445: How to Put Together a Crisis Coverage Plan - Paul Sletten - a podcast by ACT Dental

How to Put Together a Crisis Coverage Plan

Episode #445 with Paul Sletten

Sometimes, you can't see bad things coming. And when it happens, you need to be prepared. One way is by having a crisis coverage plan, and Kirk Behrendt brings back Paul Sletten, founder of the Sletten Group, to share his expert advice on how to create a plan that will keep you covered and buy you time. Stay covered no matter your age, health, or financial situation! To learn how to check your boxes for coverage, listen to Episode 445 of The Best Practices Show!

Main Takeaways:

Join or create a practice coverage group.

Three or four dentists is not enough for a group.

Coverage groups should meet regularly and often.

Be selective in putting your coverage group together.

Plan out who makes the call in a crisis, and who to call.

Coverage groups can also help in non-crisis situations.

Quotes:

“[Having a crisis plan is] extremely important. Everybody needs to have a transition plan in place, regardless of what stage they're at in their career. In fact, they need to have two plans.” (3:39—3:54)

“Maybe the percentage of [a crisis happening] is smaller than five percent — but they happen. And when they happen, one of two things will occur: either the practice will go into a nosedive because they're not acting on it or putting a plan together or had never thought about it previously, or the practice will get covered.” (4:16—4:40)

“Simply defined, a crisis of this type would be something that alters the ability of the owner of the practice to be able to continue to be productive in the practice, either for a short period of time because they're ill but they're going to recover, or for an extended period of time because they were in an accident and can't physically perform and that puts them in a crisis, or because something happens tragically, and they die. But that's very rare compared to the likelihood of disability.” (5:36—6:16)

“The place to begin is to put together what we call a practice coverage group. A practice coverage group is a group of like-minded dentists who respect each other and who are in proximity to each other who would be capable of covering for one another in the event of disability or some kind of a crisis. And I've seen people put these groups together, but they’d only put three or four dentists in their coverage group. And that's a real tremendous strain on the covering dentists. That's not enough.” (7:41—8:23)

“If you only have three or four [dentists in your practice coverage group], they're going to run out of gas and put the practice back in jeopardy — even though it had been covered — because they just don't have the time to do it, because there's such a big time demand on each person. So, eight or nine, those are really good numbers.” (8:49—9:11)

“The commitments that the coverage group would be able to make would be to cover the practice for three months, let's say, pretty much at a max. It can go longer than that, but in our experience, that pretty well maxes it out. But that does buy you time, if it’s going to be a slow recovery, to find a locum tenens who can come in and be the dentist to cover it for several months, if needed.” (10:43—11:18)

“In some situations, we've seen where by the time we get called, a couple of months have gone by [since the crisis occurred]. The team has no idea what their future is, and the family is so grief-stricken, in the event of a death, that they haven't taken any action and they haven't called anybody. So, part of the plan you need there in the crisis coverage plan is there needs to be, ‘If this happens, who makes the call, and who do you call?’” (15:07—15:42)

“Insurance companies are very slow to pay with disability coverage too, as you all know . . . I would say five to six months. In the event of a death,...

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