Navigating Dental Insurance Podcast (SayNoToPPOs.com)
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Jordon Comstock

How To Drop ALL PPO Contracts in One Day

8/28/2026 3:10:00 PM | Comments: 0 | Views: 43

This Dentist Dropped Every Insurance Plan in One Day — Then His Collections Jumped From $950K to Nearly $1.7M

There is a sentence that makes a surprising number of dentists physically uncomfortable:

“What if you dropped your PPOs?”

Not negotiated them.

Not reduced participation over five years.

Not dropped one tiny plan and waited six months to see what happened.

Dropped them.

For many practice owners, the immediate response is fear.

“What if all my patients leave?”

“What if production collapses?”

“What if the schedule falls apart?”

“What if I can’t replace the patients?”

“What if this destroys my practice?”

I understand the fear.

I have literally sat next to dentists at meetings who looked sick at the thought of leaving a single PPO.

But recently I interviewed Dr. Eric Chatterley on the Navigating Dental Insurance Podcast, and his story challenged one of the most common assumptions in dentistry:

That getting out of PPOs must always be a slow, painful, multi-year process.

Eric didn’t slowly phase them out.

He dropped them all.

And years later, he told me:

“I have zero regrets about it. In fact, it’s the one business decision I wish I would have done a lot sooner.”

Even more interesting?

Before the change, Eric said his practice was collecting around $950,000 per year.

About three years later, collections were just under $1.7 million.

He said he had not fundamentally changed the way he practiced dentistry.

And he was working fewer hours.

That does NOT mean every dentist reading this should cancel every insurance contract tomorrow morning.

Eric himself made that point repeatedly.

His practice had several characteristics that put him in a strong position.

But his story exposes something I think every practice owner needs to examine:

You may have far more control over your practice than you think.

And the biggest thing keeping you trapped may not be the insurance contract.

It may be fear.

First, Understand the Practice He Had Built

Eric graduated from dental school in 2011.

After an associateship, he purchased the practice where he had been working and eventually spent about a decade as a solo practitioner.

The practice became extremely busy.

He grew to more than 3,000 active patients.

His hygiene schedule was booked more than six months out.

Operative was booked more than four months out.

At one point, he actually stopped accepting new patients because the practice could not support the demand.

And perhaps most interestingly, Eric said he never spent money on external marketing.

The practice grew through word of mouth and referrals.

That matters.

This was not a struggling practice with an empty schedule trying to escape insurance because business was slow.

It was almost the opposite.

The practice had too much demand.

Eric was working as many as five and a half days per week, including some Saturdays.

He was busy.

He was producing.

He had patients.

And yet he was exhausted.

That is an important distinction.

A full schedule does not automatically mean you have a healthy business model.

Sometimes it means you have built an incredibly efficient treadmill.

You can run faster and faster while making less progress than you should.

PPOs Can Help You Grow — But Growth and Dependency Are Different Things

One thing I appreciated about Eric’s story is that he is not simply anti-PPO.

His practice had originally been heavily insurance-driven.

He openly acknowledged that being in-network can help a practice accelerate growth, particularly early on.

PPOs can provide patient flow.

That patient flow can be extremely valuable to a newer practice.

But there is a difference between using a PPO as a growth channel and building your entire business around permanent PPO dependency.

At some point, the economics matter.

If your labor costs increase…

Your supplies increase…

Your technology costs increase…

Your rent increases…

Your lab costs increase…

Your team expects raises…

…but your reimbursement is constrained by contracts negotiated somewhere else…

Eventually something gets squeezed.

Usually the dentist.

Then the team.

Then the patient experience.

That is why the real question is not:

“Are PPOs good or bad?”

That is too simplistic.

The better question is:

At what point does a particular PPO stop being economically healthy for my practice?

The Real Obstacle Was Fear

Years before Eric made the move, his sister had already been encouraging him to drop insurance.

He didn’t.

Why?

Fear.

He was worried patients would leave.

He was worried production would fall.

He did not know exactly what would happen.

That uncertainty is the psychological handcuff that keeps many dentists in bad contracts far longer than they want to be.

Eric eventually reached an important mental threshold.

He became willing to lose patients.

That sounds almost reckless until you understand what he meant.

He was not saying patients didn’t matter.

He was saying:

My business is healthy enough that I do not need to make every decision from fear of losing anyone.

He told me that he had to become comfortable with the possibility that even if he lost 1,000 patients, he would still be okay.

That is a radically different operating position.

A practice that desperately needs every patient has almost no leverage.

A practice with strong demand, strong patient loyalty and a financial safety net has choices.

And choices create power.

Then He Did the Thing Most Dentists Are Told Not to Do

Eric hired an experienced consultant to evaluate the practice.

Initially, they discussed the conventional approach:

Drop plans gradually.

One by one.

Strategically.

But Eric realized something.

Every time he dropped another plan, the practice would have to go through the communication process again.

More conversations.

More team training.

More letters.

More patient questions.

More disruption.

So the consultant gave him another option:

Drop them all.

Eric did it.

And afterward?

He told me it was the business decision he wished he had made years earlier.

What Happened to the Patients?

Here is where the story gets especially interesting.

Eric had roughly 3,000 active patients.

In the first one to two years after dropping insurance, he estimated the practice lost around 200 patients.

And he said many of them eventually came back.

Why didn’t thousands disappear?

Trust.

Eric repeatedly came back to this point in our conversation.

The practice had built real goodwill.

Patients trusted the doctor.

They trusted the team.

They valued the experience.

They did not view the office as interchangeable with every other provider listed in an insurance directory.

That is one of the biggest lessons in this entire story.

If the only reason your patients come to your office is because your name appears next to a green checkmark on an insurance website, you have a fragile relationship.

If they come because they trust you, value you and want you specifically to provide their care, you have something much stronger.

Eric said clearly that dropping insurance becomes more challenging if that loyalty is not already there.

So before you start dropping PPOs, ask yourself:

Would my patients follow me?

If the answer is “I honestly don’t know,” that may be the first thing you need to fix.

Your Team Can Sink the Entire Strategy

Imagine the doctor announces:

“We’re dropping insurance!”

The doctor feels liberated.

The front desk hears:

“My life is about to become hell.”

That is a problem.

Eric understood that the team had to see what was in it for them.

He asked his team a simple question:

What would you love to see differently in this practice if we made this change?

He expected requests for more money.

Some of the answers surprised him.

One person wanted a new dental chair.

Another wanted the walls painted in the operatory.

Others wanted more flexibility and a better working environment.

The point was not the chair or the paint.

The point was ownership.

The team needed to understand that the new model could create a better practice for them too.

More freedom.

More resources.

More control.

Less stress.

Better patient experiences.

When the team sees the vision, they stop acting like employees defending the old system and start becoming advocates for the new one.

Then Comes the Biggest Mistake Eric Says He Made

This is the part every dentist considering an insurance transition should pay attention to.

I asked Eric if he had built a membership plan before dropping his PPOs.

His answer surprised me.

No.

And he said that was the biggest mistake he made.

He told me that if he could do the transition over again, he would have implemented the membership plan before dropping insurance.

Why?

Because patients wanted options.

Many liked the office.

They trusted the team.

They wanted to stay.

But suddenly their familiar financial structure had disappeared.

A membership plan could have given them a direct alternative.

Instead of saying:

“We no longer participate with your plan. Good luck.”

You can say:

“We still want you here, and we have another option for you.”

That is a radically different experience.

Eric said having a membership plan in place would have made the transition smoother and less stressful for patients.

This Is Why I Tell Dentists to Build the Safety Net First

I have spent years helping practices build membership programs through BoomCloud.

And my philosophy on leaving PPOs is pretty simple:

You do not have to jump off the cliff and hope there is a trampoline underneath you.

Build the trampoline first.

Create your membership program.

Start converting uninsured patients.

Build recurring revenue.

Train the team.

Create your financial options.

Measure patient demand.

Rank your PPOs.

Then make strategic decisions.

Imagine a practice has 1,000 active membership patients paying around $45 per month.

That is approximately:

$45,000 per month in recurring membership revenue.

That money is not dependent on whether the dentist does a crown that morning.

It is not dependent on submitting a claim.

It is not dependent on waiting for reimbursement.

It is direct patient revenue.

Now imagine walking into a decision about your worst PPO contract with $45,000 in monthly recurring revenue already flowing through the practice.

Your posture changes.

You are no longer negotiating from desperation.

You have a safety net.

A Membership Plan Is Not Just a Discount Plan

This is where some practices think too small.

A membership plan is not simply:

“Two cleanings and 15% off dentistry.”

That is the offer.

The business model is much bigger.

The membership plan creates a direct financial relationship with the patient.

You can track:

Active members

Monthly recurring revenue

Annual recurring revenue

Member retention

Treatment acceptance

Production generated by members

Lifetime value

Referrals

Renewal rates

Now your patient base becomes something more predictable.

You stop viewing revenue only as a series of individual procedures.

You begin building systematic income alongside transactional income.

That matters enormously if you want to reduce PPO dependency.

You Still Need More Than Memberships

Eric and I also talked about financial options.

When practices move away from insurance dependency, patients still need ways to afford treatment.

I like thinking about three layers:

1. Membership plan

Helps create affordability for preventive care and ongoing loyalty.

2. Short-term payment plans

Useful for certain treatment that can reasonably be paid over a shorter period.

3. Third-party patient financing

Helpful for larger cases where the patient needs longer payment terms.

Patients want options.

And the practice should not try to become an insurance company or a bank.

Use the right tools for the right situation.

What Happened Financially?

Before dropping insurance, Eric said the practice was collecting approximately:

$950,000 per year.

About three years later:

Nearly $1.7 million.

That is roughly a 79% increase in annual collections.

And according to Eric, he did not fundamentally change the type of dentistry he was doing.

He was also working fewer hours.

Again, I want to make this extremely clear:

This is one dentist’s experience.

It is not a guarantee.

It does not prove every practice will achieve the same result.

It does not mean you should terminate every PPO Monday morning.

But it should make you question an assumption:

Is your current insurance participation actually helping your practice as much as you think it is?

Or are you simply afraid to find out?

The Five Questions I Would Ask Before Dropping Anything

Before making a major move, I would evaluate five areas.

1. Do You Have Excess Patient Demand?

Are you booked out?

Is hygiene full?

Do you have more patients than the practice can reasonably serve?

A practice starving for demand is in a different position from a practice drowning in it.

2. Do Your Patients Trust You?

How much of your growth comes from referrals?

How loyal are your patients?

Would they choose you even if you were no longer the cheapest or easiest insurance option?

3. Is Your Team Truly On Board?

Not:

“They nodded during the meeting.”

Do they believe in the strategy?

Can they confidently explain it?

Do they understand what changes for the patient?

One nervous employee saying, “Unfortunately, we don’t take your insurance anymore…” can damage months of preparation.

4. Do You Have a Membership Safety Net?

Build it before the transition.

Enroll uninsured patients.

Teach the team.

Create recurring revenue.

Work out the operational bugs.

Then use it as an option for patients affected by network changes.

5. Do You Know the Economics of Every PPO?

Do not drop plans because someone on Facebook told you PPOs are evil.

Know your numbers.

Collections.

Write-offs.

Patient volume.

Procedure mix.

Profitability.

Administrative burden.

Then rank the contracts.

Emotion should not make the decision.

Data should.

The Bigger Lesson: Own the Patient Relationship

The most important asset in your dental practice is not the chair.

It is not the CBCT.

It is not your website.

It is not even your fee schedule.

It is goodwill.

The trust between the patient, the team and the doctor.

Interestingly, Eric ended our conversation by talking about this from a practice-acquisition perspective.

When you buy a dental practice, he said, the most important thing you are buying is goodwill.

The same principle applies to insurance.

The stronger your goodwill, the less vulnerable you are to outside forces controlling the patient relationship.

Insurance should be a payment mechanism.

It should not be the glue holding your patient base together.

Stop Asking, “Can I Drop My PPOs?”

That is probably the wrong question.

Ask:

How strong is my patient demand?

How strong is my goodwill?

How strong is my team?

How much recurring revenue have I built?

What financial options do my patients have?

Which PPOs actually make economic sense?

How dependent am I on each one?

Then ask:

How much control do I want over the next ten years of my practice?

Some dentists may decide to keep several PPOs.

Great.

Some may renegotiate.

Great.

Some may gradually leave.

Great.

And some practices may discover they are far more prepared to go fee-for-service than they ever realized.

The goal is not to blindly eliminate insurance.

The goal is to stop blindly depending on it.

Build the Safety Net Before You Cut the Rope

Eric’s story is dramatic.

A 3,000-patient practice.

All PPOs dropped.

Around 200 patients initially lost.

Many returning.

Collections moving from roughly $950,000 to nearly $1.7 million.

Fewer hours worked.

And one major regret:

He wished he had built the membership plan first.

That may be the most actionable lesson of all.

If you think you might reduce PPO participation someday, do not wait until termination notices are going out to start thinking about alternatives.

Build now.

Create your membership program.

Enroll patients.

Create recurring revenue.

Train your team.

Strengthen patient loyalty.

Improve the experience.

Measure the economics.

Then when the time comes to decide whether a PPO still deserves a place in your practice, you are not standing at the edge of a cliff.

You are standing on a platform you built yourself.

That is the difference between escaping PPOs out of frustration and reducing PPO dependency from a position of strength.

And those are two very different strategies.

BoomCloud helps dental practices create, manage, automate and scale patient membership plans so they can build recurring revenue, strengthen patient loyalty and reduce dependence on PPOs.

Category: Financial Planning and Investments, Marketing, Practice Management, HR and Accounting

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