OFFER CARECREDIT AS A PAYMENT OPTION FOR PATIENTS

CareCredit is a third party company that provides payment plans with no interest charges for up to 12 months for treatment in excess of $1000.  The company also offers six month payment plans for treatment costs in excess of $200.

CareCredit uses the tagline, “The credit card for your health, beauty, and wellness needs.”  Credit is extended to patients seeking those services in healthcare offices.  Most enrolled healthcare providers allow patients to complete an application in the office so that dental staff can help with questions and submit the data to CareCredit or encourage patients to apply online using their home computer.  In summary, this Card offers shorter financing terms than most other cards with options that range from six to 24 months with no interest charged on amounts of $200 or more as long as the patient/consumer makes minimum monthly payments and pays the full amount due by the end of the contract period.

Over 175,000 healthcare providers nationwide accept the CareCredit healthcare credit card.  CareCredit is part of GE Capital, a financial organization with a reputation for quality service.  Go online to www.carecredit.com for more information as you consider whether to offer your patients this viable financial choice.  It is a payment option that encourages many patients to begin treatment sooner rather than later.

DENTAL CARE DURING PREGNANCY

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) is now recommending that OB-GYNs assess each patient’s oral health at the first prenatal appointment and recommend that the pregnant woman see a dentist during pregnancy.  The College has stated that teeth cleaning, dental X-rays, and local anesthesia are safe for pregnant patients.

Specifics in the ACOG’s 2013 guidelines include advice that oral health care improves general health throughout a woman’s lifetime and treatment of active caries during pregnancy reduces the possibility of caries-producing oral bacteria being transmitted from mother to infant.  Additionally, OB-GYNs are urged to reinforce the importance of routine care and oral hygiene such as brushing at least twice each day, flossing at least once per day, limiting sweet or sticky snacks and drinks, and dental examinations twice a year.

These guidelines, distributed to OB-GYNS across the country, open the opportunity for a dentist to inform OB-GYNs in the community that pregnant patients are welcome in his/her office where patients are met with top quality dental care plus education about how to care for their oral health during pregnancy and beyond.  A golden marketing opportunity!!

REMINDER OF TWO COMPLIANCE DEADLINES: HIPAA AND OSHA

The new HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules were published in the Federal Register on January 25, 2013 with a required compliance date of September 23, 2013.  The new rules provide increased privacy protection for patients, and the rules’ enforcement will generate increased office inspections by federal inspectors.  Fines for willfully ignoring the new requirements can reach 1.5 million dollars, so compliance is absolutely necessary.

The updated OSHA regulations focus on the Hazard Communication Standard which was published in the Federal Register of March 26, 2012.  This new Hazard Communication Standard has been implemented to align safety issues concerning hazardous chemicals with the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling (GHS) directives from the United Nations.  The GHS demands that three areas of hazard information be included: (1) Classification of Chemicals and the type of risk each presents, (2) Labeling to include a pictogram, signal words, and a hazard statement, and (3) Safety Data Sheets (SDS) to replace Material Safety Data Sheets.

Suggestion: contact the ADA for more information about compliance; search online at www.hhs.gov (Go to the Office of Civil Rights or the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology); or seek the services of a consultant specializing in all aspects of compliance with the new privacy and safety regulations.

PRACTICON GIVES BACK

Since Practicon’s founding in 1983, one of our corporate missions has been to support charitable projects locally, nationally, and internationally.  We have a group of Practicon employees known to our Associates as the WeCare Team that heads up our efforts to “Give back”.  We individual Practicon staff members are proud to work with a company committed to being a responsible, generous corporate citizen.

One of the most far-reaching of our charitable projects is support of “causelife---water equals life”.  We contribute to causelife, an international organization pledged to provide 1000 life-saving clean water wells for one million people around the world.  We donate a portion of sales of our SmileGoods Toothbrushes and Dental Care Products to causelife.  SmileGoods oral care products offer brand-name quality and design at incredibly low prices to help you, our valued customers, save money.  The SmileGoods products allow you to give your patients maximum quality take-home brushes and other oral care items at minimum cost.

By purchasing products from the SmileGoods line, you can save your practice hundreds of dollars per year, gift your patients with the BEST, and help save lives as your purchase dollars are shared with communities that lack clean water around the globe.   Scott Griffin, Practicon’s CEO, has traveled to the sites of several wells your dollars have helped dig.  Scott testifies to the immense gratitude community residents express as their well comes on line to supply life-saving clean water.  The water from wells you help fund is often the first clean water children in these areas have tasted.  Think about that fact---and decide you too can contribute to causelife’s worldwide clean water project. 

See SmileGoods in Practicon’s print catalog or online at www.practicon.com.

Introducing 275 New Products!

Once again, Practicon has gone to great lengths to bring you some of the most innovative products on the market. Our Fall 2010 catalog includes 275 new items, designed to save your office time and money!

Stay in touch with your patients with our Practicare patient communication cards. These cards have extremely high quality designs that your clients will proudly display. Use them for appointment reminders, welcome greetings, and any other type of correspondence!

We've added new products to the popular Smilegoods line as well. There are five new styles of toothbrushes! Our unfilled 6" x 10" Smilegoods Patient Paks offer 50% more room than our original Patient Paks. The new Sparkle Patient Paks offer extra flash to your practice building giveaways. Also, by popular request, Smilegoods Floss now features a Mint Waxed Tape, as well as a Waxed Cinnamon flavor.

In addition, we've added new sugar-free candies, new hygiene instruments, new giveaway items for younger patients, and much, much more! Click here to request a Fall 2010 catalog . To see our new products at www.practicon.com, click here.

“WHATEVER IT TAKES”---A MANTRA FOR 2014 AND HENCEFORTH

When beginning practice, most newly-minted dentists have a vision, a goal, a dream of having a successful practice that provides top-quality care for patients, a comfortable lifestyle for his/her own family, and a nice living for staff members and their families as well.  To fulfill this vision takes determination, diligent hard work, perseverance, honesty, high ethical standards, and a commitment to being and doing the BEST.

Proverbs 13:4 in the New International Version of the Bible puts it this way: “The sluggard (lazy person) craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent (hard workers) are fully satisfied.”  An anonymous quotation in the business world is appropriate here: ”Success doesn’t come from being 100% better than your competition, but from being 1% better in 100 different ways.”

Suggestion: work this year to inspire your dental team, yourself included, to follow the wisdom of American poet, editor, pastor, and teacher William Arthur Ward, 1921-1994:

            “I will do more than belong---I will participate.  I will do more than care---I will help.  I will do more than believe---I will practice.  I will do more than be fair---I will be kind.  I will do more than forgive---I will forget.  I will do more than dream---I will work.  I will do more than teach---I will inspire.  I will do more than learn---I will enrich.  I will do more than give---I will serve.  I will do more than live---I will grow.  I will do more than suffer---I will triumph.”

“Whatever it takes”---I will do what is right.

OSHA INSPECTIONS ON THE RISE

In 2012, approximately 132 dental practices nationwide were inspected for OSHA violations.  The total number of offices visited by inspectors is 2013 is not tallied yet, but in Practicon’s home state of North Carolina, inspections had increased almost 34% by fall 2013 over the same period of 2012.

Most OSHA inspections are very thorough, assessing all safety issues in the office.  First and second place in the number of citations issued and fines levied belong to (1) Bloodborne Pathogen Standards and (2) Hazard Communication Standards respectively. 

A couple of reminders concerning Bloodborne Pathogen Standards:  The Hepatitis B vaccination must be made available free of charge to all staff members exposed to blood and other body fluids within 10 working days after training is completed and a work position is assigned.  Within one to two months following the last vaccine dosage, titers are required to assure the vaccinated team member is protected.  If a staff member refuses to be vaccinated, she/he should sign a written declination to be retained in that employee’s confidential personnel/medical file.

A formal training program must be provided for all staff members at risk of exposure, including the dentists, per the Bloodborne Pathogen Standard Rules.  Training must occur at the time of hiring and annually thereafter.  Maintain a log of training provided in each employee’s confidential personnel/medical file.  Go to www.OSHA.gov for more information on these and other OSHA standards.

SUPPLY INVENTORY---SAVINGS ASSURED WHEN MANAGED WELL

 

If you’ve never paid much attention to your supply inventory, you’re in good company.  Many offices have no system of ordering, stocking, or conserving supplies; yet 4% to 8% of overhead is typically spent on clinical and business supplies, and every dollar saved in this area can add to your profit.

Consider appointing Inventory Coordinators, roles in which one staff member is given responsibility for clinical supplies; one handles business supplies.  These two team members should be aware of minimum and  current stock, OK purchase orders before each order is made, place or oversee placement of orders, check packing slips against supplies received in each order, and approve invoices before bills to vendors are paid.  Obviously a busy staff member may not be able to do all of these tasks herself or himself, but the Inventory Coordinators should be made aware of and approve each task done.  A second team member in each area may be trained as back-up for the primary Coordinator, and all staff should be trained on minimum counts, storage and stocking for each supply.

Minimum and current stock levels for all supplies should be determined and posted in the appropriate storage area.  Inventory tracking software is used for this purpose by some offices.  Multi-dentist practices find it efficient to maintain a Central Inventory location, perhaps in a climate-controlled attic or basement, and maintain a Working Inventory in a supply closet or storage units close to the working areas.  From the Working Inventory individual treatment units and business desk work stations can be stocked, preferably at the end of each day.

Encourage thriftiness.  Brainstorm savings methods with the team, and coach all staff members about the use of minimum amounts of supplies.  Avoiding waste of all items used, impression materials to medicaments to dental floss to office supplies, assures savings each year.  Incidentally, while your team is in the savings mindset, discuss ways to save on utilities also.  Although not part of your inventory system, real savings can be enjoyed by reducing utility usage.  And be certain whoever orders supplies takes advantage of sales offers and joins Buyer’s Clubs that offer consistent savings to members.  The best example of a Buyers’ Club---check out Practicon’s Premier Rewards Program and receive 10% off all orders every day plus special discounts for members only throughout the year plus Visa gift card points that add up to extra savings.