A child crying in the back seat of the car while en route to the dentist doesn't sound ideal, but what if the dentist could give them care in the comfort of their own school?
Smile America Partners is an 18-practice DSO specializing in portable and mobile dentistry. The organization partners with more than 7,500 schools across the country to help bring dental care to children in underserved communities.
Steve Higginbotham, CEO of Smile America Partners, spoke with Becker's about creating the ideal DSO-practice relationship and Smile America Partners' goal of making child dental care more accessible.
Editor's note: This interview was edited for length and clarity.
Question: How did Smile America Partners settle on mobile dentistry as its focus?
Steve Higginbotham: The predecessor organizations and the original founders who were all dentists essentially saw sort of a need in their own personal lives. They had all been dealing with being professionals, working, having children, getting their kids to the dentists and taking off work. They all in their own little ways basically started going into school environments around their [communities]. It really came down to the somewhat inconvenience that [child healthcare] places on parents.
Q: What does the DSO market look like now and what are your predictions for the future?
SH: [DSOs] all have a common theme of allowing clinicians to basically hone their craft, perform their craft of being a clinical provider and interact with patients. [DSOs] at least decrease the burden of administrative support around those environments. The evolution of clinical care, medical care, dental care, all the various facets and specialties in the healthcare sector — there's this evolution of increasing administrative demand on clinicians. Whether it's increased levels of documentation, the way that documentation is presented, technology formats, the billing collection reimbursements, or the management of liquidity and cash flow. [DSOs'] value proposition to clinicians is eliminating all of that and letting them focus on providing good quality dental care.
Q: What makes a good DSO and practice relationship?
SH: Like anything else, any other partnership or relationship, whether it's in a business environment or personally — communication. Open communication and transparency and constantly coming back to "What's the whole objective of why we got together?"
Q: If you could change one thing about the DSO industry, what would it be?
SH: As the DSO model continues to evolve, it's not forgetting that there's an entire patient population out there that is not affluent. It's also making sure that you set up a sustainable model to provide care to those communities that need the care. Oftentimes the children in the families that we provide care to through these school environments never really get care.
Q: What are Smile America Partners' plans for the future?
SH: We have a plan to expand into an additional 10 states over the next few years. We're looking at markets like Texas, Florida, Washington, South Carolina and Nevada. We want to continue to expand into other states and provide the good care that we're providing through the same portable delivery model.