Wrote Hacking Healthcare, healthcare executive for 20+ years...
About 10 years into my career we had already been managing some very large hospital groups but ended up with a mangement contract for a diverse group health system that through accidents of history including some dental clinics. ~50 suites across several sites/brands. I had had some exposure to dental clinics and generally had not been impressed but not overly concerned either.
First meeting we had with the senior staff across the clinics set my hair on fire. It was one of the most callous, fraudulent and shocking things I had ever seen in my career. Dentistry does not have a notion or ethical obligation of "first do no harm...". The entire agenda of the strategy setting meeting was how to trick "patients" into unecessary procedures, generally defraud insurance companies (especially breaking things across many visits that could easily be done in one) and every other deceptive way to inflate profit at "patient" expense that could be conceived. There were quotas for procedures, something unimaginable and defacto illegal in a healthcare setting. Needless to say we divested the dental clinics as soon as possible. I came to find in later years that those modes of operation are more or less commonplace in the industry.
About 10 years into my career we had already been managing some very large hospital groups but ended up with a mangement contract for a diverse group health system that through accidents of history including some dental clinics. ~50 suites across several sites/brands. I had had some exposure to dental clinics and generally had not been impressed but not overly concerned either.
First meeting we had with the senior staff across the clinics set my hair on fire. It was one of the most callous, fraudulent and shocking things I had ever seen in my career. Dentistry does not have a notion or ethical obligation of "first do no harm...". The entire agenda of the strategy setting meeting was how to trick "patients" into unecessary procedures, generally defraud insurance companies (especially breaking things across many visits that could easily be done in one) and every other deceptive way to inflate profit at "patient" expense that could be conceived. There were quotas for procedures, something unimaginable and defacto illegal in a healthcare setting. Needless to say we divested the dental clinics as soon as possible. I came to find in later years that those modes of operation are more or less commonplace in the industry.