High Anxiety ?


Often, stress in our profession has virtually nothing to do with dentistry. In the last two weeks  my office has been dealing  with multiple software malfunctions, landlord issues ( they are attempting to upgrade our building and are hoping that they can get the  commercial tenants to foot some of the bill) . To add to these issues my accountant came over right before we closed for the holidays and asked me to pay $10,000 for taxes ( I borrowed money from a credit line I have). It seems to me that almost every day in the last month some new "emergency " has cropped up. Even the weather joined in, as most of the east coast experienced weeks of bone chilling weather and as well as a "pressure bomb" snow event.

Two days ago I went to my pharmacy to fill some expensive medical prescriptions and was informed that my medical insurance was cancelled. This was news to me, since my group sponsored by the New York County Dental Insurance had recently cashed my checks for December and I am current upto date on my payments. Two days of emails and numerous phone calls ensued. It seemed that everyone and no one was to blame, but yesterday my office manager went to the pharmacy and they informed me that my policy apparently was reinstated. I was able to get a partial refill of my medicines just in time.

Being a solo dental practitioner is not always easy and dentistry itself often is probably the least of our difficulties. Overhead is a big problem and it has gotten worse due to increasing rent's, improved technologies (that cost money to purchase and maintain)and government regulations designed to protect the public.  Its no wonder that dentists of all ages are banding together in group practice settings, where at least in theory, they can concentrate on performing dentistry and not dealing so much with the business of dentistry.

As a postcript,I should add that should add that at 10:30 this morning the pharmacist called and I spoke with  informed me that at the moment Oxford still maintains my coverage has been terminated and they have no idea why my Rx went through yesterday. I reassured her that sometime today I would most likely be covered but I guess it's not over until the fat lady sings...

from Ask Dr. Spindel - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/2018/01/high-anxiety.html - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/

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