As medical-dental integration moves from concept to operational reality, Henderson, Nev.-based PDS Health is reimagining primary care around prevention and whole-person health.
In April, PDS Health Medical, the organization’s medical arm, appointed Brett Bingham as president to lead operational growth in primary care and take advantage of its existing scale and infrastructure.
As one of the industry’s leaders in the push for medical-dental integration, the integrated healthcare support organization currently has a network of more than 1,000 practices across 24 states.
Mr. Bingham recently connected with Becker’s to talk about what led him to join PDS Health, how his previous experience in healthcare will translate to the new role and where he sees medical-dental integration continuing to advance.
Editor’s note: Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: What drew you to PDS Health Medical? What does the opportunity here represent that you couldn’t find elsewhere?
Brett Bingham: PDS Health Medical offers something rare: the culture, scale, vision and agility to help redefine primary care in America. The U.S. health system has incentivized primary care providers to become order takers and referral makers. That’s not how I view the role of primary care. I see primary care as prevention-driven, relationship-based and central to improving the health of the population.
PDS Health gives us the best of all worlds: a national platform, provider ownership and autonomy, Epic as the EHR and the power of integrating medical and dental. The mouth-body connection is well established, and PDS Health is uniquely positioned to act on it at scale.
Q: How will your experiences and lessons from your time at Banner Health serve you in your role with PDS Health Medical?
BB: I’ve been fortunate to serve with outstanding organizations, including Banner, and I’m grateful for the leaders, peers and teams I’ve worked alongside. My time there, and in other settings, gave me experience across multiple payment models, value-based care, provider networks, medical groups, health plans and all aspects of a health system.
Those experiences reinforced how complex healthcare transformation is and how important it is to align people, strategy and execution around a common goal. That perspective matters at PDS Health Medical because we are building a model that must work for patients, providers, payers, employers and health systems simultaneously, and we have the platform to do it.
Q: How are you thinking about the relationship between the dental and medical sides of PDS Health and how do you continue to advance medical-dental integration?
BB: I see medical-dental integration as one of the biggest opportunities in healthcare, and PDS Health deserves immense credit for how far it has already advanced this work. PDS Health has been investing in and operating in this space for more than a decade. The evidence connecting oral health and overall health is too strong to ignore; yet historically, medical and dental have been kept in separate lanes. Patients do not experience their health that way, and care should not be designed that way.
PDS Health has a real opportunity to keep building on that leadership in a practical, coordinated, prevention-focused model. That is better for patients, better for providers and better for the healthcare system.
Q: What can dental and dental service organization leaders learn from the primary care model, and vice versa?
BB: What excites me most is not one side teaching the other, but the opportunity to combine the strengths of both. PDS Health has already built an exceptional model around innovation, operational excellence, provider support, and scalable infrastructure. Primary care brings another important dimension: longitudinal relationships, prevention and whole-person health over time.
The real opportunity is to bring those strengths together in a way that creates a more connected, more effective model of care for patients. That is where PDS Health has the opportunity to continue leading and shaping the future of integrated healthcare.
At the Becker's 5th Annual Future of Dentistry Roundtable, taking place September 14-15 in Chicago, dental leaders and executives will gain insights into emerging technologies, practice growth strategies and the evolving landscape of dental care delivery, with a focus on innovation, patient experience and operational excellence. Apply for complimentary registration now.
