For those dentists who are in the process of buying a practice one common question we get is if there are any red flags that may have an impact on the purchase in regards to insurance.  The answer is often yes.  There are several areas to consider when purchasing a practice:

1.  If the selling dentist is Fee-For-Service then the purchasing dentist will need to decide if he/she will remain FFS.  Often we talk to dentists who purchase a practice assuming they will add PPOs to increase new patient flow.  That is one strategy however be sure that you are not paying a premium for a FFS business model only to immediately add PPOs into the mix and thereby discounting the production unnecessarily.

3.  If the selling dentist is currently in-network with PPOs then you, as the potential purchaser, will want to know if you should contract in a similar way.  In some cases the selling dentist may be grandfathered in with fee schedules that are no longer available.  In other cases the selling dentist may have very low fee schedules that can be improved on when you purchase the practice and have the ability to start fresh negotiations with your new Tax ID number.  You may also want to contract differently to get higher fee schedules and we can help you determine which path will get you the highest fee schedule options in your zip code.  Remember there are often different ways to contract and get paid on the same pool of patients so we want to be sure you are set up correctly for your new practice from the beginning!

In general, we do not work with practice purchases unless the purchaser is buying a Fee-For-Service practice and is wanting to add new PPOs into the mix.  The reason we do not typically handle practice purchases is because we feel often the time it takes for a dentist to negotiate and add in new contracts is in conflict with them being out of network at the time of the sale while we negotiate on their behalf.  Because it can take 90+ days to negotiate new contracts and then added weeks to get in-network after that there may not be enough added benefits to offset the time it takes to negotiate.  If you have specific questions related to a planned practice purchase to determine if we would be able to help you, please
contact us.  We may refer you to someone who might fit your needs better, if we feel that would better position you for success when you open.