As a dental professional, your time is valuable and it is limited. Finding ways to maximize your time and give you a greater work-life balance is essential to running a successful dental practice in the long term. A Management Service Organization (MSO) may be the right way to help you achieve your goals. As a separate business organization from a dental practice that provides crucial management and operations services to a practice, a dentist can reap the many benefits of having an MSO as a strategic partner.
If you are a dentist practicing in California, and you have questions about MSOs the Los Angeles MSO attorney at Leiva Law Firm can assist you and answer your questions. With decades of experience helping dentists prevail using MSOs while still remaining compliant with state laws governing the dental industry, the legal team at Leiva Law Firm is here to help you make the most out of your practice.
Using the MSO Model for Dental Practice Expansion
When it comes to defining how a dental practice works, there are essentially two components. The first is the clinical component which should be solely handled by the dentist. The second is the administrative operations of running the practice. A dentist can, by themselves, do both jobs, but the time investment and impact on quality of life to do so can be limiting factors. This is especially true when it comes to expansion. It is much harder to expand when a dentist’s complete attention is on the nuts and bolts of the day-to-day needs of patients and the practice’s operations.
Through the use and implementation of an MSO, a dentist can contract this business entity to handle the management and administration of their practice. Back office administration and operations then become the responsibility of the MSO freeing up valuable time of the dentist who can put more emphasis on patient management, service, and satisfaction as well as the big picture and expansion of a practice.
Although the ultimate responsibility falls on the dentist with respect to staying compliant with state laws and regulations, the Association of Dental Support Organizations has a Code of Ethics that addresses this issue. In specific, a support service should act in a way that is consistent with the huge responsibility the dentist holds. As such, the principles service organizations should follow include:
- Ensure every action is done with integrity.
- Provide services and support that meet the dentist’s needs.
- Not interfering with clinical decisions that a dentist makes.
- Employs staff that is trained, qualified, and can provide the most effective support.
- Provide business support services to benefit the practice.
- Support dentists engaged in charitable activities.
The practice management challenges a dentist can face including repaying student loan debt, keeping the right amount of malpractice liability insurance, and practicing compliance can take away from the goals of a more robust practice as well as the main priority of providing excellent clinical services with a top-notch bedside manner to patients.
Speak with an MSO Attorney at Leiva Law Firm
The addition of an MSO can benefit a practice by taking care of all nonclinical support, such as billing, accounting, vendor relations, leasing space and equipment, regulatory compliance, and more. Using an MSO can help reduce time, costs, and the immense stress that can come with managing all aspects of a practice alone. As a result, a dentist can widen their clinical services to more of the community.
For more information, please call Leiva Law Firm at (818) 519-4465 to schedule a free consultation.
