Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / AI Adoption, Insurance Challenges and the Future of Independent Dentistry with Peter Rivoli

Transcript

AI Adoption, Insurance Challenges and the Future of Independent Dentistry with Peter Rivoli · 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. Becker's fifth annual future
• 0:22
  - of dentistry roundtable is where you make those
• 0:25
  - 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,
• 0:40
  - talent, and tech,
• 0:42
  - and what they do differently. So join us
• 0:43
  - September fourteenth and fifteenth at the Hilton Chicago,
• 0:46
  - and come ready to decide what's next. Register
• 0:48
  - on our events page at beckersdental.com
• 0:51
  - by clicking in the events tab in the
• 0:53
  - upper right.
• 0:54
  - Hi, everyone. This is Arianna Portallatin with the
• 0:57
  - Becker's Dental and DSO review podcast. I'm thrilled
• 0:59
  - to be joined today by doctor Peter Rivoli,
• 1:01
  - owner of Rivoli Dental and Rivoli Orthodontics in
• 1:04
  - New York. Doctor Rivoli, thank you so much
• 1:06
  - for being here today. It's a pleasure to
• 1:07
  - have you on our podcast.
• 1:08
  - And thank you very much.
• 1:10
  - To start us off, doctor Rivoli, can you
• 1:12
  - introduce yourself for our listeners and tell us
• 1:14
  - a little bit about your background?
• 1:16
  - Yes. Well, I've been in dentistry for a
• 1:18
  - long time. My father was a, dentist. He
• 1:20
  - was general dentist for twelve years and an
• 1:22
  - orthodontist.
• 1:24
  - I,
• 1:25
  - got interested in dentistry when I was about
• 1:27
  - 10 or 12, and I I used to
• 1:28
  - go into my father's
• 1:30
  - general dental lab, and he used to cast
• 1:32
  - gold crowns, and I I used to have
• 1:34
  - fun casting the metal.
• 1:36
  - But, I then went out into dental school
• 1:38
  - from '82 to '86,
• 1:40
  - and from
• 1:42
  - the orthodontic school from,
• 1:44
  - '87
• 1:45
  - to '89. I graduated in 1989,
• 1:48
  - and, then started practicing with my father in
• 1:50
  - the orthodontic practice.
• 1:52
  - At that point,
• 1:53
  - I,
• 1:54
  - I got involved with the TMJ Ortho, and
• 1:57
  - my father kinda dumped all that stuff on
• 1:59
  - me. He didn't wanna deal with it. So,
• 2:01
  - I actually started training a little bit with
• 2:03
  - Dawson in the beginning and then with doctor
• 2:05
  - Mark Piper,
• 2:06
  - and I
• 2:07
  - continued with Mark Piper from 1990
• 2:11
  - till about,
• 2:14
  - probably about three years ago, and,
• 2:17
  - when doctor, retired.
• 2:20
  - And,
• 2:21
  - you know, I I do joint based occlusion.
• 2:24
  - In addition to that, back in
• 2:27
  - 1999,
• 2:28
  - I was turning 39 and got involved
• 2:31
  - with Invisalign because I looked at Invisalign and
• 2:34
  - figured out that, it was actually something I
• 2:37
  - wanna use as a patient. So from '89
• 2:39
  - to 2006,
• 2:41
  - I,
• 2:42
  - I actually was on the,
• 2:44
  - Invisalign alpha team. There was 30 of us
• 2:46
  - doctors, and we actually were brought around by
• 2:48
  - Invisalign
• 2:50
  - to do things and we use our they
• 2:51
  - used our advice,
• 2:52
  - in in developing the process.
• 2:55
  - And, I got a little disenchanted in 2006,
• 2:58
  - and then in 2006,
• 2:59
  - a good friend of mine, Willis Balfreys, called
• 3:01
  - me up and I helped him launch
• 3:03
  - ClearCorrect
• 3:04
  - in 2006.
• 3:06
  - And,
• 3:07
  - I, was working with him up until about
• 3:10
  - 2014.
• 3:11
  - Willis had retired, and I
• 3:13
  - stepped along, and then I I kinda moved
• 3:15
  - on. And then around 02/1415,
• 3:18
  - I actually started to develop a
• 3:20
  - dental group myself and I
• 3:23
  - coalesced my six orthodontic practices with, five general
• 3:26
  - dental practices.
• 3:28
  - And,
• 3:29
  - we started working with that and, you know,
• 3:31
  - there's a lot of bumps,
• 3:33
  - and we ended up breaking that apart.
• 3:36
  - I ended up ultimately keeping several of the
• 3:38
  - general dental practices because I had funded the
• 3:40
  - purchase.
• 3:42
  - And,
• 3:44
  - I went on and
• 3:46
  - then I sort of focused in on
• 3:49
  - aligners and,
• 3:51
  - orthodontics and general dentistry and running dental dental
• 3:53
  - and orthodontic practices.
• 3:55
  - And, I now have now got back in
• 3:58
  - with ClearCorrect,
• 3:59
  - and,
• 4:00
  - I am a KOL for ClearCorrect, and I,
• 4:03
  - speak for them.
• 4:04
  - And, I'm having fun.
• 4:07
  - Great. Sounds like it. Thank you so much
• 4:08
  - for sharing that. First question for you here,
• 4:11
  - what are some of the biggest issues that
• 4:12
  - you're following in the dental industry right now?
• 4:16
  - The the biggest thing I see what's going
• 4:18
  - on is is the incorporation
• 4:20
  - of technology. And technology can be everything from,
• 4:24
  - you know, AI
• 4:26
  - enhanced products to,
• 4:29
  - you know, just
• 4:30
  - learning new software updates,
• 4:33
  - that can allow us our PMS system to
• 4:35
  - work better,
• 4:36
  - to help us automate
• 4:39
  - insurance,
• 4:40
  - or our Centimeters at the office. And the
• 4:42
  - other thing is is, you know, I've employed
• 4:44
  - some,
• 4:45
  - you know,
• 4:46
  - AI phone
• 4:48
  - answering systems.
• 4:49
  - So,
• 4:50
  - I'm you know, I I
• 4:52
  - so those are the big issues I think
• 4:54
  - is is taking an older doctor like me,
• 4:57
  - and trying to figure out how to take
• 4:59
  - the staff that's been with me many years
• 5:00
  - and move them in
• 5:02
  - in mass into a system that they can
• 5:04
  - function in and feel comfortable with. It's it
• 5:07
  - can be a challenge getting the getting the
• 5:09
  - herd to move in that direction. You know,
• 5:11
  - I see the value. I see I understand
• 5:13
  - what's good about it. It's just getting there.
• 5:16
  - That's the hardest part that, is an issue
• 5:19
  - for me, and I believe if it's an
• 5:21
  - issue for me, it's probably an issue for
• 5:22
  - a lot of people.
• 5:24
  - Yeah. How long have you guys been using
• 5:26
  - artificial intelligence at your your practice?
• 5:29
  - To a certain extent, it's probably been the
• 5:31
  - past
• 5:32
  - two, three years.
• 5:33
  - I originally started going to the doctors because
• 5:36
  - of it. I was challenged by a a
• 5:38
  - friend
• 5:40
  - to, figure out where technology is going, try
• 5:42
  - to make predictions for the next five to
• 5:44
  - ten years,
• 5:45
  - and I thought that one of the better
• 5:47
  - places to go was your conference. So I
• 5:49
  - I started to walk through conferences to see
• 5:51
  - what was out there. And,
• 5:54
  - you know, me being more on a a
• 5:56
  - singular and not a corporate owned practice system,
• 5:59
  - I looked at,
• 6:01
  - trying to see what the competition was doing
• 6:02
  - and where they were going, and that's sort
• 6:04
  - of what drove me to
• 6:06
  - start exploring this. And I I I see
• 6:08
  - the value. I understand what's going on. It
• 6:10
  - was a it was a great opportunity for
• 6:11
  - me to come in and and learn.
• 6:14
  - Great.
• 6:15
  - And next question for you here. You might
• 6:17
  - have already,
• 6:19
  - discussed this a little bit, but I'd love
• 6:20
  - to know what are you most excited about
• 6:21
  - when it comes to dentistry right now and
• 6:23
  - what is making you nervous?
• 6:26
  - What's exciting for me,
• 6:28
  - is it really is, again, the incorporation
• 6:32
  - of the technology and and really how we
• 6:34
  - can make that efficient,
• 6:36
  - but also
• 6:37
  - utilize it to to to create a a
• 6:39
  - great experience for the patient.
• 6:41
  - It's easy not to create a great experience
• 6:43
  - and
• 6:44
  - god god bless. I've I've had periods of
• 6:47
  - time where we didn't deliver the way we
• 6:49
  - had to. So we're constantly,
• 6:52
  - trying to approve our delivery of of treatment.
• 6:55
  - And and that that probably is the most
• 6:57
  - exciting thing, is is how can I use
• 6:59
  - this stuff to actually make things better, more
• 7:01
  - efficient, easier for my staff,
• 7:04
  - and,
• 7:04
  - try to incorporate it in?
• 7:07
  - Probably the thing that makes me the most
• 7:08
  - nervous,
• 7:09
  - is not any of that, but insurance,
• 7:12
  - And dealing with insurance companies and dealing with
• 7:15
  - government based insurance companies, whether it's Medicare
• 7:19
  - and, the limiting aspects of the their their
• 7:22
  - policies
• 7:22
  - to Medicaid issues with the the limiting aspects
• 7:26
  - of theirs.
• 7:27
  - And, you know,
• 7:29
  - I I I see,
• 7:31
  - on the insurance side of the equation,
• 7:34
  - they seem to be tightening and tightening and
• 7:36
  - tightening and restricting and restricting.
• 7:38
  - And and as
• 7:41
  - the dental the cost of dentistry is going
• 7:43
  - up and the staffing is going up and
• 7:45
  - all that, so there becomes this big dichotomy
• 7:48
  - or, or divergence of
• 7:50
  - what what the patient gets and what we,
• 7:53
  - we provide, and the burden starts to shift
• 7:56
  - onto the patient, which
• 7:57
  - causes them to,
• 7:59
  - pull back from treatments. So you now we
• 8:01
  - have to do more things to employ,
• 8:04
  - to to make treatments more palatable financially,
• 8:08
  - to to entice the patients to go come
• 8:10
  - in and work. So that's the part that
• 8:12
  - makes me nervous is where where is this
• 8:14
  - going to ultimately go with the,
• 8:16
  - what the government based insurances as well as
• 8:19
  - the private based insurances.
• 8:21
  - Yeah. Has there been any changes that you've
• 8:24
  - made to your practice to help
• 8:26
  - keep things financially sustainable in in light of
• 8:29
  - those challenges?
• 8:31
  - I'm actually
• 8:33
  - I I utilized,
• 8:34
  - again, this AI
• 8:36
  - technology and some of the,
• 8:38
  - and we're in trying to employ a a
• 8:40
  - bit more of the
• 8:41
  - technologies that are out there to minimize staffing
• 8:44
  - requirements,
• 8:45
  - more in the back office end of the
• 8:47
  - equation. If I can minimize the back office,
• 8:50
  - and and and focus more on the production
• 8:53
  - side of the equation, I think,
• 8:55
  - that would help us,
• 8:56
  - really
• 8:58
  - accelerate.
• 8:59
  - So, you know,
• 9:01
  - it's tough when you have to, you you
• 9:03
  - know, you have to hire people just to
• 9:04
  - do paperwork.
• 9:06
  - And I think that that's,
• 9:08
  - you know, that that's the part that is
• 9:10
  - that can be the cumbersome part. Again, the
• 9:12
  - I think on the clinical side, the technology
• 9:15
  - unlocks the clinic, and we could do lots
• 9:17
  - of stuff. It's just on the back end
• 9:18
  - that this is getting,
• 9:20
  - you know, minimizing the
• 9:23
  - employees on that side of the equation. They're
• 9:25
  - expensive, and they are,
• 9:27
  - and they beat up a lot of,
• 9:30
  - the overhead.
• 9:32
  - Okay.
• 9:33
  - Last question for you here. What will the
• 9:34
  - most effective health care leaders need to be
• 9:36
  - successful in the next two to three years?
• 9:40
  - You need the all seeing eye.
• 9:43
  - I I believe that,
• 9:45
  - as things are coming at us at faster
• 9:47
  - paces,
• 9:48
  - it's it's going to be
• 9:50
  - the the doctors that can juggle technology, juggle
• 9:53
  - the financial side of the business
• 9:55
  - going forward,
• 9:57
  - in in maintaining a
• 9:59
  - the the proper and the a great clinical
• 10:02
  - outcome,
• 10:04
  - those doctors that can juggle all that,
• 10:06
  - I think will be the successful one. So
• 10:08
  - it's it's it's widening your platform or widening
• 10:11
  - your base
• 10:12
  - of knowledge,
• 10:14
  - relative
• 10:14
  - to,
• 10:16
  - your business. What what do other businesses do?
• 10:18
  - What what do other industries do to to
• 10:21
  - to grow and change? And the more you
• 10:23
  - can widen and increase your platform
• 10:25
  - of knowledge,
• 10:27
  - I I think,
• 10:28
  - that will help you be a more successful
• 10:30
  - leader in the next two or three years.
• 10:32
  - And I think I think the more we
• 10:33
  - can keep
• 10:34
  - expanding our our knowledge base, the better dentists
• 10:37
  - notoriously
• 10:38
  - been buffered
• 10:39
  - from, the the economy, and I think it
• 10:42
  - started in 2008
• 10:43
  - when we had the two thousand eight banking
• 10:45
  - crisis that dentistry
• 10:47
  - became more
• 10:49
  - more cyclic or more
• 10:52
  - more intermittent in as far as revenue stream.
• 10:54
  - It used to be a pretty straightforward solid
• 10:56
  - revenue stream always going up.
• 10:58
  - Now we have to fight a little bit
• 11:00
  - more, and we have to change, and we
• 11:02
  - have to be an adapting
• 11:04
  - group of people.
• 11:05
  - And I think,
• 11:07
  - that's what most
• 11:09
  - successful doc health care providers, whether you're just
• 11:12
  - a CEO or whether you're a doctor provider
• 11:14
  - or whether you're, you know, a, you know,
• 11:17
  - a CEO,
• 11:19
  - but that's what we're gonna have to do
• 11:20
  - to figure out going forward.
• 11:23
  - Alright. Well, that's all I have for you
• 11:25
  - today. Thank you so much for joining us.
• 11:27
  - This was such an insightful conversation, so I'm
• 11:29
  - really glad that we were able to connect.
• 11:31
  - Again, pleasure speaking with you and looking forward
• 11:33
  - to connecting with you again in the future.
• 11:35
  - Very good. Thank you very much.