Hello. This is Ariana Porto Latin with the
Becker's Dental and Dia Sabrebee podcast. I'm thrilled
to be joined today by doctor Corey Anderson,
a dentist with Affordable Dentures and Implants. Doctor
Anderson, thank you so much for being here
today. It's great to have you on our
podcast.
Yes. Thank you for the invitation.
Yes. Of course. To start us off, can
you introduce yourself for our listeners and tell
us a little bit about your background as
well?
Of course. My name is Corey Anderson. I'm,
as you said, a dentist in
with Affordable Dentures and Implants in Bridgeport, West
Virginia.
I'm the practice owner of the office.
I've been at this office for nine years.
I bought I was hired as an associate
nine years ago, and then I purchased a
practice
after that following year. So I've been a
practice owner for eight years.
This is my fourth,
DSO I've worked with since I've been a
dentist.
I'm a fellow in the Academy of General
Dentistry. I'm a fellow in the ICOI,
a a member of the ADA,
big believer in
organized dentistry.
And I've
you know, I also have done,
I do regular, like, Missions of Mercy or
RAM Clinics as they're called now over the
years.
I do, peer review
for the general dentistry magazine for the AGD.
And a past life, I was in the
Air Force for five and a half years.
I was a JAG and a MSC.
And, after that, I was a administrative law
judge with Social Security disability.
I previously worked as a managed care contracting
and physician recruitment and enforcement.
I worked at the National Institute of Public
Health in The Czech Republic and
Slow and then Slovakia.
And I've worked at the,
the IMF and the WHO in Nepal and
the Malachy water conversion project a very long
time ago. So,
I also married, and I have, four children.
And I'm just happily living in West Virginia.
It's a beautiful place to be.
Great. Thank you so much for sharing your
extensive background there. Great to hear more about
yourself.
First question for you here. What are some
of the biggest issues you're following in the
dental industry this year?
I think the the biggest issues that I'm
following in dentistry
kinda revolves around the,
the practice of dentistry rather than the the
dental industry. I mean, AI has kinda taken
over a lot of different things, but substantially,
I don't think that's
my day to day is spent with one
handed dentistry. So, you know, as I look
at it, I look at
what is in the practice,
what's affecting the patients, you know, and and
what's allowing me to get things done. So
within the practice, I think one of the
largest skills you know? And as I say,
I work with the DSO.
So, like, the skill set for the DSO
and the practice is probably the hardest thing
really right now. Getting people in the right
slots that have the right skills and the
right interest and the right motivation to do
things that
they need to do. Right? So, you know,
how do we create a practice
pattern and a culture
where we can meet patient expectations,
you know, in the building or at a
and set a standard for quality of services
that are gonna be handled efficiently. You know?
With the DSL, they're they're
and my DSL that I'm working with now,
they typically are aligned pretty well with that.
But that is not all the k always
the case as people probably know.
But, you know, so they need to have
people at the DSO that understand dentistry as
it's practiced at the DSO's offices.
That can be a challenge according to some
of my friends. So that that's a large
issue within the practice side of things.
Within the lab, you know, you're either gonna
have an inside or an outside lab doing
your your cases that you need to have
done.
And so the large
the large change, I think, is going from
analog to digital or some type of AI
with digital.
You know, what
how do you practice dentistry, and how do
you deliver
materials that are as good as, if not
better than,
some other material. So is it a transition
to analog or a transition to digital, or
are you using one or the other? And
do you have the skill set necessary to
to handle one or the other? Do you
does your lab have the skill set to
handle one or the other or both? And
is it affordable? Right? I mean, can you
afford to
do everything digitally? Can you afford to do
everything analog? Do you want to do it
all one way or the other? And so
that that's a huge issue that
every
everybody I talk to has kinda got that
going on. And then, you know, patients. Right?
How do you
you know, do you have a
do they have a high dental knowledge or
a low dental knowledge? What are their expectations?
What do they want to have done? What
can they have done? What's reasonable? What's not?
You know? And then understanding the specialists around
you and how they're gonna take care of
issues and what are they reasonably gonna obtain.
You gotta you gotta fuse that in with
the the patient and their expectations, what they're
what they're gonna receive from the situation. And
then the money side of things, that's always,
nobody seems to have any money in the
economy of the current experience. So, you know,
people are hand hinging upon
insurance pretty heavy. And, you know, so and
the insurance industries are
yeah. They're there to make a make money
out of the situation. So,
you know, if they,
they're using the AI to screen claims, and
then the claims are getting shot down, and
everybody's trying to appeal them. Then they're using
AI to appeal the claims. And it's this
vicious circle of, like, we can just turn
our brains off and let the AI battle
the AI. That's a concern for me.
But, you know, it's it's expensive, right, to
provide services and maybe it's expensive to run
the payment mechanisms, but patients need to pay.
And the provider needs to be paid, and
the staff needs to be paid, and the
lab needs to be paid. So the the
money side of thing is a lot of
thing. But But there is a room for
charity care, and there is room for compassion.
And,
most of that falls on the the practice
and the people in the practice typically.
So those are the
the larger issues that I spend my time
thinking about when I, you know, when I'm
at work doing things that are in the
dentistry.
Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Thank you for for sharing
all of those. A lot to cover there.
So I have a I do have a
couple follow-up questions for you there.
I know you mentioned patient expectations.
Can you list, just a couple of the
ways you've seen patient expectations evolve over the
past couple of years?
Sure. Some patients
want to look like they're 18
when they were in prom,
and they're 65 or 70 years old.
And there's that's a huge ask and a
heavy lift. And it might not realistically be
possible. You know?
But even if it were possible,
it might be expensive.
Right? So how do you
that that's a challenge for managing what people
want. And most of what we do is
is dentures or implant retained dentures.
We don't do a lot of restorative dentistry.
So
how do you match
what they want with what you can provide
them?
And
is it reasonable for them to to want
what they want? You know? But you then
really tell people, you know, I I wanna
look like I'm 18 again. You know? It
was great.
But,
you know,
maybe this isn't the best option for you,
you know, or maybe it's the best option.
But, you know, I never wanna put myself
in a position where I'm overpromising
what I can do for a person
to match expectations
that may or may not be unreasonable
for a patient.
So it's kinda you know, how do you
just make that discussion with patients? It's very
difficult.
Yeah. Yeah. Definitely.
And I know you also mentioned,
AI being used by insurance companies to review
claims and then having to go through the
appeals as well. Is that something new that
you've seen just in the past year? Is
that something that's been going on for, quite
a few years?
I think it's starting to catch its stride
in the last year. I mean, AI can
do a lot of stuff. Your call center
could be AI. You wanna have someone answering
the phone at midnight,
you can get yourself an AI call center
that's a couple $100 a month.
Anything that sounds like a human being will
be answering the phone and scheduling patients twenty
four seven.
Same thing with claims. You know? They'll they'll
do the rub a dub dub and, you
know,
suggest that you make changes before you submit
it, or it'll get bounced back and you'll
have to address this. But there were you
know, a lot of these things that,
the AI can or can't do
tip it it hits the wall pretty quick,
and then it comes back to human intervention.
And so I think the insurance industry as
a whole used to bank on, oh, we're
gonna deny this deny this, and then a
person's gonna need to intervene. And then in
a month, you're gonna get around it looking
at that again.
Those games are are kinda coming to an
end with AI.
It's actually coming to a point where, like,
they're now you know, even in in,
medical in, medical claims are automatically being downgraded
by what is it? Cigna, I think?
They just kick it down a tier because
they can, and then you have to appeal.
And then there's a a they'll come up
with a different appeals process for this. So,
like, within dentistry,
you know, they don't wanna pay the claims
for the services that, they don't have to
pay the claims for. And so dentists wanna
get paid for the services they provide.
You know, it creates
a a very, very difficult situation for, for
dentists and the dental industry as a whole
because insurance is not always your friend.
Yeah. Yeah. I know. And and there's definitely
so many challenges that come with working
through the insurance companies and getting reimbursed and
going through denials and appeals,
as far as, you know, for the for
the dentist themselves.
And I know when it comes to AI,
AI has solved a lot of problems for
dentists. But do you think as far as
insurance, it's created more?
I don't think it solved all of the
problems. I think what it is allowed is
more problems to be
the insurance company will study what is going
to result in them avoiding paying claims.
Alright?
We used to be the number of human
interventions.
You You know? You need to touch a
human being needs to touch the claim so
many times,
we're gonna lose claims
60% of the time. Great. Right?
AI is solving a lot of that, but
they're just coming up with new tricks
and new practices to catch that same percentage
of people
where they don't get paid for those claims.
And it's just putting the squeeze on. So
is it an improvement?
Yeah. But, I mean, eventually, you know, if
if everybody's got this war of AI versus
AI versus AI versus AI, they're just they're
coming up with new practices
to deny properly or improperly
claims for payment,
you know, for whatever reason.
And, you know, people
the patient buys insurance
because they expect the claim to be paid,
not because they expect the dentist to have
AI and and the insurance company to have
AI. And for those two people to get
into some slugfest with technology,
and then have to go back and fill
out paperwork and resubmit, and then you get
a human intervention.
You send a check for partial payment to
the the patient. They come into your office.
They argue about why this wasn't paid.
You know, like, the largest
reason for denial we get on insurance claims
is that they say that the NPI is
not on the claim, and so patients will
come in. It's right there. It's printed out
on the form. It's been submitted.
It is there. The patient doesn't know what
an NPI is. So now they're causing patients
to come in and ask me what my
identification is.
It was already print it's already on the
form. It's already submitted. It's on every insurance
claim, but they're denying claims for that. And
they're causing their customer,
the insured, to have to come in to
me, the dentist,
to work out an issue that doesn't exist.
And they're just trying to find barriers for
people.
Alright. And that's that's where it's coming to.
AI is
AI has reached its limitations at some point,
and then human intervention is what reduces the
payout.
Mhmm. Yeah. Some good points that you make
there. So thank you for for
going into a little bit more detail about
that. Next question for you here. I'm also
curious to know, what are you most excited
about when it comes to dentistry right now,
and what makes you nervous?
Well, I think what I'm what I'm most
excited about is I love wet handed dentistry.
You know? I I love my patients.
I love my staff. I'm lucky to do
what I do. You know? I just I
enjoy it.
I like the work that needs to be
done, and, you know, it's really nice to
have patients that appreciate the work that we
do. And so for the most part, I
like that. That gets me out of bed
in the morning.
I also like the
the fact that the practice of dentistry is
evolving.
You know? It's
you can get effective and appropriate care. The
options in terms of materials have improved in
terms of practices.
I think,
printed dentists printed dentures, I think, are probably
not completely a solution to a lot of
problems. But I think if you look at
the technology is now starting to get to
the point where it can correct a lot
of the lab issues and a lot of
the practices. You know, the the shortfalls of
skill sets and the number of people in
the workforce, right, it's starting to catch up.
So that that is exciting to me. Will
it be affordable
for patients to be able to do that?
I don't know. That kinda makes me nervous.
I think the,
the workforce shortages, you know, the economy that's
that's challenging right now.
You know, I look at, like,
for the larger economy,
there is a Panera across the street from
my office where I'll stop, and I'll get
the office, like, a box of bagels and
cream cheese and coffee and whatnot in the
morning. And five years ago,
six years ago, seven years ago,
you couldn't drive through the drive thru to
pick them up in the morning because there
was a line around the building and into
the parking lot.
In the last five months or so, there's
never a line at that Panera. I could
drive through and get bagels and be at
work early.
But I think that, you know, from the
Panera index,
you know, I think the economy is heading
in a bad way. And so that that
makes me nervous. Right? Because there are some
people that don't have insurance
that can't pay. They can get financing, but
then they have to pay the financing.
They just have
other expenses in life they need to meet.
And so that that, I think, makes me
concerned,
more than anything else. You know? People have
less cash available
for discretionary expenses, and most of dentistry is
a discretionary expense. So,
you know, if you could talk about the
dental the dentist shortage in the country or
the dental hygienist shortage in the country or
the dental staff shortage in the country, but
all those people are still feeding at the
same trough of dental insurance patient payments and
patient payment. And if you don't have those
two, the rest of it is just gonna
go away.
So that that's
the two largest things I've you know? I
like the work, but I'm concerned about the
the financing of it going forward.
Yeah. I can definitely see, how that causes
some nerves in the industry as well. And
I and I know that you're not the
only dentist who's nervous about that as well.
Last question for you here. What will the
most effective health care leaders need to be
successful in the next two to three years?
Well, you have to I look at dentistry
as, like, what is my core strength as
a dentist? You know?
Is it is my career aspiration to be,
like, a dental op chief dental officer somewhere
or whatnot? You You know, if that's great,
build your skill set to do that. But
that right now, my goal
is to do the best dentistry I can
in the in the the day to day
that I'm doing it in. So I think
most dentists should focus on what they're doing
now and get
mindful about what they're doing in the day
to day. You know?
So,
you know, the next two to three years,
I'm focusing on, developing as a servant leader.
Right? That's the model that's always been taught
to me in the military
and the boy scout and the boy scout
leader. You know? All these things.
Place yourself in the role where you are
leading by example and
functioning to as a caretaker of the people
around you, not only the patient, but the
people in your staff
to give them the things they need
to be successful to do the things they
want to do. And then, you know, also,
you know, stay current with
some knowledge, equipments,
skill sets. You know?
I think c can be an answer. You
know, like, I'll do
I think I do about ninety hours of
c a year, which is way more than
the average person.
But you also get the benefit of being
the benefit from organized dentistry if you go
to these participate in organized dentistry.
You go to these meetings, and you get
surrounded by people that are you'd be surprised.
You're not you may work in an office
by yourself all day long.
You go to these meetings, and there's a
thousand people that are doing exactly the same
thing working by themselves
all day long. And they are very bright
and very motivated, and they've got solutions to
problems
you don't even know you had. Though,
for me personally,
I think I focus on that. In the
next two to three years, if I think
there's one thing I could continue to do
or people could continue to do
would be to get high quality continuing education
and focus on,
on becoming a better clinician, a better person,
a better person to work with in in
the office.
That would that, I think, will pay off
in spades.
You know?
That's where I put most of my energy.
I think that's in the next two to
three years, a huge opportunity for people.
Well, that is all I have for you
today, doctor Anderson. Such a great conversation. So
thank you so much for joining us. Definitely
been a pleasure speaking with you and learning
more about some of the issues you're following
in the industry. So I'm looking forward to
connecting with you again in the future.
Yeah. That'd be great. Thank you so much
for having me on.