Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Bonnie Thompson, Chief Operating Officer of Forest Family Dentistry

Transcript

Bonnie Thompson, Chief Operating Officer of Forest Family Dentistry · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:02
  - Every dental leader is facing the same question
• 0:04
  - right now, whether to grow, partner, sell, or
• 0:07
  - hold the line. There's no neutral move anymore.
• 0:10
  - DSOs are consolidating,
• 0:12
  - valuations are climbing,
• 0:13
  - AI and digital tools are raising the bar
• 0:15
  - on what a modern practice even looks like.
• 0:18
  - And the calls you make this year will
• 0:20
  - shape the next decade.
• 0:21
  - Becker's fifth annual future of dentistry roundtable is
• 0:24
  - where you make those calls with better information.
• 0:27
  - You'll be in the company of 250
• 0:29
  - plus executives, 90 plus speakers, and two days
• 0:32
  - of intimate discussion driven sessions with DSO and
• 0:35
  - independent practice leaders laying out what's working on
• 0:38
  - growth, talent, and tech,
• 0:40
  - and what they do differently.
• 0:42
  - So join us September fourteenth and fifteenth at
• 0:44
  - the Hilton Chicago and come ready to decide
• 0:47
  - what's next. Register on our events page at
• 0:50
  - beckersdental.com
• 0:51
  - by clicking in the events tab in the
• 0:53
  - upper right.
• 0:57
  - Hello. This is Arianna Portolatin with the Becker's
• 1:00
  - Dental and DSO review podcast.
• 1:02
  - I'm thrilled to be joined today by Bonnie
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  - Thompson, the chief operating officer at Forest Family
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  - Dentistry in Texas. Bonnie, thank you so much
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  - for being here today. It's a pleasure to
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  - have you here. Thank you so much for
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  - having me.
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  - Yes, of course.
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  - To start us off, can you introduce yourself
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  - for our listeners and tell us a little
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  - bit about your background as well?
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  - Sure.
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  - So,
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  - I'm currently living in Texas, but my career
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  - began
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  - in Massachusetts
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  - when I was in high school, and I
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  - started as a dental assistant.
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  - And over the last thirty seven years, I
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  - have just
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  - continued to grow and evolve in dentistry. It's
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  - pretty much
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  - my passion and my life at this point.
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  - But I have been fortunate to have experienced
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  - dentistry through different decades and and different
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  - social situations
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  - and political
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  - temperatures. So it's pretty interesting to grow and
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  - evolve in the industry in different
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  - places and different roles from dental assistant straight
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  - through billing,
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  - office manager, and now,
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  - in a leadership COO position.
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  - That's great. And how long have you been
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  - with Horace Family Dentistry so far? I have
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  - been here three years.
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  - Awesome. Alright.
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  - Well, to kick off our questions here, I'd
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  - love to know what are some of the
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  - biggest issues that you're following in the dental
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  - industry right now?
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  - You know, I I think a lot of
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  - people want to gravitate towards staffing. That isn't
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  - something that I am personally experiencing right now.
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  - I think one of the things that's the
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  - biggest challenge for me and a lot of
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  - other leaders that I talk about
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  - is the rising cost of things. So the
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  - economy is definitely changing.
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  - It's more expensive for patients to live and
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  - and pay for things, but it's also expensive
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  - for businesses.
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  - But
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  - for me, the thing that makes it hardest
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  - is mitigating insurance.
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  - So insurance reimbursements
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  - aren't
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  - changing at the same pace that the cost
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  - of living and the cost of our businesses
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  - are, and I think that is the biggest
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  - challenge. Because even
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  - navigating and negotiating different networks and umbrella networks,
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  - the insurance reimbursement
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  - and
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  - the complexity of getting claims paid and all
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  - of the hurdles that we have to go
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  - through
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  - just to get claims paid has become the
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  - hardest cash flow issue, I would say.
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  - Okay. So it seems like that creates some
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  - financial challenges, but also takes up a good
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  - chunk of time as well for, I'm sure,
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  - you and other employees.
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  - Oh, it does. For sure. I mean, there's
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  - there's staffing obviously involved with, you know, managing
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  - that. There's also great
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  - AI technology
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  - and
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  - different programs that can help navigate some of
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  - these things, but there's certain things that just
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  - can't be automated
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  - right now. And especially as we're working
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  - to really dig deep and find ways to
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  - offset
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  - those challenges with maintaining a good culture and
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  - supporting the team that we do have. I
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  - just wanna make sure that we're using the
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  - right technology. I don't wanna waste money that's
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  - already
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  - scarce on programs that don't fix the problem.
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  - Yeah. Could you tell us a little bit
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  - more about what technology is being used at
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  - your practices so far, and what's been helpful?
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  - Absolutely.
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  - We currently switched over to Overjet
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  - AI.
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  - That is a great tool to help us
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  - with our X-ray,
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  - narration, basically. So it helps us educate the
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  - patients to show the patients what we're seeing
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  - and diagnose quicker and help them understand their
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  - treatment needs. But it also helps us communicate
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  - with insurance companies too, whether it's pocket depths
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  - or
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  - decay or things that maybe had a different
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  - gray scale area before. These AI technologies are
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  - helping to identify those quicker and document them.
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  - We also have programs that help us verify
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  - insurance,
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  - in an automated fashion.
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  - And I wouldn't say that I found one
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  - that's a 100% perfect yet, but they are
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  - tools that help us get through things quicker.
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  - And then we also have the tools that
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  - help us communicate with patients via text, online
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  - scheduling, and online forms,
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  - which helps the process,
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  - with our teams just get patients in the
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  - door quicker and make it a little bit
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  - more seamless.
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  - Yeah. And I know you mentioned,
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  - earlier that there are some things that can't
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  - be automated.
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  - Could you share share some of those areas
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  - where,
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  - technology may not be as advanced and you're
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  - still seeing some challenges?
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  - Yeah. 100%.
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  - So
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  - I I know that there's a big push
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  - towards AI, and everybody wants a different
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  - AI agent.
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  - But the one thing in dentistry that will
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  - always remain true is that we will be
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  - a people treating people industry.
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  - So you can't automate
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  - and use technology to deliver one on one
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  - personal customer service,
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  - and that's where we need to be able
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  - to, as leaders,
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  - strengthen our team and communicate clearly what our
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  - expectations
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  - are for
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  - patient communication,
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  - customer service,
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  - and just that
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  - specialized
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  - care that we expect to be delivered, and
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  - then
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  - encourage our team and coach them properly so
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  - that they have the tools that when they
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  - can't automate something, they can still have a
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  - very
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  - confident and compassionate conversation with patients.
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  - Great.
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  - And moving on to our next question here.
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  - What are you most excited about when it
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  - comes to dentistry right now? And is there
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  - anything that's making you nervous about the industry?
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  - I'm just excited in general. I love to
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  - see that technology is always advancing, whether it's
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  - the X-ray AI technology that helps doctors communicate
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  - and educate patients better,
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  - whether it
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  - is painless
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  - forms of dentistry where we don't have to
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  - cut into teeth as much to do more
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  - cosmetic
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  - procedures like halo veneers as opposed to, you
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  - know, the typical old
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  - veneers that we were cutting into teeth and
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  - having to take away healthy tooth structure. We
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  - can give people those things. I think it's
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  - awesome to see the
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  - quieter drills, the laser
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  - drills as opposed to the old wind up
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  - drills that send sound through everybody's body and
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  - probably makes the experience a lot harder for
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  - patients. Those are the things I'm excited about,
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  - the advances in dentistry there.
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  - The things that make me nervous, again, I
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  - would just say it's
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  - the
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  - economy and the way patients need to be
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  - focused on what they're spending,
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  - but when insurance
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  - can dictate or control the way patients see
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  - their care.
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  - So if an insurance company is saying we're
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  - denying this because we don't feel it's medically
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  - necessary,
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  - it causes a sense of distrust between the
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  - patient and the provider
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  - because the patient is tying also parts of
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  - that care to the financial aspect. And I
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  - think it raises some concerns from the patient's
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  - standpoint
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  - to wonder, is the insurance looking out for
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  - their best interest, or is that a financial
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  - decision, or is the doctor looking out for
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  - the their best interest, or is it a
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  - financial transaction? So I think that's the thing
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  - that makes me the most nervous is that
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  - with the economy the way it is in
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  - in spending,
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  - the insurance companies make that a little bit
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  - harder on both sides.
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  - Yeah. And I know that this is,
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  - an issue that so many dental offices across
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  - the country are dealing with right now. I'd
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  - love to know, are there any solutions that
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  - you would like to see put in place
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  - to help with this issue and, kind of
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  - mitigate some of these challenges that come up
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  - with insurers?
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  - You know, I wish I had the golden
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  - nugget on that. I don't. I think that
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  - as long as I've been in dentistry, which
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  - is, again,
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  - over three decades, I haven't seen
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  - many improvements.
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  - Here and there, I will see
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  - shortened frequencies on things to replace and treat
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  - teeth, but the reimbursement levels are definitely
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  - still as low as they ever were, and
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  - the maximums are still the same as they
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  - were in 1989
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  - when I started.
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  - So I don't see that the monetary amounts
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  - are improving there.
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  - I just I think the hard part is
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  - a lot of these insurance companies are for
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  - profit,
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  - which makes their decision making on a lot
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  - of things
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  - in their interest more so than what the
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  - perception of what insurance is supposed to be.
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  - So I don't have a solution. I just
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  - I think I know where the problems came
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  - from.
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  - Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for
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  - sharing your thoughts, with that issue.
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  - Last question for you here. What will the
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  - most effective leaders need to be successful in
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  - the next two to three years?
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  - I will always go back to strengthening your
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  - people. And I say this mainly because leadership
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  - and culture are two of my
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  - most passionate qualities as far as what comes
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  - to running a dentist office and and a
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  - large dental group.
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  - Because with all the people across the country
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  - in different
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  - demographics
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  - saying that staffing is hard, you have to
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  - understand the people, and you have to understand
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  - what's important to them right now. So for
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  - some, it might be more flexible schedules. We
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  - definitely have different generational challenges that we have
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  - to adapt
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  - to when you're
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  - bringing in different age groups like boomers or
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  - Gen x and Gen z.
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  - These people communicate different, and it's understand
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  - to be able to clearly express your expectations
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  - as an owner and a leader
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  - to the team that you have in order
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  - to foster
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  - their growth and development with you and their
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  - level of commitment.
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  - If we keep missing the mark on that
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  - and we don't find a way to connect
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  - and retain our people, that's gonna feel like
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  - the biggest pain point when it doesn't have
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  - to be.
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  - Alright. Well, that is all I have for
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  - you today, Bonnie. Thank you so much for
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  - joining us today. This was a great conversation.
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  - So definitely a pleasure speaking with you and
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  - looking forward to connecting with you again in
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  - the future.
• 11:09
  - Thank you so much. You have a great
• 11:10
  - day. Thanks for having me. You too. Thank
• 11:12
  - you so much. Goodbye. Bye bye.