I Want Obama Transparency for the ADA

Posted on January 22, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

No More Hiding Places

By D. Kellus Pruitt; DDS

Today, Ed O’Keefe of the Washington Post posted “New Obama Orders on Transparency, FOIA Requests.”

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2009/01/_in_a_move_that.html

O’Keefe writes:

“In a move that pleased good government groups and some journalists, President Obama issued new orders today designed to improve the federal government’s openness and transparency. The first memo instructs all agencies and departments to ‘adopt a presumption in favor’ of Freedom of Information Act requests, while the second memo orders the director of the Office of Management and Budget to issue recommendations on making the federal government more transparent.”

Soon, other ADA members are going to bluntly ask Pres Dr. Ron Tankersley:

“If the President of the United States has the courage to face those whom his actions affect, why oh why doesn’t the President of the American Dental Association support transparency in the non-profit organization that belongs to dues-paying members?” After all, ADA members pay more than $1000 per year for ADA services.”

“If you are an ADA leader, pay close attention. This is the future I warned you about that far too many of you avoided out of convenience. As you can read below in his memos, Obama promises, “The Government should not keep information confidential merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears.”

Who will be held accountable for the ADA/IDM blunder… among other bone-head ideas?

Obama promises that his administration:

“Will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.”

I think openness will do the same in healthcare if we can move a handful of entrenched ADA leaders on down the road. They are weighing us down with their selfish special interests.

Assessment 

Did you hear that, Dr. Ron Tankersley, President of the American Dental Association? There are simply no more hiding places for the anonymous ADA hobbyists who elected you. I’m sure the long run of irrelevant ADA Presidents was fun before electricity and social networks, though.

Join Our Mailing List

Conclusion

And so, your thoughts and comments on this ME-P are appreciated. Feel free to review our top-left column, and top-right sidebar materials, links, URLs and related websites, too. Then, be sure to subscribe to the ME-P. It is fast, free and secure.

Link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HealthcareFinancialsthePostForcxos

Speaker: If you need a moderator or speaker for an upcoming event, Dr. David E. Marcinko; MBA – Publisher-in-Chief of the Executive-Post – is available for seminar or speaking engagements. Contact: MarcinkoAdvisors@msn.com 

Get our Widget: Get this widget!

Our Other Print Books and Related Information Sources:

Practice Management: http://www.springerpub.com/prod.aspx?prod_id=23759

Physician Financial Planning: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/0763745790

Medical Risk Management: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/9780763733421

Healthcare Organizations: www.HealthcareFinancials.com

Health Administration Terms: www.HealthDictionarySeries.com

Physician Advisors: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com

Subscribe Now: Did you like this Medical Executive-Post, or find it helpful, interesting and informative? Want to get the latest ME-Ps delivered to your email box each morning? Just subscribe using the link below. You can unsubscribe at any time. Security is assured.

Link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HealthcareFinancialsthePostForcxos

Sponsors Welcomed

And, credible sponsors and like-minded advertisers are always welcomed.

Filed under: "Doctors Only", Health Law & Policy, Op-Editorials, Pruitt's Platform | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | 22 Comments »

Why ADA / Intelligent Dental Marketing Failed?

Posted on October 6, 2009 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Join Our Mailing List

The ADA is an Incredible Dinosaur

By Darrell K. Pruitt; DDSpruitt

As a member of the ADA, I am also a part owner in any business venture the leaders of the organization enter into. I’ve observed the loss of my investment in a business deal because my employees made mistakes. As a business owner, it would be simply irresponsible for me to ignore something like this.

The Embarrassing Story  

Do you know what part is missing from this embarrassing story? The ADA has not uttered a word about the ADA/IDM failure… Or, as the ADA Business Enterprise Inc. leaders call it – the ”ADA/idm” failure.

The fact that the two business entities never came to an agreement on what to even call their doomed joint venture reveals a lot about the egos that gummed up the machinery. It’s possible that pride undermined our non-profit/for-profit partnership from the very start. We just don’t know what happened because there are so many possible reasons for this business model to fail. Will loss of ADA members’ investment happen again if the cause is not recognized and eliminated? I think the chances are pretty good that even more embarrassment is on the way. Given the soft environment, it’s only natural.

Over my 27 year career as a dentist, I have met many ADA officials, both employed and elected, on all three levels of the tripartite system of governance – local, state and national. From the topmost quality of character I have witnessed in all but a few politically-empowered and proudly insensitive exceptions, I can assure you that like all major projects of the ADA, the failed ADA/IDM adventure into dental marketing was assembled with nothing but noble intentions and benevolent wishes for ADA members and dental patients – at least from the ADA side. Whether the leaders of the ADA’s new business partner, Intelligent Dental Marketing out of Utah, were dedicated to serving ADA members in a captive market is unlikely. The ADA/IDM business model is sort of like managed care dentistry. When dentists sign contracts that provide them with clients regardless of how they are treated, there is a natural tendency for dentists to become unappreciative of those who pay their bills.

Little Consumer Competition  

The ADA allows Americans to experience what socialism is like in markets where there is no competition for consumers: Professionals such as dentists stop trying to please their patients, and IDM stops trying to please dentists. If IDM was a decent company before the business venture with ADA membership, the ADA ruined them with a sweetheart deal that included protecting them from competition, as well as shielding them from complaints by angry ADA members. And like dental patients with preferred provider lists, ADA members noticed the bad treatment. However, complaints were never made transparent even as more ADA members where signing contracts with ADA/IDM. That is unfair and unethical.

Just Google for Complaints  

Want to see what an embarrassment in situ looks like? Just Google “CareCredit complaints.” ADA-approved CareCredit/GE has a long history of sweetheart deals like the one they made with ADA leaders. Their trail is always marked by complaints. The ADABEI is selling ADA members’ reputations. I just read ADA reporter James Berry’s article highlighting outgoing ADA President Dr. John S. Findley’s address to the House of Delegates that he gave on Friday. The article is titled, “We built our home on a foundation of science and values: Dr. Findley”

http://www.ada.org/prof/resources/pubs/adanews/adanewsarticle.asp?articleid=3771

One free-standing paragraph in the article caught my attention that perhaps exposes a symptom of the pride and secrecy that surrounds the ADA/IDM disaster. In the middle of the article, James Berry offers this cryptic message that was obviously not meant for all members to understand:

“On the Association itself, the president noted that the ADA has undergone significant change in the past year and a half. As problems were discovered and defined, he said, the leadership acted to resolve them.” 

Was the ADA/IDM fiasco one of the problems that was resolved? Did they resolve the problem with CareCredit/GE causing ADA members to be covered by the Red Flags Rule – and not letting members know about it? Did they resolve the problem of data breaches and how they can mean certain bankruptcy for ADA members, even if the members do the right thing?

Possibly  

We just don’t know which problems were resolved, but somehow we should feel much better, now that President Findley got the message out to mid-level ADA leaders who probably know exactly what he is referring to. And, by protecting lower caste members from knowing things they don’t need to know, problems are quietly resolved and the profession’s image is preserved. “Image is everything” – ADA/IDM business slogan.

“Findley for the future”- Dr. John S. Findley’s campaign slogan.

Bingo! We have a match.

We should not forget that before IDM leaders got in way over their heads and started doing foolish things like marketing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) talents they lacked, there has not been a dues increase for a couple of years – in part because of the profits that were churned from ADA/IDM purchases ADA members made. I am certain that the ADA Business Enterprise Inc’s failure breaks the hearts of sincere and devoted leaders in the ADA who would have never recommended going outside the ADA’s Mission Statement had ADA employees been transparent with them. The officials of IDM couldn’t care less. Their part of the venture is much easier to dissolve for the Utah businessmen. They just picked up and walked away. However, the ADA officials have a fiduciary responsibility to members who trusted them. Once again, virtually all of the ADA leaders are just like you and me. Some just got in too deep on our behalf and couldn’t shut the mistake down before members got needlessly hurt.

Officials in other businesses the size of the ADA are held accountable for their mistakes and are not afforded the opportunity to filter communications with the owners because of image concerns. This kind of sweetheart deal for business executives, most of who come from Delta Dental, UnitedHealthcare or both, as in the case of the new executive director, Dr. Kathleen T. O’Loughlan, occurs only in the ADA and to a lesser extent in the US government and dental insurance industry.

Assessment

The state of the ADA is not nearly as rosy as Dr. Findley would have us believe. I think we have all seen authoritarian leaders re-write history. The ADA is an incredible dinosaur.Business can be ugly in the highly competitive land of the free. If businesses don’t take risks, we cannot move forward. For that reason, mistakes are expected. But never forget. Owners expect to be told about them.

Channel Surfing the ME-P

Have you visited our other topic channels? Established to facilitate idea exchange and link our community together, the value of these topics is dependent upon your input. Please take a minute to visit. And, to prevent that annoying spam, we ask that you register. It is fast, free and secure.

Conclusion

Your thoughts and comments on this ME-P are appreciated. Feel free to review our top-left column, and top-right sidebar materials, links, URLs and related websites, too. Then, subscribe to the ME-P. It is fast, free and secure.

Speaker: If you need a moderator or speaker for an upcoming event, Dr. David E. Marcinko; MBA – Publisher-in-Chief of the Medical Executive-Post – is available for seminar or speaking engagements. Contact: MarcinkoAdvisors@msn.com

OUR OTHER PRINT BOOKS AND RELATED INFORMATION SOURCES:

Product DetailsProduct DetailsProduct Details

Filed under: Career Development, Ethics, Managed Care, Marketing & Advertising, Op-Editorials, Practice Management, Pruitt's Platform | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments »

ADA / IDM Breakup – You Heard it Here First

Posted on July 14, 2009 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Will CareCredit be the Next ADA Subsidiary to Fail?

I saw a warning sign last week.

By Darrell K. Pruitt; DDS pruitt

My aggressive writing hobby has understandably brought me in hard contact with public relations people whose job is to insulate good ol’ boys from accountability – even if it means taking hits for the team and staining their reputations. Let’s face the fact we all of us involved in public relations know but don’t dare discuss: Depending on the ethics of one’s employer, PR professionals are sometimes used up like expendable pawns. And avoiding bylines for press releases no longer shields anyone from accountability.

I often silently stalk PR employees (Gasp!) on the Internet who work for sleazy companies just to better understand them. I’ve discovered that it is not hard to find and exploit the weaknesses of those whose heart isn’t behind selling their employer’s product. Sometimes all it takes is a fistful of transparency to cause defenseless representatives to completely shut up, and that alone makes our neighborhood safer. Committee-approved methods of evasion are as simple-minded as committees, so it doesn’t take long to figure them out – exposing the shameful ethics of those who sign off on the use of lame, institutional trickery.

For example, here’s a very popular, traditional PR trick: If a huge business entity such as the ADA has bad news they can no longer keep secret from customers, professional PR-types will advise their bosses to post bad news on a Friday to soften the blow. When traditional leaders find that they can no longer sidestep accountability, delaying accountability until a busy news day is the next best thing one can purchase. Even though the tricks seem simple, there are people who study evasion science as part of obtaining a degree in marketing.

So how good is the ADA’s PR team? How much time did ADA members’ employees buy for leaders before they had to quietly acknowledge an expensive failure?

On July 10, a Friday, “ADA/idm to phase out service” was posted on ADA News Online without a byline. (Another PR trick: When the ADA posts an orphan without a name, it means someone is ashamed of the bastard.)

http://www.ada.org/prof/resources/pubs/adanews/adanewsarticle.asp?articleid=3655

“ADA Business Enterprises, Inc. (ADABEI), a wholly owned ADA subsidiary, announced today that ADA Intelligent Dental Marketing (ADAidm) of Salt Lake City, one of its joint venture companies, is no longer able to provide marketing services to its customers due to significant production and operational difficulties.”

Now the ADA must refund money to members in a depressed market. Could this embarrassment for our professional organization have been quietly avoided instead of delayed and magnified? I personally started seeing clues of CEO Trajan King’s reticence long ago, and warned ADA leaders in Chicago about my concerns. Nobody ever responded to my numerous, sincere warnings.

These are highly critical times on Capitol Hill and our patients trust us to represent their welfare. Dentists are their last hope, because there is nobody else who cares. Practicing dentists are solely responsible for assuring the benevolence of our niche market, and we are losing control publicly. Disasters like the ADA/IDM make the ADA look foolish to Congress, and word gets around fast on the Internet.

This morning, I read an article posted on The NY Times titled “Study Measures the Chatter of the News Cycle, “ written by Steve Lohr.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/13/technology/internet/13influence.html?_r=1

Researchers at Cornell used powerful computers and sophisticated algorithms to accomplish an unprecedented analysis of news articles and comments on the Web during the 2008 presidential campaign. They studied the characteristics of the news cycle by scanning 1.6 million mainstream media sites and blogs for repeated phrases and tracking the history of their appearances.

Lohr writes: “The researchers’ data points to an evolving model of news media. While most news flowed from the traditional media to the blogs, the study found that 3.5 percent of story lines originated in the blogs and later made their way to traditional media.”

The study also shows that traditional news outlets are still quicker than blogs by 2.5 hours. I should now point out that the Cornell study was performed using data from very popular, huge news items collected during a presidential election – not hidden, niche news like dentistry’s.

If you are involved in the dental industry, where are you more likely to read time-sensitive news about our profession first? In an ADA publication, or from D. Kellus Pruitt; DDS?

Whereas traditional media is 2.5 hours quicker with popular topics, I scooped traditional ADA News Online by three weeks when I posted “ADA/idm – A bad union after all?” on the PennWell forum.

http://community.pennwelldentalgroup.com/forum/topics/adaidm-a-bad-union-after-all

So what about the warning sign I saw concerning CareCredit – a wholly-owned subsidiary of the ADA?

When Trajan King, former CEO of the defunct ADA/IDM partnership refused to acknowledge my questions, I immediately suspected something was terribly wrong with the union of my non-profit professional organization and his for-profit Utah advertisement company. Six months later, my fears were confirmed. Now then, I hope it grabs someone’s attention that I see the same warning signs coming from the ADA’s CareCredit business. Note this date: July 13, 2009.

On Thursday, July 9, CareCredit purchased a press release on dentalblogs.com: “CareCredit Adds 24-Month, No-Interst [sic] Payment Plan” (no byline).

http://www.dentalblogs.com

Since dental problems only get worse, I consider the idea of extending credit to dental patients is a benevolent thought during these hard financial times. I also say that the offer appears to have been put together out of generosity and not greed like the ADA/IDM disaster. However, at 4:54 pm on the same day that CareCredit’s press release was posted, I submitted a difficult question for the anonymous author of the piece who works PR for CareCredit – and is an ADA employee.

“If the Red Flags Rule is not delayed for the third time in three weeks, how will it affect those who offer Care Credit?”

I was given the hopeful response “Your comment is awaiting moderation,” but days later there is no sign that my question is being considered at all. Please, oh please ask yourself: What could CareCredit leaders be hiding and how much will it end up costing ADA membership?

I will not be ignored by anyone. Today, I submitted two follow-up questions on dentalblogs.com. I considered warning the anonymous moderator that this is being simulposted on other blogs, as well as described on Twitter, but then I thought, why spoil the fun? Let the leaders of the ADA Business Enterprises, Inc. (ADABEI) get word of my e-Attack from their colleagues. Won’t they be surprised!

Oh, and for those who are wondering what happened to ADA/IDM CEO Trajan King – he quit.

Dear Dentalblogs.com moderator:

On July 9 at 4:54 pm, I submitted a sincere question concerning how the Red Flags Rule will affect ADA members who sign up for CareCredit. Instead of posting it with the promise of an answer, you regretfully chose to censor an ADA member. Today, July 13, I have a second and third question: Why did you ignore my first one and who is your boss?

Subscribe Now: Did you like this Medical Executive-Post, or find it helpful, interesting and informative? Want to get the latest ME-Ps delivered to your email box each morning? Just subscribe using the link below. You can unsubscribe at any time. Security is assured.

Link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HealthcareFinancialsthePostForcxos

Sponsors Welcomed

And, credible sponsors and like-minded advertisers are always welcomed.

Link: https://healthcarefinancials.wordpress.com/2007/11/11/advertise

Product DetailsProduct DetailsProduct Details       

Filed under: "Doctors Only", Breaking News, Career Development, Ethics, Health Insurance, Information Technology, Marketing & Advertising, Media Mentions and PR, Pruitt's Platform, Research & Development | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments »

Collaborative Dental Health 2.0 [Upcoming Three Part Series]

Posted on February 19, 2009 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Hippocratic Dental Consumerism

By Darrell K. Pruitt; DDSpruitt

Even before the downturn in the economy sent dentists scrambling for new sources of patients, these were already times of revolutionary changes in the marketing of dental care. To those who are alert, the Internet-enabled chaos signals a rare opportunity if one sides with consumers rather than tradition. It takes confidence to welcome transparency, and it looks increasingly bad when dentists resist accountability in traditional ways – like suing. Yelp; because of a bad review that was posted on the patient referral site. That is the second stupidest thing one can do. Being perhaps a geeky student of the Internet, and sort of nosey, I have been tracking the popularity of dentists’ comments on a few Internet venues for quite a while, because of my own curiosity.  I also get ornery enjoyment from reporting to my friends my opinion of what is really happening in my profession that nobody else talks about. My hobby could be called fuzzy data mining based on a platform of precise subjectivity. 

For more intricate and dependable real-time information, I choose the surveys reported on The Wealthy Dentist Blog, hosted by Jim Du Molin. They are the best around.

Link: http://www.thewealthydentist.com/blog/

American Dental Association

The ADA also provides nice, formal presentations of even more accurate information, but it is often dated and not ground-level relevant like Du Molin’s studies. Until the Internet came along, gathering useful information about dentists’ prevailing attitudes outside one’s professional circle was virtually impossible, and dentists are well aware that even within these circles, colleagues’ opinions at dental meetings are sometimes intentionally misleading – perhaps mine are less reliable as well at social gatherings. I never talk this frankly in real life. 

Dental Information Silos 

Talk about information silos!  No less that 85% of dentists in the nation are owners of solo private practices (ADA News), and only 2% have bubbly personalities (my guess). Dentists’ quiet isolation, which is arguably favored by what I would guess would be around 85% of dentists in the nation, is a unique characteristic in modern healthcare that is part of a unique labor-intensive art – performed to exacting tolerances in an unpredictable environment – intricate work that most consumers know little about. Yet the ultra-personal accountability welcomed by almost all solo dentists is the way even neighborhood physicians once practiced their trade for thousands of years before modern stakeholders became involved. 

Hippocratic Oath

Is working alone with one’s chosen staff the most efficient way to provide dental care?  No way.  But for me personally, maintaining complete control of the care I provide from start-to-finish for those who depend on me is safer for them and a better business model for me than any alternative I have seen yet.  In my opinion, there is no room in the Hippocratic Oath for less than 100% devotion to the patients’ interests. More than two thousand years later, it is called consumerism, and it is 180 degrees counter to stakeholders’ interests, preferred provider lists and universal healthcare. And, it probably comes as no surprise that last October I observed that the most popular comments that were posted shifted from news about the benefits of high-tech inventions in dentistry to advice for how to survive in a tough economy. The whole nation is concerned about finances, and getting one’s teeth cleaned is commonly sacrificed when things get tough. Don’t even mention implants and crowns.

2009 Recession 

At the risk of sounding ostentatious as well as pedantic, I will offer that (for the time being) my practice is not suffering from a downturn that many of my local colleagues are enduring. In fact, I am actually busier than I was this time last year – and I made more profit in 2008 than ever before in 26 years of practice. I am also discovering that patients I lost long ago are returning now that they no longer have provider lists. They are also finding that my prices are not so high after all (in fairness, I should add that it has been longer than usual since I have raised fees – except for full gold restorations, of course). Since I am not in the business of selling advice, I am not afraid to also admit that my practice still experienced a couple of slow periods in the late fall – directly attributable to the initial shock of the downturn.  But I cannot say that the slowdown was any worse than other times in the last few years, and it certainly hasn’t been as bad as what dentists in Michigan must endure. My sympathy and best wishes go out to my colleagues up north. Things could all turn for the worse for me tomorrow, but for right now, I’m somewhere between surviving and thriving, for what that is worth; nothing spectacular, but solid.

Three Part Series 

This posting, which I hope some readers find useful, will be a multi-part series. I haven’t worked everything out yet, and my outline is subject to change, but here is what I have in mind.

In Part One, I’ll describe how my active participation in DR. Oogle (doctoroogle.com) has not only kept my name off of preferred provider lists, but it has also improved the quality of care my staff and I provide, as well as improved the working atmosphere in the office. Transparency will do that.

Then, in Part Two, I will offer my suggestion how one can use DR. Oogle or similar patient referral site to “graduate” from managed care into fee-for-service dentistry without losing patients or profit. As a naughty teaser, let me hint that over three years ago, I offered the idea as an article for the monthly newsletter of my local dental society, only to be refused publication for the first time in over two decades of submissions. I was told that an official nixed it as a transparent “scheme” to harm managed care dental companies, and was therefore below the standards of ADA publications.

“Image is everything”

-ADA/Intelligent Dental Marketing

Finally, in Part Three, I’ll describe how a good offense is also a handy defense – perhaps even in defense against malpractice litigation. Hopefully, a few sincere readers will consider playing to win rather than playing not to lose. And, for those who still don’t see my point, I will reveal how to play not to lose. Fair is fair.  It costs from $625 to $1995 per year, and in my opinion, is the stupidest thing one can do. Hope you enjoy this three part series. 

Assessment

Editor’s Note: This post was first published on PennWell. Dr. Pruitt blogs here and at others sites. His insights are applicable to most all medical specialties.

Conclusion

And so, your thoughts and comments on this Medical Executive-Post are appreciated.

Speaker: If you need a moderator or speaker for an upcoming event, Dr. David E. Marcinko; MBA – Publisher-in-Chief of the Executive-Post – is available for seminar or speaking engagements. Contact: MarcinkoAdvisors@msn.com  or Bio: www.stpub.com/pubs/authors/MARCINKO.htm

Our Other Print Books and Related Information Sources:

Practice Management: http://www.springerpub.com/prod.aspx?prod_id=23759

Physician Financial Planning: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/0763745790

Medical Risk Management: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/9780763733421

Healthcare Organizations: www.HealthcareFinancials.com

Health Administration Terms: www.HealthDictionarySeries.com

Physician Advisors: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com

Subscribe Now: Did you like this Medical Executive-Post, or find it helpful, interesting and informative? Want to get the latest E-Ps delivered to your email box each morning? Just subscribe using the link below. You can unsubscribe at any time. Security is assured.

Link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HealthcareFinancialsthePostForcxos

Filed under: Career Development, Ethics, Health Economics, Managed Care, Marketing & Advertising, Op-Editorials, Practice Management, Research & Development | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Collaborative Dental Health 2.0 [Upcoming Three Part Series]