Production Up, Collections Down
Production climbing while cash stalls isn't bad luck — it's the widening gap between gross production and real collections, driven by contractual write-offs, aging accounts receivable, and the insurance payment lag.
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Drill & Bill — The Tariff Squeeze Dentists Can't Ignore
Dental supply costs are up nine to fourteen percent from 2025 tariffs while PPO reimbursements have stayed flat — this brief names the double squeeze, benchmarks your supply spend, and gives three operator moves to hold the margin before the next renewal window.
Virtual Credit Card Fees: The Skim Hiding in Your Insurance Payments
Many dental insurers now pay claims by one-time virtual credit card, which forces your front desk to run it through the merchant terminal and quietly skims two to five percent — sometimes up to ten — off money you already earned. This brief breaks down the cost and walks the one-form fix: switch to direct deposit (EFT) and enroll across payers through CAQH EnrollHub.
The Empty Hygiene Chair Is Costing You More Than the Raise
Holding an under-market hygienist wage to protect margin usually costs far more than the raise would have — because an empty hygiene chair bleeds both direct production and the restorative cases that hygiene visits catch. This episode gives owners the empty-chair math and the total-comp / temp-platform move to make instead.
Fire Your Worst PPO Plan (Not All of Them)
Most dentists have never ranked the PPO plans they accept — they just stay in-network with everyone because dropping any of them feels risky. That habit hides the practice's single biggest expense: the contractual write-off, the gap between your full fee and what a plan actually pays. It gets netted out before revenue is ever booked, so it never shows up as a line on your P&L. At least one plan you're keeping is almost certainly doing you real harm — paying you deep below your fee while sending you almost no patients — and you'd never spot it without doing the math plan by plan.