Justin: Welcome to the Dental Marketing Guy Show, I’m Justin, the dental marketing guy, and today we have a very important guest, you’re going to want to hear what Dr Dan Marut has to say. Dr Dan is - you may have already heard of Quality Dental plan, this is a huge resource, I want to tell you a little bit about Dr Dan, and kind of give him the floor on how he can help you grow your practice, we're talking case acceptance, we're talking marketing, we're talking everything that - I mean this plan, quality dental plans, has got to be one of the most comprehensive aspects, and I would probably say the most neglected aspects, as far as marketing is concerned, as far as internal marketing is concerned.
Dr Dan Marut DMD established quality dental plan in October 2009 after 3 years of rigorous testing and development. His vision for QDP is to connect dentists looking to make a difference in their communities with new patients, while giving people without dental insurance a compelling reason to go to the dentist. Dr Marut is committed to helping dentist, like yourself, achieve a sense of financial well being, and independence from insurance companies, and provides the program structure and marketing materials to support you in this endeavor, through QDP.
But you know I could talk about QDP for a few minutes, but I probably couldn’t do well as job as you, Dr Dan, how are you?
Dr Dan: I’m doing great, thanks for having me on, you hit a couple of great points on there and it’s just fantastic to be on this podcast with you, leveraging technology, and using the mediums that people are using these days to communicate these days. So thanks for having me on, and definitely appreciate it. Looking forward to our discussion.
Justin: yeah, and you know, I’ve got to say, I always love having a dentist on my show, because there’s a lot of marketing people out there, like myself, and we're not dentists. So when I have a dentist, who has founded a company for dentists, it’s always a good thing. I mean, I don’t need to explain that to you, because you experienced some issues in your practice that gave birth to QDP, I was hoping maybe you could tell us a little bit of a story about your background as an dentist and what kind of challenges you faced, that caused you to say 'you know what, let’s start QDP'
Dr Dan: Sure. You know, Justin I was a normal wet fingered dentist in the trenches, just like everybody else out there, going through the day to day challenges of keeping up with managing a team, managing a practice trying to grow a practice and budgeting my time with family and my hobbies and trying to live a lifestyle that I wanted to, that’s one of the reasons why I got into dentistry.
One of the challenges that we always undertook in our practice, or that we saw, let’s say, were of course, patients who didn’t have insurance, and the mentality of insurance. And I’d get questions from patients all the time like 'oh, do you have an insurance plan that you’d recommend for me?' and 'oh, if I had insurance I would come in earlier, and this wouldn’t be an emergency', or the one that a lot of us hear is 'oh, I ran out of my insurance benefits this year, I can’t get any more work done, I have to wait till next year until they go ahead and renew' and so, I took the road of wolf, I educate them on insurance, what it is, and its actually, there’s difference options out there for you.
Well, it really didn’t, people out there, they wanted a plan, they believed they needed a plan, they heard about it all the time, so no matter what I told them, it really didn't make a hill of beans when it came to that aspect of their care, which was the cost objection. The number reason why people don’t go to the dentist, I that, the cost objection. So when hearing all these people weren’t going to the dentist getting the work done, because they didn’t have a plan, we said 'well lets create a plan that actually makes sense for the dentist and the patient, lets eliminate the 3rd party hassles that are associated with the traditional insurance' so that’s how the whole idea came up in the first place. We wanted to really preserve the doctor patient relationship and remove any 3rd party layers hassles, for our patient and our practice. So, with that being said, we journeyed down the road of implementing QDP in our practice and figuring out all the kinks and are continually working on making it the best it can be, and that was -gosh, we launched it officially in 2009, but we were working on it for a few years prior.
Justin: you know, one of the things I think our viewers like about these episodes is - I’ve got a few questions to ask you, but just kind of off the cuff, I’m wondering like - would you say, because I know a lot of prospective dental patients feel this way that, they have this impression, and it’s not true, for those of our listeners, I’m not representing this, but this is what is said out in the market place is, they believe dentist become dentists, to make money, and would you say something like QDP kind of puts you in the same, like on the same team as the patient, is that a fair assessment?
Dr Dan: yeah, I hear where you’re going with it, and absolutely. If people got into dentistry to make money, there’s a lot better ways, in my opinion, to make money, then being a dentist, you have to have the willingness to serve the community that you’re in and take care of people. And so, there’s different ways you can make money, without dong those types of things, and doing the work that us dentists do, which is grueling at times, working in the environments that we do, it’s tough. But as far as being on the same team as the patient, absolutely! you know, when you start to look at a program that your designing specifically for your practice and your community, that’s a win-win, that’s a definition of that right there, so yeah, you become on the same team, you’re a partner with that patient, rather than having some other 3rd other party managing a plan that gets in between that relationship, and can make actually you, out to look like a bad guy. I mean, lots of times, if insurance doesn’t cover something they say 'well why you did that work then? Why did this happen? I have to pay more now' this is going on when it’s really not our fault, but it's a part of those hassles that you deal with when dealing with 3rd parties.
Justin: Yeah, you know, you hear about - there are some dental SEO companies out there which will remain nameless, on this show, who will encourage you to schedule someone without qualifying them, as far as insurance and ability to pay and things like that - just get them through the door. And I’ve heard from clients of mine, when you rush them through the door, and then they find out, after the bill is due that you don’t take their insurance, that’s tricky, so I can definitely - I mean, this sounds like, you might, I’m sure your thought of these things when your founded QDP. Let's delve into my 1st question, let’s talk about; for the uninitiated, or those who somehow haven’t heard of what you guys are doing to help private practice dentistry, what is Quality Dental Plan, or QDP? I know we've kind of touched on it a little bit, but maybe you can give the short and punchy version of what it is?
Dr Dan: lie the elevator pitch right? Sure. It’s essentially, I mean, QDP is a low cost alternative to high dollar dental insurance, that allows patients to save on dental treatment and give dentists full control of all fees and claim benefits, that’s what it is in its most basic form. It eliminates 3rd party hassles, allows the dental office full control, and keeps that relationship between doctor and patient the way it should be. We all know cost is the number one reason why people don’t go to the dentist, so what QDP does is really break down that barrier, and by breaking down that barrier, we're increasing access to care to so many people in our community who put off dentistry because they don’t have a plan. So our goal at QDP is to preserve that dentist patient relationship, and also increase access to care, so we're really fulfilling our mission as a dentist and as a dental office.
Justin: excellent. So, we’ve got a lot of Do it yourself listeners who are going to say 'why does' - and you know what, I’ve seen you on dental town, and I’ve seen some of the threads about QDP, a lot of good discussion there, and I’ve seen this kind of thing come up before, they say 'tell me why does a dentist need a company like QDP, why not just come up with my own in house savings plan on my own?'
Dr Dan: sure, and you know, I’m a huge believer of human intuitive, whatever you put your mind to, you can go ahead and accomplish, I mean there some many examples of that, just getting through is a huge accomplishment for us dentists. So, you know, what it really comes down to though, as a dentist and as a business person, it comes down to time and money, right? on the surface level, there’s so many things look easy enough, but once you start to peel back the layers, and getting into it, you start to see the complications, and getting it right from day one, can be extremely difficult if you don’t have expertise in that area, things like; setting up the benefits, pricing, how do you price it? What type of savings do you offer that make sense for your standard of care? Right? And your business philosophy, what do you include as part of the benefits? More importantly, what do you not include and why? Part of it also is, knowing what to actually call the program and what not to call the program. There are many places where you can’t even call it a membership, and people are calling it a membership, those are actually things that can raise red flags when it comes to different states insurance commissions and things like that. So there's a lot of minutia that goes into setting up these plans, even like accounting, simple accounting, how do you account for when your signing people up and working with them. How do you account for that in your practice management systems and such? So really when you’re looking at designing something like this, sure you look at websites 'oh that seems easy enough' but always there’s a saying out there; the devil is in the details. So, once you start to peel back those layers, you start to understand the intricacies of what needs to be accomplished. From the stand point of making it successful, kind of like a patient if their watching us do dentistry and they say 'wow, your only in there for 45 minutes and that cost me $1 000, wow, you made it look easy' well you do, when you know what you’re doing, it’s successful from day one.
So I have a saying that I like to use, Justin, in business, and it’s called' do what you do best and delegate the rest' right? I mean where do you want to spend your time? Do you want to spend your time treating patients? Do you want to take time with your family? Do you want to go out and enjoy your hobbies? I mean if you really enjoy figuring out a new system, consulting experts, talking with attorneys, creating forms, training your team, designing marketing pieces, figuring out all the accounting and all the minutia that goes into running a successful plan, then really go for it, because you'll have satisfaction doing that, but if you'd rather use your time wisely; hire experts! that’s were we come in, that’s where QDP comes in, I mean the time saved using QDP will pay your dividend, I mean as a dentist you can produce $200 $300 over $500 an hour! Why would you ever use that time to do something other then what you’re an expert at, right?
And so when you look at it from that aspect, do what you do best, and delegate the rest. QDP allows you to be successful from day one.
Justin: You mean to tell me, Dr Dan, that you don’t cast your own dyes and make all the impressions and run the front desk?
Dr Dan: right? I learnt that long ago, use my skills to the best of my ability and hire people who do other things better than me, and that’s a successful business model that a lot of people use.
Justin: and not just necessarily better I mean there are experts of course, but it’s not that a dentist couldn't do a dental assistants job.
Dr Dan: sure.
Justin: right? So I mean everyone knows how to cook a steak, but you still go to I don’t want to name a brand because I might get roasted, no pun intended. But, okay, so here are - you know we've got this idea of QDP, some people might be interested in doing it themselves, but I would ask you, are all dental savings plans, all these companies - I mean I haven't even heard of them all, but I’m sure they exist - are they equal to QDP in terms of experience, offerings, cost? How do you compare in your market place?
Dr Dan: it's really interesting - at QDP we've been assisting with dentist and team members and support of successful in office programs longer than anybody else out there. We've seen a lot of operations come and go, a lot of operations go through different changes and things that are out there, and you know, we work with hundreds and hundreds of practices out there; we know what works and we know what doesn’t, and it’s all based on our unique experiences. So dentists need to be aware of really who their working with, some of these companies out there are run by insurance companies, I mean do you really want to have another relationship with another insurance company? I mean I don’t. Some in the business are in the business of selling dental products packaged in with their dental plans and such, so you have to be aware of these people. Some are funded by venture capitalists and are just looking at dentistry as a great market and are saying 'hey, these people are making a lot of money' or 'hey there’s a lot of money in dentistry, let’s go ahead and get involved with dentistry and suck some more revenue out of that' I took the road of - I’m a dentist, these are my colleagues, these are my peers, lets create a company that we can be in partnership with the profession and strive to offer something better then what was done before.
So anytime you’re looking at who you’re going to be working with, whether it’s QDP or whether it’s in the same realm, or any company out there, understand what’s behind the company, what they are looking to do or accomplish, and understand some of the things like customization. Our plan at QDP we have a much customized approach that allows practices to create a program that’s really based on their standard of care and their business philosophy - it’s not a cookie cutter approach. Just one quick example of why, at QDP when I first started, what we did was, we went ahead and gave the patients the ability to pay for one of our programs for the entire year. So patients went ahead and paid for an entire year for the QDP program; and then what we found later on was, some people needed to go ahead and make monthly payments instead, and so we said 'okay, let’s go ahead and start offering monthly payments'. Well why not collect up front if you can, but also are able to offer monthly payments if you can? With our plan at QDP, which makes us unique, you can do either or; you collect in full, or you can take a monthly payment. I mean as a dentist and as someone who is providing services, why don’t have the ability to collect upfront and get paid in full for your services?
So that’s just part of the uniqueness of what we do, and the customization of what we do, and that really has a standing on top of pretty much the marketplace and what we do, because again we are in partnership with dentists, we want to find what they do in practices and build a plan around their approach.
Justin: that’s really interesting. While you said that, I actually thought of- you triggered this memory in my mind of my dentist. I went to the dentist, and the first time I went to check in, the front desk asked me if I have dental insurance, and what’s interesting about it, is, for dentist, not having dental insurance, but having the money to pay for comprehensive care, I was all those things, I’m private pay, fee for service, cash - literally cash up front. So I’m like the ideal target market, but there was something about that question 'do you have dental insurance?' and then I said 'no' and I felt like I was missing out.
Dr Dan: yeah.
Justin: and its nothing bad to say about the reaction, but this front desk, she’s an all-star at billing insurance and remains relevant that way, but I didn’t have it, so there’s was a lot this - anyway, just from a patient perspective, I’m sure you and the listeners might be able to kind of get in my psychology of that, because for the rest of the time, I’m thinking like 'how does one get dental insurance when their entrepreneur and they don’t have a state employer or something?' you know?
Dr Dan: sure, Justin, your prime example, I mean your someone who doesn’t have insurance, and asked if you have insurance and feel like you’re missing out and all of a sudden you think you need a plan. well 'how do I get one of these plans?' that's really what it comes down to, the marketplace, it's 50% of the marketplace out there, if you’re looking at who has insurance and who doesn’t not, there are a lot of people who don’t have dental insurance out there, and a lot of people who simply don’t go to the dentist because they don’t have a plan, so why not offer that market segment a plan that actually makes sense? So your story, just hits home, it’s something that dentists hear every day.
Justin: yeah, so, you know one of the things that I think some of our listeners are wondering is, you say don’t take a cookie cutter approach, but can dentists actually set their own fee schedule with QDP?
Dr Dan: sure. There actually isn’t any fee schedule for QDP; dentist can charge whatever they want for their services. They can charge whatever they want for the QDP program, what we actually do for the QDP program, what fee would be charged, we actually have a formula, or an equation where dentist can actually plug in some of their numbers to come up with a recommended fee for the program based on what their including in the program. But at the end of the day, Justin, the dentist is always in full control, so if he says 'you know what, I think this fee is a little too high, let me go ahead and decrease it by $50" they can do that! If a dentist says 'you know what, I feel like I should be charging more' and raises it by $25, they can do that.
So again, we're here to make our recommendations, use our expertise to help the dentists, but I am not a 3rd party, we do not want to be a 3rd party and dictate what needs to be done. I believe dentists know their business model better than anybody else out there at their specific location, what they do; who better to go ahead and set their fees appropriately? We of course make recommendations and help them out with that.
Justin: so for the patients - bringing it back to the patients, because patients are people that have to sign on, they have to be on board with this, how often do the patients pay, monthly, annually?
Dr Dan: and you know that’s a great question, because patients are really the reason why all of us are in business to begin with - to serve them and the communities we're in. So with patients, when we look at patients coming to the dental office, we always want, in my opinion, we should always try and decrease the barriers of enter into the office. It's a business term, barrier of enter. Well if cost is a reason why people aren’t coming to the dental office, cost was mostly handled, and that objection was handled by having insurance or by having like a 3rd party finance company to help out with payments. Well cost is also perceived as what a patient is going to be paying, and let’s face it - to patients dentistry doesn’t make sense, the costs of it don’t make sense. When someone is spending $1500 for a crown, the cost of $1500 really doesn’t make sense to a patient. I always have this saying I like to say; 'savings make sense, fees do not' let me just expand on that just really quick. And I’m going to use a real world example. So I went to Costco to by a Keurig coffee machine, I’m sure most of your listeners and everybody out there know what a Keurig coffee machine is - you put a pod in there, you press a button and out comes coffee. Well, I didn’t know how much one of these should cost, so I went to Costco and I saw a stack of cards and they said that the Keurig coffee machine on the sign is going to cost $140! I said '$140 for a coffee maker? I mean I can go over to target and get Mr coffee for like $25, why is it $140?' well on the same sign, it told me I was going to save $30 because I’m a Costco member, Its only going to be $110. Guess what I did, I bought it! But here’s the kicker, I bought it, not because $110 made anymore sense then $130, but because I was saving $30 - savings make sense, fees do not.
So when we look at decreasing barrier of enter, offering savings to patients is a great way to bridge the communication gap of what somethings costing and what the value of that is. And so, when we look at 'how does patients pay for something like a program like QDP' - always we like to get paid up front, but we also want to have options available for people to make monthly payments if they need to. So we incentivize payment upfront for the entire year, and then we have the ability to offer monthly payments. The software that’s used to power our program is completely customizable as well, so you can have the ability to collect fully up front and have the ability to offer monthly payments as well for each situation, and that comes to your office so whatever patients need, you’re really going to be able to tend to their needs.
Justin: that’s excellent. You know, as you were talking I thought of another example. Dr Christopher Phelps came on this show and he talked about walking down the price stairs, and how when you percent the $8000 case and then the $6000 and then the $4000 and then the $2000, you tend to kind of help people - by coming down the stairs, you tend to help people feel like you’re on their side, your there to give them their options, you want the best option for them, which maybe the most expensive, so you start with that. But a lot of dentist go 'well there’s the $2 000 the $4 000, the $6 000 and then the $8 00' it’s like walking up the stairs, you know. This is an interesting thing because, you know, if I walk into a dental practice, and I’m like 'you know, I got $120 000 right here, and here’s the suitcase' you might not bring up QDP, but if someone brings up these objections 'hey, the cost is a little bit much, I just had this happen, and that' -usually people will tell a story about, you know the car broke down, and stuff like that, and then you say 'okay, you know what, we have QDB' and anyways, I was just thinking about that, is it’s almost like QDP is like, if you go $8 000 $6 000 $4 000 QDP, that’s like eventually, they've told you no, no, no, they must not really be serious about getting dentistry if you’re willing to save them that kind of money. Maybe that’s a little bit harsh. but I mean, yeah, would you say, I mean you offer training for dentist on how to present QDP, no doubt, is that kind of the technique, are those some of the ideas? Would you present QDP first? Would you present it later? How would you recommend that?
Dr Dan: that's an awesome question. And it really comes back to understand patients, right? so if you say - and I always ask this dentist questions, or I give this scenario to dentists, right, if you charge $1500 for a crown, $1200 for a crown, $1 000 for a crown or $800 for a crown and very one of scenarios a patients going to pick that it's expensive, always. They might go through with treatment, they might not, but they think it's expensive, because they have no idea what it takes to deliver quality care, to them it’s expensive. But when you start to offer savings, like let’s just say you’re offering 15% savings on a $1000 crown, that’s $150. So $150 actually makes sense, a $1000 crown doesn’t make sense, $850 crown, doesn’t make sense, $150 I’m saving, that makes sense. I mean who knows what they could do with that extra $150?
So that’s where that bridging of communication gap really comes in. No as far as offer QDP when I first started me though about 'let’s just offer it to people who we think need it', and then we saw some interesting things happen. People who were part of QDP were accepting over 20% more treatment -not just general restorative, were talking higher hour treatment as well, like implant placement, orthodontist, cosmetic dentistry, advanced pario, okay? They were accepting treatment because now they have a plan that allows them to save. Some of these people where long term patients who I recommended implants on for years, recommended cosmetic dentistry on for years, but they didn’t have insurance, well now they had a plan to help them save - their ready to move forward with treatment.
The other thing we saw, after year of doing it, we started to delve into our numbers, we saw that QDP patients where over 70% more likely to refer someone else to our office. They were so happy about having a plan, they were happy to spread the word about our practice. So when we first started QDP, we had about a 70% insurance based practice 30% fee for service, within 2 years we'd almost flipped it on its head. We went from 70% insurance based practice to a 35% insurance based practice and a 65% fee for service based practice, trending in those directions. That’s huge! its huge because we were getting ore treatment plan acceptance, we're getting more referrals, we're decreasing all the administrative headache that came around with accepting insurances as well, so my team was ecstatic.
You know, we know referral patients are the best patients to come to the office, 1becaue referred patients come to you with a built in level of trust a friend or a family member sent them to you, do they believe in what you’re doing. They usually show up on time, pay on time, and accept more treatment. So it was a great little cycle that we were creating by getting people signed up on QDP, so right now, I’m of the mindset, offer it to everybody you can.
Justin: okay, that makes sense. But here’s the most important thing to our listeners, how often - I mean how and when does the dentist get paid by QDP?
Dr Dan: you know, Justin, again, being a dentist, understanding all this, we've designed it so you get paid immediately, right there and then by the patient,, it’s a transaction - the relationship is always between the patient and the dental office, okay? That’s what we want to preserve. You get paid directly, there is no 'us collecting money, and then waiting 30 days to pay you' like some companies do, and some insurances do for sure. No, you get paid immediately, and that’s one of the bonuses, is that, the collection cost, cost to collect money, whether its following up on a claim, filling a claim, waiting for payment, that type of thing, the longer you wait to get paid the more money you lose. So from my stand point we designed it so you would get paid that day.
Justin: that’s great. That’s a huge plus right there. Interesting, okay. Well what kind of initial set up and training - were talking about time and money and investment, how much would a dentist expect to have to invest, time and money wise, in QDP in establishing it?
Dr Dan: sure, as far as time goes, you know time is - I’m going to tell you think, on average, most practices get everything set up and ready to go in 2 weeks, some offices have done it in 3 days, we had one office do it in 1 day. So it just depends on how much time you want to put into training. the training aspect of what we do is extremely comprehensive, I believe that’s part of where we shine, because we offer not only a written manual with easy to follow checklists that you can always reference and go though, we also have online training that’s customized to the individual job descriptions in the office. So the business team leaders are learning the fine details of presenting, accounting, setting-up how to work it within the practice management software, how to use the software - with the clinical team, maybe they don’t need to know those details, they’re learning about hoe to present it, how to go ahead and talk with patients about it, and how to overcome any objections that go ahead with it as well. So from that stand point, its team training, everybody’s time is respected and it is narrowed down to their job description. So, we also offer phone training as well, were we'll help offices customize programs based on their needs, because some offices, let’s say a small group practice, single location, has multiple doctors, maybe doctors are reimbursed different levels - well how do you figure all that out, whose getting reimbursed and for what and where? We help offices figure that out, okay? Some offices have different payment structures for the hygiene team, and so we help to figure out all these unique structures. Again, that’s part of the customization of what we do.
Justin: excellent, man that’s a really answer for 2 hours.
Dr Dan: right?
Justin: alright, so speaking of time, how long does it take for dentists to start seeing a positive impact from QDP in their practice?
Dr Dan: you know, the moment they start offering it, we just had an office sign up, implemented it last week, first week signed up 15 patients. Literally right there. One patient had - I want to say it was maybe $12 500 treatment plan, I’m not really sure of the exact number - but they went ahead, they didn’t have a plan, they signed up for QDP,, scheduled treatment that day. Okay, so I mean it literally is, as soon as you get it implemented and start offering it, it just makes sense to patients, people want a plan, and you’re offering them a plan, giving them a plan, its simple business 101.
Justin: excellent and there’s something about in house financing, if it’s not an organization, just from my perspective, and correct me if I’m not the norm, but when I see in house financing - when I was 17 years old, I financed a matter use, I went out and got my own place, I graduated high school early, I went out and got my own place, I thought I was an all-star for buying my own matter use, they gave me in house finance and I could have totally walked away from it, I paid the guy, it was great, but I could have totally walked away from the guy and not paid him, and I always have that in the back of my head. Is that something that - I mean QDP - I like the logo by the way, you know its like, does it kind of add a little bit of legitimacy to the image and also in ten of that question, is there - as far as collections are concerned - totally unscripted, coming at you - how does collections work, as far as how do you help the dentist collect on this/
Dr Dan: you know, very simply. So, what we're looking, to answer the first part of the question if I was understanding it correctly, as far QDP and the image and the brand and everything - sure, we have a couple of options, of what we offer for our service options. We have our branded QDP option that everybody sees; we also have the non-branded option, what we call a member owned option. Again, it’s about customization and flexibility for the practices we work with, some practices want to go ahead and market, kind of go ahead blow the doors off of this, and tell lots of people. Other practices just want something to go and offer their patients in house without marketing any of it. And that’s their decision, so we a member done option, where they don’t have to pay for the brand but they still get all of the know-how, the support and the training and everything that goes along with it. So yeah, the branding and the non-branding option really satisfy all of the dentists that are out there and are looking to do this.
As far as collections and payment goes, offices are collecting how they normally would - at time of service, right over the counter for anybody that they would work with - let’s say a fee for service patient, that’s how you would treat a QDP patient. Same thing. Fee for service patient. So you’re not waiting for the payments. Now if your accepting payments over time if your actually becoming a finance company, you know a 3rd party financer, we're not a 3rd party financer, it’s not what we do, there's a lot of great companies out there who do, do that part of it, but if your going do something like that, there’s always risk involved, right? There’s always risk involved that someone is not going to pay, and the risk of someone not paying, goes up with the amount of money that someone is paying towards it. So as far as a default rate, like you said with your mattress, you could have totally walked away, from that deal -but you didn’t because probably the payment was pretty low. So in our case, if someone is going to offer a monthly payment for a yearly program or a yearly plan, let’s say, you have to go ahead and be sure that you understand what you’re getting yourself in for. The software that we have, automates payments, it notifies patients, that sort of thing. So it really automates that process if you’re going to go down that road.
Justin: okay, so I paid for the mattress because it was cheap. Let me tell you it had nothing to do with my honesty at all. I’m just messing with you.
Okay, so that interesting. Because when the payments get higher, those patients may, I think this is why care credit an like you said, all those 3rd party financiers are so effect, for private fee for service, is, dentists don’t want to deal with the headache of collections, right? You don’t want to be a debt collector, that’s not the idea. That’s really cool. So I really like this. So where can the viewers find you?
Dr Dan: really easy, you know, for any dentist, or dental team members out there, QDPDentist.com. Real simple, just go there, that’s out professional website. QualityDentalPlan.com is more of a generic, public website, but QDPDentist.com is where you would do if you were would go ahead and find the details that you need if you were a dentist or dental office.
Justin: is QualityDentalPlan.com for consumers, and patients to look at?
Dr Dan: yeah, that’s more of a generic website, so if someone wanted to go ahead and see what - the very basic information, because once again, everything is customized for each dental office. Because each dental office has their own plan or their own version of QDP so there’s no specifics on there because of the customization aspect of what we do. But, you can go on there, there’s listings of some dentists we work with, there’s some PR, press that’s on there, it really is just a generic website, I guess to give us a platform in the public space.
Justin: Well you heard it here first. I swear you heard it here first, you haven’t heard it anywhere else. No, QDP is everywhere so, lets sign it off, and maybe just like 2 of 3 quick tips for dentist who are thinking about QDP, thinking about it in house, thinking about doing it themselves. What would you say - what are 3 quick take away tips, if we could kind of re-cap?
Dr Dan: sure. I could give you 3 really quick words, just do it! Nike, just do it, this is something that helps practices, helps patients, strengthens the relationship, it’s something where you’re actually able to increase access to care for people in your community, and it’s a great thing. As a dentist, one of the great things that I saw, Justin, as a dentist, was that patient who came in and said 'you know what, I haven’t been to the dentist in 10 years, I lost my dental insurance long ago when I changed my jobs and I just never went back' I mean this person had money to go to the dentist, they have money to spend on dental care, they just didn’t have a plan, now here he was, coming into my practice receiving dental care because we offered him a plan that made sense. So yeah, he had a large treatment plan at that point because he neglected dental care for a while, but at least he was getting it done and it didn’t turn into something else like an emergency - which does happen. So really it’s about accomplishing what you want to accomplish as a dentist, as a dental business, taking care of your community, but doing it in a way that makes sense for your office, preserving that patient dentist relationship, without getting a 3rd party involved.
Justin: right, well that’s great. I think this is a great thing to check out, and for our listeners, you know you might have some questions for Dr Dan, you might haven some questions for me, you might be wondering a few things, reach out to Dr Dan, I know your big on dental town, you’ve been there -haven’t you been there since the beginning?
Dr Dan: oh man Justin, I’ve been there when they first started. Get this, when I was in dental school, I had to do a research paper that was actually published along with a few other people in collaboration, that was published in JADA on dental portals, way back in the day, I think it was maybe 2000 or something. And I was charged with investigating dental town, its crazy how it works, and how everything comes full circle. Howard and I met more than a few times, had dinner with his family and such with I was visiting Arizona, when I just got out of dental school, and it’s been great, its dentists helping dentists, it’s all the personalities, its people on there, it’s always a lot of fun, there’s a serious aspect to it all and everything like that, but the early days of being a townie and a dentist, I mean the information and the networking that I made on there was invaluable, and I wouldn’t be where I am today without the help of the great people on dental town and in this profession.
Justin: and you’re paying it forward, you’re on their giving great advice, so QDPDentist.com that’s where you can find more information on that, and man, it’s been great having you on Dr Dan, we got some real good actionable tips. I love the energy, I love the logo, this is really good stuff, so you know, if you have questions feel free to reach out, if you like this video, thumbs up on YouTube, because that’s the only reason I do this show, for your thumbs up. So thanks for signing on and hopefully this will help grow your practice, if not, you got some really valuable information either way, maybe you can do this yourself, wither way thank you to my guest of honor, Dr Dan.
Dr Dan: thanks Justin, appreciate you having me on today.
Justin: and thank you for watching the dental marketing guy show
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