DENTAL CONSULTING

By purchasing an existing practice, you are making money from day one. You have a staff up and ready to go, a client base, and a reputation in the community. Our experts are able to assist you with:

• Dental Practice Analysis and Valuation
• Tax Issues in Making an Offer on the Dental Practice
• Financing the Purchase of a Dental Practice
• Consultation Regarding Offer Terms

Whatever stage you're at in the buying process, we're here to help as your trusted financial advisor. Contact SVA today and learn how our team can help you.

If making your practice more profitable and productive is at the top of the list, and you personally can’t handle more patients…..then bringing on an associate may be the answer. Not everyone will agree when a practice should bring on an associate, and some want to do it for more personal reasons, but here are a few general guidelines or thoughts to consider:

• The number of active patients exceeds 2000 in a general practice
• The dentist is booking 4-6 weeks in advance (counting next appointments only, not a booked treatment plan)
• You want to take your practice to the next level
• You have completed the financial due diligence needed with your accountant and this is the right time financially
• The practice is profitable
• You’re looking for an exit strategy and a person to eventually buy the practice

Then when bringing in a new associate, there are many factors you will need to consider such as determining how new patients are handled, the compensation, how expenses will be handled, an independent contractor or an employee, the employment agreement and if buy-in options are a consideration.

Operating at peak efficiency is essential in building and maintaining a successful dental practice. Also key are your recall strategies. By examining recall efficiencies, you can focus on maximizing the profitability from your existing patients as well as new clients.

SVA Dental Services, using their expertise in practice management, has developed the SVA Dental Practice Production Analysis (PPA) to help you evaluate your practice. Using your actual practice information, you will see a real-time analysis of your production levels and gain insight into possible ways to make improvements.

If you are a recent graduate, we can help you negotiate your first contract, assist you in purchasing a practice, or even help you start your own practice. We will roll up our sleeves and help you every step of the way: forming your business, choosing the best accounting software, choosing a payroll provider or processing your payroll for you, bill paying services, preparing financial statements for your practice, and complying with all of the various income and payroll tax reporting requirements.

If you already own your practice, we help you take your practice to the next level. We can help you analyze and evaluate your financial statements and practice, benchmark your practice against peers, competitors and national statistics, and maximize the profitability and value of your practice.

If you’re nearing retirement, we can help you prepare your business and your personal financials for that transition. We can help you determine the value of your practice and make changes to maximize the value. If you are looking to sell your practice, we will help with the transition. We can help you through the process of a direct sale or through the process of hiring an associate who will eventually buy your practice.

At every stage of your career, we can help you keep an eye towards the future to ensure that you have the proper financial plan to help you achieve your financial goals.

Dental Membership Plans (DMPs) are also called In-House Membership Plans or In-House Discount Plans. DMPs are NOT dental insurance. DMPs are “practice specific” and patients who are members in your plan can only take advantage of the benefits at your office. Below are a few key elements of a DMP:

• Set annual fee to participate
• DMP covers preventative wellness care (exams, cleanings and necessary x-rays for the year)
• Members receive a set discount on other restorative and cosmetic services
• There are typically different annual fees for adults, children and periodontics patients
• Some plans offer discounts for families that sign up

Why offer a Dental Membership Plan?

It’s good for your practice. The NUMBER ONE reason patients avoid going back to the dentist is because they don’t have dental insurance. Now you’ve taken away their excuse by offering an affordable alternative. It also provides a way for you to increase patient loyalty and decrease cancellations since patients have already paid.

Implementing a DMP at your practice involves working with our dental experts to decide on:

• Plan design
• Education of staff and patients
• How to market internally and externally
• How to price
• Monitoring and tracking systems
• Other special considerations

The business components of dentistry are complicated. Our SVA Dental Services Team has extensive experience and deep knowledge in the dental industry and understands the many pieces that must work together to attain your goal of an efficient, profitable, and satisfying dental practice.

You need to make sure you understand the financial data of your practice to fully understand where your practice is now, what adjustments you can make to help improve your bottom line and the value of your practice, and how the decisions you make will impact the profitability and value of your practice.

Are you ready to take your practice to the next level? Our experts will work with you and your staff to:

• Identify and resolve the pain points in your dental practice
• Grow your practice’s production by assessing doctor production and hygiene department performance, identifying areas of improvement, and developing and monitoring a growth plan
• Maximize profitability of your practice by benchmarking production, receipts, and expenses against your peers and industry norms
• Enhance top-line revenue by analyzing payor and insurance company contracts and fee schedules
• Address the challenges of office staffing  including employee/associate compensation and benefit package design
• Design employee incentive programs to align the office towards common goals
• Assess the who, what, when, where, and how of hiring an associate
• Analyze your current business entity and its tax structure to ensure it meets your current and future needs

Our practice management solutions culminate with better patient care, smoother running practices, and ultimately… a financially “healthier” practice!

Is your tax bill taking too big of a bite out of your practice’s profit each year? Do you understand the tax impact of the decisions you’re making for your practice? Does your dental practice have a plan for the future? Proper tax planning not only reduces your tax burden but also answers questions you may not have thought of before.

Tax services are more than just filing this year’s tax return by the deadline. Our dental services group works with clients to proactively plan for this year and further into the future to make sure your tax bill isn’t taking all of the profit out of your practice.

Our advisors are well versed in all aspects of tax and the specifics of how tax laws impact dental practices. From tax planning and consulting to the preparation of individual, corporate, partnership, and trust and estate tax returns, we understand that managing your income tax liability is a critical element of managing your overall practice cash flow.

Our experienced staff develops tax strategies geared to your personal financial situation to take advantage of new tax laws and legislation to help you meet all of your personal financial goals.

Arriving at a dental practice valuation should be simple, but it is not. Several methods can be used and some are quite involved. Having an updated appraisal isn’t just necessary for retirement planning, it can help in the case of impairment or even death. In many cases, your dental practice is often the most valuable asset you own.

Anyone can render an opinion, but our dental valuation experts understand dental operations as well as intangible variables that add to the complexity of a practice valuation—expertise that can only be gained through experience.

Whether you are new to the industry or experienced and looking for a change, SVA Dental Staffing Placement Solutions will help you find a practice that fits your skills, personality, philosophy and goals. Our years of experience in the dental industry gives us the skills and knowledge necessary to assist you in making the right position decision for your future.

Setting Yourself up for Success. SVA will:

• Assist with your resume/CV creation or review and help you position yourself for success
• Conduct a deep dive conversation to identify your desired practice scenario based on your needs, skills, strengths, practice philosophy and goals to assist in matching you with your ideal practice
• Coach you on the interviewing process

Note: Our confidential process provides a safe environment for your job search

Matching Your Skills with Practice Goals. SVA will:

• Match your skills and philosophy with practice openings that align with your goals
• Use our deep industry relationships to provide a wide range of practice opportunities
• Make recommendations to help you find the right fit based on your goals and objectives

SVA Dental Staffing Recruitment Solutions has the experience, expertise and a deep dental network to take the recruitment task off your plate allowing you to focus on what you do best, providing excellent dental care to your patients. We have a proven personalized process to match candidates to your practice. Our collaborative approach nets the results your practice requires.

Setting the Stage for Successful Recruitment. SVA will:

• Work with you to understand your practice, needs, company culture and establish selection criteria
• Use our industry knowledge to review your compensation package and make recommendations

Start the Search.  SVA will:

• Create a search strategy to match candidates with your practice philosophy and goals
• Develop advertising and recruitment campaigns (when needed)
• Review candidates sourced from our deep dental network

Choose the Best Candidate. SVA will:

• Recruit, interview and match your practice with the best candidates based on needs, skills, qualifications, goals and philosophy
• Work with you to create an attractive offer
• Notify candidates who were not selected

We'll analyze your statistics related to the profitability of your hygiene department, patient recall, fee schedules, active patient counts, and doctor productivity with the goal of increasing efficiency and profitability. You'll also find that there are tax aspects, as well as financial reporting, that can directly impact your hygiene department and doctor productivity.

We can help you analyze all aspects of your dental practice through the lens of your goals. Some key factors that determine the growth of your dental practice are:

• Reviewing insurance contracts so you only sign the ones that make the most sense for your practice
• Analyzing staffing and compensation to determine the right size and proper earnings for your employees
• Helping you minimize your income tax liabilities
• Assisting you with right sizing your overhead.

The allocation of income in a dental group must represent the unique aspects of the practice and be accepted as fair by all owners.  Allocations may also serve to drive behaviors that increase profits or encourage group management decisions.

Our dental consultants have the ability to analyze a practice and recommend either changes to the current income allocation model or suggest an alternative. SVA has worked closely with dental clients that have a wide range of allocation models.  These real life examples range from a split based on production/equal shares to an allocation of each line of income and expenses.

The results of an income allocation must be a formula that rewards each dentist for the profitability of their practice but allocates overhead in a fair manner. More detailed formulas may account for the following:

• Allocation of expenses based on production, equal split or specific tracking to an individual doctor
• Allocation of revenue based on net production, which accounts for bad debt and payer discounts, or actual revenue collected for services provided
• Treatment of profits from associate dentists, dental specialists or ancillary services as separate profit centers with independent allocation methods
• A “carve out” from overhead of assistant, hygiene and administrative staff wages and benefits and then charging each in a method appropriate for usage by the dentists

SVA dental consultants will assist you in determining what behavior your practice wishes to reward and then develop an income allocation method that will help you achieve those goals.

You've finished school and are ready to start your dental practice, or you’re ready to branch out on your own. The hard work and tough decisions are done, right? Think again. Before you get started, there are decisions to make that will truly shape your dental practice path.

We will work closely with you to develop the right plan and provide continuous support. Through our countless years of experience, we know that going down this path alone can be a risk.

Whether you are reaching the point of retirement or are transitioning to another stage in your career, together we will assist you on your path to success and peace of mind. From dental practice valuation to consultation regarding contract terms, we ensure that your personal financial goals and objectives remain our number one priority as we offer full and professional assistance along the journey.

To get top dollar for your dental practice, you need to ensure that it is at maximum profitability. SVA can help you determine that by evaluating a few key areas:

• How does your office benchmark against best practices in dental productivity?
• Are your hygienists producing what they should be?

• Is your overhead too high? If it's over 62% - yes it is!
• Are your insurance contracts profitable?
• Are your fees competitive?
• Are your receivables up to date?
• Is your appointment scheduling efficient and effective?