--Laura Kordek-- -- Susan Reilly -----Andrew Rose ...... Deana Jordan
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Contact the Dental Services Team
We’re different from most accounting and practice management consulting firms — the experience we bring to the table is drawn from diverse backgrounds that include health care consulting, taxation planning, dental accounting and consulting, information technology, and non-profit auditing. Using a dental CPA clearly has advantages.
Our support goes far beyond simple tax preparation. Our professionals offer "flat fee billing". This offers our dental clients the opportunity to contact us whenever they have a question, without the worry that the meter is running. We encourage open communications at all times. As indicated in the dental testimonials below, we take a sincere interest in the success of our clients.
WE ARE WELL RESPECTED IN THE DENTAL COMMUNITY
Since 1956, dental practitioners have counted on the Naden/Lean Dental Services Team (dental CPAs, dental accountants and dental consultants) for comprehensive guidance and support in the management of their dental practice as a business. We take the same thorough approach you do with patient care. We help you shift your focus from working in your dental practice to working on your dental practice.
WE WORK CLOSELY WITH OTHER PROFESSIONAL PARTNERS IN THE DENTAL COMMUNITY TO ENSURE THAT COMMUNICATION IS OPEN AND TIMELY AMONGST RELATED PARTIES
How often have you considered these questions?
- How can I make my practice more profitable?
- How can I make more money without working more hours?
- How much is my practice worth?
- When, where and how do I sell it?
- How does my practice compare to others in this area?
- Are my key profit indicators in line with the norm?
- Am I ready for an associate? How can I afford one?
- Should I expand?
These questions are common. We provide the answers, as well as the implementation plans to help you meet your goals.
WE REPRESENT DENTAL PRACTICE BUYERS
Many firms out there are happy to cater to the needs of sellers, but there are few that have the understanding needed to ensure that the buyer's best interests are met. For more information about buyer representation, click here.
DENTAL PRACTICE MANAGEMENT
- Practice financial and operational assessments
- Key profit indicator analysis and comparison
- Budgets/projections/forecasts and analysis
- Growth and development strategies
- Development and review of partner / shareholder / employment agreements
- Assistance in buying or selling a practice – to request a comprehensive check list of questions and items to review when exploring practice purchase or start-up, click here.
- Development of dental associate buy in/buy-out strategies
- Practice valuations
- Fraud awareness consulting – for an informative article about fraud awareness, click here.
- Forensic accounting services
- Practice start-up assistance and guidance – to request a comprehensive check list of questions and items to review when opening a new practice, click here.
- Entity selection and implementation guidance
- Chart of accounts set-up – to request a chart of accounts set-up list, click here.
The Dental Accounting team, (from right to left starting with the back row) Marie Rogalski, Scarlett Crasno, Margie Thomas, Susan Reilly, Ruth Kaszuba, Krista DeWitt, Jane Kreiner, Barbara Herbert, Kathy Reddish, Bonnie Konkus, and Cindy Whitlow.
DENTAL TAX PLANNING & ACCOUNTING SERVICES
- Income tax projections and preparation
- Income tax planning and tax minimization strategies
- Retirement and wealth accumulation planning
- Estate planning
- Bookkeeping services
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Dental Testimonials
“I’ve depended upon Tim Lott and the Naden/Lean Dental Services team to manage and grow my practice for over fifteen years. He’s been instrumental in helping me evaluate opportunities and strategize to reach the potential of my dental practice. Tim’s experience with associate relationships has been invaluable.It’s nice to have a business advisor who is competent and skilled in his profession – beyond the nuts and bolts of accounting and tax.”
Dr. Scott Finlay, DDS, FAGD
Dr. Scott Finlay, DDS & Associates
Arnold, MD
“I believe I was one of Tim Lott’s first clients when he joined the Naden/Lean team. It is hard to believe, but that was almost 20 years ago. As general dentists, he was instrumental in helping me (and my then business partner) work through some difficult issues. In his kind, objective manner we were able to create a most amazing practice.After I specialized in endodontics, I was ready to start my new practice. I turned to Tim and Lance Jacob for my accounting needs. Once again they have been extremely helpful in my negotiations with associates. It was real neat when my associate's attorney knew of Tim and described him as fair, knowledgeable and honest.”
Practice Limited to Endodontics and MicrosurgeryEllicott City, MD
“Thank you Naden/Lean. It seems like yesterday our relationship started; however, it was 32 years ago. Your advice has been instrumental in assisting me in establishing, growing and ultimately selling my dental practice. The meetings we held produced great ideas; many of which were the cornerstone for my being able to retire at 57. Gerry Lean, Darryl Bodnar, Judy Simon and especially Ron Ehman have always made themselves available to help me achieve my goals.”
Dr. Stephen Anish, DDS
“My partner and I decided to open our dental practice from scratch a few months ago. We knew we needed an accountant who had good experience in the dental field to guide us through the process.
We were glad that we chose to work with Ron Ehman at Naden/Lean. Without a doubt, Mr. Ehman and Naden/Lean are very experienced with the accounting aspect of dentistry. He also provided us numerous examples of excellent advice in all aspects of the startup process. Mr. Ehman really helped to smoothly guide us through the whole project.We feel very comfortable working with Mr. Ehman. He is very reliable and always gets things done as promised. He is responsible and is always there for us when we need him. He is efficient and is always on top of things. Most importantly, we feel that he truly cares about us and wants our future office to do well. It feels like we are working as a team to achieve our goals.Overall, our experience with Mr. Ehman and Naden/Lean has been excellent. We are very satisfied with Naden/Lean’s services and would highly recommend them to any dental office that needs accounting services.”
Edmund Liu, DDS & Ken Lin, DDS
“I have been a client of Naden/Lean since 1977. Through the years I have appreciated our unwavering support as financial advisors and accountants. Whenever I have needed your service and support you have always been available. As I developed a dental practice through the years, your words of advice have served as a significant guidance for me. Each individual with whom I have dealt with through the years has been willing to go the extra mile to either meet with me or provide telephone support, even during hours when the office was closed. In addition, from a more empirical view, I have always sensed that your staff genuinely cares that your clients succeed not only professionally, but also personally. The achievement of balance in life for your clients by providing sound financial advice is truly your forte.”
Harold S. Marks, D.D.S., M.Sc.D.
Diplomate of the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry
“Naden/Lean: Excellent service, terrific knowledge and insight of the tax and business arenas, utmost efficiency. All of that coupled with a friendship and personal touch that makes us feel like they care so much about our success and well-being. No wonder why we’ve stayed with them for over 25 years.”
Dr. Michael Klaff, DDS
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Additional Dental Resources
For a list of topics we are commonly asked to speak about, click here.
If you are a graduating dental school student and would like an outline of our presentation, Life After Graduation, click here.
ARTICLES OF INTEREST
“Fraud Awareness in the Dental Office”
By Andrew Runge, CPA, CFE, CVA, ABV, MBA
At a holiday party, Dr. Savchuk ran into an ex-patient. He inquired as to how the patient was doing with her new insurance. The patient told him they had not changed insurance. They asked Dr. Savchuk, if he got his computer system fixed.
This conversation was very strange to Dr. Savchuk, as he did not know there had been any problem with the computer system and he was sure the office manager told him this patient had left, because of changing to an insurance carrier they did not accept. He was perplexed as he drove home. Was this somehow related to his practice woes?
After buying a practice from a retiring dentist, things went well for Dr. Savchuk for the first few months. Then what seemed like a string of unrelated events left Dr. Savchuk wondering if he had made a bad purchase. First, the number of patients not paying their invoices started climbing. On the office manager/bookkeeper’s advice, he started sending amounts out for collection. Then, his existing patient base started to decline steadily. Lastly, it seemed his cash balance at the bank was always near rock bottom.
Instead of making a comfortable living, he was barely scraping by and meeting the payroll for the hygienists and staff was becoming precarious. The office manger, a long term employee with over 20 years experience in the dental profession, assured him that all new dentists faced these same problems. She told him that he would work through this and over the next few years the financial rewards would begin flowing. Knowing his need to double his marketing and production efforts, she said, “Don’t worry about any of the cash flow issues, I will keep them all under control.”
After thinking about his meeting with the ex-patient, Dr. Savchuk decided to contact them about the whole matter. When he inquired, the ex-patient advised that although they had paid the required co-pays and other amounts, they continued to receive bills and threatening letters from the office manager. When they complained and sent in copies of the receipts, the office manager apologized and said that the computer system had been down and created some billing problems. She would fix everything. A few months later, he had gotten a call from a collection agency over the same amounts. He had denied those charges, but thought that continuing with Dr. Savchuk would not be the best course of events even after the collection agency finally stopped calling. For the rest of the article, click here.
“Majority of dentists see insurers as enemy"
This article first appeared in the June 2007 issue of Insurance & Financial Advisor.
A majority of dentists see dental insurance companies as foes rather than friends, according to a poll by The Wealthy Dentist, a marketing firm for the dental industry.
The survey showed 89% percent of dentists feeling that insurance companies are in the business of looking out for themselves, not patients or doctors. A mere 11% saw dental insurance companies as allies, expanding dentists' practices and serving as an important marketing source for new patients.
“10 Proven, Powerful & Simple Steps to Attract More Fee-For-Service Patients”
by William M. Dorfman, DDS, and William Horrocks
In this series, Dr. William Dorfman has outlined a variety of marketing approaches that can be used to attract more fee-for-service patients. In this article, he and William (Howie) Horrocks integrate those approaches with specific tips to form a plan of action, providing steps that can be implemented to make a practice`s marketing strategy more effective.
Internet marketing is about "upselling," that is, selling more dentistry to those who are already buying dentistry from you. The idea is to take those who are happy with your product and to sell them more of it or to sell it to them more often. They (and you) will benefit tremendously.
Bottom line: You must develop regular communications with your patient base. This could be a practice newsletter or even a personal letter that you send quarterly or, preferably, monthly. If your patient list is not yet computerized, make this a priority project. Most word-processing software allows you to write a single form letter to your patients and then to personalize it by "mail merging" your patients' names and addresses on the letter.
For the rest of the article, click here.
“Destroy those common marketing myths
Marketing your practice should come first and forget about reduced-rate coupon advertising!”
by Rodger ‘Rod’ Kurthy, DMD & Howie Horrocks
As a practicing dentist, I have learned the perils of marketing my practice through years of trial and error. Nothing seemed to give me a good return on the time and money I invested until I met Howie Horrocks, a marketing professional who specializes in helping dentists to achieve their growth potential.
With Howie's excellent advice and my experience as a dentist, I have finally found marketing techniques that really work in my practice. In fact, the incredible results have motivated me so much, I have just completed a new book dedicated to dental marketing.
Here are some of the common myths and problems my friend Howie and I have found in discussing marketing techniques with other dentists. One of the most common problems dentists have in implementing marketing programs is they think about it AFTER everything else-building, equipment and staff have already been put in place. Suddenly, they are faced with the question... Where are the new patients going to come from?
Dentists spend time in school to become very proficient in dental procedures. They spend a considerable amount of time checking out contractors and determining what equipment to purchase. When they start to think of attracting patients often the first question they ask is. "What kind of offer do you suggest for my postcards? What coupons should l have? What freebies can I offer?"
Quite frankly, this type of thanking is exactly backwards. Rather than asking, "what can I give away?" you should be asking, "how can I make my practice THE place to solve real people's dental problems?" Trust me, you don't want bargain hunters. You should be looking for patients who want solutions to their problems. If you can solve their everyday problems, they will gladly pay your fee
For the rest of the article, click here.
“How to Write a Really Boring Yellow Pages Ad that Nobody Will Notice and Will Get No Results Whatsoever”
By William Howard Horrocks
To begin, show a picture of yourself that looks more or less like any other dentist. Make the photo the biggest thing on the page so it will communicate that you are the most important thing, and that the patients concerns are secondary.
Then, print the name of your practice, ensuring that the name sounds more or less like every other dental practice. Better yet, name your practice with your own name, guaranteeing that it will mean next to nothing to your public. As a finishing touch, if you're a DMD, put this sleep-inducing abbreviation after your name. (Surveys reveal that only small % of adults know that a DMD is a dentist.)
For the rest of the article, click here.
CONTACT US
For more information about the services we offer to the dental community, please contact the Dental Services team at (410) 453-5500
Find Us
We support the wonderful dental educational and advocacy resources that the Chesapeake Health Education Program, Southern Maryland Dental Society, Northern Virginia Dental Association, Maryland State Dental Association, DentalTown, Dr. of Dentistry magazine, the Social Network for Doctors, the Cyber Toothfairy, the Academy of General Dentistry, and the District of Columbia Dental Society provide.
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