Message Boards
Today's Active Topics Today's Active Cases Browse Forum Categories My Recent Activity My Messages Private Groups My Marked Threads My Subscriptions
Today's Active Images Today's Active Polls Most Active Topics Global Townie Map Advanced Message Board Search Message Board Terms of Use

Second Opinion: The $63,750 Obamacare Incentive — Is it Worth It? by David Smith, MBA

View Comments (1)


by David Smith, MBA

Are you passing up a government incentive check to pay for software in your office? With a $63,750 incentive, many dentists are using this money to purchase certified electronic health record (EHR) software and implement new standards in their offices. Some vendors are actively promoting a “buy the software and never use it” policy to get the $21,250 from the first year part of the incentive, leaving the remaining $42,500 unclaimed and on the table and their care effectively unchanged. Regardless of your reasoning, the opportunity is there to help you invest in certified technology. Dentists are eligible for the incentive program and, consequently, many have chosen to go down the path of getting the money and buying the software. Many are actually implementing and using it to help reach their clinic goals and achieve meaningful use. Those who have implemented integrated certified EHR systems find it easier to implement changes in their practice than those implementing non-integrated systems that require entry into both the EHR and their practice management. Meaningful use is an incentive program that encourages providers to implement certified software and use it according to government CMMS standards.

In some cases, the certified dental software with this new clinical functionality is being used in clinics that have no intention of achieving the government’s meaningful use standards or collecting the incentive money because they are not eligible. Some dentists are, however, finding completely valid purposes in the use of the new EHR software to achieve other goals in their clinics, such as becoming paperless, improving care and even identifying additional billable items that they may have previously missed.

For those pursuing it, the 30 percent patient visit requirement from Medicaid is becoming more achievable, partly due to the fact that Medicaid expansion is happening in the majority of states throughout the country.

This article presents the opinion of one expert, who sees the future of dental software as a changing entity, and explains the value received by several clinics as a result of implementation of the software.

Mike Uretz , dental software industry expert and founder of DentalSoftwareAdvisor.com, explains:

There are numerous patient care and clinical efficiency benefits to acquiring certified EHR technology in addition to the EHR incentive monies available. Vendors who stay current with the EHR certification testing have been required to incorporate such important features as HIPAA-compliant messaging, patient record interoperability, robust security, clinical decision support, standardized problem lists and ePrescribing, among others. And given the growth of oral systemic health best practices, just the requirement to securely pass patient information between medical and dental EHR’s can be a reason to look at certified technology. So, the bottom line is that a dental professional does not need to be eligible for EHR incentive money in order to realize the benefits of certified dental EHR technology.

I interviewed two offices that have recently implemented an EHR certified dental software. One of the practices is not interested in meaningful use but has effectively used the certified software to improve its patient care. The other office is eligible for, and working on, meaningful use. Both offices have experienced improvements in surprising areas as a result of the use of the new technology.

Fashion Isle Smiles — no need for government incentive

“Even if you do not want the $63,750 incentive from the government, implement certified software anyway,” says Drs. Rich and Anita Burkholder, a husband and wife team who operate their Fashion Isle Smiles practice in Newport Beach, California. They have implemented a few standards for meaningful use stage 1 and stage 2 but are not eligible for the meaningful use incentive money. Implementing these standards helps them be more efficient, capture lost revenue opportunities and provide better care for their patients. Anita, who manages the practice, worked with DentiMax’s developers to create a system to collect patient information, which in turn created efficiencies and opportunities in their clinic.

“We interview the patient over the phone. We capture finance and clinical information and the review of history as well,” Anita said. “Ortho information is already in there to get that information transferred to the orthodontist when needed for referrals.” They are able to capture standard certified software elements, such as blood pressure, and collect smoking cessation information. By capturing historical information on first visits with patients, they have the patient history information they need chairside for immediate retrieval during all future visits. There is no need to walk to the chart shelf or cabinet to pull the file and information.

They can also bill for a number of additional services using a meaningful use concept called clinical decision support. Anita suggests that an office could potentially earn up to an additional $3,000 per month by billing for services that they catch in their patients’ initial visits. Services you may be providing, but are not billing for, could be compensated if they’re documented and coded. Clinical decision support could be set up to automate the capture of oral hygiene instruction, nutritional counseling and smoking cessation if the patient is a smoker.

Certified software is helping this clinic benefit from efficiency and reduced chair time, as well as opportunities for missed revenue. By staying ahead of the curve, despite their ineligibility for government incentives, they have found clinical and financial value with their certified EHR software.

Above and beyond value

Drs. Robert and Joann Carr are a husband and wife team who have been using the software for almost a year and are now just starting to do meaningful use. Interestingly enough, they started with the software and have used it to this point without worrying about the EHR incentive program, as they found that the software helped their practice solve practical day-to-day issues. They did collect their initial $21,250 for the first year incentive. After implementing, they have discovered that their certified system has value above and beyond the basic uses of documenting and billing procedures (in Dentimax).

Efficiency

Because many questions are answered in collecting information before the patient even sees the doctor, it saves the doctor 15 minutes on every exam. Information is in the record already.

Chairside, again, is where this office sees benefits at minimal cost. An employee can do all the question- and-answer work, no medical training required. This lowers the costs of the doctor collecting that information. By having a lower-dollar- per-hour employee capture patient information, it’s already collected and usable by the doctor.

Missed revenue

The program also uses clinical decision support to keep track of treatment that wasn’t scheduled or taken care of previously. Information is given to hygienists and dentists to help them with perio care and recall. The information is so much more detailed that they have the information they need to make important decisions chairside, as opposed to searching for that information. For example, one element that helps is understanding if they’re working with type 1 or type 2 diabetes patients. B y knowing this information, the doctors can tailor their patient care. Some patients are type 1, or more insulin dependent, where the pancreas doesn’t make insulin. Type 2 patients have insulin resistance. Both have an increase in heart problems, both need to be watched for perio problems, but because of the different causes, there are differences in what the doctor needs to watch for. Type 1 diabetes patients, for example, have problems with blood crashing. All that information is available in the system.

Other areas of information that the office captures include:
  1. Diagnoses on a problem list.
  2. Medications.
  3. Reconciling medications patients have acquired elsewhere.
  4. Tobacco use and cessation performed in the office.
  5. Patients who are asking for referrals to a stop-smoking program.
  6. Lists for preventive care.

“In terms of advice for doctors who are considering not doing meaningful use, they only have to spend a couple hours per month to ensure they can collect that incentive,”Joann said. “A couple hours per month for an initial $21,250 in the first year and $8,500 per year after that.”

Advantages for the doctor and patient are substantial. The Carrs suggest implementing the certified software regardless of ability to collect the incentive. The enhanced software functions will help you be a better practitioner. It will help you be more aware of your patients’ needs than software systems without certification. You will be less stressed because you have patient medical information in your software. You don’t have to hunt for it through all of your paperwork. You can even generate patient education based on conditions in the patient’s record such as gender, age, problems, etc.

Recording data on drug allergies is particularly helpful. By capturing the drug interactions, you can avoid drug interaction problems. In one example, as the Carrs were going to prescribe Amoxicillin, an alert appeared, saving the patient from serious injury and reducing the doctor’s liability.

As far as items the Carrs wish they could change, it’s all coming in future certifications. For example, they mentioned wanting more specificity in coding for problems that the patient has. Upcoming certification requirements will allow for coding systems such as Snodent that support more specific ways to code a patient’s current status.

They mentioned wanting a different way to capture a patient’s type of cancer. Snodent codes are great for getting more specific on the coding, such as periodontal disease caused by pregnancy or gestational diabetes. There’s also a code in the Snodent vocabulary to put in the chart to let the insurance company know the patient isn’t compliant. Recurrent decay and many other codes are supported by more information to make sure that accurate communication is going back and forth between the provider and their insurance company.

Considering certified software

There are many EHR software programs. A few are currently certified, with integration from their EHR to their practice management solution so data does not have to be entered twice, aiding eligibility for the incentive. Dentimax is one of these options. Share your opinions, preferences, arguments for and against the reasons for certified software on Dentaltown.com. Meaningful use has three proposed stages. Stage 1 is all about data and getting it into the right places. Stage 2 is about improving care. Stage 3 will be about improving health. Offices that are using the certified software originally intended to be used to perform meaningful use are proving that it also improves health. Providers are seeing those benefits as well as improvements in the efficiency of their own offices. Reduced liability is also observed in these offices. Chances to capture missed revenue by coding for preventive care are also observed.

What will you do in your office?

David Smith has a Master’s in Business Administration from Westminster College and a BA from Brigham Young University. He has helped over 100 providers (including dentists) attain meaningful use. For the last 15 years, he has worked in the health care information technology market. He has written dental practice management system user’s guides, and worked in operations and product management for electronic health record vendors. Reach David Smith at medtimer@gmail.com.
Dentaltown Magazine
September 2025
Dentaltown Magazine September 2025 Read Current Issue Read Archived Issues
Sponsors
Townie Perks
Townie® Poll
Who or what do you turn to for most financial advice regarding your practice?
  
Site Menu
Message Boards Magazine Continuing Education Podcasts Blogs Classifieds Dental News Events Townie® Poll Ebooks Townie Choice Awards
Company Info
Contact Us Advertise With Us Howard Farran DDS, MBA Policies and Agreements
Site Help
Sally Gross, Member Services Specialist
Phone: +1-480-445-9710
Email: sally@farranmedia.com
©2025 Dentaltown, a division of Farran Media • All Rights Reserved
9633 S. 48th Street Suite 200 • Phoenix, AZ 85044 • Phone:+1-480-598-0001 • Fax:+1-480-598-3450