Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / The Next Phase of DSO Growth and AI in Dentistry with Stan Kinder

Transcript

The Next Phase of DSO Growth and AI in Dentistry with Stan Kinder · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  - Oral health is finally being recognized as part
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  - of Whole Person Care. And at the same
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  - time, digital tools and AI are reshaping how
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  - practices prevent disease, engage patients, and grow.
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  - DSOs are expanding. Independent
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  - practices are proving their staying power, and investment
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  - is accelerating across the sector.
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  - Dental leadership has never been more complicated
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  - or more consequential.
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  - Becker's fifth annual future of dentistry roundtable brings
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  - together more than 250
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  - executive level attendees
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  - and 90 plus speakers
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  - for two days of sessions in Chicago, all
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  - built to help leaders benchmark their priorities,
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  - stress test their strategies, and walk away with
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  - a clearer picture of where this industry is
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  - heading and how to position for it. It.
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  - Join us September fourteenth and fifteenth in Chicago.
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  - Register on our events page at wwwbeckersdental.com
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  - by clicking on the events tab in the
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  - upper right.
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  - Hello. This is Arianna Portolatin with the Becker's
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  - Dental and DSO Review podcast.
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  - I'm thrilled to be joined today by Stan
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  - Kinder, the president of Everything DSO and publisher
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  - of Dental Growth and Exit newsletter.
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  - Stan, thank you so much for being here
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  - today. It's a pleasure to have you. Sure.
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  - Thank you so much for the invitation. I
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  - appreciate it.
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  - Yes. Of course. To start us off, can
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  - you introduce yourself for our listeners and tell
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  - us a little bit about your background as
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  - well? Yeah. Sure. Absolutely.
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  - You,
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  - obviously, mentioned,
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  - my current role is president of an advisory
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  - service called everything DSO.
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  - I work with practice owners that are interested
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  - in exploring a relationship with
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  - DSO. And then I also publish a newsletter
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  - called Down Growth and Exit that
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  - helps dentists with content and focusing on how
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  - they can grow and better manage their practices,
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  - as well
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  - as increase the value of the practice asset.
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  - At risk of dating myself, I actually started
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  - in dentistry as far back as 1981.
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  - I launched a practice in partnership with a
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  - dentist, but not a dentist myself, MBA by
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  - education.
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  - And me, obviously, was responsible for the clinical
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  - side of the practice and
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  - I was responsible
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  - for all the nonclinical
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  - activity.
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  - Over the intervening four decades,
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  - I've
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  - worked in virtually every capacity you can imagine
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  - with the profession. As I mentioned,
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  - indirect ownership of practices directing myself.
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  - I've done management consulting.
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  - I've
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  - I've brokered practices.
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  - I've helped the dentist
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  - implement
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  - associate buy in buy out agreements.
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  - And I spent nearly fifteen years working for
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  - several different DSOs
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  - and, senior executive roles doing mergers and acquisitions.
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  - Great. Thank you so much. It's great to
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  - hear about your extensive experience,
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  - in the dental industry, so thank you for
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  - sharing that. First question for you here, what
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  - are some of the biggest issues you're following
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  - in the
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  - dental industry right now?
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  - You know, I think they're essentially the the
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  - same ones that,
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  - you see in the trade press and that
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  - people are generally talking about.
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  - One of the big ones, obviously, is
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  - the continued evolution and maturation
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  - of the DSO market and the consolidation
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  - that,
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  - that's continuing to occur.
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  - I think, obviously, one of the other big
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  - ones is
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  - the advent
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  - of artificial intelligence
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  - tools
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  - and how they're being used and developed,
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  - for practices.
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  - I also think the some of the the
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  - changing demographic trends are
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  - gonna
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  - can can impacting the profession in the short
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  - term
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  - and will continue to have implications for the
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  - long term. It's
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  - a from my view, it's a very dynamic
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  - environment in the current climate.
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  - And just a quick follow-up question for you
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  - there. I know you mentioned DSO consolidation. What's
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  - your outlook on where the market is headed
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  - there?
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  - Sure.
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  - Yeah. Well, you know, I think if you
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  - have paid
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  - any attention historically
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  - to what happens in the private equity world.
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  - Sort of the evolution
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  - of what I think is happening in
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  - the DSO environment is pretty consistent.
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  - You see early stages
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  - of consolidation
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  - that's funded by institutional
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  - investors and private equity
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  - is that it's driven very much by
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  - arbitrage
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  - and scaling
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  - at a fairly rapid pace.
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  - And that really reflected what went on in
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  - the DSO world for the better part
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  - of the last decade.
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  - All of
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  - the emphasis is on grow, grow, grow.
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  - And then as
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  - both the cost of capital raised,
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  - rose with the increase in interest rates
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  - and the impact on the balance sheets, now
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  - we're seeing that there's
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  - kind of a maturation
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  - in my view of
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  - the DSO world and that there's a much
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  - greater emphasis on the ability
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  - to,
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  - operationally
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  - drive,
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  - year over year growth at the individual practice
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  - level.
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  - And I think also a greater emphasis
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  - on
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  - putting patients and providers
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  - at the top of the pyramid.
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  - And so
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  - growth for growth's sake
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  - is nowhere nearly as popular
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  - as effective. And so we've seen the rate
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  - of acquisition that's slow a little bit over
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  - the last year or two,
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  - but I my belief is that it's going
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  - to continue
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  - at a fairly consistent pace over time and
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  - and potentially increase.
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  - Alright.
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  - And I'm curious to also know what are
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  - you most excited about when it comes to
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  - dentistry right now, and what makes you nervous
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  - about the industry?
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  - I think,
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  - on the on the excited side,
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  - I think the,
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  - reintroduction
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  - of,
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  - AI capabilities
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  - is,
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  - very exciting. And I think we're only in
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  - the very earliest chapters of of that trend.
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  - Clearly, there's been a lot
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  - of focus
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  - on developing
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  - AI driven clinical tools,
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  - and that a lot of that has been
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  - where the early adoption
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  - has been occurring.
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  - What we're beginning to see,
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  - agentic driven
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  - applications
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  - where
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  - AI is
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  - answering phones, scheduling appointments, managing patient follow-up,
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  - working,
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  - as
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  - the point of interface with,
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  - the insurance
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  - payers in in the background.
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  - So there are a lot of evolving efficiencies
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  - that are,
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  - I think coming down the pipe and it's
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  - going to be exciting to see how that
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  - plays out.
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  - In terms
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  - of things that,
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  - I'm potentially
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  - nervous about,
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  - I think is going to be, A, how
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  - effectively
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  - folks
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  - at the individual practice over are able to
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  - adopt
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  - those tools.
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  - I also and I think that we're
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  - on the cusp
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  - of kind of a changing environment relative to
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  - how
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  - the third party payers
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  - are going to continue to evolve. There's
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  - in my judgment kind of a diminishing
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  - rationale
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  - and case
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  - for PPO participation
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  - and we're beginning to see
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  - a trend away from that. And then I
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  - guess the last thing that I think is
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  - fairly exciting is
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  - the continued
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  - growth and awareness
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  - and I think
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  - responses
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  - to understanding
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  - that the really
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  - powerful links between oral health and systemic health.
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  - Great. Thank you so much for sharing those.
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  - Last question for you here.
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  - What will the most effective health care leaders
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  - need to be successful in the next two
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  - to three years?
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  - Sure. I think,
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  - let me let me first step back for
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  - a moment and say that I think that
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  - leadership in
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  - in dentistry
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  - exist at a number of different levels.
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  - So for example, you had individual practice owners
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  - and they're in fact leaders
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  - at the practice level,
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  - in a context of
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  - how they're driving
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  - the performance
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  - of their team,
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  - how they serve their patients.
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  - And,
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  - I have long been an advocate that I
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  - think it's important
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  - for dentists to think about their practice,
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  - not just simply as the place where they
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  - practice their profession
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  - and really function on a day to day
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  - basis primarily as clinician,
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  - but that's really a business and that requires
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  - in order to be as effective as possible
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  - a different kind of mindset that they need
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  - to think about their practice,
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  - not just as practice, but as a business.
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  - And I think that has implications.
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  - And then you have small groups that have
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  - been obviously a huge growth
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  - as entrepreneurial dentists,
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  - as they've
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  - seen sort of the opportunity
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  - and value
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  - creation
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  - that the DSO world
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  - represents
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  - and begin to grow practices
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  - on
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  - a local basis that are multi provider, multi
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  - site
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  - and that requires a different level of leadership.
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  - And then of course you have leaders
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  - at
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  - the mid size and largest DSO
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  - levels where they're
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  - really driving what occurs in
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  - dozens and in many instances hundreds of practices.
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  - And I think at that level,
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  - what we're beginning to see is
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  - that
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  - one is a responsiveness
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  - to the recognition
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  - that successful DSOs
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  - going forward
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  - have to understand
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  - that
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  - they've got to be in service
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  - to the dentist and
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  - that
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  - closely linked with that obviously is patients.
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  - So I think those organizations
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  - that put patients and providers
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  - at the forefront
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  - are gonna be the most successful over the
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  - long term.
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  - Well, that is all I have for you
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  - today, Stan. Thank you so much for joining
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  - us. It's been such an insightful conversation with
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  - you. So definitely a pleasure having you on
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  - our podcast today, and I'm looking forward to
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  - connecting with you again in the future. Sure.
• 11:17
  - Thanks so much, Ari. I appreciate it.