The Front Office Rescue
Dental practices can rely on AADOM for the resources and support needed—not only to succeed—but also to thrive in dental office management
For Dr. Bill Whitley, the traditional career path from dental school to associate dentist to practice ownership did not quite pay off the way he’d hoped. Opening a general practice in Dallas, TX, in 2009, he had a full schedule and a reputation for honest, effective care, but it would be nearly a decade before he could give himself a paycheck.
“Whoever you hire in the front office, they better be somebody who knows what they’re doing.”
- Bill Whitley, DDS
There were plenty of excuses—he didn’t do root canals or oral surgery, or he was conservative in treatment. His wife, Tamara, who had a successful corporate career, provided not only for the family, but also helped the practice make payroll. Matters only worsened when an experienced but ineffective office manager was brought onboard, entering the practice into unresearched insurance plans and contracts.
An Insurance Quagmire
The turning point came toward the end of 2017. Tamara left her corporate job due to a relocation and came to work for the practice. Her mission? Determine why Dr. Whitley made more as an associate than he did as a business owner. Despite a 27-year career with roles as vice president of Fortune 500 companies and a Black Belt in Six Sigma process methodology, Tamara had her hands full as she began to discover a multitude of issues. “When I walked in the door, I found 34 upside-down fee schedules, meaning the reimbursement per hour was not meeting our break-even cost,” Tamara said. “We also had 504 claims that were over 500 days aging. The claims needed information, had been declined for frequency, or for whatever the reason, had not been closed.”
Tamara was able to turn around the aging claims within 11 months, yielding $100,000, but that did not address the insurance reimbursement issues. That’s when she discovered Solutions 101, who mined the practice insurance data, created the insurance practice strategy, set accurate practice fees, and turned the practice profitable. However, when COVID-19 arrived in 2020, Tamara faced an indefinite shutdown, a slew of new acronyms like PPP, EIDL, and HHS PRF, and COVID-related human resource issues. “I was alone, floundering, and needing help,” she said.
AADOM: A Light in the Darkness
It was through a Henry Schein-sponsored webinar that Tamara learned she was not alone, and that all of the support she needed to get through the crisis and navigate the office management issues was available from the American Association of Dental Office Management (AADOM). “I was no longer alone wandering in the desert. AADOM was, and is, my oasis,” she said. AADOM’s webinars, conferences, and business partners provided the assistance needed on everything from insurance-claim appeals to merchant services to OSHA/HIPAA compliance and to HR issue resolution. Tamara learned to analyze practice financials down to the cost per hour, along with effective patient education and communication. Over time, the practice has become more profitable and more efficient. The Whitleys credit AADOM with providing the knowledge for their improved operation.
“In dental school, we’re not taught to run a dental office—we’re taught to treat patients,” Dr. Whitley said. “If you’re not keen on what insurance is doing, you can wind up being busy all day, seeing a lot of patients and not getting paid for it. Whoever you hire in the front office, they better be somebody who knows what they’re doing. AADOM makes that possible.”
