Dentaltown June 2018 - 55

by Gordon J. Christensen, DDS, MSD
Gordon J. Christensen, DDS,
MSD, is in private prosthodontic
practice in Provo, Utah.
Christensen is the CEO and
co-founder of the CR Foundation
and the CEO of Practical Clinical
Courses.

n recent years, the concept of dental support
organizations (DSOs) has continued to evolve and
enlarge in the United States despite controversy.
It is estimated that there are at least 1,000 DSOs,
emerging DSOs and large-group practices in the
USA with many others planning to start. The largest
three DSOs are Aspen, Heartland and Pacific.
There is no fi rm defi nition for DSOs, and each
varies significantly in how they deal with the practices
within their individual organizations.
The Association of Dental Support Organizations states that:
"Dental Service Organizations (DSOs) contract with
dental practices to provide critical business management
and support including non-clinical operations. The creation
of DSOs has allowed dentists to maximize their practice
with the support of professional office management. The
DSO model enables dentists to focus on the patient while
delivering excellent dental care."
Whatever the definition, and whether or not you
agree with it, the facts are that DSOs are defi nitely
here and growing rapidly. They appear to be filling a
need for practicing dentists, or their enormous growth
would not be present.
This article includes an overall view of the apparent
advantages and limitations of DSOs, and the reasons why
some practitioners find DSO growth to be objectionable
while others promote them.

The major advantage of
dental support
organizations
It is well known that the
vast majority of dentists love
dentistry and dental practice.
However, most dentists do not
enjoy the business side of dentistry.
One of the major goals of DSOs is to
reduce or eliminate the business and
administrative aspects of practice. That appears to be
the singular, most-important advantage of DSOs for
many dentists.

Some readers will disagree with the specific DSO
advantages I list below. I concede that not all DSOs
provide every advantage, but the leading organizations
are providing most of them.

Specific advantages of DSOs
*

Enhancement of work-life balance. Running
a dental practice is a major responsibility! The
numerous aspects of administering a practice,
dealing with the needs and wants of patients,
purchasing equipment and supplies, hiring and
firing, dealing with staff challenges, working
with third-party payers, and myriad other
responsibilities take time, energy, constant
thought, effort and money. These responsibilities
often take precious time away from family,
home, religious affiliations, civic responsibilities
and yourself. DSOs may enhance the work-life
balance of a practitioner in the following ways:
Reduction in administrative responsibilities.
Very few dentists enjoy administrative responsibility such as employee challenges, hiring,
firing, payroll, and identification of products and
purchasing them. Such responsibilities are greatly
reduced in DSOs.
Ensuring compliance with regulations. Dentists
generally do not like OSHA, HIPAA and other
regulatory groups that make time and effort
demands on practitioners. DSOs can take over
much of this responsibility.
Providing less involvement with insurance
companies. Do you like dealing with dental
benefit plans? They tell you what to do, when
and how to do, and how much to charge. They
own you! How about having a DSO be your
voice in negotiations with these companies? A
large DSO that has scale and may be able to
negotiate better fees.
Having significant help with management. A
DSO can help you with most of the management
tasks that burden you down mentally and sap
time from your life.
dentaltown.com \\ JUNE 2018

http://www.dentaltown.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Dentaltown June 2018