going to answer this, but let me break it down to Denzio terms, layman terms. Okay. Layman's terms is you, you have, you go through all this work and you finally get the fee schedule that the insurance company is providing you. Right. Yeah. And if you don't put that in your software, there's no way to be able to tell me if I had Delta dental, what my
10:34
out of portion would be today, right? You would give me some of this, you'd go based on your fee schedule and you wouldn't collect anything from me because you weren't sure how exactly it was gonna land after the, and it's a train wreck. So it's literally entering every line of every fee schedule for every procedure and
11:01
How many people don't do that and walk us through, again, that's the main thing. Built a dental for Otis Elevator, like that specific, that's how you get the exact thing. Daniel, go. Otis Elevator. we're gonna backtrack to the one more is, did you go through a TPA, which is a third party administrator, or did you go direct through the plan? There's so many offices, I was just in one a week ago, where I walked in there and they're like,
11:30
I'm in with Maverist, I'm in with Carrington, I'm in with Denimax, and I'm like, but why? And how do you even know at that point what fee schedule to use even if you have them entered? Because Carrington also falls underneath Denimax, but if you're also credentialed with Carrington and Denimax, then the plans are gonna choose which one it's gonna choose based off which one's the lower fee schedule.
11:55
Then of course, if you're credentialed direct, you're taking an even lower fee schedule. And so you really have to understand how to credential properly. Are you gonna go all the way direct with the plans, meaning I'm going direct to MetLife, direct to Delta, direct to Aetna, and I'm being the center hub, or am I gonna hire a TPA like Harrington, credential with them and let them spread out my apps? And then you have to take those fee schedules and something like Harrington might say, hey, you know, like for specialty, hey, you're a specialist, so you need to put our fee schedule in.
12:25
25 % less than what your UCR is and that's we're gonna pay or 10 % less. So now you're sitting there with a calculator trying to and go down the whole thing to do 10 % less. And then if you don't have the fee schedules in like I have a group in California, they're in newer office with me and it drives me nuts that none of the fee schedules are in because none of the quotes are right. They're not collected from patients, right?
12:53
Right. Patients are upset. They're screaming at me on the phone, wanting to know why they weren't collected for that fluoride or why they weren't collected for the perio maintenance correctly. And it's just so bad. And you have to put those fee schedules in. You have to credential. have to your practice in place before you start. And you need to put the time in it. Yeah. So here's the thing. So one of these, you know,
13:18
One of our listeners that's, you know, unnamed, that's going to be Dr. Buffoon, right? Because someone's not going to listen to us on how important this is. that's, that's nine out of 10. Nine out 10 will not, they will not listen to this episode. No, this is very No, done with that one. We want them to go direct, if they decide to do it on their own, we want them to go direct to each of the insurance companies, correct? It really just depends on what they're trying to do.
13:48
for money. You know, I'm a huge person that says go through Carrington. The reason why is you take Carrington side by side, even like let's say Carrington to Connection Dental, okay? Carrington on a periodic exam might be $27, but I'm sorry, Connection will be $27, Carrington will be $39. There you go. So have to your key schedules before you choose what plans to go direct or go through a TPA.
14:17
Okay, wait, sometimes on these, you too, you too, sometimes on these episodes, our listeners are sorry, our interviewers don't go deep enough and John have to pull it out. I think what you folks just experienced was now we went so deep that we've lost everybody.
14:40
Let's back that up again. We're just going to keep, we're going to just back this up. The bottom line is, the bottom line is look at the fee schedule, see which is the best way to go. And it could be a carrying tin, it could be a TPA, could be direct to the piece. But more importantly, you made the best point of this, the confusion that patients have by not having the correct fee schedule. And it literally,
15:11
it literally waterfalls down, right? Because what happens is they're going to call the front desk. Front desk might not be that solid in order to answer that question. And they're going to piss off that patient even more. is a perfect segue to the next question that I had. All right. So, so you said might not be, first of all, most front office folks, I I hope there's not too many of them listening.
15:41
just aren't strong enough in general but but here's the deal if if you don't credential you don't get your fee schedules in the system you don't learn how to actually treatment plan appropriately then what happens then is the confidence at the front desk is gone they don't have the confidence anymore to to sell and yes they are selling so they don't have the confidence
16:09
And so when someone doesn't, everybody knows what this looks like. You go, if anybody's been sold by somebody that didn't have confidence, it's awkward. by the way, you're either gonna feel bad about, you're gonna feel bad and you might buy because it's a pity buy, or you're gonna be like, this person has no idea what they're doing, I'm definitely not buying that. And that's probably the second one, right? And so the...
16:35
The truth of the matter is, is we need to arm our team again, 25 to, you know, some places 20 to $30 an hour. Gary Vanderchuk, sorry, I'm going off on a rant. Gary Vanderchuk, if anybody of you follow him, he said something a years ago that stuck with me. If you expect a $25 an hour person, and I'm not being demeaning here, I'm just saying.
17:02
This is a $25 an hour person, J-O-B, to run your practice for you. What's that gonna get you? That's gonna get you a 25, I mean, and so we I mean, that would have gotten me back in the day though. I think I'm pretty spectacular. Well, you are. And there's always a 1%. There's always a 1 % or a 20 % out of the 80, but I guess what I'm saying is we gotta set them up with confidence. So Danielle.
17:30
We've talked about credentialing. You do that for your clients. What you really, really crush it is the billing. I want to kind of segue because, okay, we talked about insurance. We talked about fee schedule. We're dripping into some of these things. But really, it all goes down to how efficient we are in throwing those claims and getting our money back, right? It all comes back down to that.
18:00
I want to introduce a concept that I think people should really pay attention to. And John, I know you agree with this is, you, you might consider outsourcing that really complex thing that we just talked about that we may have lost you in and focus and focus and focus on hospitality at the, the office. Daniel, I call it concierge, right?
18:27
I call it concierge, a buddy of mine, ortho practice here, a great friend, Derek Straffen, unbelievable ortho office. Guess what? You walk in, there's a person sitting behind a little desk standing that doesn't even have a computer. She's just there to say this, this, direct you within the practice. That's concierge service. It means nothing about my billing. This is wrong. This, it's a smile.
18:57
It's so brilliant. set up a lot of like that. And actually, if you watch any of my other podcasts, I always say that dental accounts at ease was designed off the fact that I thought the front office should be concierge. You need that report. You know, people don't understand in any practice, everything ends up in billing. When patients are upset about their crown because it hurts. Guess who they talk to? They don't talk to the front.
19:23
They don't call to talk to the assistant. They call to talk to the doctor. They want to talk to billing because they paid for that service. So people always need to understand on how important it is to have a functional billing department. And third party billing is the way to go. Obviously there's a lot of, you know, fake ones out there. There's a lot of little itty bitty tiny ones who haven't earned their keep and don't really know what they're doing. But you talk to my clients.
19:49
You talk to my role surgeons, you even talk to the dental plans, dental, Blue Cross, Wichita, Texas, and they're gonna be like dental accounts at ease for the win, nothing but net, pretty much. I mean, it really is. know, go, every practice ends at 100 % with us almost every year. Our lowest percentages for the last three years was 99.3 % collection to production, and I don't write off. I don't write off things. I fight them, I argue, I go to insurance commissioners, things you'll never ever have.
20:18
inside your office. So let's go here because you're right. You guys crush it. There's a handful of others that crush it, truly. The rest are horseshit for the most part. Absolutely. So let's get into that because some people actually don't think that you know that practice or that particular bill because you don't know the patient and you're not there. Right. Explain
20:47
how little of importance that statement is. I will tell you that statement is so false because I have letters from patients that literally have written my offices like DFW oral surgeons in Texas. They just got a letter a few weeks ago where a patient said they'd rather deal with us because we love your staff member Danielle. She's the best. educate them. That is the key words right there. We educate them on how to understand their benefits and where it applied to the ledger.
21:16
And what we can do to make sure that they understand it going forward and understand their bills. You're gonna get a girl on the front office, she's gonna answer that phone. We'll just say her name is Michelle or whatever. She's gonna say, hi, thanks for calling Dr. Smith's office. Michelle, how can I help you? Michelle, I've got a question. How did my balance end up at $858 when you told me these exact words, and I hate these words. Your copay today is nine.
21:41
You have to always use that word estimated. You have to notify as you're running that card that this again is your estimated portion. If balance were to change, you will receive a call or a statement from our billing department. The fact they don't do that, patients are upset. You can pull up any client and honest to God, if you inquiry with me, I'm on your office. I'm looking at your reviews and every single time. The dentist is great. I love my assistant. I love my hygienist.
22:09
Oh, well, let's not talk about that for now. Yeah. mean, here's, here's, here's one thing. And I look at that. That's, that's a big piece. That's a huge piece. I want to know this, Mike. Ready? So someone says, Hey, I'm opening my practice. I need a front desk person. need an assistant and maybe a hygienist. Right. And then myself, my two hands that can produce money. They're going to say to you, Mike, I don't have the money.
22:39
to pay for this other person. I look at third party billing as another person that's almost free o charge. You don't have to pay taxes, you don't have to pay Medicare, Medicaid, any of that stuff. Mike, talk to me about how you portion the money out for this sort of piece for a startup. To me, it's the X factor. It's the X factor because what you just alluded to, and I'll say it again, no.
23:07
no benefits, no taxes. It's a 1099. They always show no workers comp. No workers comp. They know you don't have to doubt that they know how to use the system and figure out the system. And so when you actually do the math on what a Danielle would charge you, it breaks down to an hourly that is so small.
23:37
that you can then potentially put money into maybe a hygienist sooner. Maybe you could quit your associate position sooner, because you hate working there, and you have to do it to make ends meet, but this is a startup. mean, there's so many things that you could potentially, maybe you could use more money for marketing. We're going to talk.
24:00
Plus dude, you're collecting money. Yeah, you're collecting money fast. Yeah, we're going correctly. can these people, they do not collect money. I had someone that had stacks of papers because she's been, you know, the stud of studs of, collections are my favorite thing. I mean, RAR at one of these practices went through the roof because she was, she was a farce. That's right. She was an absolute farce. That's right. It's an efficiency factor. And so I, you know, I always say,
24:30
You need a front office to pick up the phone always. You can't lose those new patients as a startup. You need coverage. You need coverage. But, you know, there's so many ways you could use a Danielle and company because I think business owners in general aren't creative enough. And this is all business owners, not dentists.
24:55
But they're just not creative where they think outside the box and you say, Oh, cool. How could I use that asset? And how could I use that asset? And it's putting it's putting that together. It's, by the way, it's, know, like private equity, right? The main thing that they ask for businesses that are still that are doing really well already is why they're doing it. Why, why, why, why, why? Because they want to extract something that actually makes it better than it currently is. Right. And that's what
25:24
thinking outside the box is you don't just follow a format of what's been, you know, everyone's been doing all the time. The way that people really crush it and actually have a quality of life and actually have personal, you know, patient experience, it's by asking those whys and then implementing that in your practice. A third party billing group, whoever it is, is brilliant. Okay, gotta go.
25:53
It's affordable. know, like someone like me, I know a lot of practices are nervous about third party billing, more so for the money factor. Some of them always think that we're all percentage based. We're not. I'm flat rate. So I, my dad was a dentist. So those who actually know me that might be watching this, you know, my dad was a dentist, you know, I'm writing a book about my father. And, you know, when you look at everything, I developed my system to be affordable for the office.
26:19
to be where you can maintain your overhead. So that if someone like Michael were to say, we want your overhead at less than 30%, you can factor that into your stuff because we take the heavy stuff away and all the girls in the front have to do is check in, check out and get that sale. And know, Michael, I'm gonna throw this out to you real quick, backtrack on that sale thing. I loved that you used the word that we're there to sell because I went to a conference over the summer.
26:47
And they were like, we don't use the word selling in dentistry. And I'm like, why? Because we're all here to sell. We're selling your name. We're selling what the patient needs medically or cosmetically if they're going the cosmetic route. And we're here to nail that sale in a proper manner, in an educated manner, and collect that money. And I think that a lot of dentists lose that factor. And then they come in and they have these startups. They're like, I can't afford it.
27:16
Yes, you can. You can afford to have a billing company because we all have startup packages if we're smart. I have a startup package. So, know, and I have that for my dentist to be able to afford so that I can get in the door with them and we can re-evaluate those finances later. But right now I'm getting you on target. I'm getting you where you need to be. And you're never going to wonder about where your practice stands. So how do you communicate with your doctor? Do you have like, is it like emails or do you have phone calls with them? What happens? Okay, so we send a daily recap.
27:46
So that daily recap is gonna tell you every day how many claims we sent, how many of those claims that we had to fix, like for instance, were they missing group numbers or group names or IDs? We balance out, so we post in, we send you proof of what we posted in your system. We also send you your adjustment report. I will tell you as a fraud investigator, that adjustment report surprisingly has caught a lot of embezzlement in a lot of regular standing practices.
28:12
because you don't realize what's getting adjusted in your front office because you're walking out that office at five o'clock like see you later I own this practice now I don't got to check in with anyone and you walk out so now you're at nighttime when you're sitting there maybe having a glass of beer you don't have a bottle of beer or whatever and you're sitting there getting that report you're like oh well why was this written off we're right answer why and then at the end of the week we give you a full itemized detailed report that has every single patient's name
28:38
of the who, what, when, why, and how of why that claim is open. Love that because here's the thing. I, we had fraud in ours and look at, you know, we thought we could, we were smarter than everyone. Fraud, fraud, multiple locations, multiple people. just happens. Okay. The other piece that's pretty cool that I just heard is just that those open claims and why they're open, what transpires typically.
29:07
A dental office without fixing those, would, insurance companies love this. They would send that in, they sit on that, whoops, we don't have this information. We don't have the tooth number. don't have the surface number. That extra didn't come through. Yeah. But that happens all the time and it buys them two, three weeks. Sometimes it buys timely filing. You know, I have that office that knew when I was telling you guys about in California that doesn't use fee schedules.
29:34
You know you get them and they have 300 pages of outstanding insurance and the doctors say but Danielle it's it's their word against mine I've sent that claim initially and I said do you think that they care what your word is at the end of the day the way they see it as Sorry, not sorry. Thanks for not sending in that $200,000 in claims We now make 200,000 off you better get your billing department together and a lot of practices don't realize that
29:59
If a patient wants to go as far as to complain about you to the FDCPA, which is the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, or they want to complain to the board that your billing is out of control, they have every right to. And now you'll be sitting there in front of the board. I got, I got, want to, I want to segue here because I really want to cover this topic. Danielle, you hire gals all the time to do this. Yeah.
30:24
It could be guys or guys or guys. we know you all don't want to sit in front of that computer. Come on now. your attention span already with women is not that high. Okay. So what are some tips Danielle that you could offer to our listeners that are doing startups that need good front office people? You have probably become a master.
30:54
of interviewing front office people. So give our audience like some tidbits on what your favorite questions are to know, oh, this chick doesn't know anything about the game or, you know what I mean? Because you got to remember that dentists don't understand this. Hey, dentists, folks, listeners, get your freaking pen ready.
31:21
I'm just drawing a piece of paper so can try to do like a little dramatic example. Yes, get it I'm one of those people when I sit there in front of them and I say, so tell me about yourself. Oh, I've been doing this 20 years. Done. Okay, I'm not looking at you. Tigers can't change their stripes. So the way I look at it is don't come at me with how many years you've been doing it, come at me with your knowledge of what you know. Give me a circumstance, give me a story of what happened with a patient that you resolved.
31:49
I don't care how long you've been doing it, because I can guarantee you the girl that's been working for me for two years will out-bill any girl in this nation. Okay? I love that. Oh, so sassy. So sassy. Right? You know? You're My turn. Hold on. That's it. I want more. I want more than that. Danielle, I want more than that. Keep it going. I'm a big one too on having a test. I know people are like, I don't want to do a test with a patient, but I do a pre-interview exam.
32:15
You're not even getting in front of my face, because I get 10 to 20,000 applicants a year, and I don't have time to look at everybody, okay? So I'm going to give you an exam on your knowledge. I'm going to give you EOBs, white it out with patients' names, so that you can tell me what the patient owes. Because let me tell you, if you're looking at that EOB and you say, well, it says patient owes $37, you're wrong. Wow.
32:37
I love the test. Can you? wrong. You've got to read the context. Does it say non-covered service? Because you're in Washington, you're in Arizona, you're in Texas, you're in California, you're in pretty much 42 states. Guess what? A non-covered service. You can bill your UCR and you should not be putting in that network adjustment. I want to know how do you read eligibility? I want to know, do you know the difference in the new night guard codes? Do you need the new stuff? Tell me how you're going to sell a patient to me.
33:05
and I need a crown and a buildup and I don't have any money and then I'm gonna do the opposite of I'm gonna walk in with my red hair most likely in workout clothes and you're gonna assume I don't have money not realizing who I am tell me how you're gonna sell me and I'm gonna sit there and give different characteristics like look down at the paper and look back at you are you gonna automatically go to care credit you're gonna automatically try to assume that I can't pay that bill up front I'm all about the experience
33:31
and what they've been trained in their office and whether or not I can retrain them or whether or not they're going to come in and they're going to nail my practice and I'm going to start booming and I'm doubling production. I love you. Well, here's the cool thing. And thank you for all that. It's so smart. I look at this, knowing all of that stuff and all that baggage that you're carrying, that person, as opposed to you hire someone that's a server who's super personable.
34:01
amazing with people like that is that concierge person? I don't know, man. You can, you can find some really, you can widen the, you Hey, you gotta look at my bio. So everybody looks at me, dental building company. I'm literally, I was a Las Vegas show girl. I was a show girl. I worked for a Caesar's palace on ice in a two, two, wrong. No, take my photo. Call me Ana from frozen. Do you want to to school? Okay.
34:31
That was me. And guess what? My dad needed help. He threw me in the office. He spent one day with me. And because I was bright and I could catch things on, I instantly did that. Because when I wasn't on tour with Disney on Ice, Cirque Soleil on Ice, or in Caesar's Palace skating, I was a server. I drove golf carts in Old Town Scottsdale taking drunk people from bar to bar for tips. And guess what? Today I own the second largest dental billing company in the nation.
34:56
And I want to say that I'm probably that top 1 % in people in the dental office, in the front office. And I came from hospitality. And maybe that personality and always having to be quick on my toes, because I will tell you, I put a girl from a bank teller in my oral surgeon office in Kona, Hawaii. And it's really because of the fact that you can teach someone who's eager. You can teach someone who's smart. And you can teach someone who has the drive and the speed.
35:26
I love that because you're right. can't hide. I read a book, was the Nordstrom way or Nordstrom way and Nordstrom, they said, what's the best training program? Someone's parents. It's the work ethic, it's their attitude, it's how they are. And then you can train them the skillset, right?
35:52
And that's the way Nordstrom believes. And that's why you go into Nordstrom, you feel like a million bucks when you leave, right? That's why they get on my red bottoms. That's right. Okay, quickly. We're going to end on this one. Danielle, the one thing so I'm struggling a little bit with and maybe our listeners do or anybody that's listening is if I'm sending the you're managing the claims, you're sending everything out. So we're kind of
36:20
bringing in these folks that are servers that don't really know the industry, we still need them to treatment plan. Right, right. So there's a science to that. So if I'm offloading the really complicated shit to you, right, and you're going to crush that and collect a ton of stuff, I still need a skill set at the office that kind of knows the treatment plan. So walk us through like
36:46
how you bridge that gap for these offices. Because if I bring someone in from the spaghetti warehouse. Hey Mike, let her answer. So we offer. Gosh, you better stop. But we actually offer free treatment plan training. So as part of our billing package, we will retrain your entire front office. After about two weeks, you kind of pay attention to what they need help on and we'll retrain them. Because we want them to treatment plan efficiently.
37:17
I think the biggest mistake an office can make is relying on the software to do it. Yeah. Please stop saying that the patient owes this amount just because Dentrix told you or Open Dental told you because it's not true. And especially if they have a secondary attach, it's going to always tell you the patient owes zero. It's not true. There's so many different coordinations. You have to understand what you're doing and you have to get that training. And I'm a person I go on site as well and I retrain on how to treatment plan. I don't do anything else.
37:45
I literally stay very focused to the insurance side of it. I teach them how to treatment plan. teach them how to read eligibility and then I teach the billing size. So you have to invest in your front office. You have to invest in your treatment planners and do not rule someone out just because they're coming in with one year or six months or whatever because I was that person and in one year from the day I started, Delta Dental of Arizona was having me in on audits. Okay?
38:14
trainable with the right worth ethic and the right people standing there next to you. So you will train. You have a training program for your client. How bad is that? I didn't even know that. And if you're my billing client, you we have our billing with you, you get it for free. I give you two hour sessions to go over everything. And then I just follow up and check in. You know, I've got
38:43
offices like Miladro Dental in Santa Fe. Those girls, Janet over there, that girl will be like, Danielle is my lifesaver. She still sends me emails like, Danielle, I sold this treatment plan. They get so excited now because I taught them how to use the proper verbiage and get that sale because I am going to put every single person on that schedule. No one's walking out that door. Wow. This was amazing. What a way to finish. Finish strong.
39:12
With the triple axel, it. I got that double cow cow. By the way, the red hair is not Dorothy Hamill style just for the- You know what, I never liked to be typical, so hey. can't, when I wasn't an office right, so Danielle, Danielle, what a great session this was. Can't thank you enough for enlightening not only our listeners and viewers, but you know,
39:41
Michael and I. That's what we strive to do. And this was a great one. Yeah, I will say anybody that runs a company and looks like you do, Danielle, you are a firecracker. And that tells me that, I mean, if you're heading up this organization, could you imagine the people under her, John? Like bulldog. Let's go get some money from these insurance companies.
40:07
Right? love that. Awesome. A little bit of yee-yee and yee-haw because I got a lot of girls in Texas. I love it. Well, thank you so much for being on the program. You were the best. And everybody look below. We've got contact information. Danielle will be a resource to you with this program. And this was fun. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Bye. Thanks for having me.
40:38
Thanks for listening. Tune in next week for another truth-filled episode of Startup Unscripted.
40:49
Check out Startup Unscripterd on Facebook and YouTube. Click like, subscribe, and interact with Michael and John.