Episode 252: Stay or Get Fired? The Office Manager Dilemma

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Working Interferences is intended for mature audiences.
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Since the hosts never grew up, someone needs to be the adult.
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Welcome to Working Interferences with
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Lance and Holly, the dental advice podcast for the
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average dentist.
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Here is Lance and Holly.
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Okay, we're back. We're back. She missed me.
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Holly's had wine, she's had dinner, and she feels
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much better than she did. So Holly doesn't have jet lag. So Holly was,
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um, uh, doing some self, uh,
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reflection just, uh, during quality control. You were
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watching, listening to the, uh, the podcast, and then had some feedback of—
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I was self-reflection. I was so angry last week.
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I was like, oh my God, I was a total cunt, and not the good
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way. I was like, I was there. I'm like,
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why did we even put that out? I almost didn't.
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Oh, I was, I was angry at you. I didn't feel good.
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I was hungry. So Holly, when she's hungry— Holly has
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very few rules. Oh, we're talking third person now. I need food,
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I need sleep, and I need to
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not be too hot or or too cold. I'm like Baby Bear.
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Yeah, so Lance agrees. He does. Okay,
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good, because I was like, wow,
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I was just a super cunt. Yeah, so sorry.
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But I mean, let's be honest, if you're gonna be a cunt, go all the
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way. Yeah, I mean, I was like, I don't even know why I was so
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angry, but I was listening to it, I was like, what is happening right now?
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I'm like, it's a Tuesday, why are you— ah, well, I was—
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you mad, bro? It was— yes. I was
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2 days off of the airplane from Norway. I was
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sick. I'm still— sorry, I'm still a little sick,
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but I've had medicine now. Yeah. Um, and I've had wine and I've had food.
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So, so food and wine, we now know the formula. We— I thought we
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knew the formula until we broke the rules. Well, I think we broke the rules
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because we felt like we had to keep going. It had been— it
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felt like too long since the last time we recorded, and we're really trying to
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stay on top of it. And so we just pushed forward. But I
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was, I mean, it took me 4 days to get through our podcast,
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but every time— It was that compelling, huh? Well, I only listened to it when
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I'm coming home from work. And so now that our commute's so short, I was
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like, oh my God, I'm so angry. What is wrong with me?
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So sorry, guys. You got to see Holly at
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not such a great moment. Well, neither of them have complained, so we're good.
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I just was a whole thing. I, I was like, damn.
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So I think it's good to have a little bit of, uh,
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reflection. I have no problem self-reflecting.
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Okay. And admitting when I'm wrong. Okay.
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That one time it happened last week.
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But, um, yeah, so we learned jet lag sucks.
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Jet lag sucks. It was— so is coach.
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And sitting next— sitting on the aisle or the middle seat
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when you're in coach transit is pure
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hell. Yeah, we— because then you always get some stupid-ass
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lady in the middle that's like, I gotta go to the bathroom, I'm really sorry.
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I'm like, the fuck you are, stop drinking so much shit. Yeah, wear a diaper.
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Yeah, come on. Is this your first flight?
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Just like Kubitschek when we were in dental school and he wanted
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to go for all-nighters. No, his big thing was, uh, at Wrigley
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Field, the bleacher seats weren't reserved seats.
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So if you go and get a good seat, then you gotta keep it.
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And so you could never leave to go to the bathroom. So he wore a
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diaper. It's like being in Times Square on New Year's Eve. Same,
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same philosophy. Either pee yourself or wear a diaper because you're
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either not getting out Or you're not getting back in. Yeah, it's closed
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down for business. Exactly. So,
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um, I neither condone, uh,
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peeing in a diaper or peeing on yourself.
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You know, I think there's an OnlyFans for that, isn't there?
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Oh God, I don't know. There's got— I don't know anything about OnlyFans. Sorry,
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I just think it— I probably should have an OnlyFans. Oh really?
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I can just yell at people online. Isn't that what somebody does? I think there's
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There's probably— I think I could just insult people. Isn't there a fetish site?
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So if you want some abuse, you just go there and pay for it?
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I don't know. I don't need abuse. So anybody listening that pays for fetish things—
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Let us know the details of that, 'cause I don't understand it. Give me the
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URL. You're fine. You're married to me. I yell at
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you enough. It's all fine. That's why I
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drink. That's why I drink.
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And drink. Whatever it takes.
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I was told I was mean today. Oh yeah,
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I was told that. No, you got it twice. I had one in
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the review comment and then one on the, the Facebook
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thing. Oh, that's right. Well, the one says I
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have terrible energy, which is— I didn't see that one. That's the one I told
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you about, that she's like, you're so negative, your energy is— yeah,
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okay, we're gonna have to give some context. So, so wait, I guess
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we should point out, um, This is an advice show, Holly.
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Okay. I didn't say good advice. I just
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said it's an advice show. And Holly has had a banner day, uh, in the
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Facebook groups. Oh, I'm extremely negative is what she said. There you go. Okay.
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There you go. Okay. So what
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we've done for the new listener, um, what we've
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done is we've cultivated the good questions or good
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scenarios that we found in all the social
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bullshits that we
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think is actually educational and beneficial if we kind of talk about it, because our
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ranting to each other during the day wasn't enough.
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So there was a lot of times today where we're like, oh, that's going on
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the pod. And so did you have one that you wanted
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to start off with? I thought this was interesting. So do you want to lead
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with you being the negative energy? Yes. Okay.
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Considering in our— at our office, there's a sign on our front door
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that says, check your energy before you walk through this door. I just
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had to laugh. For those that don't know, we got crystals up the ass at
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the office. We are a very zen office,
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and we do swear a lot, but we are very zen
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about it. But zen, zen swear. But my thing is,
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I'm just a realist. It's not that I'm mean or I'm
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negative or No, I'm not. I'm not innately negative unless
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you bring me something that you
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want an answer, you're asking for an opinion,
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and I'm just not going to sugarcoat it. That's the difference. The problem
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is too many people got trophies for having an 0-16
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soccer season. Which is they lost every game.
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They didn't win all 16. That's what the O meant. I know,
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but You have to clarify because some people, some people
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did get trophies for actually winning their games. Yeah, those, that makes sense. 16-0.
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That makes sense. Absolutely. Give them a trophy. Give them more than
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a trophy. Give them a party. Yeah. That sounds like a fun time. So too
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many people only seek advice to have other people—
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people want an echo chamber. They want people to agree with
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them and tell them that whatever their position is,
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is the right one. And everybody else sucks for disagreeing
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with you or whatever. And in these Facebook groups,
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you don't fulfill that role. Well, don't ask,
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don't be an asshole. Don't ask a question
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if you don't want a truthful answer. I get that people want
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to feel validated and want to feel like they have value. It does
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seem like the dental industry is full of snowflakes.
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But let's be realistic. So this one is,
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I'm currently working as an assistant manager at a large DSO and
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recently received a job offer from a private practice. I'm currently making $34
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an hour and the private practice is offering me $36 an hour. One thing
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that makes me hesitate is that I've never personally processed
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dental insurance claims because my current office has a department that handles
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all of that. My current office is high volume. We have 3 providers,
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a full-time hygienist, a specialty— a specialist
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every week. We average 50 to 60 patients per day.
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The private practice, on the other hand, has 1 doctor and sees
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about 12 patients per day. Okay, so if you are— Wait a
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minute, there's one hygienist for 3 doctors? Yeah.
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Okay, that sounds like an underperforming DSO.
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Well, okay, but the problem is she's been
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hired. I buried the lead. They've given her a job offer to be an
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office manager at a single doctor,
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so there's only 12 patients a day that they're seeing. So they're not going
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to have 97 admin
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Because fun fact, a private practice can't afford 97 admin to do
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a job that one person should be able to do when there's only
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12 patients a day. When I've helped out at DSOs, I've— it
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felt to me that every one of— every single one of them was way overstaffed.
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Well, and I get having everybody have a job
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when you're basically running a mill,
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you know, any type of mill. You go to a wood mill or
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whatever, steel mill or whatever, everybody's got their job. They— this
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guy drills the hole in the steel and this guy changes the whatever,
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and this is what they do all day long. Never actually worked in a mill.
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Yeah, I don't know what they do, but like even like a paper, a pencil
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factory, some people are in charge of the little erasers,
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some people are in charge of the little metal thing around the pencil top,
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some people are in charge of the wood shavings that go— whatever. I'll be honest,
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I've never been there either. Okay, well, you're just
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a snowflake yourself. Okay, but I get it.
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You're running this mass mill, but you
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only have one job. If you're going to go to a private practice,
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a single doctor per private practice,
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they're not going to need a
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receptionist, a scheduler, a treatment plan coordinator,
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and an insurance coordinator. They're going to expect
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that job to be filled by one person when
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you claim that you're an office manager. When you
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claim that you are an office manager, they're going to expect you to be able
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to do all of those jobs. They may have
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crossover. And does it really sound like one doctor, I mean,
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does he really need an office manager or just a front desk? Well,
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and that's what I'm sure she went there thinking she was just gonna be a
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receptionist. But Holly
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rolls in with her comment. I said,
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Holly is full of opinions. Well, I, I was very—
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okay, I said, you need to stay where you are.
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You'll be fired at the other office. Because the
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reason I say that is because If
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all of a sudden there's no money coming in,
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the doctor's going to notice really quickly that you don't know what the fuck you're
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doing. Yeah, there's no hiding in an office that is
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appropriately staffed. Yeah, when there's only one person up
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front and that's your job is to take care of everything up front, it's easy
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to find blame because it's only you. It's only you. There's no one to hide.
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You're not passing the buck to the doctor and you're not passing the buck to
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the hygienist or the assistant. You shouldn't. And so,
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you know, you're— yes, it's a $2 raise,
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but it's a lot more if you can do it. If you've
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been with your DSO for 5 years, you have
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the potential to move up in that company if you are
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a good employee, right? And you have the potential of making more money unless
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you plan to do a lot of CE on your own and
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get trained on how to do everything else. They're gonna
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fire you. Absolutely. There have been plenty of times where I hired someone that they
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said all the right things in the interview. I thought for sure we found the
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solution, the missing link, the, the one person I needed to become very successful.
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And then it usually doesn't take very long before I realize,
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oh shit, I, I gotta get rid of them. So she responds to
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me, she says, because I said stay where you are or you're gonna get fired,
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and she goes You're extremely negative. I don't trust you.
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I said, no, I'm a realist. If you don't
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know how to bill insurance from the go,
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they will fire you. They are hiring an office manager.
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That is an integral role of the office manager,
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is to know how to do all of the jobs of the front.
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Mm-hmm. She didn't respond to me. Did anybody else comment
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on your— No, actually everybody quit responding to the whole entire thread. Oh, the thread
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died. Holly killed the thread.
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But I'm like, no, I'm 100% right and it's
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really irresponsible of you to
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go into a private practice knowing you don't know how to get that money for
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that doctor and fuck him over. That is really
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irresponsible. That's not okay on any level. If you
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want to know how to get to that job,
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ask them to train you at your DSO. Ask them if you can shadow
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someone else. Learn how to do— yeah, learn the job, the different jobs
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that are required by a single office office manager.
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You— it is so irresponsible of you to go in. I mean, we had
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Maggie. Maggie was a dumb fuck. She was terrible. I didn't
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know how to do anything in dentistry. And I kept looking at you, I'm like,
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you are busy, why don't you have any money? Yeah, we— this
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Maggie was the one I— when I bought the practice, she— I inherited her as
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the office manager. So for, for those listening that were going, who the fuck's
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Maggie? And she, she lasted
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almost 2 years, but I should find out she didn't know how to process insurance.
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She had no clue to do anything. And it took me— when I say she
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lasted 2 years, that means, uh, I That was 19 months too
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long. She didn't last 2 years with us because I came in there after you
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fired Bob's wife at
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6 months. And then I came in and I was like, I don't understand why—
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That was in April of '99. And then
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it was 2000 that you came in.
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No, you were— No, it was before that. It was in the summer because
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that's when I realized there were all of the—
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I was like, Maggie, what is this stack? And she goes, oh, that's insurance
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claims, don't worry about it. And I was like, all Maggie knew how to do
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was to press resubmit. She never, she never understood
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how to read the EOB.
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Maybe never learned to read. I, I don't know. I mean, I, I— but
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she— I, I started looking. I'm like, for those that don't know, sometimes insurance
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will say we need more info. Yeah. So resubmit submit, but add the x-ray that
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we're missing, or the narrative, or whatever. And she did none
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of that. She did nothing. She just resubmitted. There was this huge stack, and I
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called the insurance company and I said, so my husband and
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I just bought this practice, and I have this huge stack
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of insurance correspondence from you. And thank
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God, thank whoever,
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Jebus, the entire universe that I got somebody on
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the phone that felt sorry for me. Yeah. And she's
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like, well, let's see if we can walk through it. And I was like,
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okay, I have these claims. So we had 100 at— so this
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was in '98. So we had $156,000
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in insurance, unprocessed insurance claims. This is why we didn't
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have any money. And all they needed were
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attachments. And so this woman walked
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me through every single claim. Some of them were too old and
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she excused them and pushed them through and got them paid.
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And, but I looked at it, I'm like, you got to fire her.
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She doesn't know what she's doing. I had hired a consultant around
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this time. And even my consultant, it's one thing to
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have an opinion, but when you actually have hard numbers, showing someone
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is totally incompetent. So my consultant, we were at a
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workshop. It was a thing where we're all doing,
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you know, mise en scène, the playacting of things
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and scenarios and stuff. And so she shows
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me the numbers and she looks at me and she just goes,
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are you going to fire her or me? And I'm
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like, what? It felt like I should, as the boss, it should be me.
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So, it was me. Oh no, actually, I didn't even need to fire
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her. I was the, um, I, but this
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is back when we had newspapers and I put an ad in the paper for
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employment, which she saw. And I, she did the math. I didn't say
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who it was or anything like that, but she knew the math or did the
17:55.210 --> 17:57.882
math and knew it was me. And, um,
17:59.468 --> 18:02.705
I could tell she just had an attitude on Monday and then
18:02.786 --> 18:06.395
told me, you okay? And then it just escalated
18:06.895 --> 18:10.436
right there. So didn't have to fire her, she kind of quit. But I
18:10.468 --> 18:14.548
mean, how— you cannot— you
18:15.048 --> 18:18.353
need— if you're looking for a job in the dental office and you don't know
18:18.481 --> 18:21.802
how to do anything, you're applying to be a
18:21.882 --> 18:24.694
receptionist. Well, staying with Maggie, she left.
18:25.080 --> 18:28.985
I saw her at another office, she became an office manager and
18:29.033 --> 18:33.035
lasted, I think, a couple months. And was fired because she
18:33.131 --> 18:36.372
claimed, I'm an office manager, I have 15 years experience, I have 30 years experience
18:37.078 --> 18:40.480
doing jack squat, nothing, and never collecting any money.
18:40.528 --> 18:43.416
Couldn't do the job. So if you can't do the job,
18:43.721 --> 18:46.978
you don't keep the job. That again, that was
18:47.026 --> 18:50.235
my point to this girl who said I was being negative and I wasn't being
18:50.735 --> 18:54.535
negative. I would rather watch her keep her job and excel in
18:54.568 --> 18:58.723
where she's at and move up in her company and learn how to do stuff
18:59.140 --> 19:01.628
than to go and do that to somebody else. Or not even move up in
19:02.128 --> 19:05.176
the company, learn the job. And then go get the other job. Yeah,
19:05.803 --> 19:09.659
but don't, don't deceive a
19:09.996 --> 19:13.483
single— they're not— they don't have companies coming
19:14.061 --> 19:17.178
to shovel them out of a problem.
19:17.435 --> 19:21.388
They don't have people giving them money. These private practices are
19:21.888 --> 19:25.308
reliant on their staff to do what they say they can do. If you can't
19:25.808 --> 19:29.309
do what you're saying you can do, you are literally screwing the doctor.
19:29.678 --> 19:33.031
Right. And that is completely unethical
19:33.531 --> 19:36.624
as far as I'm concerned. Yeah. And I hate to say it, if you're the
19:37.124 --> 19:39.223
only one in the front, no one else is there to teach you how to
19:39.287 --> 19:42.945
do it. Exactly. That, that was my point, was you have an opportunity
19:43.041 --> 19:45.752
at the DSO to learn all the different roles,
19:46.506 --> 19:49.731
because as soon as you're the only one up front,
19:49.939 --> 19:54.287
there's nowhere to hide. There's nowhere to hide. And you
19:54.787 --> 19:58.858
don't know, in 2 months You could put this guy out of business if
19:59.358 --> 20:02.690
he's incredibly insurance-driven. It might take a little longer, but— and most of his money's
20:03.190 --> 20:06.603
coming from insurance and you don't file anything or file anything.
20:06.715 --> 20:09.938
Well, I guess that would be the other argument is maybe he's so
20:10.003 --> 20:13.386
fee-for-service, there is no insurance claims to worry about. Well, then she wouldn't have asked
20:13.886 --> 20:17.539
about it. Yeah, that's true. Okay. Because if it was so
20:17.555 --> 20:20.506
menial, then she could have just asked us online, hey,
20:20.586 --> 20:22.815
I got this patient and I have to file this claim. What do I do?
20:23.875 --> 20:27.808
If it's one thing, but you also have to know how to deal with insurance
20:28.308 --> 20:31.806
companies. I mean, you have sat in your consult
20:32.306 --> 20:35.804
room and listened to me literally scream at insurance companies. Oh yeah, they're actually
20:36.013 --> 20:39.529
kind of funny. And if you don't have that
20:39.593 --> 20:43.350
kind of backbone to deal, I mean, 'cause they're
20:43.382 --> 20:46.866
vipers. They will, they don't give a shit about your
20:46.914 --> 20:50.495
practice. No, they actually kind of enjoy it. I had my cousin,
20:50.607 --> 20:53.847
she used to work for Delta Dental. And, um, I learned a couple things from,
20:53.975 --> 20:57.550
a few things from her. It, it is true. Friday afternoon comes along,
20:57.967 --> 21:01.509
any unprocessed claims on your, her desk, they literally just
21:01.574 --> 21:04.844
shoved them into the garbage. So, so the other offices
21:04.860 --> 21:07.649
needed to figure out that they needed to resubmit or whatever. Yeah. Or gave them
21:07.697 --> 21:11.031
an extra 3 to a month. But she had, there was her,
21:11.352 --> 21:13.885
the person on the desk next to her or the cubicle next door,
21:15.135 --> 21:18.550
like literally giggled when she would be able to
21:18.758 --> 21:22.236
see that they, they forgot to check a box or something. So they, she would
21:22.269 --> 21:26.891
just deny that claim and deny this claim and haha, like she enjoyed
21:26.923 --> 21:30.104
it. She absolutely enjoyed screwing over the dental office.
21:30.521 --> 21:34.087
So if you don't have someone that can take on that type
21:34.587 --> 21:37.765
of a personality, you're not gonna do very well. Well, and you'll
21:38.265 --> 21:40.657
end up writing a lot of stuff off, which is what I'm afraid a lot
21:41.157 --> 21:45.363
of guys end up doing. It does appear that a lot of offices are used
21:45.395 --> 21:48.736
to writing things off, just losing the money.
21:50.307 --> 21:53.764
Pete Dawson called it dumb, fat, and happy. Yeah, there's just enough money coming in
21:54.384 --> 21:57.676
that you got your bills paid, and you're fat
21:58.176 --> 22:01.919
because— so you have enough to live on too, but you're dumb because you're
22:02.096 --> 22:05.681
doing that shit until you're not. Yeah, because it always
22:05.938 --> 22:09.379
ultimately ends, and it usually ends by something
22:09.636 --> 22:12.450
drastically happening that really screws you.
22:14.260 --> 22:17.775
And, you know, like I was telling you, I said When
22:17.807 --> 22:21.799
you have an interview for a front office person,
22:22.873 --> 22:26.864
2 of the first questions need to be, how are you with insurance
22:27.364 --> 22:30.888
companies and how are you with confrontation? Right. It's not that you're
22:31.388 --> 22:35.344
gonna have confrontation with patients. We don't have confrontation with patients. No.
22:36.001 --> 22:39.752
And, but you do have confrontation with insurance companies.
22:40.346 --> 22:43.375
Like I had, I had an insurance company call me the other day and I
22:43.391 --> 22:46.726
looked, I said to them, I am about 2 seconds away from sending this
22:47.062 --> 22:50.936
patient to collections. And I will make sure that he
22:51.242 --> 22:55.172
has everything he needs to come back on you because
22:55.349 --> 22:58.831
you have everything and you guys are just being— you're just
22:59.331 --> 23:02.753
delaying everything. But I'm done and I'm
23:02.849 --> 23:05.900
done dealing with this. So you either pay the claim,
23:06.578 --> 23:09.167
he's going to collections, then I will help him sue you.
23:09.815 --> 23:13.782
Those are your options. What'd they say? They're like,
23:14.170 --> 23:18.080
okay, thank you for your time. I said, can I get a reference number for
23:18.096 --> 23:21.491
this call? And they were like, uh-uh, uh-uh. And so
23:21.507 --> 23:24.693
I said, and then what was your name? And she
23:25.193 --> 23:28.679
was like, oh. Yeah, people need to know that when you actually are
23:29.179 --> 23:32.777
on the phone with insurance people, get a reference number, talk to the
23:32.953 --> 23:36.762
person you're talking to, get their name, time of the phone call,
23:37.115 --> 23:40.506
all the information, because you never know when you're gonna need to refer
23:41.006 --> 23:43.327
back to that. 'Cause you had that one, there was one, you had a 3-way
23:43.392 --> 23:45.559
call, and a patient was mad at you, us,
23:46.320 --> 23:49.769
because of we didn't submit the claim. Well,
23:49.785 --> 23:52.577
we work with a lot. We work a lot with medical, so we're dealing with
23:52.593 --> 23:55.914
large numbers. But I remember that one years ago where
23:56.139 --> 23:59.363
you were at a 3-way call with the insurance and they were mad at you.
23:59.428 --> 24:02.267
The patient was mad at you, but the patient then heard you say,
24:02.797 --> 24:06.311
no, I've got, I talked with so-and-so on this date with here's the reference number,
24:06.327 --> 24:10.418
this and that. And then suddenly the missing files and stuff, they found
24:10.918 --> 24:13.787
the folder. They're like, oh, here it is. Oh, I'm sorry. We'll go ahead and
24:14.287 --> 24:18.677
get this rate pushed through. Yeah. Yeah, fuck off. Suddenly that patient, she was
24:18.741 --> 24:22.123
gonna leave the practice. She stayed with us for another 15 years before she moved.
24:22.267 --> 24:25.937
Yeah, but it's— Yeah, people— You have
24:25.969 --> 24:29.414
to have somebody up front who's not afraid of the
24:29.914 --> 24:33.485
insurance company. Not afraid of conflict. You had conflict today. Yeah, I did have conflict
24:33.985 --> 24:37.011
today, which was weird because I didn't really feel like it was conflict. I didn't
24:37.511 --> 24:40.985
think it was conflict either. The person was confused and left. Yeah, well,
24:41.258 --> 24:44.319
we had a guy that came in for a consultation and it was a free
24:44.383 --> 24:47.912
consultation. So I do offer I have a limited free consultation.
24:47.992 --> 24:51.396
People come in, it's a screener, it's a, it's a screening thing. So I try
24:51.896 --> 24:55.394
to limit it to 15, maybe it goes up to 30 minutes. I, I want
24:55.894 --> 24:58.429
to be able to— since it's free, we try to make it fairly brief,
24:58.445 --> 25:02.186
but I'm fairly comprehensive. Um, we do a focus on implants, so I'll—
25:02.604 --> 25:06.088
I'm okay with a free CBCT. So I'll do a CBCT, iTero scan.
25:06.136 --> 25:09.267
It's not a CBCT, they can't come and get it from us. Well, they could
25:09.283 --> 25:11.515
pay for it and then take it. Yeah, but they're not, but they don't.
25:12.237 --> 25:15.300
And so a person came in for a free consult because there's a— there was
25:15.800 --> 25:18.780
a debate recently, who does free consults? And, and I see both sides of,
25:19.133 --> 25:22.389
of it. Um, as the resident expert, yeah,
25:22.613 --> 25:26.446
my time is worth a lot, but you know, I, I'm okay
25:26.510 --> 25:30.279
with giving a little bit right there, but I don't give anything past that.
25:30.359 --> 25:33.647
Yeah. And, uh, the person came in, well, even though it's a
25:34.147 --> 25:37.592
free consult, we're still making you fill out a medical history. Well, because That
25:38.092 --> 25:41.815
protects them and it protects us. I mean, they're— I'm held to a HIPAA situation
25:41.847 --> 25:45.941
when they've signed our forms and— Well, I can't answer your questions without me
25:46.441 --> 25:49.570
knowing everything. Yeah. Are you diabetic? Well, let's put that on the
25:50.070 --> 25:53.889
form. So, um, the guy had been there, what, 5 minutes?
25:54.226 --> 25:58.256
Not even that. So I'm setting up the CBCT to get ready for—
25:58.756 --> 26:00.761
because he showed up early and my assistant was out to lunch and I'm like,
26:00.857 --> 26:04.131
oh, I'll just— I'll take it. And Next thing I know,
26:04.228 --> 26:07.339
he— I heard some words between y'all and then he's gone.
26:08.349 --> 26:12.198
So what happened? He— it was line 2 of
26:12.727 --> 26:15.406
page 2? Yeah, well, it was the,
26:16.095 --> 26:19.688
you know, you have your patient paperwork, they fill out all of their main
26:19.784 --> 26:23.328
information. This is where I live, this is my name, address, insurance, blah, blah,
26:23.489 --> 26:26.712
blah. And then the next page is a financial thing that whatever we do,
26:27.001 --> 26:30.690
that you are ultimately responsible for your portion regardless
26:30.850 --> 26:34.941
if we're helping you bill insurance or whatever. And he
26:34.957 --> 26:37.974
wouldn't sign it. He's like, this is free. I said,
26:38.150 --> 26:41.183
I understand that you're here for a free consult. He's like, well, I'm not paying
26:41.280 --> 26:44.265
anything. Why do I have to sign this? I said, because this is standard patient
26:44.765 --> 26:48.229
paperwork and I don't have separate paperwork for free consults
26:48.903 --> 26:52.289
and everyone else, because if you decide to move forward, we just go.
26:53.316 --> 26:56.750
And he, um, he's like, well, this is supposed to be free. I said,
26:57.087 --> 26:59.767
if it was going to cost you something, you would have already paid me.
27:02.404 --> 27:04.339
And he goes, well, I'm not filling this out. And I said, then we won't
27:04.839 --> 27:08.257
be seeing you. And he hands me the paperwork back and he leaves.
27:08.386 --> 27:11.744
And I was like, all right. So then, um, about an
27:12.244 --> 27:15.882
hour later I was on Facebook and he had made a comment to
27:16.172 --> 27:19.440
one of my ads and just making sure,
27:19.795 --> 27:22.667
just so you know, I'm not, it's not going to happen here. I just had
27:23.167 --> 27:27.273
the worst experience with the most, the rudest
27:27.773 --> 27:31.016
aggressive front desk and she was this. So I saw it and I responded,
27:31.384 --> 27:34.814
but he was too stupid to, because even in his comment, he said
27:34.846 --> 27:38.147
that she said it was free, but then I— but she wanted
27:38.647 --> 27:41.737
me to sign up my, her paperwork, you know, and it wasn't free. So I
27:42.237 --> 27:45.342
said, she literally told you it was no, if she was going to charge you
27:45.842 --> 27:49.204
anything, if she would have already collected it, therefore it was free for today.
27:49.974 --> 27:53.836
And the, It, uh, so we were— he
27:54.336 --> 27:57.362
said, never contact me again. I'm like, well, that's on you. You go ahead and
27:57.763 --> 28:01.177
block me. You're gonna still see stuff. That's on— it's on
28:01.353 --> 28:03.837
you. You're the one that came here. We didn't go pick you up,
28:04.671 --> 28:08.004
so we're not harassing you. You're the one on this Facebook
28:08.504 --> 28:10.921
page. Yeah, I'm like, harassing me. I'm like,
28:12.172 --> 28:15.794
I, I don't know if any of you guys see patients
28:16.294 --> 28:20.009
without signing documentation before they come back into your operatory.
28:20.907 --> 28:24.901
But you need to not. You need to have them sign something
28:25.479 --> 28:28.815
because it, it protects you and them.
28:29.569 --> 28:33.227
And whether it's just a basic form,
28:33.676 --> 28:36.483
and then once they come in, I mean, you have to know their health.
28:36.563 --> 28:40.413
If you're supposed to be diagnosing something, you need health history.
28:41.199 --> 28:44.599
You need to know how to contact them again. You need the HIPAA
28:44.648 --> 28:48.032
form signed. I mean, there's all these things that are required of
28:48.532 --> 28:52.075
you as a provider that nobody should be walking through your
28:52.348 --> 28:55.995
dividing door that goes from your front desk to
28:56.140 --> 28:59.867
your operatory without having some kind of documentation
28:59.915 --> 29:03.381
signed. Because I
29:03.446 --> 29:07.497
hate to say it, offices get busy. You forget
29:07.997 --> 29:09.758
that these patients don't have signed documentation.
29:11.302 --> 29:14.372
And if they don't have signed documentation and you do work,
29:14.760 --> 29:18.134
you have no legal standing. They're technically
29:18.634 --> 29:21.086
not your patient and you just fucked up. You just completely fucked up. They don't
29:21.586 --> 29:23.893
have to pay you shit. They haven't agreed to anything. Yeah.
29:25.048 --> 29:28.497
So, and so, so twice today, yeah,
29:28.706 --> 29:31.385
I was called rude. Yeah, yeah. Bad energy.
29:31.609 --> 29:35.123
Bad energy, which is the funniest shit I've ever— of all people.
29:35.299 --> 29:39.117
I know, I'm like, I'm over here with my like sound bath and
29:39.149 --> 29:43.288
I've got all of my crystals everywhere. I have a feeling he felt very uncomfortable
29:43.465 --> 29:46.625
in the room with all the crystals. Because when you— that might be when you
29:47.125 --> 29:50.706
come— because he was like instantaneously aggressive
29:51.223 --> 29:54.804
when I gave him his paperwork, and then he went and sat down for like
29:54.869 --> 29:57.827
2 minutes, and then he came back, back up at me. And I was like,
29:59.507 --> 30:02.373
yeah, I didn't even have a chance to put his name in the computer for
30:02.873 --> 30:05.839
the— to do the CBC. He didn't even— it was that fast. He didn't even
30:06.339 --> 30:10.090
write his name on the paper. At least he didn't waste any
30:10.647 --> 30:14.048
True, but it just was such a— it was such a weird thing. But like,
30:14.096 --> 30:16.919
when you come into our office, we have crystals everywhere.
30:17.080 --> 30:20.176
Like, everywhere. Yeah, ferns.
30:20.369 --> 30:24.363
It was just— and we've got plants everywhere, and it's very zen and
30:24.863 --> 30:28.599
very just— yeah, it's just a whole vibe in our office. Most people
30:28.856 --> 30:32.610
love it. Everybody but him. Except Renee,
30:32.626 --> 30:35.096
who had a problem. And but,
30:35.754 --> 30:39.152
you know, it, it is a good topic
30:39.652 --> 30:42.758
to talk about because I know a lot of guys get lazy and they're like,
30:42.822 --> 30:45.770
no, I'll just see him. Don't. Well, not only that,
30:45.786 --> 30:49.312
a lot of us— I mean, I don't verify, do we have all the
30:49.812 --> 30:53.318
things for him? I assume that the front desk is there, everybody did their job.
30:54.039 --> 30:57.741
So if you didn't, I'm gonna get in trouble because I've made some
30:58.241 --> 31:01.907
assumptions. Yeah, you've dropped the ball. Sure, I should have verified that it was
31:02.880 --> 31:06.140
done. But yeah, but you're, you're supposed to have people that know
31:06.640 --> 31:09.720
what they're doing, so you're not supposed to have to babysit yourself. If I have
31:10.220 --> 31:13.540
to ask, there's a problem. Which leads me to my next question. Oh really?
31:14.040 --> 31:16.360
Okay, was that a good segue? That wasn't— you would think I planned that.
31:16.860 --> 31:19.280
You know what, I didn't even plan it, and it's a whole thing. Okay,
31:19.780 --> 31:21.260
okay, but I'm gonna need my glasses because I can't read this.
31:23.640 --> 31:27.160
Your Elton John glasses? Yeah. Um, are you a Rocketman?
31:27.660 --> 31:31.113
This is the wrong thing. Oh shit. Um, Is it unreasonable for a doctor to
31:31.613 --> 31:33.004
tell the office manager to work on something?
31:35.040 --> 31:37.987
I have a quick question for those— wait, what? I have a quick question for
31:38.487 --> 31:42.771
those other office managers out there. If your doctor comes to you in—
31:43.029 --> 31:45.451
into your office in the morning and tells you, today I want you to work
31:45.951 --> 31:48.960
on the schedule for tomorrow because we have tons of openings, for me it's a
31:49.460 --> 31:53.390
little irritating because I know that— and I've been in the industry since 1992
31:53.890 --> 31:56.594
and I'm aware that the schedule needs to be full. I don't go into his
31:56.691 --> 32:00.238
office in the morning and tell him which patients should be numb. Am I being
32:00.255 --> 32:02.635
unreasonable? I'm sorry, it just irritates me.
32:06.503 --> 32:08.959
You wanna know what my answer is? I can guess your answer.
32:10.393 --> 32:11.663
You're not the fucking boss.
32:13.960 --> 32:17.389
You guys are not equal. That was my answer.
32:18.066 --> 32:21.624
He is your boss. He is the one that has the license
32:22.124 --> 32:25.339
that is in charge of the show. I mean, I did
32:25.371 --> 32:29.323
have an employee years ago. This would have been in 2002.
32:30.271 --> 32:33.951
In hindsight, I think she actually thought that we were peers.
32:34.288 --> 32:36.265
We were equals. We're in this together.
32:37.181 --> 32:40.410
And it wasn't until after she was gone and I had to fire her and
32:40.910 --> 32:43.062
all that kind of— then I realized, if I have to give you money out
32:43.562 --> 32:46.902
of my pocket, we're not peers. If I pay— yeah,
32:46.918 --> 32:49.955
if I'm paying you, I'm in charge. Yeah.
32:50.990 --> 32:53.720
You're— I, that was at the time I was looking for a space. I moved
32:54.220 --> 32:57.300
my practice, uh, at this time. Oh, that's right. And I was like,
32:57.800 --> 32:59.820
why didn't you tell me? I, I, well, I found a location that I was
33:00.320 --> 33:03.320
considering. I actually didn't really want it, but she, she was mad at me because
33:03.820 --> 33:07.140
it was going to make her commute worse and that, uh, her, her opinion would
33:07.640 --> 33:10.300
matter. And I, and she got mad when I said, well, it doesn't matter what
33:10.800 --> 33:14.640
you think. And she's like, what? I'm like, I'm the one
33:15.140 --> 33:17.760
that's going to have to write the check for $500,000. So I think I get
33:18.260 --> 33:21.912
to choose where. And she's like, well, it's just that, you know,
33:22.041 --> 33:25.686
that I don't like that, you know, because the commute really was against traffic and
33:26.186 --> 33:29.849
the flow of this. It really would have been a hell commute. Um, but I
33:29.882 --> 33:32.675
don't care. Not your fucking practice.
33:34.030 --> 33:37.150
Yeah, it's interesting to me how,
33:39.058 --> 33:42.388
um, how self-important
33:42.888 --> 33:46.583
a lot of people are in dentistry. That are
33:47.083 --> 33:50.528
interchangeable. The only person in the office, if you are
33:51.028 --> 33:54.458
a private practice or part of a partnership practice that you own
33:54.561 --> 33:58.710
it, you're the only ones
33:59.871 --> 34:03.030
that aren't interchangeable. To be fair, if I
34:03.110 --> 34:07.328
sell my practice, that person replaces me, therefore I
34:07.458 --> 34:10.757
am interchangeable. You are choosing to move your piece.
34:11.591 --> 34:15.054
Okay, you are— you, same person, uh, was mad
34:15.102 --> 34:18.741
years ago with the hygienist because I said at one point, I said something about,
34:18.869 --> 34:22.139
um, being replaceable, and, um,
34:22.572 --> 34:25.634
she didn't like that. I'm like, everyone, we're all replaceable.
34:26.804 --> 34:29.465
And I, I use the— I could sell the practice and have someone else come
34:29.965 --> 34:32.719
in. I'm replaced. Nobody's irreplaceable. Get off your high horse.
34:33.456 --> 34:37.079
You're not so important. But it's just my— I'm like— but
34:37.175 --> 34:39.949
my point, when you first told me this part, I, I said, well, look,
34:39.965 --> 34:43.381
if you've got a list of duties and priority number 1 is number 1,
34:43.413 --> 34:46.430
and number 7 is down the— it's number 7.
34:46.864 --> 34:49.512
If I suddenly came to you in the morning and said, I want your number
34:50.012 --> 34:53.027
7 to be number 1 today, guess what?
34:53.589 --> 34:57.698
Number 7 is number 1. It doesn't matter
34:58.198 --> 35:01.390
what you think. Well, and that's, that's the thing that I'm like mind-boggled of.
35:01.454 --> 35:04.648
And, but you did raise a point that was, you know, but then
35:04.681 --> 35:07.891
I asked, wait, is she in a DSO? Which I don't know. It doesn't say.
35:08.116 --> 35:12.321
Yeah. 'Cause, 'cause if the, when I've been at the DSOs, the doctors, are kind
35:12.821 --> 35:16.704
of equal. It's ridiculous, but they're viewed
35:17.204 --> 35:20.461
as coworkers. Well, what's ridiculous is you guys are the only ones with the license.
35:20.879 --> 35:24.235
We're the only ones producing. Well, and hygienists, both you and the hygienist.
35:24.331 --> 35:27.927
The 2 producers, yeah. And you guys have a lot more writing
35:28.184 --> 35:31.379
on any decision that's made. Right. So no one else should
35:31.411 --> 35:34.109
be making a decision based on your license.
35:35.586 --> 35:39.656
Well, when it comes clinical, for sure. Yeah, and so,
35:40.477 --> 35:44.053
you know, I can get if she is the office manager
35:44.118 --> 35:47.953
for a DSO and she's in charge of making these
35:48.066 --> 35:51.339
7 doctors and these 12 hygienists and these 19
35:51.907 --> 35:55.967
assistants and the 12 front desk people all work
35:56.695 --> 36:01.516
interchangeably, but ultimately
36:01.778 --> 36:05.514
you're not the same caliber
36:05.966 --> 36:09.402
of employee as the doctor. I,
36:09.676 --> 36:14.558
I don't care what you say or what you are— you
36:14.606 --> 36:17.497
have too much riding on whatever happens.
36:18.402 --> 36:21.874
She's going to get her fucking paycheck whether you produce and
36:21.955 --> 36:25.215
take home any money at all, right? So she can
36:25.715 --> 36:28.871
shut the fuck up if you want to. If you only want her to
36:29.371 --> 36:31.581
fill the schedule That's what she fucking does,
36:33.291 --> 36:37.145
right? Well, I mean, I had that one where I worked in that one office
36:37.177 --> 36:40.939
just south of here, uh, where— oh, Ray's. Yeah, when she
36:41.439 --> 36:44.569
was telling me that it was gonna be a full mouth reconstruction, but it was
36:45.069 --> 36:46.738
gonna be for what, this, what other fee? And I just looked at her and
36:47.238 --> 36:50.024
I said, I'm not doing it for less than X dollars. And she goes,
36:50.105 --> 36:52.539
well, that's just the way— I'm like, then I'm not doing it. And I was
36:53.039 --> 36:56.480
the only one in that office capable. And as I said, find someone else then,
36:56.546 --> 36:58.919
because if I'm doing it, you can— this is the fee.
36:59.738 --> 37:03.151
And then she was like, kind of, it was confrontational. Then I'm, I'm not.
37:03.976 --> 37:07.276
So I did the, all the presentation. I taught, had a consult with the patient.
37:07.357 --> 37:10.991
I did the financial, the whole fucking thing and got
37:11.491 --> 37:13.767
the fee, did the case. Uh,
37:15.914 --> 37:19.437
but yeah, it, it turns into a dick measuring with this front desk. It was
37:19.469 --> 37:22.788
great. I'm like, well, it seems like it's in DSOs in general. This is
37:22.804 --> 37:26.427
a broad stroke. Uh, The office managers seem
37:26.557 --> 37:29.869
more important. It almost seems like dentists are easier
37:30.369 --> 37:33.863
to replace. So, okay, more power to
37:34.363 --> 37:34.830
you. DSOs,
37:37.551 --> 37:41.190
credit, they're attacking the young men coming out of dental school
37:41.690 --> 37:45.097
and young women who don't think they— well, most— some
37:45.129 --> 37:48.456
of these things, some of these dental schools, people haven't even worked
37:48.956 --> 37:51.760
on people, so they don't really know what they're doing, which is astounding to me
37:51.777 --> 37:54.734
because you had so many requirements coming out of dental school.
37:57.297 --> 37:59.797
We didn't think we were getting out of dental school. Well, that's why I felt
38:00.297 --> 38:03.628
like I was capable to buy a practice. I was mere weeks from graduation that
38:04.128 --> 38:08.100
I owned a practice. But that's, I mean, they are predators.
38:08.196 --> 38:11.738
They're coming after these young guys because the
38:12.238 --> 38:15.745
dental schools really aren't teaching them how to do this, how to survive on their
38:16.245 --> 38:19.560
own. And in dental school, you do whatever the school tells
38:19.576 --> 38:23.391
you to do. So you're just going from one dictatorship to another.
38:25.747 --> 38:29.303
It's not until they've been in it for about 10 years and they've
38:29.803 --> 38:32.810
been to enough CE that they've actually realized— oh,
38:33.229 --> 38:36.723
careful you don't get that on your pants. Sorry,
38:36.980 --> 38:39.506
sorry, he's pouring wine and I was a little worried about his white linen pants.
38:40.584 --> 38:42.933
Beige, beige, whatever.
38:43.850 --> 38:46.918
But yeah, I don't know,
38:47.015 --> 38:50.758
I worry about these young guys coming out of dental school. I really
38:50.871 --> 38:54.456
do. The new grads just need to know that there's options out there and
38:54.956 --> 38:58.560
it doesn't have to be a DSO, and it
38:59.060 --> 39:02.669
doesn't have to be insurance-driven, and it doesn't have to be you're
39:02.685 --> 39:05.581
the low man on the totem pole. But it is work.
39:05.970 --> 39:09.477
I mean, yeah, I about had a fucking stroke when you first went
39:09.977 --> 39:12.531
to LVI. I, I was like, dude,
39:13.143 --> 39:16.335
the most expensive thing I had ever purchased was my car,
39:16.416 --> 39:20.331
and I think my car cost $1,200. And you're like, it's gonna cost $10,000
39:20.831 --> 39:23.707
for me to go to LVI. I'm like, the fuck it is. And you're like,
39:23.787 --> 39:26.825
yeah, I need to do this because otherwise I'm going to kill myself.
39:28.302 --> 39:30.711
And I was like, okay, so I guess you're going to LBL. Yeah, I guess
39:31.211 --> 39:34.227
you're going to. Yeah. And, and I probably would have because, because,
39:34.307 --> 39:36.379
um, it was the way that the practice was,
39:37.198 --> 39:39.751
dentistry, the way dental school teaches,
39:40.891 --> 39:44.664
I would have swallowed a bullet. Yeah, I was super worried. It was not,
39:44.760 --> 39:49.545
it was not a nice easy time. I remember constantly
39:50.219 --> 39:54.444
having anxiety over you and
39:54.702 --> 39:58.559
how you were handling things because you were having anxiety over this,
39:59.075 --> 40:03.284
and then we had the girls, and it was like, this is not fun.
40:03.706 --> 40:06.611
I don't know who said this was gonna be fun.
40:07.715 --> 40:09.662
It really wasn't what I thought I signed up for.
40:10.969 --> 40:14.652
Still isn't. Thank God for the friends that we made in dental school though.
40:17.000 --> 40:20.229
Those, and I call them boys, but they're not boys,
40:20.406 --> 40:23.377
they're men, they're grown-ass doctors who— A couple of them retired. I mean, they're so
40:23.393 --> 40:26.667
old that we There were
40:27.665 --> 40:31.675
these guys that just made
40:32.175 --> 40:35.405
it survivable, and a couple
40:35.905 --> 40:37.958
girls, Mary and Jana.
40:40.480 --> 40:44.231
They made it survivable. Ha! I mean, there just was some really
40:44.843 --> 40:48.498
quality people in your dental class that allowed us to survive.
40:48.868 --> 40:52.105
So if you are in dental school, because I know that we used to have
40:52.605 --> 40:56.082
a lot of dental school listeners, it gets
40:56.438 --> 40:59.946
really murky before it gets really, really great unless your dad
41:00.446 --> 41:02.856
is giving you his practice and has paid for your dental school.
41:03.082 --> 41:08.328
Yeah, I mean, yeah, it's, it's like that one LGBT
41:08.554 --> 41:12.059
ad, it gets better, you know. It's— it does,
41:12.317 --> 41:15.722
it does, it does. I mean, yeah, I mean, I look at our life and
41:16.222 --> 41:19.499
I wouldn't trade our life for pretty much anything. I think, you know, it's— we
41:19.999 --> 41:23.711
have our ups and downs. We are not We are not that
41:24.931 --> 41:29.728
dental couple that is perfect and we
41:30.228 --> 41:33.562
have more money. What dental couple is? Well, there's a lot on social media that
41:34.062 --> 41:37.460
profess themselves to be this. Oh, social media is a different, different ball of wax.
41:37.525 --> 41:40.926
But that's what most people are seeing. Yeah. And so you got to be
41:41.054 --> 41:44.744
realistic about it that you are going to have ups
41:45.244 --> 41:48.820
and downs, ebbs and flows, and it's not— it's
41:48.900 --> 41:52.447
rarely going to be perfect. Just remember, comparison is the
41:52.527 --> 41:56.395
thief of joy. Oh yeah, man. I mean, you got to find
41:56.895 --> 41:59.830
what works for you and just tell everybody else to fuck off.
42:00.135 --> 42:02.767
There you go. Words to live by. Words to live by. I mean,
42:02.960 --> 42:06.619
so it's, it's the truth. Um, did you have questions
42:06.635 --> 42:08.930
today? No, you, you kept, uh,
42:09.621 --> 42:12.526
come, come up with so many today. I said, you know what, I'm just gonna
42:13.026 --> 42:16.405
let you The show's on you. All right, so— because you had— there
42:16.905 --> 42:20.865
was another one that was compelling. Well, we had one
42:21.047 --> 42:25.860
where there was just a question about—
42:26.360 --> 42:30.463
we typically do not have weekend patients. However, I had someone contact
42:30.963 --> 42:34.724
me personally while I was— that it was irritating that their crown
42:34.740 --> 42:38.004
fell off and asked if the doctor could come in on a Saturday
42:38.680 --> 42:41.767
to fix the patient. We haven't seen this patient in 2 years. However,
42:42.696 --> 42:45.725
Her brother and her parents are both patients of ours.
42:46.238 --> 42:49.170
Okay, first of all, a crown falling off, not an emergency,
42:50.628 --> 42:53.993
and lack of preparation on your part does not constitute an
42:54.493 --> 42:58.014
emergency on mine. I haven't seen you in 2 years, fuck off,
42:58.078 --> 43:01.764
you're someone else's problem. I don't care if your mom and your brother and
43:02.264 --> 43:06.715
sister and aunt and uncle all come to our office. They probably
43:06.731 --> 43:09.839
come to my office regularly and take care of their shit,
43:10.509 --> 43:14.591
And don't have this happen. So my response
43:14.899 --> 43:17.782
again to this person, to this person on here— is it the same person?
43:17.880 --> 43:21.272
Different person. Okay. I'm like, oh my God. I'm like, she just lined them up.
43:21.692 --> 43:23.805
Um, I said, well, first of all,
43:25.560 --> 43:27.313
the only person that should be on call is Doc.
43:29.147 --> 43:31.680
And if he deems it an emergency, he'll call them back.
43:32.573 --> 43:36.032
If it's not, because like on my, my message
43:36.323 --> 43:39.611
it says if this is a true dental emergency
43:40.273 --> 43:43.162
and you are a current patient of record,
43:44.163 --> 43:47.602
please text this number, right? And so
43:48.667 --> 43:52.040
you get maybe one in a million.
43:52.702 --> 43:55.768
Yeah, it's pretty rare. But here's the other
43:56.268 --> 44:00.338
clinch that I said. I said we charge them $450
44:00.809 --> 44:03.875
cash for you to just show up.
44:04.226 --> 44:08.000
That doesn't include any treatment, and they have to have $450
44:08.337 --> 44:11.629
cash to give to me in order to get to the back room.
44:12.688 --> 44:15.916
So most people, when you say, yep, that's not a problem,
44:16.269 --> 44:19.255
Dr. Timmerman can leave his daughter's soccer game,
44:19.721 --> 44:23.543
um, he can meet you there at 2 o'clock, you'll need to have $450 cash,
44:24.137 --> 44:27.107
and then whatever treatment we end up doing, you're going to need to pay for
44:27.607 --> 44:30.254
that also, they go, what? Right.
44:31.057 --> 44:34.798
I'm like, yeah, this is— there's a $450 after-hours
44:34.975 --> 44:38.331
fee for basically not preparing.
44:39.631 --> 44:43.067
Yeah, we don't say that part, but it's implied. And then,
44:43.565 --> 44:47.258
or I could just see you on Monday. And so the— we—
44:47.758 --> 44:51.208
this was an evolution where when I first bought the practice, they had a set.
44:51.385 --> 44:54.853
It was like $60 for an after-hours fee, and a lot of people thought
44:55.225 --> 44:59.799
Yeah, that's worth $60. I'll come in on a Saturday to have the inconvenience
45:00.109 --> 45:03.715
addressed. And so people kept taking me
45:03.731 --> 45:06.302
up on it. And so then I increased it to $100.
45:06.848 --> 45:10.127
Think back then, 1998, $100 was probably
45:10.239 --> 45:13.116
$300 today, right? Or something, somewhere.
45:13.598 --> 45:17.164
So, um, I realized $100
45:17.470 --> 45:21.346
wasn't enough. And then I think we bumped it to $200
45:21.475 --> 45:24.929
and it still, we got fewer takers, but it still was a few that
45:25.429 --> 45:27.680
were And so when I made it $400,
45:28.658 --> 45:31.897
suddenly not a single person— actually, I think there was one.
45:32.266 --> 45:34.735
Well, we did. We had one on Christmas Eve. Yeah,
45:35.457 --> 45:38.407
and it was fucking Christmas Eve, so I actually didn't charge her. Yeah, well,
45:38.664 --> 45:42.929
yeah, I did. Oh, but her tooth split. Yeah, and so I
45:43.429 --> 45:46.409
wasn't gonna let her have fucking Christmas, so I did go in,
45:46.617 --> 45:49.953
but I felt that was my Christmas gift to be there. I mean,
45:50.049 --> 45:53.015
she'll be a lifer patient. She won't ever leave you, ever.
45:53.256 --> 45:56.447
Right. So the, um, but the bottom line is
45:57.104 --> 46:00.407
if you make it well, and there was, there was a book called Freakonomics that
46:00.907 --> 46:03.934
came out and they were talking about, it was a child daycare center. And,
46:04.078 --> 46:07.173
um, in Israel and in Tel Aviv, they,
46:07.702 --> 46:10.764
they, it was, people kept showing up late. So they decided, you know what,
46:10.780 --> 46:14.372
I'm going to charge $25 for showing up late.
46:14.837 --> 46:18.140
And their late pickups at this daycare center increased.
46:18.524 --> 46:21.539
And so therefore their take-home message initially was,
46:22.837 --> 46:26.444
Late show late fees don't actually work, but the real lesson
46:26.944 --> 46:30.499
is too cheap of a late fee doesn't work. You make
46:30.548 --> 46:33.721
it painful and they will absolutely show up on time.
46:34.395 --> 46:37.392
So $60 wasn't enough, $100 wasn't enough,
46:37.681 --> 46:41.191
but $400 will get people to shape up and show up,
46:41.352 --> 46:44.878
and I'll see you Monday. Yeah, I get patients that call,
46:45.055 --> 46:48.228
will call, and they're like, okay, I'm not gonna call Dr.
46:48.325 --> 46:51.728
Zimmerman. And I just need to know how I make
46:51.776 --> 46:55.276
it to Monday, 'cause we only work 3 days a week, so there's Thursday
46:55.325 --> 46:59.194
through Sunday, and they'll call
46:59.694 --> 47:01.394
me and they'll be like, I just gotta make it till Monday. I know you
47:01.410 --> 47:04.557
guys will see me Monday. What do I gotta do? I'm like,
47:04.798 --> 47:08.170
well, if the crown fell off, you go get temp cement, or you get Crest.
47:08.266 --> 47:11.076
Or you get toothpaste. I mean, yeah. I was gonna say, get Crest toothpaste,
47:11.140 --> 47:12.890
the paste, paste, paste. Not the gel.
47:14.978 --> 47:18.784
And then 2 Tylenol, 2 Advil, and 90% of your
47:19.284 --> 47:22.621
issues are taken care of just with that. And they're like, got it, thanks so
47:23.121 --> 47:25.977
much, I'll see you on Monday. Perfect. Yeah, boom, good to go.
47:26.780 --> 47:29.687
Um, but it's interesting to me,
47:30.554 --> 47:35.676
you know, that it's very common that
47:36.030 --> 47:40.959
doctors go in on the weekends and basically surrender
47:40.992 --> 47:44.697
their lives Yeah, for people that could give two
47:45.197 --> 47:48.577
shits about your family. Yeah, that one time back when it
47:49.077 --> 47:52.377
was $60, I tried to be passive-aggressive, and it was,
47:52.698 --> 47:56.386
I don't know, Saturday night or something. I brought my daughter in her pajamas to
47:56.886 --> 48:00.218
come with me just to imply, look, you totally inconvenienced me and
48:00.250 --> 48:03.778
my family for this, and the patient didn't give two shits.
48:03.858 --> 48:06.936
Yeah, she didn't care at all. Yeah, they don't care. They care
48:06.969 --> 48:10.143
about themselves and themselves only. Yeah, so if you make it hurt
48:10.496 --> 48:13.429
them. And the only way to make it hurt is financial.
48:14.022 --> 48:17.741
And they were— I mean, once I was like,
48:17.805 --> 48:21.300
yeah, not a problem, I can give Dr. Timmerman a call, have him come in.
48:21.396 --> 48:24.939
You will need $450 cash. Um, I will meet you there to
48:25.439 --> 48:27.648
get that, to collect that from you, and then whatever treatment that he ends up
48:28.148 --> 48:31.559
doing. They're like, what? Yeah, your insurance isn't going to cover an after-hours
48:31.591 --> 48:35.807
fee. That's not going to happen. But in order to get Dr. Timmerman to basically
48:35.999 --> 48:39.064
leave the theater and come and take care of you.
48:39.754 --> 48:42.789
Um, and just so you know, he's 2 hours away, something,
48:43.126 --> 48:46.723
something big. And they're like, oh, I don't want to pay for that.
48:47.301 --> 48:51.090
They don't care that you're leaving, uh, Fifth Avenue
48:51.590 --> 48:55.281
Play. They care that they're gonna have to come up with $450
48:55.329 --> 48:59.680
on top of whatever work needs to be done. Yeah, yep. And then
49:00.180 --> 49:03.694
all of a sudden they're tuned, this is not an emergency at all. And sometimes
49:04.194 --> 49:06.678
that's enough for them to say, well, then I'm never coming back. You know what?
49:07.288 --> 49:10.480
Awesome. If you're not— I don't want someone like you in my life. Well,
49:10.496 --> 49:13.609
that's the thing is you're— if you're not— I've already told you this was going
49:13.625 --> 49:17.299
to happen, especially that. So now it's happened
49:17.636 --> 49:20.524
and now you're inconveniencing me. Yeah, I warned you.
49:20.861 --> 49:24.358
Yeah, and you just chose to ignore me because you didn't want
49:24.858 --> 49:29.093
to pay for it. Now you have to pay a $450 after-hour fee and
49:29.431 --> 49:33.279
the cost of the treatment. And but
49:35.066 --> 49:38.110
I, I get to— I get that. Well, I just worry, you know, I really
49:38.207 --> 49:41.966
want to take care of my patients. Then teach them to be responsible
49:42.466 --> 49:45.271
adults. If you want to take care of your patients so they don't run into
49:45.336 --> 49:48.942
this problem, teach them to be responsible
49:49.442 --> 49:52.483
adults. Teach them to not take advantage of people.
49:53.631 --> 49:57.199
If I haven't seen you in 2 years Yeah, uh, I don't
49:57.699 --> 50:01.279
care. You're not a patient of record, and that's
50:01.779 --> 50:04.813
on you. Like, I got a phone call the other day. This guy's like,
50:04.829 --> 50:06.901
yeah, I want to get in as soon as possible for cleaning with Dr.
50:06.997 --> 50:10.306
Timmerman. I'm blah blah blah, I'm one of his patients.
50:10.788 --> 50:14.482
Okay, sir, we haven't seen you since 2017. You're not
50:14.982 --> 50:18.530
a patient. We haven't seen you in 10 years. You're not a current patient.
50:18.578 --> 50:22.271
You're a patient of record, but you're not current. You're You have been archived.
50:25.040 --> 50:28.792
So you're gonna have to fill out all new paperwork. You're gonna have to
50:29.292 --> 50:33.222
start basically everything over again. If they haven't
50:33.238 --> 50:36.722
been in for 10 years, they're not a patient. We have
50:37.222 --> 50:40.835
to hold records for 7 years and that's it. And in the digital
50:41.335 --> 50:45.406
era, the x-rays and stuff get saved forever but
50:45.906 --> 50:49.537
it's— Yeah, archiving is a lot easier. I didn't have
50:50.037 --> 50:52.894
to— don't have to get a storage unit or anything like that, or the shred
50:52.990 --> 50:56.620
company to come out and shred anything. So that part's nice. But the
50:56.700 --> 51:00.073
bottom line is, if I haven't seen you in a decade, you're not my patient.
51:00.218 --> 51:03.382
Yeah, and we usually will ask. You can come back. Where have you been
51:04.153 --> 51:06.803
for 10 years? And it's always mind-boggling when they're like,
51:07.220 --> 51:11.011
nowhere, you're my doctor. Yeah, I am not your doctor,
51:11.059 --> 51:14.570
and don't tell people that. Yeah. Don't blame me for your shit.
51:15.470 --> 51:19.430
Crazy, crazy lunatic people. Very much.
51:19.930 --> 51:21.630
Very much. Let's see. Let me see if I have any other good ones.
51:23.700 --> 51:27.610
We're coming up on an hour, so should be kind of brief. If it's juicy,
51:28.110 --> 51:31.290
then maybe save it. Okay, I'll save it. I'll save
51:31.790 --> 51:35.030
it. It's all good. Everything's good. Everything's great. Holly's in a
51:35.530 --> 51:38.250
good mood. Holly had her wine. Holly had some food.
51:38.550 --> 51:41.090
It's a good night. Just remember the rules. If you ever run into me in
51:41.590 --> 51:45.062
public, Just be like, have you eaten? Have you had a drink? Have you
51:45.078 --> 51:48.257
been sick? Have you had enough rest? Are you hot or cold?
51:48.787 --> 51:51.966
Cover the things. I'm like, I'm like Baby Bear and I just
51:51.982 --> 51:55.820
need to have everything perfect. That's right. So again,
51:56.093 --> 51:59.898
we came to the conclusion a couple weeks ago that Holly doesn't
51:59.946 --> 52:02.965
think she's high maintenance, but she kind of is.
52:03.142 --> 52:05.181
And yet, um, here we are. Here we are.
52:06.449 --> 52:07.804
Sorry. Sorry, not sorry.
52:09.940 --> 52:12.994
All right, are we gonna listen to something good? Um,
52:13.479 --> 52:17.200
if you're not watching the new season of Ted Lasso, it is getting better
52:17.345 --> 52:20.449
and you should watch it. Okay, it took a— there's a
52:20.949 --> 52:24.853
non sequitur. I, I don't know, we just finished watching it today and
52:24.949 --> 52:28.663
I'm just like, it's— it, it was a long— it was a slow burn and
52:28.745 --> 52:31.946
now I— but you're there now. Did you finally get there? I am.
52:32.927 --> 52:36.092
All right, well, did you have a request to— for us to, uh,
52:36.623 --> 52:39.740
on the way out? Um, do we have anything good?
52:41.202 --> 52:44.480
Of course not. I know, I, I got lots of good ones.
52:44.529 --> 52:47.694
So doing this, I don't know. We're having a great wine.
52:48.064 --> 52:51.310
It's by Delil Cellars. So if you're ever in the Seattle area, Delil is one
52:51.358 --> 52:53.881
of my favorite wineries. Um,
52:54.539 --> 52:58.235
pop in there and have some wine and some truffle popcorn and stuff.
53:00.095 --> 53:03.077
Are you good? Got a song? Well, I got plenty of songs. I just don't
53:03.577 --> 53:07.150
know that they're necessarily your jam, but— and we
53:07.650 --> 53:11.238
don't have anything current, some situation otherwise, so I got—
53:11.738 --> 53:14.653
we can do Icky Thump, White Stripes. Has nothing to do with nothing.
53:15.647 --> 53:17.827
Okay. Other than people are icky. People are.
53:19.174 --> 53:22.878
Make sure you keep your energy up. Okay. And positive. All right.
53:22.942 --> 53:26.341
You don't want people talking shit about you online. So I
53:26.533 --> 53:28.770
am Lance Timmerman. With Holly,
53:30.741 --> 53:32.743
and this was Working Interferences. Love you.
53:59.653 --> 54:02.731
Oh yeah, what a jump, man. My head got a bump when I hit it
54:03.231 --> 54:06.279
on the radio. Redhead senorita looking dead,
54:06.296 --> 54:08.256
came to say I need a bed in Español.
54:09.420 --> 54:11.878
Say, give me a drink of water, I'm gonna sing around the collar and I
54:12.378 --> 54:12.978
don't need a microphone.
54:51.550 --> 54:54.721
Yeah, I got done with the love, bit my thumb, grabbed a coat, and I
54:55.221 --> 54:58.669
was wrecking. I was ready to go. Yeah, swear beside the head she had
54:58.766 --> 55:03.372
one white eye, one blank stare looking up laying there. I stabbed in her I
55:03.872 --> 55:06.559
was a candy cane, black robe, sugar cane giant. I'm sorry.
55:54.257 --> 55:58.165
What Americans? What, nothing better to do? Why don't you kick yourself
55:58.665 --> 56:01.927
out? You're an immigrant too. Who's using who? What should we
56:02.427 --> 56:04.353
do? Well, you can't be a pimp and a prostitute too.
56:10.370 --> 56:13.591
Waking up handcuffed to a bunk, robbed blind, looked around, there was
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nobody else. Left alone, I hit myself with a stone,
56:17.085 --> 56:19.421
went home and learned how to clean up after myself.