Another One Bites the Dust

Serial embezzlers are thieves who victimize more than one practice. How do they get away with this? First, the wheels of justice move slowly, and it often takes a year or more for a dental thief to land in jail. Second, the pre-employment screening performed by many dentists is notoriously casual, and this allows these thieves to continue working in the dental field despite having "baggage." To watch a webinar on how to avoid hiring a thief, click HERE.

We would love to liven up your event with something different and interesting.

Oct 24	Oral Surgery Michiana	Elkhart IN
Dec 3	Greater NY Dental Meeting	New York NY
2025
Jan 10	Heartland Dental Study Club	Topeka, KS
Apr 4	American Association of Endodontists	Boston MA
Apr 30	Kingston District Dental Society	Kingston ON
May 1	Wevolution	Chandler AZ
2026
Jan 20	Chicago Midwinter Meeting	Chicago IL

Articulation - Prevention's Best Kept Secret

I was in a meeting with a practice owner today who wanted to learn more about our proactive services. His motivation for setting up the call with me was the realization that there are some gaps in his knowledge of how to oversee his practice, and therefore probably also in his control systems.

To his credit, before our video meeting, this doctor had done his homework. One of the preparation steps he had taken was comparing year-to-date collections from his practice management software against deposits to his practice's bank account. He was relieved to see that bank deposits exceeded his practice management software and concluded that because more money went into his bank than what the practice management software indicated, he was "safe" from embezzlement.

I took no joy in bursting his bubble, which I did by mentioning a few issues that he hadn't considered. First, when looking at your bank deposits for purposes of this comparison, the deposits total needs to be "sanitized" to remove items like transfers between accounts, tax refunds, speaking honoraria, sale of scrap gold to refiners and the numerous other items that can put money in your account but do not correspond to amounts billed through your practice management software.

Also, a practice owner needs to be mindful that, while certain embezzlement techniques produce a mismatch between collections and deposits, other embezzlement patterns do not. For obvious reasons I won't go into detail here, but practice owners should be aware that it is entirely possible for collections and deposits to be equal and money to still be missing.

The practice owner took this news reasonably well and agreed to work with us to improve his systems and his understanding of how to monitor his practice.

I would welcome the chance to speak with you about your control systems and how we can help make you confident in your role of overseeing your practice. CLICK HERE to set up a time for a no-obligation chat.