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| Issue #71-5.12.09 |  Forward This Newsletter To A Colleague |
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| Dentist and Divorce Reorganization Sending Images |
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The Dentist and Divorce Litigation:
A No Win Situation
Divorce litigation not only causes financial and emotional concerns, it also may severely harm the dental practice.
Dentists have many career goals. One is building the practice with an excellent level of care and service. This typically results in a good income level and the creation of an asset of considerable value in the dental practice. The efforts emanating from this success are usually conspicuous in the form of nice cars, clothes, houses and vacations. When divorce papers are served, the right to audit the dentist’s books, the intrusion of adversaries into the practice and the retention of attorneys and experts for defense begin. This is time consuming and expensive and can result in productivity loss for the practice.
What Does One Do in Defense?
If a complaint is served and litigation begins, retain the most experienced attorney and experts who understand dentistry’s financial side. Besides the mental trauma being suffered, a primary goal must be the survival of the dental practice. This is critical for the ability to continue in the life style enjoyed from the income previously generated that is hoped for after the divorce. It is difficult to find time to answer interrogatories, prepare for discovery and trial and continue to practice without a reduction in the time available to serve the patient. If the proper attorney and experts have been retained, he or she can go on practicing because those defenders will do their best to keep the dental practice as off limits as possible to the lawsuit.
Interrogatories, Depositions and Discovery
If proceedings continue, these are the next points in the process. When assisting your team of experts, be truthful with them. Don’t assume that the spouse’s experts and attorney are inept. If your answers are untruthful, credibility is lost and the potential for a large judgment increases. Make sure your attorney and experts know the facts. They will present evidence so that potential problems are deflected as well as they can be if they are aware of the answers in advance. If your experts and attorney are surprised by a response during depositions, discovery or during the trial, they will not be able to do their best.
Costs and Time
As the practice has shown signs of success over the years, the defense will be expensive and will last for a long time because the spouse’s attorney and expert team will attempt to wear down your resistance to their requests for documents and their demands for depositions of current and former employees and you, taking more time away from the practice in hopes of a large settlement. Items that were disclosed to the spouse that were “written off,” because they may have been considered gray areas will be revealed to the spouse’s attorney. Your advocates must know about these before their opponents do. They will respond with a defense and possibly the reduction in settlement demands because of potential complicity in alleged actions. The preparation for the trial is intense. The trial itself is expensive from an emotional and financial point of view.
Be sure that your experts have credibility with the court. Look at their resumes. Find articles they have published and learn of their experience during litigation. Be sure they have litigation experience in the field of dentistry as it relates to financial matters. Your credibility is not enough. Your experts must have the judge’s favor and their backgrounds weigh significantly towards your success.
If at all possible, try to settle the litigation before a verdict is determined. You will save time and money and preserve your well-being. Remember that when the divorce is over, your dental practice will give you an opportunity to resume your life style. You may have to pay more now than you believe to be fair but it may be cheaper being amortized over the rest of your life than the gamble of trial without a sure verdict. The terms of the settlement are critical in relation to the financial loss that you incur. The cost may be reduced by a favorable tax structure. Assistance in this area may mean thousands of dollars in savings. Be sure that your experts have an understanding of the financial issues as well as the tax considerations before signing off on the documents.
Divorce Litigation
Remember that divorce litigation is a no win situation. Look towards the future for the cheapest and quickest settlement today so that you can renew your career goals.
Bruce Bryen, CPA has successfully assisted dentists with their personal and financial matters for more than thirty years. As a partner in The Snyder Group, he delivers creative and prudent financial strategies to help dentists build and protect wealth at every stage of their careers. His extensive expertise includes financing, debt restructuring, retirement planning and tax advising to help dentists keep more of what they earn. Bruce is also experienced in providing litigation support services and has testified on numerous occasions as an expert witness.
If you would like additional help or are interested in having Bruce Bryen speak to your dental society or study club, he can be reached at bruce@thedentistsnetwork.net or at 1-800-988-5674.
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Reorganize Your Practice
There is no question now that the recession has hit our economy and has hit us hard. Many dentists are reporting a slowdown in their schedules with patients putting off treatment longer and cancellations are up. Note that I said many dentists are, but not all dentists are reporting this. Some dentists are actually reporting that their numbers are up and their practices are increasing.
So why are some dentists doing better in the recession, some dentists doing the same as before, and some dentists worse and even much worse? As I meet hundreds of dentists every single week wherever I lecture, the answer always comes down to two things — attitude and reorganization.
First, your attitude will make all the difference in the world. Yes, we all know that the recession has caused huge job losses and an incredible lack of consumer confidence. If you and your dental office are going to roll up into a ball out of fear, and patients can see the fear in your eyes, I can guarantee you that they won’t go ahead with treatment and you subconsciously will steer them away from doing any dentistry at all.
What every other business and industry is doing now is reorganizing and shifting the way they do business. This is the key to survival and even to thrive. The sure way to failure is to do nothing or, worse, keep thinking that the way I have always done things is the way I will be doing them in the future.
It is time to reorganize your professional career as a dentist. When times were good, dentists used the excuse that they were too busy in their offices to learn new skills through continuing education. Stop making excuses for yourself and get out there and get trained and retrained in new areas of dentistry that you have not been involved with before. The most successful dentists we see are the ones who have invested in themselves and their teams with quality continuing education to learn new skills.
Here are some suggestions, especially for a down economy, of some procedures that are big winners for patients and for your practice:
Endodontics: there are so many quality endodontic courses out there that I would not even know where to begin. For the general practitioner, the Ultradent AET Endodontic system is a simple to learn, very proficient endodontic system. Essential Dental Systems gives outstanding hands on courses using their EZ Fill Technique designed for beautiful endodontic results.
Implants: Learn to love the edentulous and denture patient again and learn about narrow diameter implants, which are affordable and easily accepted by patients. The system I use in my own practice is Atlas Narrow Diameter Implants by Dentatus. Take one of their excellent courses and in a few hours, you will be well versed in placing these implants. Dentatus has developed an extremely easy system for general dentists that consists of only two surgical burs. The key to their system is their Tuf-Link silicon liner, which retains the denture incredibly well. There are significant advantages to this system because of its unique retention system without the challenges with housings and O-rings. Go to www.dentatus.com for information on their courses on narrow diameter implants.
Botox and dermal fillers for every dental practice: Even in the current economy, these are very popular patient treatments that dentists around the country are now starting to learn and offer. These services are not only for medical/dental spas, but also for every routine dental practice. You can use these procedures to enhance cosmetic dentistry, treatment of TMJ and bruxism, helping denture patients adapt to dentures, and smoothing of facial wrinkles to enhance your esthetic dental cases. Many dentists learn these procedures so they can save money by treating their wives, friends or team members and save money rather than having them go elsewhere and paying someone else for this service. This is certainly one of the hottest topics I speak about in my lectures. Hands-on training opportunities are available through my Web site, http://www.commonsensedentistry.com/
Lasers: Laser dentistry is here and it is time you get on board. The big advantage is that you can greatly reduce or eliminate the need for local anesthesia. You need to make the right choice in this field. The Powerlase AT laser by Lares Research is a hard and soft tissue laser; it uses the right wavelengths available for all uses, which most other lasers cannot claim. It is a complete laser operatory in one unit. Lares Research is a recognized and trusted name in dental handpieces, and now in dental lasers. Very few dental companies offer a money back guarantee to back their products which makes Lares Research the company you would like to do business with, both for handpieces and for dental lasers.
Simply put, your best investment is yourself and your training. In this economy, now is the time to look at yourself and your office with a critical eye and see how you can improve and add to your clinical skills. By doing so, you are following a sure recipe for success for the challenges that we all have to deal with every single day.
Dr. Louis Malcmacher is a practicing general dentist in Bay Village, Ohio, an internationally known lecturer, dental consultant and author, and consultant to the Council on Dental Practice of the ADA. Interested in knowing more about how to truly enjoy dentistry? Click here.
Interested in having Dr. Malcmacher speak to your dental society or study club? Click here. To reach Dr. Malcmacher, email him at DrMalcmacher@thedentistsnetwork.net or call 1.800.952.0521.
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Image is.EVERYTHING
Many dentists have embraced the digital dental practice. Paper-based systems have been replaced by practice management software, intraoral cameras, and digital radiography systems. One of the biggest benefits of these systems is the ability to share data with our patients and our colleagues. Unfortunately, many dentists fail to realize how easily this system can breakdown. I was recently speaking to a client of mine. He was lamenting the fact that a patient had recently shown up at his office with a digital x-ray printout from another practice. The printout was at less-than-best resolution on regular copy paper making the images non-diagnostic. Retaking x-rays can be time-consuming and affects our relationships with our patients. So, it’s important to review the different methods to get our images to other dentists and patients.
The “killer application” that has driven the Internet in the first 10 years has been e-mail. E-mail is fast, easy, and practically everyone has an email address. Many image management programs have the ability to send emails directly from the program, and even if they don’t have this feature, it’s relatively easy to cut and paste into most email programs. While this system is quite easy, there are a few caveats. First off, image files can be quite large, with images as large as many megabytes each. It’s important to understand that while many people have access to high-speed connections, there are still a lot of dentists who use slower connections or email providers that limit the amount of data that can be sent.
Before sending files to a colleague, make sure they can easily download these images. You can also compress images or use a format to export images such as JPEG, although this typically results in loss of image quality. It’s also important to realize that a few image programs will save their images in a non-standardized format. In these cases, you can’t send the images in their native format unless the recipient is using the same image program, so it’s better to convert them to a standardized format before sending them. Secondly, email is inherently insecure. There is no native encryption in files that are sent through popular programs like Outlook and Outlook Express. The HIPAA standard that went into effect recently addressed the need for data security. The part most relevant to email is the rule requiring "securing patient records containing individually identifiable health information so that they are not readily available to those who do not need them." The rules do not specify which technologies should be used to preserve confidentiality of patient records. The regulations under HIPAA do not state that email encryption is mandatory, but do specify that encryption is an "addressable specification" for controlling access to patient records. How this plays out is anyone’s guess, but dentists should realize that standard e-mail may not meet these requirements.
Another option is to use a secure online site to store and access images. Ones that are popular for dental applications include PatientsCount and ddsWeblink. There are many non-dental sites such as Adrive for storage and sharing of images. These sites require users that you designate to be able to view images, and some allow for an online exchange of comments between multiple individuals.
Images can be burned to media like CDROMs or DVDs. Most modern computers come with a CD burner and many now come with a DVD burner as well. While this is a relatively inexpensive and easy way to share images, keep in mind that that it still requires use of the mail system or the patient to deliver the images, and won’t be any faster than the older paper records.
Speaking of paper, the final way to share images is by printing them out. The office should be sure to use a good quality inkjet printer although color lasers have dropped recently in price and might be a good option. Most importantly, use a high quality photo paper to print these images for patients and referring offices.
The digital era has ushered in a new way for dentists to share information. However, a lack of standardization in this relatively new field still requires dentists to take the time to properly plan out how they will share this digital information with their patients and other practitioners.
Lorne Lavine, DMD is the Founder and President of Dental Technology Consultants. Dr. Lavine holds two prestigious certifications, the A+ Certified Technician designation and the Network+ Certified Professional. These designations demonstrate proficiency in computer repair, operating systems, network design and installation. Dental Technology Consultants provides dentists a full range of services relating to the implementation of technology.
Interested in having Dr. Lavine speak to your dental society or study club? Click here. Dr. Lavine can be reached at drlavine@thedentistsnetwork.net.
Interested in having Mike speak to your dental society or study club? Click here.
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