Dental Unscripted | Getting into Ownership and Practice Management Insights

Welcome to Dental Unscripted.

Where Mike Dinsio and Paula Quinn break

down the practice ownership journey,

one episode at a time.

Starting up, buying,

and running a successful dental practice.

What up, what up, guys?

Welcome back to another episode of Dental

Unscripted.

My name is Michael Dinsio.

We also have Paula Quinn,

the other co-host of the program.

And we are live right now.

And we're going to be discussing all

things ARs post-transaction.

So we've discussed in the past ARs and

if you should buy or not.

Now what we're going to do is we're

going to break down the issues and what

you're up against if you don't really buy

them and the chaos that that can really

have on a front office.

And who better to have this conversation

than our very own Stefani Sandoval.

Welcome back to the show, Stefani.

Welcome back.

How are you doing?

I'm good.

I'm nervous, I think.

Oh, don't be nervous.

We're expecting a lot out of you today.

You did one episode and had a groupie.

Yes, you did.

You did have a groupie.

That's so true.

They're like,

I don't want to talk to you, Mike.

Can you just set me up with Stefani?

I'm like, yes, I can do that.

I can do that.

And so we expect that performance out of

you again, Stefani.

Great.

But you're the one that gets all the

questions.

You're the one that knows most of these

crazy softwares.

And look, at the end of the day,

there's really no wrong way of doing it.

It's either buy or don't buy.

And there's a lot of reasons why you

might not want to buy.

But if you don't buy...

And that makes sense for you and your

deal.

The three of us are constantly having this

conversation.

And so I feel like this is a

great topic that needs to be discussed.

Whether you're a next level client,

then we're helping you transition into a

brand new practice.

um or not these are the things that

you need to be prepared for so that

is the topic today and um i'm excited

to get it going um just as a

quick reminder please you know you guys

are listening to this like subscribe even

give us a five star it matters it

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So we just give you our time and

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But don't do it while you're driving.

Most of you are driving on the way

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So just wait,

hold off and do it when you get

to the parking lot.

OK, without further ado, Miss Paula,

why don't I just kick it over to

you real quick?

You bought a practice car.

And I'm thinking back to when you bought.

And not only did you not buy,

but you also had the seller,

which is also a no-no, continue to bill.

And it was a DSO to continue to

bill for them post-close.

what would you like to tell the audience

about like what that felt like,

what that was like and how crazy that

was as a new owner,

probably scared to death.

You don't have cashflow coming in and here

you have someone like controlling your

billing and you're not sure what money's

yours.

And I'm just curious,

like what's a buyer feel like in that

moment, you know?

Yeah, it's,

You know, I, not only did I,

I think you said it,

but there was a,

I don't know if it was clear.

I allowed them into my software to

continue to bill for themselves as I was

simultaneously, you know,

taking care of the patients and my

portion.

Um, so, you know,

I think it's a little bit of how

next level billing was born.

especially for these acquisitions,

was I had to trust them.

And they would tell me how much they

owed me or I owed them,

which was typically I owed them.

I don't know how.

Somehow, yeah.

And so...

And so obviously there was a lot of

animosity.

There was a lot of distrust.

There was a lot of, I would say,

bickering.

You know, it's much like, you know,

ending a relationship.

It's like trying to get the last bit

of everything that you have.

You know, one thing I will say,

and this might come later,

but I'm going to say it now,

is they also have control issues.

of the patient.

So if they want to send them to

collections,

they still have access to a lot of

things.

So it's not even just the insurance

billing that you are allowing them,

you know, to touch, feel,

be in control of.

They can manipulate accounts.

They can also contact patients.

So, you know,

I'm not saying don't buy the ARs.

let or don't you don't don't be afraid

of what i did just don't let them

have access you need you know i would

say first would be a third party last

resort would be internal but um yeah it

was a hot mess yeah it was a

hot mess um for sure it was a

hot mess stefani like

You help folks.

So I'll just kind of get to the

brass tacks here.

So here you are.

You bought the practice.

You did not buy the ARs.

You're doing production day one of

ownership, right?

So you're in people's mouths.

You're drilling on teeth.

And there's probably ninety days worth of

ARs before you've owned that's due to the

practice.

or more, or more, more than ninety days.

And every day you're getting checks into

the practice or you're getting EFTs or

whatever.

However,

the practice is receiving their money and

that's the seller's money.

But at some point,

your production needs build and collected

as well.

And then it's like, well,

whose money is who?

So you help, Stefani,

a lot of our clients figure this shit

out.

And it's crazy.

It's actually complicated.

Can you just like break it down?

Like, first of all,

what are all the forms that you can

think of that the practice receives money

from?

Yeah, that's number one.

And then number two,

how do you track this shit?

Because it's crazy.

It's absolutely crazy.

Go ahead.

Well,

I think what one of the struggles is,

is offices usually have a hard time

collecting anyways.

Right.

I mean, if we were great,

we wouldn't even be having a discussion on

AR.

Right.

Let's just, you know, first start there.

But I think the issue is, is that.

First in, first out, right?

So if I, you know,

owe you money and I need to do

a, you know, have to pay a copayment,

how do you decide whose money that is,

right?

And it does go by default first in,

first out.

So even though you're pumping out

production,

you think you're collecting copayments,

if our team is not collecting or even

thinking about a past due balance on top

of it,

You know, that's sloppy record keeping.

How do you that is contentious between now

the seller and the buyer.

I think that is a one of the

biggest things we see.

So, you know, we're coaching on, hey,

look at everything,

whether you own that AR or not.

If you just worry about you now,

we're going to be in a battle of

whose money was this?

Mm hmm.

Mm hmm.

Yeah.

So so you're talking about over the

counter payments right there.

So this is this is someone walks in

and they're doing a procedure today and

they might have a balance that the seller

had.

But then you also are you deserve your

money for today's.

procedure so then what you're saying is

his first first in first out in the

contract typically in the contract you got

to collect the seller's money over your

money first which is crazy so this is

over the counter so obviously we're

collecting money through credit cards and

checks and debit cards with the patient

what are some other ways the practice

parties

Yeah.

Well, I'm saying over the counter.

Also,

a third party financing company is another

big one,

because if you don't switch that care

credit over into your own account,

guess who gets that money?

So, you know,

that those are the over the counter ways.

It's it's third party financing.

It's a check.

It's a credit card.

You know, that's.

I think insurance.

Right.

We're leading into the insurance

conversation.

So.

You know,

when you're not purchasing the AR and a

provider is getting paid on EFT, right?

We just have to be in charge of

record keeping,

marking that this payment was received.

However,

it was deposited into the seller's

account.

So no transaction really needs to incur

instead, unless, you know,

the buyer has a

a write up in the contract that they're

getting a percentage of whatever's

collected on behalf of the owner or the

previous owner.

I think where it gets tricky is when

we have checks coming in, like,

are we documenting it correctly based off

of what date of service?

I mean,

I don't even want to get into the

whole conversation of,

If we're utilizing credentials,

I don't even want to touch that topic.

Yeah, that's another topic.

That's a whole other show.

That's a whole other topic.

So what you're talking about is Delta

sends us a check today or whatever,

a check,

and there's an EOB and there's money on

that.

Let's back this up just a minute.

So you asked,

what are all the forms of payments that

come in?

So we talked about from a patient

perspective.

From an insurance perspective,

it is a virtual credit card.

It usually comes via fax and you plug

it into your merchant services like a

credit card.

That could be the sellers or it could

be the buyers.

You've got EFTs,

which are electronic deposits.

So it's a direct deposit typically into

the seller's account until that gets

switched over.

Then we have the normal check account.

that comes attached to the EOB,

which is what you're talking about.

And that is after the claim is paid,

that's the description of what was paid

and why with the check attached.

So if it's an EFT,

the buyer has to know enough that you

have to go in and find those.

You don't get typically the check and the

EOB in the mail.

You go on and you find it.

Sometimes you'll get an EOB with nothing

attached.

Um,

and then the virtual credit cards come via

fax.

So there's like a lot of different ways

payments are coming in.

Yeah.

That's kind of what I was,

that's kind of what I was getting to

is there's like, what is that?

Like six, six, seven different ways of,

of funds hitting our account and,

And you got to track this.

And so thank you, Paula,

for that because that is it.

It's, first of all,

identifying all the different ways that

practice receives money.

That's probably step one.

How do you get money in?

Step two is what?

Like,

I guess just having a system for tracking

it at that point.

I think step two is...

knowing what that cutoff date is that it's

now the buyer's money and not the

seller's.

So they have to have an understanding of

that, like whose money's who.

which would go, I guess,

hand in hand in tracking, but yes.

So there's a cutoff date and essentially,

and your professionals, your attorneys,

whoever's helping you will give you that

date because the day that the deal

transaction could be the day before,

it could be the day after when the

funds actually hit.

So, okay.

So now, you know, as the buyer,

you know,

all the ways the money's coming in.

and you know the date that you have

to start tracking it um and and then

you guys already said and i'll say it

again for having to manage all this you

get a fee typically so the contract the

purchase and sale

um dictates and you this was one of

your negotiating points uh in the deal

when when when you were negotiating with

the seller is what is the percentage that

i get to hold back for collecting for

you so the front office person has to

manage all this you deserve a fee for

managing it right and so you have to

figure out um how much percentage you

would hold back so

uh lady stefani what is like the number

one thing that you that you see that

front offices miss then in all of this

like i think you have a solution for

this for our clients that that that we

provide but like what what is it where

does it go wrong for front office teams

in general when they're trying to deal

with this post close

I think that they rely just on their

software.

I think, oh, well,

if I just post the payment,

it'll automatically be allocated to the

correct provider and I'm done.

But that's, you know,

never the case is we can't trust that,

especially when we're talking about,

you know, two parties, right,

that have to split a payment.

How do you do this?

So, I mean, it's over the counters.

I think insurance and those forms of

payments are a lot easier,

but they miss the over the counter.

And that's a big part of it.

So what are the software hacks?

What's a hack?

What's a post-transaction hack or a

software hack that you could do to make

life a little bit easier post-close?

And by the way,

all softwares are different.

I know.

But in theory,

is there a way to approach a software

hack?

when you when you day one,

are there some quick and easy changes that

you could make that would make tracking a

little bit easier from a software

perspective?

Can you think of anything like that?

merging some of the older providers' ID

numbers into like one, right?

But we can't just necessarily get rid of

them because we didn't purchase AAR.

They still need claims worked on,

you know, billing statements.

So it is difficult to just say, hey,

we're just going to start over from square

one,

merge those providers and just only use

our stuff.

I mean,

you're going to run into a problem.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So when you post,

so if I do production today,

essentially you're posting production to

the new providers based on the new

provider ID.

And then you have the old providers could

be the same doctor, by the way.

Right.

Could be the same provider.

So if you had an associate that was

working in the practice before, right.

and then there you retained that associate

you're saying just create a new id for

that same associate and then make sure

when you're posting to post the right

provider based on the date of service the

date of service essentially well yeah

indentrix is one of the softwares that

really allows you to change how you would

like your payments allocated if it's first

in first out is it by

you know, provider,

how do you want this payment to be

dispersed?

You know,

but the rule of thumb is first in

first out.

And that's how it should be.

Not all softwares, you know, do that.

Open dental is nice because they

automatically line item, right.

And we'll distribute the payment according

to what the patient portion is.

So, I mean,

there are some things that you can do,

but the best option,

I feel transparency that we can provide,

you know, the seller is, look,

we're tracking every single payment,

whether it's an insurance or a patient,

one, you know,

patient at a time per day, by month,

whatever they need.

I think it makes them feel good too.

Right?

Because there's still an obligation of

you're still going to go try to work

on getting my money.

That's why I'm paying you a collection

rate.

Yeah.

Oh, go ahead, Paula.

Yeah.

glad she raised her hand am i delayed

right now am i delayed you get go

ahead yeah you're good okay um so a

couple things you have to remember and and

hopefully i don't offend anyone number one

the ars you didn't buy for a reason

there's a mess whoever's manning up front

and even if you do buy the ars

and they're kind of a train wreck

There is a reason.

So to put all the faith and listen,

the basics,

the bare necessities aren't a hundred

percent.

So now you're going to put eight different

ways payments are coming in to two

different providers into somebody's hands.

That's too busy to have it clean in

the first place.

The second thing is that person has worked

for that seller.

Five years, ten years, forty years.

You're now paying their paycheck,

but you just have to remember when it

comes down to brass tacks,

you're probably going to lose out in a

situation.

So I'm a big component of putting it

in a third party's hands for the six

months, however long your contract is.

It's a neutral party.

they don't even know what's happening or

they may, I mean,

we do when we do it,

but it's just, it's fair.

You know, it's just fair.

This is this, there's no, you know,

in between.

Well, sometimes, and to your point,

to your point, Paula, sometimes sellers,

sellers,

don't trust the third party and they and

which is bad for the buyer and they

trust their old front office gal more and

then that creates a weird like the new

buyer is the actual employee of the front

office gal and then they're sitting here

saying like i'm your boss now they're not

your boss anymore and it creates that

weird dynamic

Well,

what's going to happen is I'm going to

go get my dentist money that I've been

working for for thirty years.

He's he or she is retiring.

This is their money.

Hell or high water.

I'm doing it.

So how much time am I putting in?

Is it worth the three or four percent

that you're going to get that my

dedication is now?

We've got six months to collect this

money.

Then you've got sellers calling direct

lines to that person.

Hey, how's it going?

What is this?

Any checks?

You know,

we've had situations where front office

held checks and was going to give them

to the seller without even running it

through the buyer.

You know, it's just, it's...

Again,

I think a neutral party is just the

best way to do it.

They're just posting the way they see

posting should be.

They're reporting the way.

And they have a dedicated job.

And it's to go after ARs and to

bill for the current.

So they've got multiple jobs.

But they're also not answering the phone.

They don't have history with the seller,

buyer.

They're just...

you know they're just billing now there

now there is there is like a collaboration

there so um so here you let's just

say you take paula's advice which is great

advice and it doesn't even have to be

next level but we would love that business

right and stefani manages that department

and we know how to manage that situation

post close it's very sensitive

um and and and i wanted to make

this point um before i moved on and

that is this is the number one most

attorneys tell me this is the number one

reason why people get in lawsuits post

sale post sale it's over the ars it's

not over

I don't know,

redos or work in progress or whatever the

case.

ARs are the number one lawsuit post-close

of a dental transaction.

So that's why this topic matters.

That's why this topic is very sensitive,

which is why we're having it today.

But Paula, to your point, okay,

so let's say that they buy into your...

Let's say the audience buys into that and

they hire us for six months and we

manage all the insurance claims.

Okay.

So that's a really good thing.

It's a neutral party.

We know what we're doing.

We're going to track everything.

But there is a partnership, Stefani,

with your department,

which is a billing department,

outsource and the front office,

because they are collecting over the

counter.

So again,

there's insurance money and there's over

the counter.

And you talked about in the beginning of

this episode, what's that look like?

Both of you have a job to do

in tracking insurance money versus over

the counter.

I mean,

I guess walk the audience through what I'm

talking about.

Yeah,

so basically we work together to say,

okay,

here's – it's a little bit of coaching,

right?

It's teaching them, here's what you do.

This money, document who it was for,

what type of payment it was,

if it was –

kind of money it was and then also

saying okay who's it belong to right how

much is it a split payment or is

it one payment that just goes towards

balance is it one payment that just went

towards a co-payment but again we also

then say you guys have to make sure

if you collect that money it's for a

balance and you're checking for a balance

and a copay because

Then it's like a disputed line item

saying, well,

you collected a thousand dollars,

but that patient had five hundred dollar

balance on top of it.

Right.

That's not all the new buyer.

And it's important because also this is

now my new boss and I would want

to.

get them their money quicker, right?

They just purchased a practice.

So they're wanting to make sure you

collect for me.

And again, going back to what you said,

is that loyalty to saying, yeah,

but I also, you know,

need to look out for, you know,

provider X, whatever his name is.

Yeah,

we've had front office ladies and managers

be texting the seller, hey,

this is what's going on.

And sometimes it just feels like the front

office gals are literally working for the

seller.

And it's kind of a difficult situation.

Imagine owning a practice for the very

first time.

And here you feel like you're in

competition with your own team,

with the seller that just sold you the

practice.

And here you are.

You don't have enough money coming in.

You're stressed out about cash flow.

The beginning of acquisitions,

there's always an AR or cash flow crunch.

I've talked about that in other episodes

that it's just like you're a buyer and

you've got a little bit of working capital

and

the working capital is draining and

freaking out and your collections aren't

coming in.

And then you're writing checks to the

seller at the same time.

It's like the money that is coming in,

you don't get to even keep it.

So this is a very, very sensitive topic.

It's challenging.

And I think it's just one that needs

to be discussed more often.

I think that the attorneys out there and

the brokers out there don't really

appreciate

What we're talking about right here,

they write the contracts,

they make these decisions to buy or not

buy the ARs,

but they don't really understand what all

goes into it from a day-to-day

perspective.

And I don't blame them for that.

How are they going to know?

Yeah, go ahead, Paula.

You, Michael.

Is there a world where...

and this is buyers don't get excited,

I'm asking,

is there a world where in the contract,

the buyer doesn't get reimbursed or paid,

or I'm sorry,

the seller for a ninety days?

Yeah, we've done that before.

that you have.

I honestly think that should be standard

because the seller's getting cut a check.

Now, granted,

they may still owe something on the

practice, but they're getting cut a check.

And if they don't owe anything,

this is all retirement money,

what have you.

The buyer, if they don't buy ARs,

or even if they buy the ARs and

they're

they're not getting money right away.

Um, and they are strong.

And then, you know, there is,

I'm not saying that you lose a lot

of patients,

but there is some sort of transition of

the schedule doesn't look the same.

Yeah.

I don't know if it's because the front's

busy.

If every, I don't know,

there's this period of time where I feel

like the production takes a small dip.

Um, and,

It would make sense to add a layer

of protection in for that buyer.

The seller should be fine for.

Thirty, sixty, ninety days, you know?

Yeah.

So we have a sell down these buyers

necks of like, hey,

it's the end of the month.

Where's my check?

And it's like we haven't even reconciled

yet.

You know what I mean?

It's almost like we're just at fifteen.

I love that.

I love that because now we're talking

about something even different.

So let's just assume right now that... No,

no, no.

It's actually on point.

It's totally on point.

I was going to get there.

So you're reading my mind.

First,

it's just figuring out who owes who and

like we've been talking about for about

thirty minutes.

Now, fast forward,

you know what you owe because you've

stayed meticulous.

You're super detailed.

Now the question, to Paula's point,

is when does the seller get paid?

And I always suggest that... And Paula,

you make a really good request.

The atypical way is once a month.

I always ask that the seller shows up

at the office for their check.

And sellers do that, by the way.

Fifteen days after the end of the month.

So let's say you're January.

You bought...

January one,

you've owned the practice for a month.

The seller needs to give you a minute

to just get your thoughts and get your

spreadsheet together.

And I say, fifteen days after.

So this would be February fifteenth.

You would pay the seller for all of

the ARs that came in through January.

That's always what I ask for.

If we're not on the job,

I've heard of situations where sellers are

coming in every week.

Could you imagine the seller walking in

every week?

How much did you collect from me this

week?

It's like, what are you talking about?

I think at the end of the day,

like sellers,

just to get in the mindset of a

seller,

Um, you know,

the sellers don't have a business anymore.

They don't have that cash cow.

So they're like desperate for their money,

their last little thing that they can

control.

So they're, they're coming in,

they want their money and they, they're.

Yeah.

They didn't collect in the last ten years.

And now they want you to be way

more organized than they were.

And so the best case scenario is probably

what Paula said.

You could ask for it.

It's not atypical.

What atypical is, is once a month,

like I outlined.

Paula makes a really good point.

If you could hoard cash for ninety days

and collect your money and their money,

and hold on to your working capital.

Because when you don't buy the AARs,

you get usually about a hundred grand,

fifty to a hundred grand of cash sitting

in your checking account.

And you're supposed to use that money to

pay your bills while you're waiting for

your money to come in

So the bank does give you AR or

working capital to subsidize you not

buying the ARs.

But what Paul is suggesting is you get

working capital plus you get maybe ninety

days of the seller's money and working

capital.

And then at the maybe in ninety days,

you write a check for it's a it's

going to be a bigger check.

But at least you got through that cash

flow crunch that you experience in that

first two months.

Sorry, Paul, what were you going to say?

No, that's it.

You'll have started getting paid on claims

and things that you've done.

And it and it also just for me,

the seller's hair is usually on fire.

There's so much going on with getting to

know the new team.

What do I do marketing to learning how

to be a business owner?

And then you've got this seller calling,

breathing down your neck, you know,

and I get it.

I get it.

You know, I was one of those sellers.

I got,

I experienced it on the buyer end.

And then when I became the seller,

I was crazy.

You were the crazy person.

That's right.

And they let me be crazy and they

shouldn't have, but they did.

But I knew the state of the office

and I didn't trust a lot of things

that were happening in there.

I think that's it right there.

I had Stefani as my biller.

So I had a lot more trust in

that part of it.

Um, you know, but there were other things.

And so I don't know, I just,

I think it would give,

especially if they're,

cause what we do is we create a

spreadsheet and we're very transparent

with the buyer and the seller, you know,

as long as everybody's okay,

they can see all that being documented,

you know?

So it's not like,

You know,

and then if the buyer felt really good

and in control,

they could cut a check sooner.

You know, hey, it's piling up.

You know, you might consider paying out.

You're not paying fifty thousand.

Yeah.

I don't know.

It's a thought.

It's a good thought.

And it would be great if you could

work that in.

I'll challenge all the brokers and

attorneys to listen to this episode

because these are the woes of it.

And cash flow is king for a buyer.

I think it's really interesting, Paula,

because you have been a buyer and a

seller.

And you admitted that...

You were stressed on the front end,

and we actually talked about at the

beginning of this episode that you did

probably the worst thing that you could

do,

and that is give them access to your

software.

But then I did it back.

And then you did it back to them

afterwards.

So you were equally kind of quote unquote

crazy on the back end.

And I think that's really interesting

because this is probably why sellers are

quote unquote crazy because they don't

trust their own teams anymore.

Yeah,

but I think in Paula's situation is that

she did have a tight hold on her

AR.

She was probably crazy for thirty days.

I don't think she was there that long,

right?

Needing to recoup because she knew exactly

what was still left.

you know what work was in progress or

you know where the payment was going to

these kind of things so in her situation

she had a cleaner type of office but

we don't see that in those other offices

so i do think i find it funny

that all of a sudden they're they care

about their collections yeah yeah

It's just, you know,

but I think that prolongs the process.

It's the last thing that they can hold

on to.

Their business is over.

Their career is quote unquote over.

It's the last thing that they get to

micromanage.

And it's really easy to micromanage

something if it's all that you got to

micromanage.

Wait, let me,

let me also defend the sellers and the

fact that they don't know there's an AR

product.

of them because they've owned this thing,

ten, twenty, thirty years.

They live the way they want to live.

And all of a sudden their practice has

a value on it, a worth,

and it's not as much as they anticipated.

And then the broker says,

your ARs are shit.

And they're like, well, what do you mean?

Susie, Mary Beth, whoever,

she always collects.

I hear her.

And they're like, well, no,

look at your patient AR.

And their practice is getting pulled apart

and

telling them that this is crap and by

the way i don't want to buy your

ars they're so shitty and they're like

wait a minute so now they wake up

and they're like oh wait are you telling

me i have a hundred thousand dollars or

fifty thousand or so yes they become

desperate it's the first time they've even

known that their ars are

And that they have money laying out there

everywhere that can be collected.

So yes, they're now very motivated.

That's really interesting.

And you're probably spot on because...

I mean,

it's why we have a billing department,

right, Stefani?

That people don't realize how bad their

ARs are.

And it's very sad to think that they

find that out the day they sell their

practice to Paula's boy.

And so now they're finally,

for the one time in their career,

managing that.

That's actually pretty sad.

So folks, if you own your practice,

look at your ARs, know your KPIs,

get on the phone with Stefani.

How many calls do we get?

Yeah, I mean,

I think what Paul is saying is how

many calls do we get about crappy ARs?

Well, no, last minute, from a seller,

how many, like,

can you clean up my credit in a

week?

Can you clean up?

my ars in a month it's like it's

too late the damage is done i mean

no we can obviously credits because you

don't want to pay more but all of

a sudden they're in panic mode and want

to boost the value of this practice um

you know we we can clean it up

but it's probably not going to boost the

value you know sorry i i'm delayed i

can't anyone who's listening i can't tell

when

I think also the thing is,

when you know AR is in an insurance

bucket or if it's in a patient bucket,

they're looked at differently.

At least with the insurance,

they're held to a liability of they're

going to have to pay you if it's

plausible and it meets the claim

requirements.

I think the unknown is when it's all

in the patient.

I love that you brought that up, Stefani,

because you got you guys got me thinking

about this as a buyer's rep.

And no one's thinking about this right

now.

And so, Polly,

you're giving great insight on the idea of

maybe cutting that check.

Ninety days,

which is which is a great idea.

I'll have to push the attorneys and

they're going to be like, well,

it's not normal.

And I can't agree to that.

My client can't,

but it's kind of the way the deals

typically go is how all these attorneys

fit.

But asking that is a great idea.

The other thing that got me thinking is

exactly what you're saying.

Stefani is looking at patient AR

differently than insurance AR.

If I, if I'm a buyer's rep,

I'm looking at patient portions way more

than I'm looking at insurance.

In fact, it would be nice if,

if i was buying ars that i would

value the insurance ars much higher and

and value the patient portion much lower

because guys think about that if you buy

a practice today

And there's claims.

Let's say there's twenty thousand dollars

worth of claims to Stefani's point.

There's a really good chance you're going

to collect those that money because the

insurance is probably going to pay.

And unless you there's a lot of reasons

why maybe insurance might not pay.

But for the most part, it's pretty solid.

But if you have a lot of patient

portion now post close,

you got to hunt down all those patients.

You're a brand new owner.

You're going to threaten collections day

one of ownership.

Like that's a difficult that's a difficult

conversation.

So I almost don't want to buy patient

portion and have that weird conversation

with my brand new patients.

So anyways,

that's a fun little topic and thing to

consider.

well we're forty minutes in the rule of

thumb is thirty five so we've already gone

past our our time and and i think

it it pays tribute to how important this

topic is i wanted to have this because

i'm going to send this episode to almost

every single one of our clients that are

not buying ars because they need to

appreciate what's happening and so i think

if i just challenged folks that were not

next level clients if i would challenge

you it would be

Roll this episode back right before you

close and listen to those first couple

steps.

That's really just figuring out how you

get paid.

Figure out how you're going to track it.

Set the expectations of when you're going

to pay that money.

and and honestly just uh micromanage the

crap out of the front office day one

and um that's a tough pill to swallow

but that's what you got to do to

make sure that you don't end up in

some weird lawsuit of some sort so any

final comments from you two experts before

we close this down i think i've said

my piece perfect paula anything else from

your side

Mine will come after it's over,

so I'll just...

With the delay.

Well, thanks, ladies,

so much for your time, your brains,

your expertise.

I really appreciate everything you guys do

for the industry.

You're literally making an impact every

single day on this program and with our

clients.

So thank you for everything you do.

Merry Christmas.

And without further ado,

let's shut down another episode of Dental

Unscripted.

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