Category Archives: Dentist

Dental and Doctors’ Offices Still Struggling with COVID Job Loss

Posted on by • Posted in 2020 Election Issues, Coronavirus, Crisis, Crisis Management, Deferred Healthcare, Dentist, Economic Crisis, Economic Recovery, Job, Job Loss, Job Market, Job Search, Job Security, Office Visit, Outpatient Care, Physician, Physician Practice Management, Primary Care, Uncertainty, Underinsured, Unemployment, Unemployment Insurance, Uninsured • Leave a comment

Dental and Doctors’ Offices Still Struggling with COVID Job Loss

Dental and Doctors' Offices Still Struggling with COVID Job Loss ...

California’s outpatient health care practices largely shrugged off two recessions, adding more than 400,000 jobs during a two-decade climb from the start of 2000 to early 2020. It was an enviable growth rate of 85% and a trend largely mirrored on the national level.

Then came COVID-19.

Anecdotal stories abound about the crushing impact the pandemic has had on a range of outpatient medical services, from pediatric and family medical practices to dental offices, medical labs and home health care. In California, as in many other states, thousands of doctors, dentists and other health care providers temporarily closed offices this spring as state health officials directed them to suspend non-urgent visits. Many others sat open but largely idle because patients were too scared to visit the doctor given the risk of running into someone with COVID-19 in the waiting room.

As the economy has reopened, so have many medical offices. But the latest state and federal employment data underscores the lingering toll the pandemic has taken on the health care sector.

Doctors’ Offices Shed Jobs Amid COVID

In California, and across the nation, the number of workers in doctors’ offices grew by more than 50% in the past 20 years, before seeing rapid declines amid COVID-19. This chart shows proportional growth in employment over time, with percentages relative to January 2000.

In California, employment in medical offices providing an array of outpatient care fell by 159,300 jobs, or 18%, from February to April, according to California’s Employment Development Department. The sector has recovered some, but job totals in June remained 7% below pre-crisis levels, the latest figures show. Data is not yet available for July, when COVID-19 cases in California again began to rise sharply and communities across much of the state reverted to partial shutdowns.

Nationwide, employment in outpatient care fell by about 1.3 million jobs, or 17%, from February to April, and in June also remained 7% below pre-crisis levels.

Doctors’ offices typically rely on patient volume for revenue. Without it, they can’t make payroll. Many small medical clinics weren’t flush with cash before the crisis, making COVID-19 an existential threat.

“Never in our history have we had more than a month’s cash on hand,” said Dr. Sumana Reddy, owner of the Acacia Family Medical Group in Monterey County. “Think of it that way.”

Reddy operates two clinics, one in Salinas and the other in the town of Prunedale. Many of her clients come from rural areas where poverty is common. When COVID-19 hit and stay-at-home orders took effect, the number of patients coming to the practice fell by about 50%, Reddy said. To keep her patients safe and her business afloat, Reddy largely shifted to telehealth so she could provide care online.

She also turned to federal aid. “I took the stimulus money,” she said. “I asked for advances from anywhere I could get that. So, now I’m tapped out. I’ve done every single thing that I can think of to do. And there’s nothing more to do.”

By late June, patient volume at Reddy’s practice stood at roughly 70% of the level seen before the crisis.

Dental Offices Hit Hard by COVID

The coronavirus pandemic prompted steep declines in dental office employment, undoing 20 years of steady growth. This chart shows proportional growth in dental employment over time, with percentages relative to January 2000.

Many dental offices have been hit even harder. From February to April, the number of dental office employees in California fell by 85,000, or 60%, a rate of decline that outpaced even job losses in the state’s restaurant industry. Nationwide, dental employment fell by about 546,000 from February to April, a 56% decline.

“March, April, mid-May — we were pretty much closed except for emergency care,” said Dr. Natasha Lee, who owns Better Living Through Dentistry, a practice in San Francisco’s Inner Sunset neighborhood. “While dental offices were considered essential, most were closed due to guidance from health departments and the CDC to postpone routine and preventative medical and dental care and just to limit things to emergency.”

Lee has reopened her clinic but is doing less business. She and her staff need extra time to clean tools and change their personal protective equipment.

“With the social distancing, the limiting [of] patients in the office at a time and the slowdown we’ve had, we’re probably seeing about, I’d say, two-thirds of our normal capacity in our practice,” she said in late June.

As for employment, California hospitals have fared better than outpatient medical offices. Hospitals shed about 2% of jobs from February to June.

“They have more capacity in a large organization to withstand the same shock,” said John Romley, a professor and economist at the University of Southern California’s Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics.

Romley said he is optimistic the health care sector overall will recover faster than some other sectors of the economy, since health care remains a necessity.

Still, red flags abound. The recent spike in COVID-19 cases and deaths in many parts of the nation raises the specter of future shutdowns and, with them, additional health care layoffs. In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom recently ordered a second shutdown for dine-in restaurants, movie theaters and bars statewide, as well as churches, gyms and barbershops in much of the state. For now, dental and doctors’ offices can continue operating.

Older Californians Are Postponing Care

A recent census survey found that 42% of California respondents had put off medical care because of the pandemic.

But it’s uncertain when patients will feel comfortable returning to the doctor for routine and preventive care. A series of Census Bureau surveys conducted between June 11 and July 7 found that 42% of Californians who responded had put off medical care in the previous four weeks because of the pandemic. About 33% said they needed medical care for something unrelated to COVID-19 but did not get it.

“I’ve been telling my staff and patients that we should prepare for things to stay not too different for six months to a year,” Reddy said, “which is pretty depressing for most people to think about.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walmart to expand health centers to Arkansas this month

Posted on by • Posted in Consumer Preferences, Consumerism, Convenient Access, Dentist, Diagnostic Testing, Laboratory, Primary Care, Walmart • Leave a comment

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/strategy/walmart-to-expand-health-centers-to-arkansas-this-month.html?utm_medium=email

Walmart Opening More Healthcare 'Super Centers'

Walmart will open two more standalone health clinics this month, including a site in Arkansas, the company said June 17.

The health clinics, called Walmart Health, will offer primary care, imaging, lab, dental and behavioral health services. 

The health clinics opening this month will be in Loganville, Ga., and Springdale, Ark. The Loganville Walmart Health opened June 17. The first Arkansas location will open June 24.

The company already has clinics in the Georgia cities of Dallas and Calhoun.

Walmart said it believes that expanding the standalone clinics will help bring affordable, quality healthcare to more Americans, because 90 percent of them live within 10 miles of a Walmart store. 

“Patients have responded favorably to our low, transparent pricing for key healthcare services, regardless of insurance status,” Walmart’s senior vice president of health and wellness, Sean Slovenski wrote in a blog post. “They’re also appreciative of the convenience of our facilities that offer primary and urgent care, labs, X-ray and diagnostics, counseling, dental, optical and hearing services, all in one central facility.”

 

 

 

 

Open (Your Wallet) Wide: Dentists Charge Extra For Infection Control

Posted on by • Posted in American Dental Association, Coronavirus, Dentist, Infection Control, Infection Control Fee, Infectious Virus, Out of Pocket Expenses • Leave a comment

Open (Your Wallet) Wide: Dentists Charge Extra For Infection Control

Open (Your Wallet) Wide: Dentists Charge Extra For Infection ...

After nearly two months at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Erica Schoenradt was making plans in May to see her dentist for a checkup.

Then she received a notice from Swish Dental that the cost of her next visit would include a new $20 “infection control fee” that would likely not be covered by her insurer.

“I was surprised and then annoyed,” said Schoenradt, 28, of Austin, Texas. She thought it made no sense for her dentist to charge her for keeping the office clean since the practice should be doing that anyway. She canceled the appointment for now.

Swish Dental is just one of a growing number of dental practices nationwide that in the past month have begun charging patients an infection control fee between $10 and $20.

Swish and others say they need the extra money to cover the cost of masks, face shields, gowns and air purifiers to help keep their offices free of the coronavirus. The price of equipment has risen dramatically because of unprecedented demand from health workers.

Dentists say they struggle to pay these extra costs particularly after most states shut down dental offices in March and April for all but emergency care to reserve personal protective equipment for hospital use. They are also seeing fewer patients than before the pandemic because some fear going back to the dentist and at the same time dentists need to space out appointments to keep the waiting room uncrowded.

Nearly two-thirds of dental offices across the country have reopened for routine care, according to the American Dental Association.

The association, which sets industry standards, says dentists who opt to charge the extra infection control fee should disclose it to patients ahead of each visit, a spokesperson said.

“The infection control fee is helping us mitigate the costs of the extra expenses,” said Michael Scialabba, a dentist and vice president of 42 North Dental, whose 75 dental offices in New England are charging an extra $10.

Why don’t dentists just raise prices instead? Dentists said they have little or no leverage with large insurance companies to force them to raise their reimbursement rates. The ADA asked insurers to take into account additional COVID costs dentists face and many insurers responded by agreeing to pay extra fees.

For example, Harrisburg, Pennyslvania-based United Concordia Dental agreed to pay dentists $10 per patient per visit in May and June to offset their PPE expenses for all fully insured clients. The company has more than 9 million members nationwide.

The new infection control fee upsets some patients, although most understand that the cost of dentistry has increased, said Rishi Desai, director of operations and finance at Swish Dental, which has eight locations in the Austin area. “We are just as frustrated with all of these, too, but as a small business we had to reassess things.”

Desai, whose wife, Viraj, is a dentist and the founder of the dental chain, said the extra money will help the practice survive. “We are not making money off this,” he said. “This is just to sustain us so we are not bleeding out cash.”

He noted that last year Swish was paying about $6 for a box of 20 face masks. Today, $6 buys a single mask. The dental office has installed sneeze guards, staffers are wearing face shields over their masks, and the offices have added air filtration systems and hired additional sanitation staff members to clean their offices every day.

He estimates the offices are working at only about half capacity since reopening in mid-May. In weighing how to handle the extra costs, Swish was reluctant to cut employee wages, he said. “Everyone is trying to figure this out,” he added.

Kim Hartlage, office manager of Klein Dental Group in Louisville, Kentucky, said insurers recommended the office add an infection control fee. The insurers balked at raising their reimbursement rates.

She said the small office has had to buy many more disposable masks and gloves. “We’ve had to step up our game,” she said. So far, she hasn’t heard any feedback on the $10 fee. “We have very understanding clients,” she said.

Tamar Lasky, an epidemiologist, said she likes her Owings Mills, Maryland, dentist and was glad the office was communicating the many precautions it was taking to prevent the spread of COVID-19. But she was stunned when informed by email that a $15 “infection control charge” would be added to her bill.

“I can readily imagine there are a range of additional expenses, as well as a loss of revenue associated with the pandemic, but infection control is not an extra service. It is part of the practice of dentistry,” Lasky said.

“I’m not sure what is the best solution to the increased costs of tighter infection control, but this new charge may not be covered by insurance, and that passes all the burden to the patient.”