How to Make General Dentistry and Periodonist Combination Work in Dental Practice

Hi.

I need your help and guidance.

How can a GP and a periodontist enter into a fair agreement? I have been practicing for 21 years in a small FFS office. Current lease is up and moving into a new 6 OP office. He is a young up and coming periodontist. We both have similar goals and standards and believe that we can build and expand together.

Your input and advice is greatly appreciated….

Thank you

I think the periodontist will have a problem. Where do periodontists get their referrals from? Generally from GP’s I imagine.

You’re a GP. If you want to refer to a perio would you refer to one who shares an office with another GP or would you refer to one with their own office or sharing with other specialists that don’t compete with you?

I think this “up and coming” perio will find it difficult getting referrals from other GP’s. Then again, maybe you can keep them busy 3-4 days per week with your perio referrals. If that’s the case then you can chat with someone who has done partnerships with other doctors and especially between GP’s and specialists as they are a different breed of partnerships for sure.

I have a client owned by 4 docs, one pedo and 3 GP’s. One of the GP’s also does pedo and ortho. They have an ortho, OS, endo, perio, etc. They are open 7 days a week and service the complete family from A to Z.

All the doctors (owners & non-owners) are employees of the practice and get paid accordingly, no stark issues.

Unless the perio has interests in other locations (as the majority of the non-owner docs do in the example above) then it could work for him; however, I suspect ONLY with the patients the GP refers.

I can assure you that the GP’s around the client I mention above do NOT refer to this group of multi-specialty doctors for their specialty referrals. They are referring to those specialists that have their OWN office so that the patients come back to them…hopefully.

So my point is that this GP/perio “venture” could work; however, I think the perio will need to have other work in other locations to feed their family.

He will be running the Hygiene and Perio in my office. We are trying to figure out what is a fair percentage on his perio production?

Generally 35-45% for perio. It’s usually closer to 40-45%.

As for what percentage on Hygiene? 10% – NOT more than 15%. Even that might be a stretch on their hygiene production. Remember, you have hygiene compensation, hygiene supplies and of course OH.

Thank you

This first appeared on Dentaltown.

Send your questions to Tim Lott, CPA, CVA at tlott@dentalcpas.com
For more information or to sign up for our newsletter, please contact info@dentalcpas.com
Follow us on TwitterFacebook and Pinterest