In response to the recent popular episode with Dr. Roy Shelburne, I decided to reach out directly to my local state Medicaid office to talk to somebody about how criminal medicaid cases are handled. Although I wasn't able to convince any members of the department to join me on the podcast directly, I was able to take and share notes from the conversation. There was a lot of listener feedback with confusion about how a dentist could end up in prison over simple billing and coding errors. I was able to shed a lot of light on that in my conversation with the Medicaid auditor.  I also give my thoughts on a recent Medicaid fraud/kickback scheme involving the indictment of two individuals at a Texas pediatric dental office involving 6 million dollars worth of fraudulent and criminal dental billing to Medicaid (allegedly). 

Shawn Johnson is the vice president of business development at Treloar and Heisel, a premier provider of financial and insurance services to dental and medical professionals. He joins us to discuss topics relating to protecting both your practice and yourself. We walk through different stages in the career path of a typical pediatric dentist and review what systems and insurances should be in place to protect yourself from all of the curveballs life throws at us. Some of the topics include: - What to look for in a disability policy, and how much coverage should you have? - When is a term life policy appropriate compared to a whole life? - Why pediatric dentists need a higher level of coverage with the trend for in-office general anesthesia. - What are the components of a business owner's protection policy? - Finding a balance between keeping an emergency fund vs having business interruption and overhead coverage.

Dr. David Knight is a pediatric dentist and the owner of Knight Pediatric Dentistry in Woodbury, Minnesota. He opened his practice almost three years ago, shortly before the COVID shutdown caused him to close his doors for a period of time. David and his wife also had their first baby during this time period. Now three years later, his practice is thriving and booking out for months.  When Dr. Knight opened his office, he initially did not see Medicaid, given that Minnesota had some of the lowest reimbursements in the country. With Minnesota recently overhauling their Medicaid program and increasing rates, Dr. Knight discusses why he added Medicaid to his practice and how it has added tremendous growth in terms of new patient numbers and collections.

Dr. Roy Shelburne joins us on this episode to tell his incredible story about being arrested for Medicaid fraud. After years of running a busy and successful practice in Virginia, Dr. Shelburne received a phone call that the FBI had raided his office. All of his personal assets were seized, and he was tried and found guilty of medicaid fraud. He served 19 months in prison, and now spends his time consulting dentists on how to prevent this from happening to them. This was an eye-opening conversation. As pediatric dentists, many of us see medicaid. You may think that if there were an error or mistake with an office's Medicaid billing, penalties and fines could occur and simply be paid as long as the mistake was innocent. Dr. Shelburne's story demonstrates that this isn't always true.  For anybody looking for more information on Dr. Shelburne, his website is: http://royshelburne.com/ Link to registration for Dr. Shelburne's Dental Billing Bootcamp: https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fform.123formbuilder.com%2F6180041%2Fform&data=05%7C01%7C%7Ce22febb87d32459cfd8708da54595fb1%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637915040111326747%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=CBiK8%2FzfZ8Dp0LZGJpdrBQ3Nlsi2URYTti%2BOh60O%2BVI%3D&reserved=0

On this solo episode, I review 5 new tools/materials/pieces of equipment that I've purchased in my practice over the last year. I break down the good and the bad of these products, and how listeners can consider using them in their practice. We should always be trying new products and technologies to constantly try to deliver dentistry better, faster, and cheaper. The products I review are:  1. Dukal throat packs 2. Optrasculpt composite sponge 3. Mosquito diamond bur 4. Zyris anterior isolite system 5. Denovo extraction forceps

Lilly Cortes-Pona is a dental practice consultant and coach who specializes in pediatric practices. Her company writes the practice management newsletter for the AAPD, and she works with practice owners all over the country to help them lead, connect, and profit. In our discussion, we go through common barriers and issues that pediatric dentists face at each stepping stone in their career, from early practice owner all the way to multi-doc, multi-office practices.  In this podcast we discuss: - Challenges that early career dentists and startups face - The importance of considering utilizing a therapist for your mental well-being - When to bring on an associate and why associates are in such demand - How to get multiple doctors to agree on what direction to take the practice. - How a dental coach works and how they can work with a practice to improve outcomes LCP coaching website: www.lcpcoaching.com Lilly has also provided our listeners with a free link to her "checklist for success": https://lcpcoaching.formstack.com/forms/checklist_for_success

Wes Lyon is a CPA, CFP, and CEO of McGill and Lyon Dental Advisors. His company, McGill and Hill Group, publishes the McGill Advisory, which is a monthly newsletter to dentists updating the latest events and tips for financial planning, investing, taxes, and practice ownership topics. I became familiar with this newsletter at the office of my previous employer, and based on recommendations of some older and wiser pediatric dentists, I recently subscribed. I personally have found it very helpful as a practice owner to have monthly updates about what's going on in the stock market, tax updates, practice management and retirement planning strategies.   I would definitely recommend to my listeners who own practices or are considering buying or starting a practice to subscribe to the newsletter.  Wes has offered our podcast listeners a 10% discount using the code PEDIATRIC10. He also has offered a FREE trial membership for pediatric residents who are interested in receiving the newsletter. Click the link to subscribe or learn more: https://www.mcgillhillgroup.com/Advisory/Current Wes joins us to talk about 10 financial mistakes that he sees dentists commonly make. We review this list below in detail. 1. Improper insurance 2. Not having a budget 3. Saving in the wrong place 4. Poor debt management 5. Concentrating on salary 6. Paying excessive taxes 7. Being house poor 8. One house/one spouse 9. Not taking advantage of HSAs 10. Trying to be a financial expert

Today's episode is all about taxes. As pediatric dentists, we have tax issues, and dental school doesn't give us the foundational knowledge we need to understand how taxes work and how to play the game.  Scott Clynch is a CPA and personal financial planner at Cain Watters. He joins us today to talk about how taxes work. We start big picture with basic concepts and definitions, and then walk through how taxes work at each career stage that a typical pediatric dentist goes through. Some things we talk about: - Marginalized vs effective tax rate, differences between deductions and credits - W2 vs 1099 employees - What can an employee dentist do to lower his/her tax bill? - What is an S-corp and how does it work? - What expenses should be run through a practice? What areas are grey and what's on the black list? - When does it make sense to implement a 401k plan for tax purposes? - What is a capital gains tax, and how does it work when a pediatric dentist finally sells his/her practice?

Ever since the big announcement earlier this year, NuSmile's Bioflex crowns have created quite the buzz among pediatric dentists. NuSmile revealed the crowns to the general public at AAPD 2022. These white, flexible resin polymer crowns could be a game changer to provide a flexible and esthetic improvement to traditional stainless steel crowns. As a millennial techie pediatric dentist, I wanted to learn more. Mike Loessberg is the Vice President of sales at NuSmile, a whiskey connoisseur, and a founding member of Bourbon and Baby Teeth. He joins us on the podcast to sip some whiskey and talk more about this new product, including some frequently asked questions he's received about the product. These crowns should be available and released for sale sometime this fall, likely at Bourbon and Baby Teeth in Louisville, Kentucky.  Mike also gives us some updates on BABT and what we can expect this year.  Mike can be reached via Facebook or at https://bourbonandbabyteeth.com/ 

Two oral surgeons join us for this week's episode. Dr. Chip Abraham is a fourth-year OMS resident at Indiana University, and Dr. Doug Orzel is a private practice OMS and practice owner in Grand Rapids, Michigan. These two oral surgery studs come on the podcast to talk all things oral surgery involving pediatric dentistry. We go through different tough clinical situations, as well as review a few listener Q & A's. Some of the topics we discuss: Should pediatric dentists be extracting permanent teeth? How do oral surgeons decide on a sedation modality? What agents and what doses? Do oral surgeons ever elect NOT to sedate? How do you suture a small extra-oral laceration? Can a tough teenager have thirds taken out with just local anesthetic?