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- This is Gracely Keller
with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast,
and we are live from the business and operations of ASCs
and the Future of Dentistry Roundtable.
I'm joined right now by Toby Basse, who is the CEO
of Dental Find.
So Toby, thanks so much for joining me today,
and I would love to have you start off
by introducing yourself
and explaining a little bit more about your background.
- Sure. Uh, so as you said, I'm the CEO
of a startup called Dental Find.
We are an AI payment platform
that helps people shop online for dental care.
So think Zocdoc,
except you can actually purchase your cleaning
and check out, um, through our website such
that you can just walk in, walk outta your dentist
appointment, not have to take out your credit card
and avoid surprise bills.
Um, my background is in AI and software engineering.
Um, I started out building data products at, um,
EHR electronic health record companies like Cerner,
and then, um, moved into telecommunications
and finance, um, going to places like, uh, sprint
and Capital One, JP Morgan, um,
and creating software, uh, there as well.
Um, so yeah, like most recently,
capital One I was building AI chatbots
that help people avoid surprise credit card bills.
- Wonderful. Well, thanks for taking the time to join me.
Um, and I'd love to start our conversation with
what is the biggest issue you're
currently watching in the dental space?
- Oh, um, it's definitely around like
just reimbursements and insurance
and how that affects both, uh, patients
and dentists, um, or dental providers I should say.
So essentially, like I talked about surprise bills a little
bit in my introduction and
how Dental Fine helps people avoid that.
Um, and it was something I faced as a consumer, like I
wasn't able to like budget or manage my finances
because I wasn't getting that upfront pricing.
And so now what I'm seeing as I'm talking to the dentists,
they're always complaining about how the reimbursements are
so low, um, how they feel like they can't spend as much time
with the patient as they want
and they're just not able
to like even break even in many times inflation issues
with hiring are really eating at their bottom line,
um, staffing issues.
So, um, I don't,
I I don't wanna put insurance under the bus.
I'm just saying that like insurance
and dentistry is not offering the value it should be
offering for both patients and,
and dentists or dental providers.
And so to me, kind of reinventing insurance that's, uh,
you know, people just directly paying for their care, um,
and dentists not having to do all that paperwork,
just creating a better patient experience
for the dental world.
But yeah, the short answer is, uh,
the biggest issue I see is would probably be like
insurance today.
- Absolutely. And
so then my next question's kind of twofold.
So first, what are you most excited about in
the dental space right now?
And then second, what makes you the most nervous?
- Ooh, I'll answer the nervous one first
because I feel like that's related to the issues I'm seeing.
And so, um, the nervous part is just
when I think about dentists who kind of are so used
to insurance that even if the negotiated rates are still
poor, they're just like, well, this is just
how I get my patient volume,
so I'm just like in bed with them forever.
And they don't kind of take the steps to empower themselves
by doing things like marketing
or directly engaging with patients with like
building an online brand.
And it could even be as simple as having a mailing list
or making sure you're sending pictures during the holidays
of yourself, like having that personal connection doesn't
have to be, oh, I'm the next TikTok influencer,
or anything that takes up a ton of your time.
And just like adopting things like online scheduling
or text message, like updates.
Um, and it can really save dentists like money as well.
Um, if they do, if they adopt some
of these technologies in terms of like, okay,
well I can reduce no-shows and increase production
and, um, case acceptance if I make myself more accessible
and remove the barriers or create things like,
or adopt things like even financing plans.
Anyhow. And then on the patient side, it's,
it worries me a little, uh, this issue around insurance
and the misconception around the value that insurance is,
is adding
because patients expect their dental insurance
to work like their medical insurance and it doesn't.
And so I am worried for them to like
continue buying into the narrative that
paying these monthly premiums is actually
creating substantial cost savings for them
when if they need things beyond two cleanings,
they're paying the majority of that out of pocket.
But anyways, what excites me like to pivot from that
below is that I'm excited for those technologies
that are adding value
and creating seamless experiences for both patients
and dentists.
Whether it's things like AI based platforms
that enable dentists to do more diagnosis,
better diagnosis like Overjet or, uh, Pearl, um,
or it's solutions like Next Health
and we that are helping the dentists
send out those text message reminders
or even to some degree a certain PMSs
that en enable online scheduling.
And then, you know, of course as it relates to my company,
that ability to get patients in the door
that are fee for service
and that really understand that if they're paying upfront,
they're actually gonna get higher quality care.
- Um, well my final question for you then today is
what will the most effective healthcare leaders need
to be successful in the next two to three years?
- I think just openness.
An open mind is like the first thing,
and then that leads into just being a learner,
like being open to learn about new things
because like dentists are business owners
or like DSO leaders
or anyone who's interfacing,
like even if you're not necessarily like a doctor
or like an actual health provider, someone like myself,
you own a business or you own a technology company.
Like I'm always focused on learning about things
that I don't know, keeping abreast of new technologies.
Of course that's my domain.
So you should definitely keep on top of like, you know, uh,
news and industry happenings in, in your own domain,
whether it's healthcare or technology
and just even like greater politics, like things that have
socioeconomic ramifications.
And it could, you know, for example,
like today we're dealing a lot with like the war and,
or I don't know, the tension I should say in the Middle East
and the issues with Israel and Palestine.
And I could say, well,
that's all the way over there, that doesn't affect me.
Or I could think, oh, well that affects people's mindsets
and then that affects how people invest in the stock market.
And then that affects, you know, how people spend in terms
of whether it's, uh, patients getting dental care.
So kind of pivoting that back to like MySpace,
which is dental, we're in this sort
of cl climate economically
where people don't really wanna spend
and there's been a lot of layoffs.
And so historically ability
to afford care has been a hindrance to getting dental care.
That in addition to like the psychological, mental aspect
of, oh well the dentist is scary.
So, um, yeah,
I would say like the most effective thing
that healthcare leaders need is that open mind to do things
that maybe even are contrarian to their natural gut reaction
and just explore, just have an open mind
and you know, you might find that actually that thing
that you were a little bit apprehensive about, maybe
that technology or whatever it might actually be in your
best interest long term.
- Wonderful. Well, Toby, thank you so much
for joining me today on the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
Again, we're live at the business and operations of ASCs
and the Future of Dentistry Roundtable.
Thank you so much. Thank you, grace.
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