Latest / Hey Docs! / Protect Your Practice: Embezzlement Prevention with Prosperident CEO David Harris

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Protect Your Practice: Embezzlement Prevention with Prosperident CEO David Harris · Hey Docs!

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Hey Docs podcast with your host, Jill Allen.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Today I am welcoming back David Harris, CEO of Prosperident
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: and someone who always brings a unique perspective to the
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: financial side of practice ownership. David has spent decades investigating
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: embezzlement in dental and orthodontic practices, which means he's firsthand
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: seen where systems break down and how seemingly small gaps
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: in oversight can create much bigger problems. Today, we're diving
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: into hiring, financial oversight, selective reporting, and how clearly articulating
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: responsibilities can create stronger safeguards before a problem ever begins.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: So let's take a look.
• 0:50
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• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Head to grayfinch.com forward slash Jill Allen for a special
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: discount exclusively for my listeners. David, I am so excited
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: to have you back on Hey Docs. Thanks for being here.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: Again with me.
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: It is always fun to hang out with you, Jill.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: So in the event that somebody has not caught one
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: of our other episodes together, would you mind giving us
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: a quick refresher on your background, who you are, and
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: what your company does for our industry? Absolutely.
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: Somebody once described me as dentistry's crime fighter.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: I believe that.
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: My job is really to help dentists protect themselves against embezzlement.
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: And sometimes that means that they have concerns that one
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: of their staff is stealing from them now. And sometimes
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: they don't have that concern, but they know it's an
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: issue overall and they want to put the controls in
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: place to protect them. So my company, which is called Prosperident,
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: does both of those things.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's great.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: And we are so thankful to have you out there
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: fighting crime on our behalf, because I know you have
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: helped a lot of doctors, unfortunately, who have found themselves
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: in some really sticky situations. And it's just good to
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: know that we've got an extra pair of eyes out
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: there helping us.
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: Jill, it's going to hit 70% of the dental profession
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: sooner or later. And I'm privileged to have the role
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: I do in helping protect the profession.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. So I thought today's
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: episode would be really great. And we're going to talk
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: about hiring a little bit. And I feel like so
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: many doctors, and I know you and I have been
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: in this industry for quite a while now, but I
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: feel like, gosh, we are just in this perpetual cycle,
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: I feel like, where offices gone are the days where
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: we hire that one employee and they stay for 20 years.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: I think on my side, I'm seeing we're lucky if
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: we get two to three years out of an employee anymore.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: And so I think when we think about that, and
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: you and I could both know that not always a
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: long-term employee is the best employee either, but But we
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: have to have some safeguards in place and we really
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: have to be thinking about doing things a little bit
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: differently when we think about such turnover in our practices
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: and the amount of people that are coming in and
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: potentially leaving. And so I want to focus this episode
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: on just that. And I'm wondering if you can talk
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: to us a little bit about what we should be
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: thinking about before a team member actually joins our team
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: and what we should be doing kind of in a
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: pre-employment screening to reduce our risk and just some warning
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: signs that we need to be paying attention to. Absolutely.
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: And let's acknowledge, what you just said, it's a jungle
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: out there. And part of it is that the longevity
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: of employees that I think most doctors once counted on
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: probably isn't there anymore. Definitely. Also, it's really hard to
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: find good people.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: And almost every dentist I talked to says, you know,
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: where have they gone?
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: It's not just front desk either. It's hygiene. It's assisting. It's,
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: it's everything. The perception is that there's a shortage of
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: qualified people, and that sometimes induces dentists to take a
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: shortcut when they hire. The third thing is, let's also
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: acknowledge that while most of the people who work in
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: dental offices are good people who are there for the
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: right reasons, there are enough bad people that, especially with
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: turnover that you mentioned, the chances are really good that
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: sooner or later you're going to run into one. I'll
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: give you one number that everybody in the audience needs
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: to hear. 70 million Americans. So that is about one
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: in four adults has a criminal record. Whoa.
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: That's something to sit on.
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: Exactly the response I thought I'd get from you. Now,
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: let's be clear that not every one of those criminal
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: records make those people unhirable. You know, if I'm 45
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: years old and I got busted in college for marijuana possession,
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: 23 years ago. And that's my only transgression. I can't
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: speak for the rest of the world, but I'd look
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: past that fairly quick. Right. On the other hand, check
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: fraud two years ago should be an absolute showstopper.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah. As should child molestation and a whole bunch of
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: other awful things that we can think about.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: So as an employer, you have to know what you're getting.
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: And That involves pre-employment screening, which you know this, most
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: dentists do a terrible job of.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: And let's understand why. Again, the hiring process is challenging.
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: You don't have as many applicants as you like. You
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: have a set of requirements. You're trying to find somebody
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: who has the technical skills for whatever position you're hiring
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: them for. And also will get along with your team,
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: maybe have some emotional intelligence. There are a lot of
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: balls that you're juggling at once.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: And what I'm about to do is ask the audience to, okay,
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: let's layer one more thing on there. Which is that
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: you have to ask yourself what they're not telling you. Yeah.
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: And whether what they are telling you is totally the truth.
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: And it may not be. Yeah. And for most dentists,
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: that's challenging. So let's break it down in a way
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: that people can operationalize it. Yeah, perfect. Let's start with
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: the process of where you go out and look for applicants.
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: And the thing I always tell dentists is be overt
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: about what you're going to be screening for. In other words,
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: assuming you're going to do a criminal records check when
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: you posted an ad somewhere, tell people that. Assuming you're
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: doing drug testing, and I'm sure we'll have more to
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: say about that in a minute. List that in your ad,
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: you know, what You and I remember the days, I think,
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: when the way you found people was to take out
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: a classified ad in the newspaper.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: Remember that?
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: I absolutely do. Yes, absolutely.
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: And one of the things about classified ads was that
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: they charged you by the word. So we all got
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: into the mindset of very terse employment ads. Now people
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: are posting on Indeed or some other online site, and
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: they absolutely do not care how long your ad is. Yep.
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: It really doesn't matter to them. So we're not stuck
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: with that dental assistant needed immediately apply here, end of that. Right.
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: We just don't have to do that anymore.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Yes, we get to write really nice paragraphs, totally outlining
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: the person, our ideal candidate.
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: Exactly. And all I want to do is make sure
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: that that depiction of the ideal candidate includes the things
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: we're looking for. You know, the ideal candidate will pass
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: a drug test and a criminal records check and whatever else.
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: And what we're trying to accomplish by this, Jill, is
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: that we want unsuitable applicants to weed themselves out. Yep.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: Yep. Self-select right out of this process. Don't even send
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: us your ad. Don't even send us your applicant.
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: The worst outcome here is you invest a lot of
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: time in somebody you think is going to be great.
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: And then you say to them, you're exactly what we
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: want for this position. We just need to do the
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: criminal records check. And the applicant says, maybe this isn't
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: going to work out after all. Yep.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: And that's after you've done three interviews with them and
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: you've started to think about how they'll fit into your
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: program of what you want to do. And now all
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: of a sudden there's this realization that they're actually not suitable.
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: So let's be upfront about what we're going to do.
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: So what are we going to do? Well, proper pre-employment
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: screening starts with checking identification. And my standard is very simple.
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: This should be done at the interview stage. So you're
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: interviewing somebody for a job and you say to them, Jill,
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: we just need to do an identity check. Can you
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: please give me your driver's license and two pieces of
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: secondary ID? The secondary can be anything, credit cards, gym membership,
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: student card, library card. just stuff with your name on it.
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: But I want to do that in the interview. Some
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: people don't have a driver's license. Okay, fine. They have
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: typically some other state issued ID, but I want one
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: picture ID and two other pieces of identification. One of
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: the easiest ways to defeat background checking is to pretend
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: to be somebody else.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, sure.
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: And if, if I have baggage and I don't want
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: you to know about it, but I have a, sibling
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: who's a year older than me, who's clean, really easy.
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: I just apply for the job that's done. Yeah. And
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: if you don't do photo ID checks and a few
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: other things that we're going to talk about, I get
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: away with it. And you hire somebody with baggage and
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: you don't know it. So let's start there. And part
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: of what we're trying to do is catch the applicant unprepared.
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: If I am taking my brother's identification, I probably won't
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: expect to be ID'd in the interview and I may
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: not have the forged ID that I'm going to need
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: for that. Even if I have a fake driver's license,
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: I'm probably not going to go to the trouble and
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: the expense of getting the secondary stuff like the library card,
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: the gym membership.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: Right, right.
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: So I still get caught. And picture that conversation I'm
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: having with you when I asked for the ID and
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: you say, I didn't bring it. Okay, so Jill, you
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: told me where you live. It's 10 miles away. gee,
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: if your car breaks, you don't have a credit card
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: to call a tow truck. You don't have your driver's
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: license with you. I am really starting to question your
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: judgment here. Right, right.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, sure.
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: I mean, if somebody doesn't have any of this stuff,
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: I just don't know a lot of people who walk
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: around with completely empty wallets right now. Right, right.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: Or at least not all of that on their phone,
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: you know?
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly. So that's starting to look a little sinky
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: to me.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: So that's the first thing we have to do. Now
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: let's talk about after that interview, when you do the
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: rest of pre-employment screening. And I stay away from the
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: word background check because it means different things to different people.
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: When I talk to a lot of people, they're using
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: it as a synonym for a criminal records check. And
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: I would just rather call a criminal records check exactly that.
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: And to me, the whole process I call pre-employment screening.
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: So that criminal records check is probably next on our list.
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: And As I mentioned, you have 70 million Americans of
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: criminal records, not all of which should probably be disqualifying,
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: but let's find out what somebody has and then make
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: that decision.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: Sure.
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah. The question I get asked a lot is, how
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: do you do a criminal record check?
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I would like to know that.
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: I think a lot of dentists think that there's some
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: website they can go on and pay $ 20 and get
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: an accurate picture of what somebody's criminal history is. That
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: doesn't exist. The other thing that your audience needs to
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: know is there's something called the Fair Credit Reporting Act,
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: or FCRA. And FCRA requires information used in the hiring
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: process to meet certain standards. And there are websites out
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: there that will give a semi-accurate criminal record sometimes. But
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: when you log into that website, the first thing they
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: tell you is we are not FCRA compliant and you
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: cannot use our information in a hiring process. Oh, interesting.
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: Interesting.
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: So if you go and find one of these websites,
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: it definitely cannot be used for this purpose. You know,
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: if you want to check up on your neighbors and
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: see what their criminal history is, it's fine for that.
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: But you can't use it for employment or decisions about
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: whether to take somebody on as a tenant and things
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: like that. Right, right.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: So what do you do? This seems like a conundrum.
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: It isn't at all. What you have to do is
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: go to somebody who's in that business. Okay.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: And there are lots and lots of pre-employment screening companies
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: out there, including some that concentrate on dentistry. And find
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: one of those companies that usually cost about $ 150. A
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: couple of things I'll mention. The first thing is that
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: criminal record checking is really challenging because the criminal record
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: could exist in a lot of places. So in some states,
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: the state government maintains a consolidated criminal history. In other states,
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: it's done by county. Texas is an example. And you
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: probably know this, but Texas has about 220 counties. Yeah, yeah.
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: So there are a lot of places to look. And
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: that's why you need to hire a professional because they
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: have access to the multiple databases and they can produce
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: a consolidated, accurate record for you. And if somebody does
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: have a criminal record, they can help you evaluate it
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: and decide whether it's really going to be an employment
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: factor or not. Right, right. Yeah.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's interesting. And I'm going to assume you guys
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: help with that.
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: We do not.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: Oh, you don't. Oh, my assumption is wrong.
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: We don't. It's a heavily regulated, very mechanical process, and
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: it just doesn't really fit with our business model.
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: Sure, sure.
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: So we do not, but we certainly know people who
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: do good work in that area. Yeah.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: So if somebody were going to try and get out
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: there and find these, is there something specific that they're
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: looking for in that company?
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: Some dental understanding is not a bad idea, but it's
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: not essential. I mean, as long as somebody will kind
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: of help you interpret the results.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: Perfect.
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: Because the way this stuff comes back from the registries
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: that keep the information is sometimes a little bit cryptic.
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: And you really want somebody who will help you interpret
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: it and say, you know, for a hygienist, this person
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: had a DUI 20 years ago. They've had nothing since.
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: I don't see a lot of risk to you. That's
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: valuable information. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. But you can't do it yourself.
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: You can't do it online. I certainly would never discourage
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: anybody from just doing a plain old Google search for
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: anybody they're applying online because sometimes you see some interesting
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: stuff there, but... That's not a substitute for hiring a
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: professional to do this properly for you.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah.
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: Well, that's great.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: Well, that's definitely some good stuff to think about because
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: I think I'll go back to background checks. That was
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: kind of our entry word into this because that was
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: not something we did 20 years ago, even probably 15
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: years ago. Yes, you understand that in bigger companies, but
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: we didn't. we weren't really seeing that. We were doing
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: employment verification checks or whatnot. So it's so interesting how
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: things have changed. And I do remember when this started
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: popping up, I don't know, eight years ago, 10 years ago,
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: and it was, oh, just go online and find a
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: company and pay your 25 bucks and you'll get what
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: you need. And so it's interesting how things continue to
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: change and really do your due diligence when you're looking
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: into that right person that's going to be your next
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: hire into your practice.
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: I'm going to paraphrase slightly what you just said, which
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: is that dentistry allowed itself to get out of step
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: with how the rest of America hired. Yes. And you
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: and I in this conversation are bringing it back. So
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: let me pick up on something you just said a
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: minute ago about verifying employment. And that's an important part too,
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: and something that often isn't done well. So want to
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: talk about that?
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, let's do.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: I'd love that because I think there's a lot of
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: gray area in that one little thought.
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: Well, let me start like I did last time by
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: setting my standard. And my standard is very simple. You
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: should talk to everybody this person has worked for, for
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: at least the past five years.
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: Now, There are some rules. And the first pro tip
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: I'm going to give the audience is do not ever
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: call any phone number provided to you by an applicant. Okay.
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: If somebody says they work for Dr. Mark Smith in
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: Petticoat Junction, go online, find the phone number for Dr.
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: Smith's office and call that number. What has hung up
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: a few dentists who had good intentions was the applicant said,
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: here's Dr. Smith's cell number. Just call that.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: And they call that cell number and without realizing it,
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: they're actually speaking to the applicant's uncle pretending to be Dr.
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: Smith who gives a good review. Don't do it. Find
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: the number independently. Google is really cheap to use.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: You won't get a bill from Google for searching. Once
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: you get Dr. Smith on the phone, let's talk about
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: what should happen next. And the first thing I want
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: to do as a prospective employer is I want to
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: confirm exact dates of employment. And the audience should not
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: make the mistake I see a lot of people make,
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: which is to prompt the former employer and ask for confirmation. Yeah.
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: All humans have a lazy streak. And if somebody presents
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: employment dates to me and they sound about right, I'm
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: just going to agree with them. Much better. idea to
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: ask Dr. Smith, what was this person's first day with
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: you and what was their last day? And send them
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: back to the personnel file because thieves who are trying
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: to hide things will play games with employment dates. And
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: that's how we catch it. Yeah. On the confirmation subject,
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: the other question I want to ask former employers is,
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: what was their job title? Oh, that's a good one.
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: Or if they had multiple job titles, what was their
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: last one? Because a lot of applicants will give themselves
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: that upgrade to first class. Mm-hmm. And what I mean
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: by that is, you worked in your last office as
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: treatment coordinator, and you're applying for an office manager position. Mm-hmm.
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: It is the easiest thing in the world just to
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: claim that you were the office manager of the last office.
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: And if Dr. Smith and I don't cover this in
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: our conversation, or if a conversation never happens, which is
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: often the case as well, then I get away with
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: it and I get an office manager job that I'm
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: really not qualified for.
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: And that may take months to come out. And finally,
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: the doctor realizes you're really good at booking treatment, but
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: you have no clue how to handle receivables or any
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: of the other things that we want an office manager
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: do here. Right, right. So ask about the title. And
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: if you catch the applicant in an act of dishonesty there,
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: there are going to be more. And it's just a
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: question of what they are.
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. Well, those are great.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: I don't want to get too far down a rabbit
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: hole here, but I always feel like this is such
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: a gray area where there's the, what can I ask
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: and what can I not ask?
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: Do you mind just giving us a few of those?
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: Absolutely. You can't ask questions that would open the door
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: to a discriminatory hiring decision. Yeah. And every state and
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: federal law as well have grounds on which you cannot discriminate.
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: So for example, you could not ask Dr. Smith what
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: religion Jill Allen practices or how many kids she has
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: or how old she is or what day she was born.
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: Those are all out of bounds questions. Yep. Other than that,
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: you can ask anything you want. You can certainly ask if,
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: Jill quit or was fired, you may not get an answer,
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: but you're not out of bounds to ask a question. Personally,
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: I don't ask a whole lot of that kind of
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: question because I'm expecting to get pushback from the former employer.
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: The one question we should always, always ask is, is
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: Jill eligible for rehire at your office? Yep. Yep.
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: That's a good one.
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: There are a couple of reasons that's good to ask.
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: First of all, that's a question that even somewhat skittish
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: employers will probably answer. Second, anything other than an immediate
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: yes tells a story. So I asked your former employer
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: if Jill is eligible for rehire, and there's kind of
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: a couple of seconds of silence, and I sense that
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: they're composing their thoughts. That's an answer. That's a really
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: expressive answer with absolutely no words.
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: Got to read that room or read that body language
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: or read that... What they are not saying.
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: The intake of breath and silence says a lot there.
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: And by the way, if you ever want to give
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: a negative reference for an employee, just turn this around.
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: You call me about one of my former employees, and
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: it might be the hygienist who loved to use that
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: same profi cup for the whole day, or maybe it's
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: an embezzler. I mean, it doesn't matter what they've done,
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: but if they're not a good employee, and you ask
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: me for a job reference, what I'm going to say is,
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: I'll confirm dates of employment for this person, and I'm
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: only going to answer one other question. And that question
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: is if they're eligible to rehire. So you're calling me,
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: you're going to say, okay, I'll play along with your game.
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: Would you rehire this person? And I say not in
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: 100 million years. And if after saying that you rehire them,
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: you've earned whatever bad thing is going to happen to
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: you next.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: I think that's a great way to think about it, too,
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: is as an employer, if you get that question and
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: or if you're looking to confirm that, there is liability
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: that eventually falls. If you decide, well, maybe they weren't
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: a good fit for them, but probably for me, you know,
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: I'm seeing this great personality. I'm sure it'll be fine. Well,
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: then you're going to take that on and it will
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: be what it will be.
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah. You know, if I tell you I wouldn't hire
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: that person if they were the last dental assistant on
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: the planet and you hire them, you're absolutely right. You've
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: earned whatever misfortune comes next. And I have seen that happen.
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: I told a dentist that one of his employees had
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: stolen a million dollars from another dentist. And the dentist
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: I told that to did not fire this person.
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: Oh, my gosh.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: Sometimes, Jill, you and I just have to step back
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: and let Darwin do his work.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's crazy. That is really crazy.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: So let's talk about, okay, we've made it through this process.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: We have hired the right person. We've got them in place.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: Let's kind of talk now about just financial oversight and
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: what it looks like for a practice owner. Where does
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: the doctor kind of need to stay involved to kind
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: of be aware of things? Where can they put things
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: on the back burner and step back? And I'm thinking more,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: especially if we've got an employee that has access to
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: finances within the practice.
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, which includes all front desk and office manager and
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: bookkeeper and financial coordinator, if that role exists in your practice. Yeah,
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: it can be a lot of people.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: The first thing I'll say is this, and this really
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: basic step gets ignored by a lot of practitioners to
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: sometimes their peril. Every software tracks how much money it
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: records that patients have paid. And if you are a
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: practice owner and you do not compare that number to
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: what went in your bank, you're asking for trouble. Yep. Okay.
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: That's simple. Now we can talk about how to do it.
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: And I think there's probably an easier way than most
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: practitioners to try to follow faithfully for a while before
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: they just throw up their hands and give up. But
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: if that comparison isn't done monthly, your strongest internal control
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: is called luck.
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And now a word from the sponsors who make
• 26:23
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• 26:30
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• 26:32
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• 26:36
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• 26:40
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• 26:43
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• 26:48
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• 26:53
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• 26:56
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• 27:00
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• 27:03
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• 27:08
  Speaker 2: It's pretty smart. As an orthodontist, you care about getting
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: all the little details right. And ADEC really got it
• 27:15
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• 27:16
  Speaker 1: So if starting off with a big savings on ADEC
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: equipment sounds good to you, the ADEC Smart Start is
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: definitely worth a closer look.
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: Just follow the link in the show notes to learn more.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: David, I would like to just expand on this for
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: a minute because I really want my audience to really
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: hear this, especially my younger docs. But I think our
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: senior docs a lot of times get a little lackadaisical
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: in this area. So it's almost the pendulum swings here
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: a little bit. But this is probably the biggest area
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: that I think docs... just don't do a good job
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: at because it's time consuming. I train my young docs
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: when we're teaching my startup practices. It is so important
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: that we are paying attention to what our operating system,
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: to your point, numbers say and what actually hits our
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: bank account. And I think so many times there's a
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: disconnect that, oh, well, my bookkeeper or my CPA will
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: catch that And I think there's kind of this disconnect
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: that a lot of times our CPAs and our bookkeepers,
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: they're just paying attention to income into our account and
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: expenses out. But they aren't, like 90% of them out
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: there are not paying attention to the fact that we
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: are one of the only industries out there that has
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: a whole nother system that actually pays attention to our receivables.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: And I really want you to kind of expand on
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: this a little bit because I cannot tell you how
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: many doctors I run into from a new doc in
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: to an established practice that's.
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: Coming in going, Jill, I've got problems.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: Well, my team member has been doing this and I
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: always tell my startup docs, listen, this is something you
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: will never, ever delegate to an employee. If the same
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: person that's putting in numbers should never have access to
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: your bank account to confirm that the numbers are actually
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: hitting your bank account. So I'm going to let you
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: take it from there. But gosh, this is like the
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: meat and potatoes right here, guys, that we need to
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: be paying attention to.
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: I'm going to put it a little more bluntly than
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: you just did. Do it. If you are not, if
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: you want to practice and you are not either doing
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: that yourself or ensuring that somebody external to your practice
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: is doing it, the dumbest, laziest thief on the planet
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: can successfully take your money.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: And you and I have seen it over and over
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: and over again, which is what's really, really sad.
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: I see that every week, Jill. Somebody gets stolen from
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: by a thief that you look at and say, this
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: person can barely get out of their own way in
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: the morning. And they take the doctor for $ 100, 000 or $ 300, 000
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: or $ 800, 000. So if that comparison is not happening, again,
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: it needs to be external. It needs to be done
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: by somebody with no access to the money flowing through
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: the practice. It's just a matter of time. Sooner or later,
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: one of your employees is going to want your money
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: and convince themselves that they can have it and they'll
• 30:25
  Speaker 3: take it.
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: So let's start there. Now, you mentioned accountants, and you're
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: absolutely right in that most dentists think that their accountant
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: is on the front lines of their embezzlement defense, and
• 30:37
  Speaker 3: they're not. I don't want to turn this into a
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: technical accounting discussion, but what I'll say is that most
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: practitioners use something called the cash method of accounting.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: And the cash method of accounting means that an accountant's
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: work starts when money hits your bank account.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: Yep.
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: What happens before that is off their radar. Yep. So
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: unless you go to your accountant and you specifically say,
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: I want you to compare what my software said I
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: collected with what went in the bank, they're not doing it.
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: Unless you tell them to do that and pay them
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: for it, it's not happening. If it is happening, folks,
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: if the accountant is doing that, and especially if you
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: deal with a dental CPA, some of them take a
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: little more interest in this than kind of a generalist CPA.
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: But the next question you have to ask is where
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: they get their information. And they get it from the
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: office manager. So if I'm the office manager and I'm stealing,
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: and I think the accountant might be doing the comparison
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: between collections and deposits. I'm either going to send them
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: curated information or I'm going to steal in a way
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: that doesn't create the discrepancy between collections. That's a great
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: topic for another day. But for now, let's just say
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: this comparison has to happen. There used to be a
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: time and when you and I started in this game,
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: that comparison happened every day. Yep. Yep. And that was
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: really before there was such a thing as electronic payments.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: Yep.
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: You know, when I started in the dental world, I'm
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: going to date myself here. It was 1989. The first
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: few offices I worked for, they got paid exactly two ways,
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: cash and check. There were no credit cards. There were
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: no electronic funds transfers. There was no virtual credit card.
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: There was no care credit. All the electronic ways weren't there.
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: In those days, you could match collections against deposits daily.
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because you had physical checks or physical cash.
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: It was all there in front of you. The first
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: office I managed, I took that stuff. And I dropped
• 32:41
  Speaker 3: it on the doctor's desk at the end of the day.
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: And he would check the pegboard collections against the bank
• 32:48
  Speaker 3: deposit that was sitting there in front of him and say, okay,
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: everything's good. And he would take it to the bank. Yep.
• 32:53
  Speaker 3: The money flow is a lot more complicated today.
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, yes.
• 32:57
  Speaker 3: And trying to do that daily is absolutely maddening. And
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: I think a lot of the dentists who have just
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: kind of abdicated, they started by trying to do that.
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: It drove them crazy and they just didn't find an
• 33:08
  Speaker 3: alternative way to do it. And just so everybody in
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: the audience understands, the problem with trying to do this
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: daily is that most electronic payments have a time offset.
• 33:18
  Speaker 3: In other words, they're recorded in your practice management software
• 33:22
  Speaker 3: on a different day than when they hit your bank.
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: So if you're comparing bank against software daily, you're going
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: to keep bumping into that where a patient pays by
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: credit card today and it's a today payment for your
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: practice management software, but it doesn't hit your bank account
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: until three days from now. That's the challenge. So the
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: first thing I tell doctors is, okay, let's not do that.
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: Let's look at it for a month as a whole.
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: And when you do that, most of those timing differences self-resolve.
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: So if somebody pays by credit card on the 15th
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: of the month and it goes into the bank on
• 33:55
  Speaker 3: the 18th, when you look at the month as a whole,
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: that's not an outlier anymore. And that makes life a
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: little easier. Now, even when we do it for a month,
• 34:05
  Speaker 3: our collections and deposits are going to line up perfectly.
• 34:08
  Speaker 3: They're probably not because there are going to be some
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: transactions that straddle the first day of the month and
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: some that straddle the last day of the month. So
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: here's what I tell dentists to do. They do collections
• 34:20
  Speaker 3: versus deposits for the month. There's going to be a variance.
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: So they plot it on a graph. And the thing
• 34:26
  Speaker 3: about these timing differences is that they self-correct the following month.
• 34:31
  Speaker 3: So let's assume that for this month, the only timing
• 34:34
  Speaker 3: difference I have is that a patient pays $ 4, 000 by
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: credit card. On the last day of the month. So
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: when I do that comparison of collections versus deposits, I'm
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: going to see that my collections, according to my software,
• 34:47
  Speaker 3: are $ 4, 000 greater than my bank deposit. I stick $ 4, 000
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: on the graph that I'm keeping. Yep. Next month, there's
• 34:54
  Speaker 3: going to be a $ 4, 000 credit card payment that has
• 34:57
  Speaker 3: no offset in the practice management software because the offset
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: happened this month. So if that's my only timing difference
• 35:05
  Speaker 3: for next month. Right. Then I'm going to see deposits
• 35:08
  Speaker 3: greater than collections for $ 4, 000. Yep. And if you look
• 35:12
  Speaker 3: at this over time, what you should see kind of
• 35:15
  Speaker 3: looks like a sine wave. Some months you have collections
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: greater than deposits and some months you have deposits greater
• 35:22
  Speaker 3: than collections and there's no kind of overall trend. What
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: I would tell your audience is if you did that
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: exercise for three months and in all three months the
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: variance was in one direction, that's not timing. Yep. There's
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: something else going on and now you might need to
• 35:36
  Speaker 3: call me or dig into it yourself or find out
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: somehow why you had three straight months with the variants
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: all in the same direction. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: Gosh, this is just so, so important.
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: I hope that everybody is really listening to this because
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: this is the crux of the.
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: Beginning of something much, much bigger.
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: And it just, going back to your point, and I
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: advocate for once a month as well for that very reason,
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: there are just so many different ways that to your
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: point that money flows into our accounts differently than it did.
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: And this is one of those things that I always
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: tell my docs, like this is doing the unsexy side
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: of our business. Like nobody got into this going, Ooh,
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: I can't wait to balance out my receivables and, you know,
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: my deposits. But this is the hard work that we
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: have to do as business owners. This is what you
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: took on as a business owner. And if you want
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: to keep yourself safe, You've got to do this, but
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: we also, this is keeping yourself safe from the wrong
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: employee too, because I know David, you and I could
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: talk all kinds of, I think, you know, especially now
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: with the credit cards, you would think, oh, well, it
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: should be pretty easy. People wouldn't be able to steal
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: with credit cards. Well, you know, I've seen offices where
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: employees have their own square account where they can charge
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: their own credit card machine.
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: It's just crazy. The things that we see.
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: Ah, yes.
• 37:02
  Speaker 3: Just like that. These cost $ 9 at Amazon and they
• 37:06
  Speaker 3: turn your phone into a credit card terminal. Absolutely right.
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: It's crazy. So let's talk a little bit.
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: You kind of got onto selective reporting a little bit,
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: but what can doctors do, especially, and I think it's
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: easier in a startup or a younger practice because most
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: docs are pretty involved or have been trained. Hopefully if
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: they've been working with me, they've been trained to be
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: pretty involved with this. But I think it's kind of
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: that five years to 15 year mark where we're getting
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: big and we're kind of giving other people more responsibilities.
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: And can we.
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: Talk a little bit about that and what doctors can
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: do to build some systems that allow them to independently
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: verify what's happening?
• 37:51
  Speaker 3: A couple of things you can do. The first thing
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: I always talk about with practice owners is division or
• 37:56
  Speaker 3: separation of duties. And one of the problems dentists have
• 38:01
  Speaker 3: is a lot of people tell them they need to
• 38:03
  Speaker 3: do that. What they don't do is give them the
• 38:06
  Speaker 3: rules for how to do it. And that just creates
• 38:09
  Speaker 3: this frustrating situation where the doctor's kind of looking at
• 38:13
  Speaker 3: what has to be done in the practice and staff,
• 38:16
  Speaker 3: and they don't necessarily divide duties in a way that
• 38:19
  Speaker 3: makes sense. What I do is I give dentists three rules.
• 38:23
  Speaker 3: And when we look at what's sometimes called the revenue cycle,
• 38:25
  Speaker 3: in other words, the sequence of things that have to
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: happen for money to get into a doctor's bank account,
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: there are basically six tasks in the revenue cycle. Treatment
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: gets entered into practice management software. That's always the start.
• 38:38
  Speaker 3: Then patients and insurance companies get bills. Hopefully they pay.
• 38:42
  Speaker 3: Those payments get recorded, which is sometimes called posted in
• 38:47
  Speaker 3: practice management software. There's a daily balancing at the end
• 38:51
  Speaker 3: of the day that your staff do, and then money
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: gets deposited in the bank. Those are the six tasks
• 38:56
  Speaker 3: in the revenue cycle. Yep. So I give Dennis three rules.
• 39:00
  Speaker 3: The first rule is treatment should always, always, always be
• 39:03
  Speaker 3: entered in the operatory by somebody who was there when
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: it was done. And what entering treatment in the operatory does,
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: first of all, it stops a whole lot of kind of,
• 39:13
  Speaker 3: I can't read somebody's handwriting, so I entered the wrong stuff,
• 39:15
  Speaker 3: you know, the basic clerical errors. But it also fundamentally
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: changes the dynamic of embezzlement. If I have a crown
• 39:23
  Speaker 3: done in a dentist's office and treatment is entered in
• 39:26
  Speaker 3: the operatory, then by the time I get to the
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: front desk, I owe the person. money. And anybody who
• 39:32
  Speaker 3: steals is going to have to deal with my balance
• 39:35
  Speaker 3: as a complication in stealing. On the other hand, if
• 39:39
  Speaker 3: back when practices had one computer at the front desk
• 39:42
  Speaker 3: and there was no such thing as an operatory terminal,
• 39:45
  Speaker 3: you couldn't do that and treatment got entered at the
• 39:47
  Speaker 3: front desk. There are a lot of practices still doing that.
• 39:51
  Speaker 3: The difference that makes is if I have a crown
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: and no treatment is entered in the operatory and it's
• 39:57
  Speaker 3: entered at the front desk, when I get to the
• 39:59
  Speaker 3: front desk, my balance is zero. In other words, somebody
• 40:03
  Speaker 3: at the front desk is going to create a balance
• 40:05
  Speaker 3: and then deal with it. And they always have the
• 40:07
  Speaker 3: option among other things of just not entering anything into
• 40:11
  Speaker 3: the software at all and pocketing all my money. Yep. Right.
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: They don't have that receivable that already exists as a complication.
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 40:19
  Speaker 3: So that's rule number one. You've got five jobs left.
• 40:23
  Speaker 3: Patients and insurance companies get bills. They pay those payments,
• 40:28
  Speaker 3: get entered or posted. There's balancing at the end of
• 40:31
  Speaker 3: the day. And then the bank deposit gets made. And
• 40:35
  Speaker 3: I have two more rules for those five things. Nobody
• 40:39
  Speaker 3: does more than two of them in your office. And
• 40:42
  Speaker 3: the two that they do are not sequential. Yeah. Let's
• 40:45
  Speaker 3: step back for a minute and talk about why this matters.
• 40:48
  Speaker 3: What we want to do as a practice owner is
• 40:51
  Speaker 3: we want to make it so that if one of
• 40:53
  Speaker 3: my staff is going to steal, they have to involve
• 40:56
  Speaker 3: a coworker. Mm-hmm. And for a wannabe thief, that is
• 41:00
  Speaker 3: a hugely risky conversation to have to go to my
• 41:03
  Speaker 3: co-worker and say, Jill, I'd like to steal from our boss,
• 41:05
  Speaker 3: but I need you to help me. It's hard to
• 41:10
  Speaker 3: quantify precisely, but the empirical work suggests that that will
• 41:15
  Speaker 3: deter about 80% of would-be thieves. What you're really doing, doctor,
• 41:20
  Speaker 3: is you're creating accountability between your staff. That once you
• 41:25
  Speaker 3: set the system up, it doesn't take any of your effort.
• 41:28
  Speaker 3: So if I am the person making the bank deposit
• 41:31
  Speaker 3: at the end of the day, I know that when
• 41:33
  Speaker 3: I walk out the door with money, I'm suddenly accountable
• 41:35
  Speaker 3: for it. So I want to know how much is there.
• 41:39
  Speaker 3: And not only that, I want to know how much
• 41:41
  Speaker 3: should be there. So that creates accountability between me and
• 41:45
  Speaker 3: whoever did the end of day balancing, which is the
• 41:48
  Speaker 3: last step before me, for me to know how much
• 41:50
  Speaker 3: is there and how much should be there. Yep. If
• 41:53
  Speaker 3: the same person does balancing and makes the deposit, you
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: don't have that cross accountability.
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure.
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: And I think on our ortho side, which is just
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: a tad bit different, you know, I think doctors, what
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: you have to hear is that, and it's a little
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: harder when we're a startup practice, right? And we've only
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: got that one employee and the doctor. So the doctor
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: has to be the second set of eyes on this.
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: But what we have to really, I say, be careful
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: about is, does the physical contract that the patient signed
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: match what was actually entered into our software? A lot
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: of times we see the stealing or whatnot happening with
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: our down payments where we'll see a payment posted. in
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: a certain, you know, maybe it came in as a check,
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: I'll do air quote check or cash, but then it
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: was switched to a check or it was switched to
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: a credit card. And that's where like as doctors, we
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: have to, David, to your point, we need to have
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: second set of eyes.
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: We've got within.
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: Our operating systems where we can pay attention on our
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: end of day reports and see if Was a payment
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: changed in the way it was processed maybe to give
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: out a receipt and then put into our system differently?
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: So going back to when we say it takes a
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: couple of days for a credit card to process. And
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: so I think even though it's a little different from
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: the dental office, there are still safeguards in our orthodontic
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: practices today. that we have to pay attention to whether
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: we're a small practice or as we get bigger, to
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: your point, we've got different people handling different things and
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: how things are posted, but we're also paying attention to
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: the safeguards that are in place with our operating systems
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: and following the employee touch points within the system to see, hmm,
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: why was there.
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: An adjustment made there?
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: Or why was there something changed here and getting clarification
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: before it's too late?
• 43:53
  Speaker 3: It surprises a lot of orthodontists when I say to them, really,
• 43:56
  Speaker 3: one thing you need to do is check the contract
• 43:59
  Speaker 3: against what was entered into your practice. Check the dollar
• 44:02
  Speaker 3: amount of the contract and the down payment and the
• 44:05
  Speaker 3: monthly payments against what was entered into your practice management.
• 44:08
  Speaker 3: I say, really? I need to do that? I mean,
• 44:10
  Speaker 3: that's a lot of work. No, you do 200 starts
• 44:13
  Speaker 3: a year. That's checking exactly one contract a day.
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
• 44:18
  Speaker 3: That's your livelihood.
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. For sure.
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: So when we kind of pull all these pieces together,
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: and I know you've been giving us safeguards the whole
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: time here, but anything else that we need to really
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: be paying attention to that we haven't covered?
• 44:35
  Speaker 3: I'm going to add one more that I am fairly
• 44:37
  Speaker 3: sure most of your audience has never, ever heard before.
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: Great. Lay it on us.
• 44:43
  Speaker 3: I call this articulation. And as soon as I start
• 44:47
  Speaker 3: talking to a dental audience about articulation, I mean, they're all,
• 44:50
  Speaker 3: you know, they're all picturing a mandible and a maxilla.
• 44:53
  Speaker 3: And I've very deliberately borrowed that word from that concept.
• 44:57
  Speaker 3: You know, articulation being the idea that two pieces should
• 45:01
  Speaker 3: fit together. So let me tell you what you do
• 45:05
  Speaker 3: in articulation, and then I'll tell you why.
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 45:07
  Speaker 3: What articulation involves is this. At the end of each day,
• 45:11
  Speaker 3: you get a day end report from your practice management software.
• 45:14
  Speaker 3: My strong, strong preference is that the doctor print this themselves.
• 45:19
  Speaker 3: In other words, if you allow somebody to hand you
• 45:21
  Speaker 3: a report, you have no control whatsoever over the parameters
• 45:25
  Speaker 3: used to generate that report. And in my mind, that
• 45:27
  Speaker 3: makes it inherently unreliable. So what I like to see
• 45:31
  Speaker 3: a doctor do is print their end of day report
• 45:33
  Speaker 3: each day, check it for the kinds of things you mentioned,
• 45:35
  Speaker 3: like the change payments and things like that. Anytime As
• 45:40
  Speaker 3: a practice owner, you review a report, put your initials
• 45:43
  Speaker 3: on it so that you know that that's the exact
• 45:45
  Speaker 3: one you saw. What I want a doctor to do
• 45:49
  Speaker 3: at the end of the month is get a month-end
• 45:51
  Speaker 3: summary report from their practice management software. So this is
• 45:54
  Speaker 3: like a really big day-end report. It covers the whole month. Yep.
• 45:58
  Speaker 3: Get that summary report. Pull out the 20 or 18
• 46:01
  Speaker 3: or 14 end-of-day reports that you have. Add up three
• 46:05
  Speaker 3: totals on those reports. And those totals in a general
• 46:08
  Speaker 3: dental practice are fees, adjustments, and payments. In other words,
• 46:12
  Speaker 3: what you billed, what was adjusted, and what was paid.
• 46:15
  Speaker 3: So for the 14 or the 20 individual reports, you
• 46:19
  Speaker 3: add those three numbers up. You compare that total to
• 46:23
  Speaker 3: the month end total. These should agree to the penny.
• 46:28
  Speaker 3: I mean, there should not be one ounce of difference
• 46:31
  Speaker 3: between the 14 or 20 and the total for the month.
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: Yep.
• 46:37
  Speaker 3: That's articulation why is it important because a lot of
• 46:41
  Speaker 3: thieves will do after hours activity yep they will come
• 46:45
  Speaker 3: in on a saturday and they will put stuff through
• 46:47
  Speaker 3: your software that they do not want you to see
• 46:49
  Speaker 3: or know about if they do your month will not
• 46:53
  Speaker 3: articulate comparing the the daily totals to the monthly total
• 46:58
  Speaker 3: they won't add up and that tells you that something
• 47:00
  Speaker 3: was kind of slid into your software after hours, either
• 47:05
  Speaker 3: on a weekend or somebody stays late and they put
• 47:08
  Speaker 3: more stuff through. So it's articulation. It takes almost no time.
• 47:12
  Speaker 3: In fact, what we do when we teach practice owners
• 47:15
  Speaker 3: how to do this is we say, at the end
• 47:17
  Speaker 3: of the day, when you print that report, here's a
• 47:19
  Speaker 3: spreadsheet for you. Just enter those three numbers into the spreadsheet.
• 47:23
  Speaker 3: It takes maybe a minute.
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: Yep.
• 47:25
  Speaker 3: And if you do that every day, when you get
• 47:27
  Speaker 3: to the end of the month, the total is already there.
• 47:29
  Speaker 3: And all you have to do is print a month-end
• 47:31
  Speaker 3: report and compare it to the total you already have.
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I totally agree with you on that. And I
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: know Ortho, a tad bit differently, but we're looking at
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: those production and collections, but your adjustments, all of that
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: is still the same. We're just trying to compare that
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: somebody didn't go in and write off their family member's account.
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: now your net production changed out. And that happens a lot, guys, unfortunately.
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: So I think you're so right on that. And this, again,
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: is just not the fun side of doing business, but
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: it's what we have to do in order to keep
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: ourselves safe.
• 48:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah. And it's about a 10-minute job. I mean, this
• 48:09
  Speaker 3: does not take hours and hours to do. And If
• 48:12
  Speaker 3: you have a spreadsheet, and I'll mention that we have
• 48:15
  Speaker 3: articulation spreadsheets built for any practice management software you could imagine.
• 48:19
  Speaker 3: So if somebody in the audience wants a spreadsheet, just
• 48:22
  Speaker 3: email me. I'm sure we'll talk about contact information at
• 48:25
  Speaker 3: the end of the session today. Just email me. Tell
• 48:28
  Speaker 3: me what practice management software you use. And if you're
• 48:32
  Speaker 3: an OrthoTrack user or a Dentrix user or whatever, we
• 48:35
  Speaker 3: have an articulation spreadsheet that's built for your exact software. Perfect.
• 48:40
  Speaker 2: I love it.
• 48:40
  Speaker 3: I love it.
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: Well, David, I know you and I could just talk
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: and talk and where this is the stuff that I,
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: you know, unfortunately get pretty excited about. I know you
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: do as well, because I think this is just such
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: a area that does not get enough light shined on
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: when we think about all the things in a practice
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: that we have to pay attention to as an owner.
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: So if somebody wants to learn more about Prosperident or
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: access to the resources that you were just talking about,
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: what's the best way that they can get in touch
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: with you or your team and connect?
• 49:13
  Speaker 3: Our website is a really great place to start. It
• 49:15
  Speaker 3: has so much information on it. We even have an
• 49:18
  Speaker 3: AI chatbot just to. help people find stuff on our website.
• 49:22
  Speaker 3: But our website is just prosperident.com.
• 49:25
  Speaker 2: Nice and easy.
• 49:26
  Speaker 3: Very simple. And if you prefer to gather your information
• 49:31
  Speaker 3: by talking to somebody, we'd be happy to help with that.
• 49:34
  Speaker 3: And our toll-free number is 888-398-2327.
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: Perfect.
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: And now a word from the sponsors who make this
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: podcast possible. Hey docs, let's talk about SmileSuite because it's
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: not just another scheduling system. It's a game changer in
• 49:54
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• 49:57
  Speaker 1: SmileSuite partner, I've witnessed the incredible impact it has on
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: practices of all sizes. SmileSuite means your new patient calls
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• 50:13
  Speaker 1: presentation software and seamless post-consultation follow-up. It's like having a
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• 50:21
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• 50:21
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• 50:37
  Speaker 3: Awesome.
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: Well, once again, this has just been such a great
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: episode with you and you are just such a wealth
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: of knowledge. And again, I'm glad that you're out there
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: fighting our crime on our behalf. So, you know, the
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: way I like to finish this up, I like us
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: to finish up with a speed round. Are you ready
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: for this time's speed round? All right, here we go.
• 51:01
  Speaker 3: I guess I'm ready.
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: All right. What is one daily habit or ritual that
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: helps you stay productive or balanced?
• 51:08
  Speaker 3: Get up early.
• 51:10
  Speaker 2: Ooh, that's a good one. Okay.
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: What is your go-to strategy for getting unstuck when you're
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: facing a tough problem?
• 51:17
  Speaker 3: I usually stand up and walk around for a minute.
• 51:21
  Speaker 3: I move physically, so I'll go outside for a few
• 51:23
  Speaker 3: minutes or I'll poke my head into one of our
• 51:26
  Speaker 3: team offices and chat with them for a minute. But
• 51:28
  Speaker 3: I just, I try to take my mind off the
• 51:30
  Speaker 3: problem and then come back.
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I love it.
• 51:33
  Speaker 3: I love it. All right.
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: And the final one, what is one business idea that
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: you've recently seen and wish.
• 51:40
  Speaker 2: You had thought of?
• 51:44
  Speaker 3: I wish I had invented artificial intelligence.
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, right.
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: For good or for bad, wherever it's taking us, I agree.
• 51:54
  Speaker 3: It's certainly transforming our business.
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely.
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: Well, it has been an absolute pleasure. Thank you so
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: much for being on Haydox again with us.
• 52:04
  Speaker 3: I love every time we do this, Jill.
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 52:06
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: Until next time. Are you ready to start a practice
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: of your own? Need a new fresh set of eyes
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: or some advice on your existing practice? If so, reach
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: out to me, Jill Allen, at www.practiceresults.com. If you like
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: what we're doing here on Hey Docs and want to
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: hear more of this awesome content, be sure and give
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: us a five-star rating on your preferred listening platform and
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: subscribe to our show so you never miss an episode. Remember,
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: new episodes drop every Thursday.
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: See you next week.