Orthodontic Industry – Page 3 – Bentson Copple Blog

Chris Bentson Takes on Brooklyn for Ormco’s University Day

Chris Bentson will be speaking in Brooklyn, New York on June 11, 2016 at the Aloft New York Brooklyn, along side Dr. Hisham Badawi and Dr. Michael Scott for Ormco’s 2016 University Day. Chris will introduce orthodontic residents to new concepts, resources and tools available to jumpstart one’s orthodontic career.

Chris is scheduled to present “Residents Need to Know: The New Golden Age of Orthodontics is About Less and More,” at 1:00 pm. The multi-point presentation will focus on the trends in the specialty and why both new practitioners and current consumers will find fewer obstacles and more options as they begin their orthodontic journey. Chris will likewise discuss the rapidly changing dental industry undergoing accelerated consolidation. He will conclude by breaking down the who, what, when, where and why for your practice transition, including the most important facts and data that an orthodontic resident needs to understand in making a future orthodontic practice transition successful.

If you are interested in registering for the event on June 11, 2016 in Brooklyn, New York, please contact your Ormco representative today! Entry is free for current orthodontic residents (and includes course materials and meals). This will be a fun and factual presentation for all residents in attendance.

Chris Bentson has been working with orthodontists regarding the business aspects of their practices for over twenty-seven years. As a Partner of Bentson Clark & Copple, LLC and Editor-in-Chief of the Bentson Clark reSource, he enjoys lecturing and educating the orthodontic community on the many aspects of valuation, transition and orthodontic career opportunities in settings such as Ormco’s 2016 University Day.

1st Quarter Edition of the Bentson Clark reSource Now Available

The first quarter 2016 edition of the Bentson Clark reSource is now available. Each quarter, the Bentson Clark reSource orthodontic newsletter analyzes and examines the most current issues and concerns within the orthodontic industry. This quarter’s publication features a vast array of articles targeted towards all orthodontists, regardless of practice size or career stage. Here’s a brief overview of the articles included in the latest issue:

Looking Back at the Practice Valuations of 2015
By: Chris Bentson & Doug Copple
The first quarter edition of the Bentson Clark reSource leads with the highly anticipated annual review of practice valuation metrics. This year celebrates the tenth consecutive year that Bentson Clark & Copple, LLC has released this data in the reSource. The information presented in this article is compiled from 55 orthodontic practice valuations that we completed during the 2015 calendar year.

As with prior review articles, the data discussed includes high-level figures such as the following: rounded net collections, practice income, adjusted overhead rate, debt-free value and value expressed as a percentage of collections for each respective practice. This article will review the averages and offer a window into the current values of today’s orthodontic practices. As additional analysis, the information is broken down based on the number of practice locations, to be used as a rough comparison tool for similarly situated practices.

Digital Marketing Trends to Watch in 2016
By: Mary Kay Miller
Online marketing evolves at lightning speed and each year brings new hardware, new software and new user preferences. In order to develop a successful online marketing strategy, businesses must stay up-to-date on the latest trends. Mary Kay Miller’s article discusses the latest digital marketing and the future impact in the orthodontic industry. She briefly discusses website design trends, online advertising (Google and Facebook), video advertising and the growth of video content. The information featured in this article can provide guidance for businesses integrating current trends into their marketing strategy.

The Stress of It All
By Dr. Neil Warshawsky
Accelerating orthodontic treatment is a timely topic in today’s orthodontic marketplace. Dr. Warshawsky, a Chicago-based orthodontist, discusses new competitive realities, reinvention and his personal experience with Propel. He presents a brief case study that illustrates his results using Propel and discusses the economics of accelerated care. Dr. Warshawsky examines how using the accelerating devices during treatment increases revenue per treatment, improves the practice’s cash flow and increases available chairtime for new patient starts.

EasyRx: Digital Prescription Management
An Interview with Dr. Marc Lemchen & Mr. Khashi Rahmani
EasyRx is a cloud-based, digital patient appliance prescription management software for orthodontic practices and labs. This interview with Dr. Marc Lemchen (current customer, investor and board member of EasyRx) and Mr. Khashi Rahmani (Business Development Coordinator of EasyRx), offers insight into the history of the company, breaks down core features, provides information regarding practice management integration and suggests reasons to consider the product. Dr. Lemchen discusses the advantages he has experienced using the software from consolidating workflow, improving efficiency and reducing mistakes. Last but not least, Mr. Rahmani briefly examines the impact EasyRx can make on a practice’s bottom line.

Click here to read a sample version of the first quarter 2016 Bentson Clark reSource. Not a subscriber and want to learn more about the publication? Click here to visit our website.

Copyright Compliance in the Orthodontic Industry

Recently, a number of AAO members have received a letter from the Motion Picture Licensing Corporation (MPLC) regarding the alleged improper showing of movies in waiting rooms or other areas of the members’ orthodontic offices. The letter that has been received is strongly worded suggesting doctors should enter into a licensing agreement in order to avoid paying penalties in the future for violations.

The AAO offers a sampling of frequently asked questions regarding the MPLC and the display of movies in orthodontic offices. Also, the Bentson Clark reSource discussed copyright compliance a few months ago before this issue was brought to the orthodontic mainstream. Contact Bentson Clark & Copple to request a copy of an article regarding copyright laws and infringement written by Daniel Sroka, the attorney that drafts the majority of Bentson Clark & Copple’s legal documents.

3rd Quarter Edition of the Bentson Clark reSource Now Available

The third quarter 2013 edition of the Bentson Clark reSource is now available. Each quarter, the Bentson Clark reSource orthodontic newsletter analyzes and examines the most current issues and concerns within the orthodontic industry. This quarter’s publication features articles targeted towards all orthodontists, regardless of practice size or career stage. Here’s a brief overview of the articles that are included in the latest quarterly issue of the reSource:

Exploring Practice Overhead: Staff & Supply Expenses
By: Chris Bentson & Doug Copple
Orthodontic practice owners use a variety of business models to manage and operate their orthodontic practices, demonstrating that one size or strategy does not fit all. This is the second installment of a three-part series that focuses on orthodontic practice overhead. This article will break down the staff expense and orthodontic expense categories of an orthodontic income statement, yielding the average expense for each category. The goal of this article is to provide an overview of orthodontic practice overhead, allowing owners to gain a sense of not only averages, but also the rate or change in certain expense categories over the last five years.

2013 Tax Law Changes Challenge Traditional Tax Planning Strategies
By: Diane Rumley & Heather Cosgrove
There were several items enacted or extended through the American Tax Relief Act of 2012 (ATRA) and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) that could directly impact one’s 2013 tax liability. This article highlights a few of the significant changes. Awareness and understanding can help make mindful financial decisions as one embarks on the second half of 2013. As the transition from summer into fall occurs, the need for tax planning may seem far on the horizon; however, with these new tax laws, it is so important for you to start early so you have time to structure your situation as favorably as possible.

Embezzlement: Sadly, It CAN Happen to Anyone!
By: Rebecca Crane
Most orthodontists naturally want to focus on dentistry and tend to rely heavily on others to do the tasks that they do not want to do in relation to managing the various business aspects. However, within a dental practice there are many opportunities to take advantage of the employer. It’s a fact that 15 years ago 35 % of dental practice owners said they were victims of employee embezzlement; today the percentage is nearly 70%. Given that, if one somehow does not think it can happen, he/she might want to reconsider.

What You Really Need to Know about the AAO Branding Campaign
An Interview with John Athorn, George Clark and Linda Gladden
It’s no secret that the orthodontic market is in the middle of a sea of change. Changes in the economy, changes in the consumer, changes in treatment modalities, changes in technology for diagnostic and treatment planning and even changes in how to communicate with patients. Collectively, dealing with the pace and enormity of all this change has many doctors out of breath and looking for some help. The AAO has shown up to help show the way forward. We interviewed John Athorn and George Clark of Athorn, Clark & Partners, a Manhattan marketing communications firm, who created the AAO’s new marketing campaign. We also spoke with Linda Gladden of American Association of Orthodontists regarding how AAO Members can access the marketing materials from this advertising campaign and use them in one’s practice.

Dental Referrals are Declining…Halt the Trend! – Part 1
By: Nancy Hyman
Declining dental referrals often result in looking to other segments of one’s orthodontic practice for potential patients. It is important not to ignore this important referral stream! The Journal of Clinical Orthodontics reports that dental referrals dropped 10% between 1999 and 2011. In order to increase this vital segment of a referral base, create vibrant and innovative programs that keep your practice at the top of the list when general dentists and their teams are recommending patients for your services. This article will discuss a variety of ideas to combat declining dental referrals.

Click here to read a sample version of the 3rd quarter 2013 reSource. Not a subscriber? Be sure to subscribe today by visiting our website.

Reasons an Orthodontic Practice Cannot Grow

As valuation and transition consultants, we have the duty to analyze a practice for sale or purchase with great scrutiny. When performing a practice valuation study, we analyze the last three years of a practice’s financial performance and operational performance for each practice. This provides us not only the revenue and expenses, but the patient flow, the conversion ratios from new patient exams to starts, the fee structure, the marketing plan, etc. More importantly, when visiting each practice, we observe the physical facility, fixed assets in service, staff, location within the practice’s drawing area, competitors’ location(s), and so on. We also perform a detailed demographic analysis of the patient drawing area. Needless to say, we end up with a great deal of data on each practice; having the opportunity to see practices in every geographic region of the country.

Taken together, we see practices that are declining at various rates, practices that are maintaining a relatively flat “status quo” with regards to growth, and practices that are growing at various rates. We see these practices in all areas of the country, in all environments, generally battling a similar competitive and economic environment. However, there are situations that cause a practice not to grow.

There are many contributing reasons as to why a practice cannot grow: competitive environment, demographic environment, geographic limitations, and so on; however, our observation of the number one reason practices cannot grow is because they do not currently operate with efficient systems. Systems are perhaps the key foundation to growth and without them, a practice in chaos will experience greater chaos as it makes decisions and tries to grow, ultimately imploding under the weight of poor systems. Some examples are:

• If patients are not seated on time, adding growth to a practice will only exacerbate the problem.

• If cases are not finishing on time, growth presents real problems as chairs fill up with unhappy zero contract balance patients.

• If the highest level of customer service cannot be currently offered, then providing the same average, predictable, run-of-the-mill, mediocre service inhibits growth.

• If the staff is turning over at an accelerated rate, and there is gossip, backstabbing, and an ununified team that is just getting by, growth is not in a practice’s future.

• If there is poor direction and leadership from the owner, counting on the staff to pick up the leadership role and grow the practice is likely not going to occur.

To learn more, read Chris Bentson’s article, Observations on Growing an Orthodontic Practice, published in Orthodontic Practice US January/February 2013 issue.

Publication Focuses on Adding an Orthodontic Associate

There are many magazines, journals and newspapers that our team reads on a regular basis to keep up with current news and events in the orthodontic community. When a publication arrives, it gets passed around the office with a sticky note, indicating who has read it and who has not. (It’s ultimately a pretty good system unless the sticky note falls off.)

Chris Bentson has been recently published in a couple of orthodontic publications. His most current article is co-authored with Daniel Sroka, JD, who has served the legal needs of Bentson Clark & Copple’s referred clients since 2004. The April/May 2013 issue of Orthodontic Products Magazine features Plus One: What You Need to Know when Adding an Associate to your Practice. Below is a short excerpt from the article.

“Adding a doctor to the practice is a big decision and affects a great number of systems in the office. Change will occur. Thus, having clarity about why you want an associate is often the first question to ask. While there may be many motivations for bringing an associate into a practice, typically, an owner doctor chooses to bring an associate for one of three reasons.

The first is to help with the workload of treating patients due to practice growth. The second is to allow for more time out of the clinic or away from the practice, or, said another way, to increase the quality of life for the owner doctor within the practice but not necessarily to grow the practice. The third reason is often as a first step in a future transition plan where partial or full equity will eventually be offered to the associate doctor, but that plan is not yet defined.”

Click here read the entire Orthodontic Products article.

2nd Quarter Edition of the Bentson Clark reSource Now Available

The second quarter 2013 edition of the Bentson Clark reSource is now available. Each quarter, the Bentson Clark reSource orthodontic newsletter analyzes and examines the most current issues and concerns within the orthodontic industry. We feel that this quarter’s publication features a vast array of articles targeted towards all orthodontists, regardless of practice size or career stage. Here’s a brief overview of the articles that are included in the latest quarterly issue:

Does Your Practice Overhead Rate Compare?
By: Chris Bentson & Doug Copple
Orthodontic practice owners use a variety of business models to manage and operate an orthodontic practice, demonstrating that one size or strategy does not fit all. This article, and two future articles, will present data on the average orthodontic practice overhead, allowing owners to gain a sense of not only the averages, but also the rate or change in certain expense categories over the last five years.

Let’s Play: Engage Patients Through Social Rewards, Contests & Gamification
By: Brenda Ashwell
Patients today are very different from the patients of yesteryears. Many have never known a life without technology. Social networking, video sharing and online gaming are fixtures of today’s culture. Not surprisingly, marketers recognize the essential role games and contests play in driving customer incentive and loyalty. There’s even a word for the attempt to influence behavior by engaging participants in fun activities, “Gamification.”

The Balancing Act…It’s Simple – Part 5 of 5
By: Maria Bailey
The search for simplicity and balance includes simplifying one’s life, growing spiritually and just feeling good. For moms, this means finding solutions to handle tasks, from the occasional to the everyday variety, which ultimately adds more time in the day. This “found” time is the most valuable currency that mothers possess in today’s fast-paced world. Moms value time so much that they seek ways to do tasks more efficiently and in a simpler manner.

For What It’s Worth
By: Mary Kay Miller
Does the Internet factor into the buying and selling of a practice? In today’s tech-savvy digital society, 85% of consumers go online to research before making a buying decision. With a statistic like this, a page one web presence in local search can make or break the transition from one business owner to the next as it relates to new business in both the short and long term when marketing a practice.

An Enforceable Non-Compete Covenant: We’ll Know It When We See It
By: Daniel Sroka
Non-compete laws vary; however, if there is a predominant legal standard used by courts to evaluate whether or not a non-competition covenant is enforceable, it is something akin to the infamous Supreme Court proviso: “We know it when we see it.” Almost every published decision addressing non-competes includes a statement along the lines of “courts generally disfavor non-competition covenants.” Therefore, you should look askance, at anyone who states that any particular non-competition covenant is ironclad.

Increasing Word-of-Mouth Endorsements By Embracing New Technology
An Interview with Dr. Robert A. Miller
No television or radio spot, magazine spread or direct mail piece consistently has the credibility and power of persuasion of a direct personalized endorsement. Word-of-mouth encompasses much more than it did just a few years ago. Social media along with consumer opinion-driven online sites such as Yelp and Angie’s List, have revolutionized the way consumers share experiences of goods and services, including orthodontic practices.

Gaidge: Why to Consider this Tool to Help Manage One’s Practice
An Interview with Katie Odegard, Account Executive at Gaidge
It’s been two years since we last spoke with Gaidge (formerly OrthoMetrics) and it’s time for a much awaited update regarding this innovative analytics tool. It is increasingly important for doctor/owners to improve their level of sophistication with regard to analyzing practice performance, and Gaidge provides data and knowledge of critical operational and financial metrics to allow for quick and better decisions.

Click here to read a sample version of the 2nd quarter 2013 reSource. Not a subscriber? Be sure to subscribe today by visiting our website.

Be A Lifetime Learner

Last weekend, Doug Copple and I (Chris Bentson) attended a study club meeting held in Atlanta, GA. The meeting was a two-day affair hosted by a nationally-known orthodontic consultant which brought together about 30 practices. This year’s meeting revolved around the theme of marketing.

To get the meeting started, a tour was arranged of a local fast-growing orthodontic office that is currently incorporating a number of very new, fresh ideas. Next, a list of topics to be discussed during the event was created by the meeting’s attendees via an open discussion forum. Overall, the meeting was focused and solely centered on discussing ideas to raise the level of performance and service in each practice represented.

All in all, it was an enormously educational experience for all attendees, including myself. I came away with several key thoughts. Foremost, in order to run a successful enterprise you must commit to becoming a lifetime learner. The orthodontic marketplace is continually changing (the meeting discussed consumer and competition changes). Keeping up with these shifts require effort to study and learn how to adapt one’s business. I was also reminded that practice ownership takes a great deal of work and determination. We all can learn by sharing ideas, taking the risk to ask questions and be open about one’s successes and failures.

Every orthodontist was an exceptional student during his or her formative years. We all know that practicing doctors commit to the standard requirements for continuing education. However, not all continue with a genuine thirst for knowledge and desire for new ideas. If you feel stale, stuck in a rut, upset about the condition of your practice; pause for a moment. Ask yourself if you’re really still learning about running your business and considering new clinical ideas. The practices we see that are vibrant, growing and thriving are being operated by “lifelong learners” who are continually trying new ideas to achieve growth and excellence in all areas of practice life.

Big Shift in Patient Demographics: Does it Matter to You?

In December 2012, the United States Census Bureau released its long-term demographic projections. It revealed a fundamental shift in the US population among various ethnicity groups. The released projections included the following findings:

By 2043, the non-Hispanic White population will no longer make up the majority of Americans.
Intermarriage for first- and second-generation Hispanics and Asians is on the rise, causing a blur in racial and ethnic lines and increasing the number of individuals who identify themselves as multiracial.
Children of immigrants are the fastest-growing demographic group.
Moving forward, the United States will become the first major post-industrial society in the world where minorities will be the majority.
Among children, the point when minorities become the majority is expected to arrive much sooner, in 2019.

What are the implications for orthodontic practice owners? It likely depends on how much longer you plan to practice. If you are at the beginning of your orthodontic practice career or envision working for 30 more years, the implications of the minority friendliness of your practice, your market strategic and target marketing will be significant.

In 2012, for the first time, racial and ethnic minorities became a majority of babies under age one for the first time in United States history. Ten years from now, this group will be the majority of children in braces.

Perhaps it’s time to step back and ask, “How minority friendly is my practice?” That is a good starting point to begin thinking about and planning for the changing patient demographic that could be your practice’s reality in ten years.

Bentson Clark & Copple’s Resident Survey

We spend a lot of time and effort working with today’s orthodontic residents. We visit their residency programs, attend events solely catered towards the resident community and participate in resident-only webinars and presentation opportunities. We spend numerous hours speaking with them as they search for an orthodontic practice to purchase and/or employment opportunities. We are focused on actively working with and providing as much information as possible to them to help them make educated decisions about their future. This group of young professionals will ultimately shape the future of the orthodontic industry.

As part of our commitment to providing relevant, accurate and useful data to the orthodontic community, each year Bentson Clark & Copple conducts a nationwide survey of all current orthodontic residents for the purpose of collecting, compiling and analyzing information regarding today’s orthodontic resident population.

As in our previous surveys, we ask a variety of questions regarding residents’ anticipated plans after completing their residency program. The survey also inquires about income expectations, geographic locations, total educational debt, and preference of whether they would seek an employment relationship or equity opportunity upon graduation.

We have published a brief sampling of the 2012 Annual Orthodontic Resident Survey’s results in the 4^th Quarter edition of the Bentson Clark reSource. We have, in addition, compiled the full results of this year’s survey in booklet form featuring our commentary and a comparison of this year’s data to that of the previous two years. This publication will be available for purchased within the next few weeks. Please check our website and blog for additional information and purchase information.

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Tag: Orthodontic Industry