Can A Non-Dentist Own A Dental Practice?
Do you have to be a dentist to own a dental practice?
The short answer is that it depends on which state you live in. At one time, the ownership of a dental practice was limited to individuals with dental licenses. But over time, many states moved away from this law in order to provide dental practice owners with the tax and liability benefits of corporate status.
Although non-dentists can now own dental practices, there are still a number of things a dental practice owner without a dental license cannot do.
Dental Practice Owners: Dentists vs. Non-Dentists
First, check to see if non-dentists can own a dental practice in your state. Then, familiarize yourself with what a non-dentist can and cannot do.
What a non-licensed dental practice owner can do:
- Lease office space and dental equipment to the practice
- Provide administrative services, such as accounts payable and billing
- Engage in marketing and advertising of the practice
- Provide staffing of non-licensed personnel
While a non-dentist has a lot of freedom in owning a dental practice, there are some responsibilities that are best left to a licensed dentist.
What a non-licensed dental practice owner cannot do:
- Determine the number of patients seen, or number of hours worked, by a dentist per day
- Hire or fire dental associates, technicians and assistants
- Set parameters for insurance contracts
- Execute billing and coding procedures
- Select dental equipment and supplies
Advantages of Corporate Ownership
There are a number of advantages for dentists working at practices owned by non-dentists. For example, dentists working at practices that are affiliated with Benevis, a practice services company, can focus exclusively on providing dental care while Benevis takes care of the rest. Benevis services include the following:
- HR and recruiting
- Purchasing
- Payroll and benefits
- Operations support
- Facilities management
- Finance and accounts payable
For practices with over 10 locations, Benevis services extend to:
- IT
- Billing
- Compliance
- Legal
- Marketing
- Patient Call Center
- Practice Management
- Advocacy
- Finance and Accounting Analytics
Benevis has more than 130 affiliate locations across the United States, and our mission is to support dental practices so that dentists can focus entirely on patient care. Learn more about how affiliating with Benevis can be beneficial to you.
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Source:
Moriarty: http://moriarty.com/content/documents/ML_PDFs/cpmd_4.10.12.pdf
