Recession-proof your practice; clinic pays $10 million penalty

Dear DrBicuspid.com member,

Patients abandoning treatment halfway through. Dental company stocks dropping in price. Periodontists going out of business. As we outlined in a report last week, signs are appearing that the road ahead may be rough for dentistry as the recession in the U.S. takes its toll.

But rather than leave you to worry, we wanted to guide you through the economic storm. That's why we've developed a couple of stories this week with practical advice for surviving the recession.

In the first article, we offer tips from leading practice management gurus and from dentists who have weathered hard times in the past. One key is to put more resources into marketing.

In the next article, we zoom in on that last tip by showing how your Web site can be your most cost-effective marketing tool. Only a third of dentists have their own Web site, so there's still time to get ahead of the curve.

Also this week we report on a government case against a North Carolina dental clinic. The facility had to pay $10 million to settle a lawsuit in which the government accused it of billing Medicaid for unnecessary metal crowns and pulpotomies in children.

That story is particularly sad because the clinic -- Medicaid Dental Center -- specialized in treating some of the people with the fewest options for reliable dental care.

Concerns about fraud are unfortunately common in healthcare. So this week we're also exploring how easy it is to tamper with digital X-rays using software like Photoshop. Could this be a risk to dentists in malpractice cases, or is it much ado about nothing? Find out by clicking here.

The story is part of our newly built Imaging Community, which is open to all our members. You can also get an advance look at imaging news in the future if you subscribe to our Imaging Insider e-mail newsletter, which will start next month. To subscribe, just click here.

But you'll find much more than news on DrBicuspid.com. Check out our Forums, where you can share tips and war stories with other dental professionals.One of the hottest recent threads focused on how to launch a new practice. You can join in here.

You may have an idea for other story ideas or features we could add, or a comment or complaint about what we've done already. If so, just drop me a line.