Early in high school, a young Bradford Plasha aspired to be an engineer until realizing he cared little for physics. Being that a number of his relatives were dentists, he had the opportunity to shadow in a dental office. “I remember my aunt doing an immediate denture that day – extracting all these teeth and putting dentures in,” recalled Dr. Plasha. “Seeing the change was really awesome. There’s a lot of science, but also a lot of art that makes you feel good. And, I like that you’re not sitting at a computer all day.”
By sophomore year, Bradford had chosen a path to dentistry. He went on to attend Randolph–Macon College in Virginia, then Rutgers School of Dental Medicine in New Jersey, lauding the caliber of the faculty and the quality of clinical experience.
After graduation, Dr. Plasha faced the same decision as most new dentists: To go directly into private practice, or work as an Associate at another office? “I had a connection through a family friend to work for two amazing doctors who took me under their wing and taught me a lot. From there I went into a corporate dental office for a while to gain a different experience. They actually cared about their patients and tried to do things to the best of their ability. I had a good time with everyone I worked with there, but eventually decided it was time for me to open my own office.”
Dr. Plasha’s vision was to merge elements he learned from private practice with the efficiencies he saw in the corporate office, creating a practice that could give the best of both to its patients. He signed a new building lease in Collegeville Pennsylvania the last week in 2019, expecting to break ground three months later, only to be derailed by the COVID pandemic. Despite multiple setbacks, Dr. Plasha never lost sight of his dream of opening his own practice. The Dental Spot ultimately opened its doors late September 2020, although he continued to work at the corporate office until his practice geared up enough to support him full time.
Top Practices Respect Patients’ Time
Dr. Plasha described the practice’s mission “to be the spot that patients trust most for all their dental needs. We try to do everything in-house because we know patients don’t like being referred around to different offices. It may be a little longer visit, but we want to just get it done for them.”
He admits the practice may not be entirely there just yet, but they strive everyday toward that goal. As the practice grows, he hopes to affiliate with Specialists who would perform their work at The Dental Spot office.
“It’s hard for patients to take off work to come to the office. The less time they have to take off, the more days they can use for vacations. Doing more to help in that way, while making sure we’re keeping them healthy, are my main driving factors.” – Dr. Bradford Plasha
Being a ‘One Spot Shop’ ties into Dr. Plasha’s definition of a Top Practice as being able to serve patients as quickly, efficiently and effectively as possible. He believes that includes being able to explain treatment plans to patients so they truly understand and accept treatment, thus gaining the myriad health benefits of good oral care.
eAssist Makes Life Easier
About a year after opening, Dr. Plasha found himself understaffed, as did a great many dental offices post-pandemic. He remembered, “I was already pulling up some of the slack – trying to do insurance verifications and breakdowns, and yelling at the phone. It did help me understand insurance better, but I realized we were getting too busy; we needed a better way to deal with getting breakdowns, and not clog up our phone lines.”
Dr. Plasha began interviewing dental billing companies. When it came to insurance verification, he wanted a company that could be as specific as he was about getting accurate estimates. As much he doesn’t want to have to refund money, he especially doesn’t want to have to call patients to collect money on the back end. He wanted someone who felt the same way, and would be doggedly accurate.
Based on these interviews, Dr. Plasha found most billing companies to be too basic with the breakdowns. Some were even unable to satisfactorily explain such factors as deductible copay, co-insurance, alternative benefit, and procedure waiting periods. A few companies seemed to be good at the work, but weren’t individualized.
“What I really liked about [the eAssist platform] is that you can actually put information in for the patient. If we send a patient’s insurance plan to our eAssist team, they input it into the computer, which saves us a ton of time,” he explained. “That way I can actually give the patient an estimate before they leave the office, and usually before they’ve gotten out of the chair. If we and the patient have time, there’s a chance to provide same-day treatment, or at least start having the financial conversation right away to start figuring things out.”
“What the eAssist team does just makes it so much easier!” – Dr. Plasha
Dr. Plasha learned from doing verifications himself how inaccurate insurance representatives can sometimes be when providing benefit breakdowns. He appreciates how thorough and tenacious his eAssist team is in documenting contacts and details of conversations in order to collect on claims, even when benefits have been misquoted by the company upfront.
He went on to compliment the eAssist team for having the document set up the way he wanted it, with the specific codes they use most at The Dental Spot, stating, “That’s been an awesome training document that I use all the time; it’s one of the best tools I’ve had!”
He explained that since opening the practice, no one hired has had any general experience whatsoever at the front desk. Dr. Plasha has personally trained all new team members “from scratch to learn to do insurance using that sheet, and by explaining what everything means. In fact, a new receptionist with us less than a month recently presented an implant treatment plan using the sheet, and got patient acceptance. By now everyone knows it, so now it’s just about getting more accurate.”
What the Textbooks Don’t Tell You
Dr. Plasha had several key pieces of advice for new dental school graduates; things that aren’t taught in the textbooks:
- Find good mentors, whether through a General Practice Residency (GPR) or a private practice.
- Learn how to effectively communicate and ‘sell’ the dentistry you’re recommending – “I’m not using ‘sell’ as a bad term; selling means effectively communicating how you’re benefiting the patient, and how you’re making them healthier. Yes, you’re helping yourself too, financially, so everyone’s winning in those scenarios.”
- Learn about insurance and how it works – “Understanding the details of insurance can go a long way; such as, making sure claims get approved so you don’t end up with mad patients; and learning how to handle insurance-related problems when they do occur, even if you’re an Associate and have nothing to do with billing.”
- And most importantly…
“Always try to do what’s right.” – Dr. Bradford Plasha
