Dental practice owners and their team members have an opportunity to sharpen their practice management skills at CDA Presents in Anaheim May 16-18. The new Dental Team Summit is a full-day interactive learning event designed to empower dental teams with the knowledge and skills to elevate their practice.
The summit takes place on Friday, May 17, and is intended to help attendees shape their practice leadership and accelerate productivity while earning up to 4 C.E. units. Breakout sessions are tailored to dentists, practice leaders, office managers and front- and back-office team members, ensuring that each member of the team leaves with valuable insights to bring back to their role in the practice.
The inaugural Dental Team Summit has a lineup of speakers eager to share their expertise and actionable strategies to drive practice success. Speakers include dental practice management authorities and CDA’s own specialists.
Three of the speakers drawn from CDA’s pool of experts share more about the event, the topics they will be presenting and what dentists and their teams can look forward to learning.
Improve practice efficiency, prevent burnout
“I’ve worked with many dentists who find themselves burnt out, overwhelmed, unmotivated and frustrated with managing a practice and dental team,” observes Katie Fornelli, CDA’s director of early career dentist engagement. “During the ‘Leadership Development’ session of the Dental Team Summit, I will cover elements to help the leaders in the practice push the ‘reset’ button and find purpose, identify values, build trust and create a meaningful practice culture.”
Matthew Nelson is a CDA practice analyst who will offer insights on financial systems during two sessions: “Financial Systems that Increase Collection Efficiency” and “Increase Patient Financial Case Acceptance.”
Nelson observes, “I have found that it is easier to lead teams to successfully achieve goals when you have efficient systems in place to train your team on.” In addition, Nelson says that when the team knows what is expected of them, dental practice owners have more free time.
When it comes to saving time, Lisa Greer, a dental benefits analyst for CDA’s Practice Support team, is prepared to share just how teams can do that with improved dental billing and benefits processing. She’ll offer her extensive knowledge during “Accurate Dental Billing: Eligibility & Policy Types, Claims Submission and Managing Denials.”
Greer explains, “Improving your team’s understanding of dental benefit plans will help the practice avoid common errors that lead to higher accounts receivable, hopefully reducing the amount of time dedicated to correct errors on the back end of claim processing.”
Elevate patient care and communication
“When you have a better understanding of policies and best practices, you are able to communicate those more effectively to your patients, providing them with a better understanding of coverage,” Greer points out. “I realized that patients really don’t have much understanding of how their dental benefits work, so it became my mission to educate myself on dental benefits so I could educate the patients.” She finds that patients who receive more thorough explanations of their benefit plans are more receptive to treatment.
Speaking of case acceptance, Nelson is intrigued by the fact that many patients refuse needed treatment because they are not currently in pain or don’t understand or value the treatment options. He feels strongly that when practice teams improve their ability to educate patients on the importance of dental care to their overall health, patients are more likely to agree to treatment.
Financial systems play an important role in this.
“Efficient systems can improve the health of the patients, the success of the dental team and the well-being of the practice,” Nelson says.
Patient care is vastly improved when practice teams work together like a well-oiled machine to meet the needs of both patients and practice. “Effective leadership is the foundation of success for any business and has proved to be the most effective way for me to help dentists and their teams meet goals, grow the practice and work cohesively together,” states Fornelli.
A wealth of knowledge and expertise
The CDA experts speaking at The Dental Summit look forward to a new opportunity to share information while interacting more with attendees in a dynamic setting.
Greer’s unique passion for dental benefits began as a practice manager. She is eager to connect with attendees in a smaller classroom environment that allows for more engagement. Greer encourages dental practices not to be intimidated by the topic of benefit plans. “I promise it will be entertaining,” she laughs.
With almost a decade in the dental industry as an office manager, consultant and analyst, Nelson understands how difficult financial conversations can be. Along with helping patients say yes to treatment, Nelson says during his sessions attendees will learn what an effective financial policy looks like, laws around collections agencies and how to properly dismiss a patient.
Fornelli has over 20 years of experience as a dental management consultant and dental office manager. During her session, she will use exercises to help attendees identify their core values, learn how to craft a practice vision and goals and discover how to motivate and hold teams accountable to those goals.
If you haven’t done so, make sure to register for CDA Presents in Anaheim. Look for the Dental Team Summit tab when selecting your courses for CDA Presents, or learn more about this event. Stay tuned for upcoming news highlighting Dental Team Summit speakers.
The summit is made possible thanks to support from Bank of America, eAssist, HR for Health, Philips and The Dentists Insurance Company.