Forums
New posts
Search forums
What's new
New posts
Latest activity
Articles
Members
Current visitors
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
New posts
Search forums
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Forums
Lab talk, the good, the bad, and the ugly
Dental-CAD
Dandy
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="TanMan" data-source="post: 346116" data-attributes="member: 10597"><p>I only wish I could consistently charge 1100-1200 a crown, then all this talk of lab fees wouldn't be a problem at all. The previous post wasn't meant to attack labs, but hopefully shed some light as to what could create market pressures to decrease lab fees. However, there is a trend to try and ditch insurances which may act as a boon for the middle-higher end of the dental lab price market. I learned early in my career not to go with the cheapest nor go with the most expensive either. There has to be that balance. When I first started as a dentist, there was this DSO that would ship the cases to China and OMG, it was the worst. The quality was not acceptable at all. I ended up leaving shortly due to so many issues (besides the really bad labwork returned).</p><p></p><p>One of the greatest overheads is definitely staff members. What's driving a lot of the costs of staff is a shortage of dental assistants/hygienists and increased cost of living. It's definitely not fair to the labs as well, as you guys have families to support too and labs aren't always an apple to apples comparison either. However, with decreasing insurance fees, would it then be fair to use a cheaper lab for cheaper insurances, creating a two-tier system for crowns? I don't think I could pay 300/crown on a 543 dollar/unit reimbursement given the other overhead factored into executing the crown procedure.</p><p></p><p>Now, someone might say, why do you take insurance if they pay so poorly? A FFS office isn't always practical in every part of the country. Some regions are dominated by companies that provide a specific insurance - with dwindling disposable incomes, patients are trying to utilize in-network benefits more than out of network benefits to maximize what they receive in terms of treatment. The tradeoff with accepting insurance is having a larger volume of patients to keep your office sustainable v. a FFS office that may not necessarily have the patient flow to be sustainable. I don't take every insurance, but I do take a fair amount of insurances that actually pay what they promise, and there's a breakeven point that needs to be met to not lose money on a procedure with all costs taken into consideration. However, I don't think any of us really works towards the breakeven point, because then it means that our labor is worth zero; that applies to everyone, dentists and lab owners alike. We work to make a profit, but then the question is how much is enough and how much is too much?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="TanMan, post: 346116, member: 10597"] I only wish I could consistently charge 1100-1200 a crown, then all this talk of lab fees wouldn't be a problem at all. The previous post wasn't meant to attack labs, but hopefully shed some light as to what could create market pressures to decrease lab fees. However, there is a trend to try and ditch insurances which may act as a boon for the middle-higher end of the dental lab price market. I learned early in my career not to go with the cheapest nor go with the most expensive either. There has to be that balance. When I first started as a dentist, there was this DSO that would ship the cases to China and OMG, it was the worst. The quality was not acceptable at all. I ended up leaving shortly due to so many issues (besides the really bad labwork returned). One of the greatest overheads is definitely staff members. What's driving a lot of the costs of staff is a shortage of dental assistants/hygienists and increased cost of living. It's definitely not fair to the labs as well, as you guys have families to support too and labs aren't always an apple to apples comparison either. However, with decreasing insurance fees, would it then be fair to use a cheaper lab for cheaper insurances, creating a two-tier system for crowns? I don't think I could pay 300/crown on a 543 dollar/unit reimbursement given the other overhead factored into executing the crown procedure. Now, someone might say, why do you take insurance if they pay so poorly? A FFS office isn't always practical in every part of the country. Some regions are dominated by companies that provide a specific insurance - with dwindling disposable incomes, patients are trying to utilize in-network benefits more than out of network benefits to maximize what they receive in terms of treatment. The tradeoff with accepting insurance is having a larger volume of patients to keep your office sustainable v. a FFS office that may not necessarily have the patient flow to be sustainable. I don't take every insurance, but I do take a fair amount of insurances that actually pay what they promise, and there's a breakeven point that needs to be met to not lose money on a procedure with all costs taken into consideration. However, I don't think any of us really works towards the breakeven point, because then it means that our labor is worth zero; that applies to everyone, dentists and lab owners alike. We work to make a profit, but then the question is how much is enough and how much is too much? [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Who makes the popular shade guide?
Post reply
Forums
Lab talk, the good, the bad, and the ugly
Dental-CAD
Dandy
Top
Bottom