Year: 2012

The Medical-Device Tax and the Dentist

This guest post is brought to you by our friends and colleagues at Goldin, Peiser & Peiser, LLP, a Dallas-based accounting firm. Some information in this blog has been revised from its original version, published 12.14.12.

As it stands now, regardless of whether we go off the fiscal cliff or not, there will be a tax on the sale of medical devices in 2013. As mandated in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, manufacturers will be assessed a 2.3% tax on the sale of certain devices. According to the IRS, taxable medical devices are defined as those that are listed under a single FDA product code. Other devices are:

Nitrous and oxygen delivery systems and gas
Computer equipment used for diagnostic purposes
X-ray equipment, sensors, cone-beam CT systems, caries detection devices, and cameras
Surgical equipment
Handpieces
Replacement parts
Remanufactured or refurbished equipment
Instruments
Imaging equipment
CAD/CAM machines
Prosthetic devices

All May Not Be Lost

Manufacturers as well as the dental and medical communities are pushing hard against the tax, lobbying for the delay of the start date. And not everyone on Capitol Hill supports the tax. Many lawmakers are concerned about its negative financial implications. 18 Senators and Senators-Elect sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid asking that the tax be included in the fiscal cliff negations. They expressed their concern that the “the medical device industry has received little guidance about how to comply with the tax–causing significant uncertainty and confusion for businesses.” They urged Senator Reid to support delaying enactment of the provision in a “fiscally responsible manner.” Read More

How to Choose a Dental Practice Name

You don’t need any name for your dental office, you need the perfect name. Regardless of whether you’re a new graduate opening a private practice or an experienced dentist prepping to sell your practice in the next few years, serious consideration should go into selecting a dental practice name. Not only will your name influence your persona in your community and the minds of your patients, the wrong practice name could get you into legal trouble. You certainly don’t need that! In this blog, I’ll give you tips for selecting a practice name, making it legal, and developing your brand for optimal success.

Brainstorming Dental Office Names

Not sure where to start? I recommend you call on some of your most trusted professional associates, regardless of dental industry expertise, and have a brainstorming session. You’ll need a large whiteboard and dry erase markers or an online whiteboard if your contributors are remote. Set a timer for 20 minutes and select a secretary. Everyone can begin suggesting names, and the secretary should record them all on the whiteboard. After 20 minutes are up, thank everyone, then sit down by yourself or with your business partner to review the suggestions. Consider that if you use your personal name, selling the practice’s brand may be difficult in the future. Also, if you use your location in the practice name, make certain that it would work if you opened multiple offices in your region. Read More

What We Do Differently for Dentists

Today, in response to my first post about our SEO service, The Success, I was asked the following question by a periodontist on LinkedIn. I thought I’d share my answer, in case you have the same question!

Q: What separates your product/service from your competition that promises the same response but never seems to deliver??

A: Well, a few things!

1. ALL of our content is original. Instead of starting with techies, we started with copy — because that’s what Google says is most important. In my DFW office, I have a team of copywriters who understand clinical dentistry and SEO. Each of my client dentists has a copywriter on our team. All website content and blogs are completely original, optimized, and clinically accurate.
2. We answer our phones. I’m the COO. My business partner is the CEO. All of our clients have our direct cell phone numbers, and we answer our phones after our clients are finished with their workday — even on weekends.
3. We are a small business, and we understand small business. Read my bio on our blog-site for more information about my philosophy for helping small businesses thrive! Read More

Dental Marketing News: Google Reviews Not Showing Up

If you’ve taken the time (and had the courage) to ask patients to go out of their way to post a review for your dental practice on Google, you may be disappointed. While we’ve had some client dentists say that their Google reviews were missing for a year, then reappeared, others report that their reviews simply do not show up. The problem seems to be growing. A quick search reveals, missing Google reviews are frustrating business owners across all industries. This can be a serious hindrance in dental marketing.

Why Google Reviews Disappear

Google troubleshooters are looking for answers to the problem, but the company does not yet appear to reason for the missing reviews. A few key factors may influence reviews being filtered out and unpublished. These include, but are not limited to: duplicate business listings; reviews posted prior to the Google+ Local launch (a few months ago); the sorting of reviews, as selected in a dropdown menu by the reader; a review having a URLs (not allowed); or Google marked the review as spam. Unfortunately, Google does not share the criteria for spammy reviews, so you cannot know whether this is the cause of your problem — or how to fix it.

Here’s Google’s review posting policy.

Where Are the Missing Google Reviews?

If your review posters (patients) did not follow the above policy, your review may be in a holding tank. The reviewer can amend the review and republish. Google says that if a review is edited to meet the guidelines, and it is not considered spam (for unknown reasons), it could become public immediately. Read More

Dental Marketing: Is ZocDoc a Wise Investment?

Today I received an email from one of our client dentists in Pennsylvania. He wanted to know whether ZocDoc is a good investment. Since www.zocdoc.com is a type of dental marketing service, I thought I’d do some research and present my analysis and recommendation here on the MDPM blog. If you’ve had experience with ZocDoc and would like to share it with MDPM readers, please comment on our Facebook page.

What is ZocDoc?

ZocDoc is an online appointment-setting service for healthcare professionals. It primarily helps doctors fill empty appointments in their schedule. Physicians, dentists, and specialists can list their practices and profile on the ZocDoc website. Patients can find a doctor, make an appointment online, and leave a review. To sign up, you fill out a form online, and a ZocDoc representative calls you. On ThisWeekIn.com, in an interview with Cyrus Massoumi (see below), the inventor of ZocDoc, I learned that ZocDoc started by serving dentists.

A listing includes information about a practice and the dentist’s education, as well as available appointments, and patients can simply book online. In addition, dentists can have an appointment button on their website that sends potential patients to ZocDoc to book. ZocDoc does not replace other dental marketing, so a website and SEO is still extremely important. ZocDoc is simply an addition to a good marketing strategy.

What Does ZocDoc Cost?

At the time of the video, the cost was a flat fee of $250 per month, but it’s now $300 per month. The cost covers unlimited patient numbers.

Does ZocDoc Have Good Reviews from Dentists?

The online reviews I found for ZocDoc are from patients reviewing doctors, not doctors reviewing ZocDoc. Those patients who posted previews gave it a thumbs up, for the most part. However, ZocDoc kicked off with a huge marketing campaign, and there’s no way to tell if the reviews were paid or real. These days, we have to take that into consideration, though I have no reason to believe the reviews to be fake. So, consumers give ZocDoc a nod. According to the company’s website, nearly two million patients use the service to book appointments 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Read More

What is Dentist Reputation Management?

As a dentist, you probably know that you need to establish a solid reputation online and good SEO. Your website, blog, and published articles contribute to building your reputation online. In the past few years, the term “reputation management” has evolved, but it does not refer to what you publish online. Reputation management is defined as overseeing the online reviews about a company or professional. Online reviews are patient testimonials about you or your practice, posted on Google+ Local, Yelp!, and other review sites.

The Problem with Online Reviews

As companies began to notice negative online reviews, lawsuits ensued. In many cases, because the Internet is international, and because Internet law is still developing, negative reviews – even those that are false – remain publicly posted. This can become a serious problem for companies, and dentists, who rely on the Internet as an important part of their marketing strategy.

Potential Patients Read Online Reviews

According to research, over two-thirds of Americans read online reviews before making a purchasing decision. Studies also show, people are 12 times more likely to believe online reviews that information provided by businesses. Consumers who participate in online conversations usually make a decision during their interaction, and ultimately spend more on the service or product.

The most relevant statistic is that 90% of people believe testimonials from people they know,

while 70% believe reviews by people they do not know.

When you factor in that bad reviews may not always be real or reliable, the consumers seem to be making uninformed decisions, when they feel they are making very informed decisions.

How can a dentist avoid negative online reviews? That’s the big question. The answer is, you probably can’t, so you need reputation management.

Reputation Management for Dentists

As with many aspects of life, the best way to counteract bad is with good. If you’re the victim of negative online reviews, you should actively seek positive online reviews. This means, ask patients you trust to go online and leave a review for you. Point them toward the sites with negative reviews. Over time, the positives will overshadow the negatives – unless the review company filters out positive reviews. If you find this to be the case, as it now is with Yelp!, direct patients to post positive reviews elsewhere.

Many review sites allow a business to respond publicly to reviews. This is always a good idea. In the case of positive reviews, respond with a brief statement of appreciation. For negative reviews, respond with compassion and concern. Invite the reviewer to call the practice and speak with you, personally. Mention that patient service is very important to you, and you would appreciate hearing the reviewer’s story. Do not get involved in a tit-for-tat. Do not defend your actions. Instead, respond only with kind words and empathy. Negative reviews can feel like a personal attack, so you may find that crafting a positive response is difficult. MDPM content managers often script responses to online reviews, and we’ve found that as a third party, our assistance is invaluable to our client dentists’ reputations.

If your regional dental association allows dentists to post testimonials (the Texas Dental Association does not), use positive reviews as the basis for your blog posts. Promote the reviews on social networks, and feature a testimonial page on your website. MDPM dental marketing consultants can help you decide whether services like Demandforce may be a good fit for your practice. You might also consider recording video patient testimonials, which can be very powerful in marketing.

Knowing the Status of Your Online Reputation

No business can address negativity if they don’t know it’s occurring. To stay informed about your online reputation, set a Google Alert for your name, practice name, and associates’ names. With Google Alerts, you’ll receive an email every time Google indexes the word or words you identified when setting up the alert. If you run across a negative review, decide what you’ll do to counteract it, then take action.

Online reputation management is rapidly becoming an integral part of Internet marketing, and the Internet is here to stay.

Your Dental Marketing Consultant

With Modern Dental Practice Marketing, dentists have access to full-service online marketing and consulting. We’ll examine your overall online reputation, including your website, blog, microsites, local listings, and reviews. Then, we will work with you to develop a strategy to improve and maintain a solid online reputation. Our goal is always to bring a dentist new patients. If you need help managing your online reputation or marketing your dental office, call MDPM at 972-781-8861 today for our complimentary Internet presence analysis.

Black Hat and ADA Non-Compliance in Dental Marketing

Do you really know what’s on your dental website? Recently, MDPM found seriously problematic, black-hat marketing tactics on some dental websites. Dentists need to know, some SEO tactics can get your domain blacklisted from Google and you’ll be up to your neck in hot water with the ADA – we’re talking suspended license. Ultimately, you are responsible for your dental practice’s marketing, and blind trust of your marketing company could cause you major problems.

How Can My Website Get My Dental License Suspended?

The American Dental Association has guidelines for ethics, and the ADA’s marketing/advertising regulations are the basis of many state dental boards’ guidelines. The ADA offers a guide to help dentists understand advertising regulations.

The ADA’s marketing guidelines specifically state:

“…statements to be avoided are those that would: contain a material, objective representation, whether express or implied, that the advertised services are superior in quality to those of other dentists, if that representation is not subject to reasonable substantiation.”

For dentists who do not comply with regulations, state dental boards can impose fines and suspension of licenses.

Also, most states have regulations against making comparisons of one dentist to another.

That said, do you know if your website is in violation? Perhaps you and your dental marketing firm should review the guidelines and your website as you make marketing goals for the coming year.

What is Black Hat SEO and Blacklisting?

As in the old west, in search engine optimization, a black hat means the bad guy. A white hat means the good guy. Black hat marketing defines a set of SEO tactics that Google and other search engines consider bad, unethical, and misleading. If caught by Google, a URL using black hat SEO tactics can be blacklisted, which involves being banned until compliance is re-established and proven. JC Penney faced this discipline a few years ago, and the mega-company had to grow a new Internet presence from the ground up, with a new domain. Read More

End of Year Dental Insurance Benefits Letter

October of last year, we wrote about that all-important end of year benefits letter that dentists across the nation are preparing to mail. Believe it or not, it’s that time of year again, already. October begins on Monday, and Americans will soon be caught up in the holiday madness. While saving money (and spending money) is on their minds, visiting their dentist probably is not.

Capturing Your Patients’ Attention

How can you convey to your current patients that they will save money in 2012 by completing unfinished dental treatment plans before December 31, 2011? In the midst of ghouls and goblins, turkeys and leaves, holly and mistletoe, how can you capture a few moments of their precious time to share this important message – a message that will literally keep money in their pockets?

Traditionally, dentists send out an end of year benefits letter that explains these points to patients:

Your dental benefits will expire on the last day of 2012.
The money you’ve put toward your dental insurance deductible will disappear; you will have to begin again in January of 2013.
If you have not seen the dentist in six months, you may be eligible for a 100% paid dental checkup and cleaning, under your dental insurance benefits.
If you have an incomplete or open treatment plan, you will probably spend less by completing the dental work in 2012 than if you wait until 2013, because the money you’ve invested toward your deductible will have reduced your out-of-pocket expense, but only until the end of this year.

Strategic Marketing Works

The end of year dental benefits reminder is actually part of your dental practice’s marketing. It is not simply a function of administration. Thinking about the letter in this way, consider where your patients go, what they see, and how they communicate with other people. In the Internet age, most of your patients probably use email and social networks to acquire information. In response, you should make your dental insurance benefits letter available via these channels. Read More

Transitioning Dental Patient Phone Calls into Scheduled Appointments

As dental marketing consultants, we know the acute importance of answering the phones in a dental office. You can invest thousands of dollars in marketing, and your efforts may lead many potential patients to call your office. Though you, the dentist, don’t answer your phones, the successful transition of potential patients to scheduled patients relies on how well you train your front office team. Unfortunately, many dentists do not know how to educate their administrative staff in this vital skill.

We’ve identified three common scenarios that turn new patients away, before they book an appointment. Steer clear of these traps, and you’ll see your new patient numbers grow. Read More