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Blatchford Declares Minnesota A National Disaster Area
Sooner or later, something fundamental in your business will change, said Andrew Grove, ex-president of Intel Corporation. Something fundamental in dental business has definitely changed in Minnesota. February 1, Delta Dental of Minnesota informed 464 dentists that they did not fit the statistical average of dentists. The 464 above-average dentists have had their fees frozen by Delta for 1999. Two thousand other dentists were declared by Delta to be average. Minnesota is a disaster area in the insurance arena for dentists.
Delta Dental wrote to patients of the 464 dentists to share their dentist was not in the PRIME group, meaning he was statistically out of the norm. The areas of statistical difference for the 464 above-average dentists sighted by Delta are:
1. Too many sealants.
2. Not enough multi-surface alloys.
3. Referring too many specialty items.
Delta Dental of Minnesota claims in a press clipping that this division of dentists was not based on economics but rather was done to save patients from overtreatment.
Dentists can waste time being outraged. What is called forth here is seeing this fundamental change in business as a showing of the real hand of dental insurance. We waste time and energy in trying to change the insurance companies who are now showing their true colors. It really looks like, feels like and smells like managed care. Are you willing to be part of managed care? Is that your vision and destiny?
In 1993, I predicted 90% of all dentists would be employees within ten years. With moves as Delta Dental of Minnesota and dentists striving and hoping to be on the average list, dentists are becoming employees. For the first time ever, in 1997, the total amount paid to dentists by all insurance companies exceeded the amount paid to dentists by private patients. One definition the IRS uses for an employee vs. an outside contractor is you are an employee when over 50% of your income is derived from a single source. Granted, this sum includes all insurance support, but the handwriting is on the wall.
Employers control work conditions, what procedures are done, diagnosis and what the resulting fee will be. These moves by insurance companies are akin to the classic story of the frog in the ot of water. Over the years, the temperature of the water has risen but the frog didnt realize it and never jumped from the pot. Insurance companies started dictating fees, procedures and coverage. Dentists grumbled but stayed in the pot. Insurance maximums have not changed in 30 years. The frog stays in the pot and slowly boils to death.
In Minnesota, the water is boiling and the dentists are upset. If this can happen in Minnesota, it can happen anywhere. Where are you on the road to insurance independence?
The Minnesota Dental Association's answer to Delta Dentals separation of dentists is to form a committee to investigate how Delta Dental can differentiate dentists. A more powerful move will be an individual choice by dentists as to their own path and destiny. Insurance companies are making their stand clear. A dentist is to do what the insurance company dictates or the dentist is singled-out. Now the dentist is at choice in how to proceed.
The first step is to be firm in your own vision of who you are and the kinds of dentistry for which you want to be known. Dream about what might be possible for your practice and your patients. Become skilled in modern dentistry so you can offer your patients choices beyond the standard insurance coverage. Take a hands-on course, like Dr. Dickersons at Las Vegas Institute and catch the enthusiasm for millennium dentistry.
The dentist is always at choice. The insurance companies do not hold the dentist hostage. You are making a choice to live under insurance dictates. If you want to deliver more optional care and give your patients choices, develop the business skills for having excellent dentistry accepted.
Learn case presentation skills that put the patient at choice. Become mentally free from insurance by offering more optional treatment that insurance doesnt even cover. Learn to ask value-based questions of patients to help them make choices for themselves.
The American economy is in the longest growth phase in history. 92 months of bull market. While your patients are fully employed and you have some cash reserves, now is the time to distinguish yourself and your practice as special, different from the ordinary. While the economy is on the upswing, invest in yourself by learning new technical and business skills to make your practice a place of choice.
Being a practice of choice will take strength of character and commitment to your own values. The majority of dentists hope that they can be in the 10% of private practices which survive in the next decade while the other 90% are virtually employed by insurance companies or other forms of delivery. Yet, hope will not make a dentist in the 10%. The 464 dentists singled out by Delta Dental in Minnesota are demonstrating skills and philosophies, which form more than hope. They have demonstrated action to be in the 10%.
It is frightening that the Minnesota dentists hoping to be numbered in the 2000, which Delta praised as exceptional. They did not want to be singled out or be a distinction in any way.
Delta Dental in Minnesota has demonstrated its stand so clearly. They are making demands as if they are the employer dictating fees, treatment and ostracizing those who do not conform. The lines of distinction are so clear.
It looks like a disaster area. The dentist, though, is at choice. Do I want to remain in the 2000 with the insurance company dictating treatment and fees or do I want to create a practice of distinction and choice where insurance is an assistance or non-entity in my diagnosis and my patients are at choice too? Help is available for those dentists who want to be in the 10% of special practices.
Minnesotas Delta Dental is speaking clearly. How many other areas are slowly experiencing the same pressure from insurance companies? The water is just getting warm and dentists, as the frogs, are sitting in the pot. The choice is yours. Where are you?
I am not afraid of storms, for I know how to sail my ship Louisa May Alcott
This article was re-printed with permission from "The Blatchford Beacon"
For more information on Dr. Blatchford and the services he provides the dental profession go to www.blatchford.com or call (800) 578-9155