Immediate Actions for Dental Practice Crisis Financial Relief:

1. Apply for the Federal SBA (Small Business Administration) Disaster Loan ASAP. Whether you think you will need it or not, apply immediately. Apply for enough funds to cover all of your practice loans, payments, employee payroll and other overhead for the next 6 months.Apply now

   There maybe additional disaster recovery funds available from your local and state governments. Check the eAssist Dental Financial Relief Map for more information on what’s available in your state. Go to map

2. Stop all tax payments to the IRS. Even 2020 quarterly tax estimates. Note that the 2019 tax filing deadline has been extended to at least July 15th.More info

3. Contact the bank that holds your practice loan. Ask them to stop payments and to reduce your interest rate. If they aren’t willing to reduce your rate, refinance your practice loan with an institution that will.

4. Call your landlord and request rent abatement.

5. Stop payments on your federal student loans.More info

6. Call your business insurance provider to discuss if your policy will cover this disruption. Even if it doesn’t, we recommend filing a claim in the chance that laws change to force insurance companies to remove this clause.

7. Stop most auto payments withdrawing from your bank account. It's important that you pay your bills, but you want to be in control of your cash flow. Pay by check during this critical time in order to do so.

8. Lock your credit cards (if available) or call your credit card companies and ask for new credit cards with new numbers to be sent to you in order for you to control what is being charged automatically to your cards. This will help you control what expenses you are authorizing.

9. Don’t pay yourself as an employee or take out money as a dividend — take money as a loan instead. This is more fiscally responsible and helps approval odds for disaster relief loans — so make sure you aren’t putting yourself on payroll or receiving distributions.

10. Refinance your mortgage, practice loan, building loan, commercial loan, and all other applicable loans. Take advantage of the interest rates while they are low and refinance while you can.

11. Contact your utility providers, supply company, lab, and other vendors. Ask vendors for net-90 payment terms without interest (no payment needed for 90 days interest free), discounts, and put auto-orders on hold effective immediately.

12. Guide your team to file for unemployment, even if they are working reduced hours. Your team may still qualify for unemployment if they’ve been furloughed or if their hours have been reduced. Encourage them to file for this assistance immediately. We do not recommend you lay off any team members at this time. By doing so, you may no longer be eligible for tax credits available in the $2 trillion Coronavirus relief bill passed by Congress and — more importantly — your people need your support now more than ever. It’s the right thing to do.More info

    Check the eAssist Dental Financial Relief Map for more information on unemployment coverage options available in your state. Go to map

13. Keep your cash flow up by following up on all aging and previous claims. Insurance companies are still open and paying claims. If you or your team aren’t able to do this in-house at this time, you can outsource this to eAssist. We can keep your collections and cash flow up, even if you’re facing closures—we only get paid if you get paid.

14. Set up EFT payments from insurance companies and utilize portal submissions for claims to make sure you’re getting money in your bank account faster.

15. Sign the ADA petition for federal disaster relief for dental practices Sign the petition