Joe Hannan

 This WalletHub ranking takes into account several factors, including Affordability, Quality of Life, and Health Care access.

Dentist Resigns After Possibly Infecting 592 Veterans with HIV, Hepatitis

The dentist failed to follow proper sterilization procedures and protocols, reports say, putting hundreds of veterans at risk.

Look Before You Book: The World’s Best Airlines

To determine rankings in diverse categories as well as to compile overall ratings, Skytrax analyzed 13.25 million airport survey questionnaires completed by 106 different nationalities of airline customers.

America’s Best and Worst Places for New Year’s Eve Celebrations

WalletHub used several indicators, including the nightlife options, legality of fireworks, and restaurant meal costs to come up with this ranking of US cities. Some might surprise you.

Video: Common Social Media Blunders for Dentists

 Derek Pearson is the VP of Business Development at Banyan, a company dedicated to improving social media performance for dentists. Here, he describes common errors he sees dentists making with their social media presence.

Articles

These 5 stories were the most popular on Dentist's Money Digest last week.

The DMD Top 5 for the Week Ending Dec. 9

With November behind us and the icy grip of winter nearly upon us, many of you may be thinking a bit more seriously about relocating to another, possibly warmer, state for your retirement. It’s no secret that relocation can be an effective part of any retirement strategy. In some ways, the grass is greener in other states, where you may experience more favorable 

, lower cost of living, or better access to the health services you may need in your golden years.

 ranked all 50 states and the District of Columbia by 3 criteria: Affordability, Quality of Life, and Health Care. Each dimension was assigned a total point value: Affordability—40, Quality of Life—30, and Health Care—30. The dimensions broken into sub-criteria, each eligible for a specific amount of points. Affordability was measured by 4 criteria, including Adjusted Cost of Living and Annual Cost of In-Home Services. Quality of Life was measured by 12 criteria, including Percentage of the Population Aged 65 and Older, among others. And Health Care was scored on 8 criteria, such as number of Dentists per 100,000 Residents.

Here’s how the 7 least retirement-friendly states stack up, in ascending order:

This WalletHub ranking takes into account several factors, including Affordability, Quality of Life, and Health Care access.

The 7 Worst States for Retirement

 who may have infected 592 veterans with HIV and hepatitis B and C after failing to maintain proper sterilization techniques has resigned.

 first reported the news on Friday that the unnamed WI-based dentist has stepped down as the furor over the possible infections has spread. The dentist had been treating patients at the Tomah Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Illegal Dentist’s Work Results in $60K Worth of Damage, Authorities Say

The fact that the dentist continued to be employed—albeit in an administrative positon&mdash;prior to Friday, drew the ire of House Speaker Paul Ryan on Thursday. Ryan, a Republican, called his job status “stunning show of bureaucratic impunity,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

That sentiment was echoed by Sen. Ron Johnson, another Wisconsin Republican.

“The individual in question has not been fired … this demonstrates once and for all that the VA needs a complete overhaul so that our veterans finally get the care—and respect&mdash;they deserve,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel quoted him as saying.

According to the news outlet, Victoria Braham, acting medical director at the veterans medical center, said on Tuesday that the VA was reaching out to all of the potentially affected patients to inform them of the situation. Braham announced on Friday that the dentist had resigned. He was due to appear before an administrative panel for review today.

More Sexual Assault Charges Filed Against Dentist

“Although we cannot prevent the dentist from resigning while administrative actions are pending, we are continuing reporting procedures to the State Licensing Board and the National Practitioner Data Bank,” Brahm said in a statement. "We will not stop doing all we can to ensure those responsible for this serious breach of patient trust are held accountable."

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported earlier last week that the dentist had been using, cleaning, and reusing his own equipment, which was a clear violation of the VA’s policy that requires sterile and disposable tools for patients.

"It was purposeful that he was violating VA regulations," Brahm said at news conference.

"During all of the orientation, he used all of our equipment. He used it appropriately, so it was very purposeful from what we found in our investigation that he knew exactly what he was doing, and preferred to use his own equipment against procedure."

Looking at what may happen in 2017 and beyond.

The Delicate Process of Terminating a Patient

When and how to go about getting rid of a troublesome patient.

Study Suggests a Standard System for Tooth Wear Evaluation is Needed

Researchers are now recommending that dental practitioners develop and accept a standardized tooth wear evaluation system in order to more effectively address this growing dental problem.

How to Be the Leader Your Dental Practice Needs

 Kirk Behrendt, BS, delivered these tips at the Greater New York Dental Meeting on how to improve at managing patients, employees, and expectations in your dental practice.

Improving Your Practice’s Google Search Ranking

 Google has 6 rules that govern search ranking, said Robb Antosy of Advice Media during his session at the Greater New York Dental Meeting. Play by these rules to elevate your ranking.

The DMD Top 5 for the Week Ending Dec. 2

A 74-year-old man in Utica, NY, has found himself in a heap of legal trouble after being arrested for allegedly practicing unlicensed dentistry that resulted in $60,000 worth of work to correct services he provided.

After 1 Death, 15 Infections, Oral Surgeon’s License Remains Suspended

 police arrested Velimir Krgovic on Nov. 18, charging him with impersonating a health care provider. According to the report, Krgovic provided treatment for a woman, spanning from January 2015 through March 2016. The report described the treatment as “extensive,” saying she was charged $8,200 for services including “3 root canals, 3 posts, and removal of all crowns.”

“Krgovic provided the victim with pills that she was told were antibiotics,” the report said.

 reports that the woman began to grow suspicious after she continued to experience pain and discomfort. She then sought treatment from another dentist, the report says. According to the report, the new dentist told her “that all the work completed by Krgovic was not performed correctly and would require $60,000 worth of dental work to repair the damages done by Krgovic.”

Investigating officers determined that Krgovic was unlicensed, though he told investigators that he had gone to dental school in Montenegro. The 

 reports that Krgovic has since been released after posting $25,000 bond.

This isn’t the first high-profile arrest of an alleged dentist impersonator. The 

 reported earlier in November about how a report of a stolen oven led to the discovery of an illegal dental practice in an Atlanta-area warehouse. Two suspects were arrested in that incident: the alleged unlicensed dentist and the landlord who is accused of harboring him. In the GA incident, the suspect, Yuri Aleksandruk, said he was licensed to practice “overseas.”

The stolen oven ultimately had nothing to do with the dental practice. According to a report, a man investigating stolen property on Craigslist found an oven at the warehouse that he determined to be stolen after inspecting the serial number. He called police, who stumbled upon the illegal dental practice during their response, the report said.

The suspect provided extensive dental work that needed to be corrected, authorities said.

Illegal Dentist's Work Results in $60,000 Worth of Damage, Authorities Say

If you’re thinking of buying or selling a dental practice in the near future, and you’re thinking of going it alone, you might want to think again.

That was the message at the continuing education session, titled “Role of the Transition Team,” which took place on Wednesday at the 

. The session was hosted by a trio of experts: Alan Celemns, MBA, Gregopry R. Tapfar, ESQ., and Domenick Lobifaro, CPA.

Navigating the complexities of the transaction require guidance and expertise, both of which will be provided by a transition team. There are no second chances in this major, life-altering decision, Clemens said. “You’ve got to do it right the first time.”

Clemens first reviewed the current difficulties dentists are facing in the market, such as longer hours, less retirement preparation, declining profits, and greater insurance competition. Though dentists are doing better these days, many are still recovering from the economic downturn. The same is true of patients.

“You’re competing against the car payment that has to be made,” he said. “People are hurting.”

Taking all of that into consideration, he said, an effective sale of your dental practice is more critical than ever, in terms of establishing financial security for retirement or your estate. However, there are potential pitfalls along the way that your transition team will be equipped to handle.

For example, do you own your practice’s real estate, or do you rent? Clemens said that he has seen leases complicate or even thwart potential sales, noting that landlords today are more cutthroat than they used to be. A broker on a transition team provides a potential seller with a buffer to manage difficult interactions like this one.

“Work with people who give you more than what you pay for,” he said. “Work with people who care.”

Clemens also provided an overview of how a transition team will go about valuating your practice. Step one, he said, is familiarizing himself with the owner, and it behooves the owner to disclose as much information as possible to the transition team in order to provide a complete financial picture of the practice.

Other factors that the team will evaluate include the types of patients, the type of dentistry, the quality of work, the work that is referred out, and the reputation of the practice. He cautioned that no two valuations are alike, however.

“There is no boiler plate here,” he said.

Here are some other factors a transition team will look at for your practice:

Location, location, location. This will certainly factor into your practice’s valuation, Clemens said. Other demographic factors will include stability of the neighborhood, effectiveness of the practice’s recall system, and number of active patients.

Appearances aren’t everything, but they certainly don’t hurt, either. A transition team will also look at the flexibility of a space, meaning, could a potential buyer expand his or her practice if they wanted to? Available parking is also a factor.

Does your current practice offer credit to patients? Also, what insurance modalities are offered? Other financial factors considered by the team include the fee structure and treatment mix.

You can’t buy a business unless you get information,” Clemens said. “I want to know how much this doctor is producing an hour,” he said. The other critical benchmarks a transition team will want to see include average total monthly production, average adjustment, average total receipts, average patient visits, average hours worked, and average production for hygienists. These numbers, Clemens said, are especially important for a transition team because the team can use them to show a potential buyer not just what the practice is worth, but also what specific changes a buyer could make to increase profitability. 

If you're thinking of buying or selling a dental practice in the near future, and you're thinking of going it alone, you might want to think again.

How Much is Your Dental Practice Worth?

Anyone who has spent any time studying management theory has probably encountered 

You can’t manage what you can’t measure.

” Attendees of the continuing education session titled, “Know Your Practice by the Numbers” on Wednesday at the 

 got an overview of critical profit and productivity indicators to better manage their practices.

Q&A: Improving Your Practice's Online Presence

The session was co-hosted by Karina Santos, BA, a practice management consultant who focuses on helping practices go chartless, and Arthur S. Wiederman, a CA CPA who specializes in making dental practices more profitable. The two experts provided steps that don’t just improve tracking and reporting within a practice, they can also increase overall production. The key, Santos and Wiederman said, is consistency and frequency in the reporting practice.

“Do you know what you’re looking for when you run your report?” Santos asked the audience.

She went on to explain that a practice’s complete financial picture can often be skewed by poor data-entry practices. If your goal is to increase collections, Santos said, you need to routinize thorough and consistent reporting by your office staff.

The first half of their session was a review of what they called “5 Key Point Indicators.” These indicators are areas of focus for your practice’s internal reporting process that should be tracked. Santos and Wiederman also offered advice on how to improve them.

Improving Your Practrice's Google Search Ranking

Do you set total production goals for yourself and your office staff on an annual basis? If you don’t, with the new year almost upon us, 2017 is a great time to start. Goals, Santos and Wiederman advised, help to incentivize staff, give you a target for net profit, and also help to accurately gauge overhead. Setting them is straightforward. They advised that you set a total production goal in dollars that is 5-10% higher than what they did last year. You’ll also want to ensure that your fees keep pace with inflation, Wiederman advised. And if you’re not seeing enough foot traffic in your practice, you’re SEO and marketing efforts might be to blame. “If you are not on Page 1 of Google you may as well not be on the Internet,” Wiederman said.

Nobody likes working for free. You shouldn’t either. But confronting people about unpaid bills is never easy, Wiederman said. He advised that it’s critical to have a front-desk staff that is comfortable talking tactfully about money. They also said that practice leaders should be diligent about not letting collections age past 90 days. This can be especially harmful if you’re looking to sell your practice in the near future. And if you aren’t pushing to collect your fees over the counter, you should be, they advised, putting the target at about 1/3 of total collections. Santos pointed out that there are now many good programs that will estimate what insurance will pay. Use them, and get paid sooner rather than later.

 Where are your patients coming from? You should be tracking this, along with the total number of new patients you’re taking in. If your numbers are low, Wiederman advised that you again revisit your SEO and marketing efforts. He also offered this useful metric: You should be seeing a minimum 5% return on investment for any advertising dollars spent. Also, think of that TV commercial you’ve seen a thousand times. There’s a reason for that. Advertising needs to be repetitive in order to work, Wiederman said, so don’t run a campaign one time and expect it to work.

Wiederman and Santos advised that you need to be diligent about tracking patient attrition. This figure gives you a good idea of how much money you’re leaving on the table. A useful metric in this category is the number of patients due for care, compared to the number scheduled. This figure should stand between 75-85% for patients scheduled for routine care.

You want to track your hourly rate of production in dollars, as well as that of your hygienists. A lot depends on your practice type and location, Wiederman and Santos said. To give you an idea of what you should be aiming for, Wiederman said between $300 and $700 per hour for the dentist in CA is reasonable. 

From the Greater New York Dental Meeting: Better record keeping is essential for driving profit in your dental practice. Here are some key metrics that you should track and understand.

Increasing Profitability: Your Practice, By The Numbers

Leonard Tau, DDS, presented several continuing education sessions at this year’s 

, all of which dealt best web practices for dental practices. In addition to practicing dentistry in Philadelphia, Dr. Tau is also a general manager at 

, a company dedicated to promoting online reputations of businesses. Dr. Tau spoke with 

 about key elements to maintaining a strong online presence for your dental practice.

Q: What are some best practices for maintaining a sound online presence for a dental practice?

A: First of all, I think the most important thing that dentists don’t understand is not only do you have to have a website--because a website is the marketing hub for an office, it’s the place that you want to direct all prospective patients to, it’s your online billboard--but you often have to have consistent reviews that are coming in at least a couple times a week. You want to get as consistent of a listing as possible online. People talk about ranking factors. One of the biggest ranking factors is reviews. The other big ranking factor is consistent listings across a lot of the different local citations, as we call it

Q: What are some common errors you see dentists making with their online presence?

A: Signing up with companies who take advantage of them. Signing up with companies that don’t know what they’re doing. I think one of the biggest mistakes they make is they don’t have a plan. They kind of do things in the wrong (order). I think the biggest mistakes dentists make is they go and say, I’m going to go spend $10,000 on a website. Well, I don’t know why they would have a website without being found online first. Because if you spend all this money on great a website without being found, what does the website do for you? Absolutely nothing.

Q: What platforms do you find tend to be the most effective, in terms of social media?

Facebook is by far the most effective. Again, let’s state that a little bit different way. Generating new patients, I don’t think any social media aspect is going to generate new patients. … Twitter is a complete waste of time. Nobody cares what a dentist tweets, so I wouldn’t worry about that at all. … YouTube, I love. Talk about yourself. Talk about your practice. Video testimonials. How-to videos. Question and answers. Those types of things are great. Pinterest is a great site. It’s very heavily women with higher income, if you want to put before and after photos on there. Instagram is great for a younger generation.

Q: Obviously, there’s good content and bad content. What’s the type of content that actually gets a potential patient’s attention or a current patient’s attention?

I think the most important thing is, what content would Google like. With Google, content is king, so you’ve got to give them as much content that’s going to get you ranked higher. … You want content that is going to engage the reader. You want content that’s going to give you subject matter on which you’re the expert. You’re going to want content that’s sharable. You want to get content that has an action attached to it, that makes them want to do something with it. … The biggest thing about social media is you don’t want to sell the readers dentistry. You’re going to turn the readers off. You want to find content that people appreciate. If people are going to listen to you, it’s not about selling dentistry. It can’t be about, come in and buy Invasalgin for a cheaper amount of money. You’ve got to get them to be engaged in what you’re writing.

Q: What are the sorts of things you can do to elevate yourself in Google rankings?

The competitive difference maker is by far and away—and this is where my specialty is, in ranking better—reviews make you stand out. … The point is here, the more Google reviews you have, the more patients trust you. The more consistent citations you have, the more Google trusts you, the higher they rank you. The higher they rank you, the more visible you are, and then the more patients that are going to come into your practice. … And that’s a huge driver of patient load these days. In terms of what other things will help you rank higher, having a lot of content on your website that is relevant to what you’re trying to get out there. If you want to brand yourself as an Invisalign dentist, you need to do a lot of Invisalign content. … It can’t be a lot of spam content. It can’t be content that violates a lot of Google’s terms and conditions. So you’ve got to use legitimate companies that know that stuff. Because if you violate a lot of their penalties, they’re going to penalize you, and you’re not going to be visible at all. So you’ve got to find legitimate companies that know what they’re doing.

Leonard Tau, DDS, and general manager at the online reputation company BirdEye, offers tips on boosting your Google ranking, properly using social media, and creating content for your practice's website.

There is no more coveted spot in the world of search engine results than the first page of Google. Attendees of the session titled, “Playing By Google’s Rules” on Tuesday at the 

 received a road map for elevating their practices’ visibility in Google rankings.

The session, which was hosted by Robb Antosy of Advice Media, covered the 6 factors that Google uses to rank its results.

“The basic rules that we want to go over today are the basic rules that Google is playing by,” Antosy said.

He began by reviewing just how much Google knows about each of us: our politics, the stores we shop at, even our driving habits, explaining that Google’s entire business model revolves around delivering relevant information—and advertising—to its users. It gauges relevance of search results and advertising in accordance with the data it collects on its users.

“For them, it’s all about money,” Antosy said. “At the end of the day, they want you to be successful as well. But you’ve got to play by the rules.”

Mobile responsiveness of your practice’s website has a direct effect on your Google search rankings. What does that mean, exactly? If your website doesn’t flex and scale for smooth navigation across desktop and mobile devices, then you have a problem, Antosy explained. “You really want to make sure your entire website is fluid,” he said. 

 is a great resource for testing your site right now.

Dentists can’t just be dentists, Antosy explained. You have to be content generators too. Your website, Antosy said, will always be a hub for content, but what you put on that website matters. Blogging monthly is a great place to begin, he explained, because it’s a way of letting Google know that your website is a source for relevant information. You’ll also want to be sure your website contains social media icons for smooth sharing, as well as links out to any affiliated universities or professional organizations.

Your website, Antosy said, should be the annoying kid in class, always raising its hand to Google, letting it know that it has new and relevant information. As previously mentioned, blogging is a fantastic place to start for keeping fresh content on your website. But the best kind of content is …

The key, Antosy said, is making the right kind of video. Short patient testimonials, he said, are a fantastic place to start. Aim for about 45 seconds. These videos don’t have to be overly sophisticated either, Antosy said. Using a smartphone camera will often suffice. Just make sure you’re hosting your videos on YouTube, Antosy said. He explained that as a Google subsidiary, YouTube is the second largest search engine. It also receives more than 1 billion unique page views monthly. YouTube’s closed captioning function will also help to drive traffic back to your site.

. If you’re not on social media, you need to be. But the key is delivering the right kinds of social media. “Either you love it or hate it, but guys, it’s really something you should be investing your time into.” Antosy said that he often sees dentists fall into the trap of bombarding people with sales pitches on social media, which drives them away. He reminded the audience that people come to social media to be social, so a better approach is showing people who you are and what you do—offering them an entry point into the conversation.

“You need to know what is being posted out there about you,” Antosy said. That means monitoring, or using a monitoring service to check reviews on Yelp, or other health-centric review sites. Positive reviews, he said, will have the direct effect of elevating your rankings. He also offered some tips on getting in front of negative reviews. He recommended several patient survey services that will email patients, asking them to rate their experience at your office. A positive rating will refer them to an external site, like Healthgrades. A negative review will take the patient to an internal portal that will ask them for more information so that it can be addressed by practice leadership.

Google has 6 rules that govern search ranking, said Robb Antosy of Advice Media during his session at the Greater New York Dental Meeting. Play by these rules to elevate your ranking.

Improving Your Practice's Google Search Ranking

During his continuing education course on Monday, titled “The Top 10 Secrets to Make Your Practice Thrive,” which was a part of this year’s the 

, it became immediately clear that Kirk Behrendt, BS, would be covering far more ground than just 10 actionable steps.

5 Steps to Boosting Referrals to Your Practice

The 3-hour course covered topics such as boosting referrals, dealing with difficult employees, and changing why and how dentists work. Behrendt is 

 and has made a career out of elevating dentistry. As his informative session, which held the attention of dozens of dental professionals, began to wind down on Wednesday, Behrendt touched on what he referred to as the “big stuff,” or areas within practices that can result in immediate gains in team cohesion and the bottom line. Here are 5 of the key points he covered.

Behrendt said that he has seen boosts in productivity and profit in practices that have moved to a 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. workday. He also advocated for getting rid of the lunch hour, since dentists’ lunches often get eaten away by emergencies or procedures that run longer than expected. “It isn’t how hard you work,” Behrendt said. “I love working hard. It’s what you get out of the hours.” A 7-3 shift, Behrendt also noted, leaves more room for your personal life, leading to a better work-life balance. He did caution that this change isn’t for everyone, and that if it is going to work, it needs to be implemented with clear direction from you, the practice leader.

This simple equation, Behrendt said, is an effective way of understanding conflict in your dental practice. If E stands for Expectations, and you subtract from those Expectations R, which is Reality, you end up with Conflict. You have conflict, Behrendt said, when expectations and reality don’t meet. This brought him to his next topic of …

“The only businesses in the United States that are growing are the ones that are under promising and over delivering,” he said, citing the example of Amazon. When you order from Amazon, he said, you’re typically told your package will arrive in 5-7 business days. And yet, your package typically arrives sooner, sometimes within 3 days. By under promising, Amazon has effectively made you a happier customer. The key to succeeding in this regard in your dental practice, Behrendt, is managing the Expectations in the conflict equation.

How To Spot Addiction in Your Dental Patients

 It seems surprising at first, but when you un-package this concept the way Behrendt did, it makes sense. If you put your employees first, Behrendt explained, you are effectively creating a better experience for the customer. Elevate your team, and thereby elevate your customers. Which leads us to …

 It’s hard for many of us to accept, Behrendt said, but people either don’t change, or change very little. And, he added, there are those among us who will suck the energy and life out of a practice. “It doesn’t get any better than the interview,” he said. He said that in the countless practices he’s visited, he often encounters a difficult employee who has been around for years, simply because a dentist is unable or unwilling to deal with them. It is better to be clear in addressing issues such as these, he said. “People are starving for clear.”

Kirk Behrendt, BS, delivered these tips at the Greater New York Dental Meeting on how to improve at managing patients, employees, and expectations in your dental practice.