The Group Dentistry Now Show: The Voice of the DSO Industry

In this audio-only DSO podcast, Dr. Jane Whang, Regional Clinical Director and Bryan Carey, Chief Executive Officer of Benevis, share their thoughts on:

Oral health of underserved children & their families
Supporting mostly Medicaid patient populations
Challenges for Medicaid patients to find dentists
Dentist Mentorship Program & recruitment

To find out more about Benevis visit https://benevis.com/

For career opportunities visit https://careers.benevis.com/careers-home

Discover the Dentist Mentorship Program https://www.groupdentistrynow.com/dso-group-blog/dentist-mentorship/

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Dr. Jane Whang & Bryan Carey of Benevis join the Group Dentistry Now DSO Podcast

Full transcript

Bill Neumann:
Welcome everyone to the Group Dentistry Now show. I’m Bill Neumann. And as always, we appreciate you tuning in. We’re closing in on our 200th podcast. We’re not quite there yet, but really appreciate the support listeners out there and the feedback. We always try and get interesting guests on the show, and we have two on the show today. Really happy to have Dr. Jane Whang. She is the Regional Clinical Director of Benevis, and we have the CEO of Benevis, Bryan Carey. So, Dr. Whang and Bryan, thank you both for being here today. This is going to be a fun conversation.

Bryan Carey: Bill, thanks for having us. We really appreciate the opportunity.

Bill Neumann: So why don’t we start off with you, Dr. Whang, a little bit about your background. I mean, you have a really interesting, I was reading through your bio and you didn’t start off, at least it seems like you didn’t necessarily want to become a dentist right away. You went to school, you got a psychology degree, you got a master’s in elementary education. You were an eighth grade science teacher for four years in New York City, and then somehow you decided you wanted to go back to school to become a dentist. So, James, can you talk a little bit about that journey?

Dr. Jane Whang: Of course. First of all, thank you so much, Bill, for having us on this podcast. Yeah, in my former life, I wanted to be a teacher since I was little, and I fulfilled that dream. And I wanted to be a teacher in the urban area. So I was a New York City Middle School science teacher, and I loved it. But I think it was around the third year where I felt a little burnt out and I felt like I loved being with the students, but I was, I thought, hey, I could do this as a volunteer activity and I wanted to do something different and then I came across dentistry. And after dental school, I thought, hey, I got a little sidetracked and I thought I wanted to do cosmetic dentistry. So I did that in a private office setting after graduating. But I love the clinical part of it. But I knew that something was missing. which was working with children and the underserved communities. And so that’s when I came across Benevis, where the mission is to provide access to care for that community that I had a passion for originally as a teacher. And so I love that I can marry my personal and professional interests together. And that’s what led me to Benevis as an associate dentist 15 years ago.

Bill Neumann: 15 years ago, and so you were a teacher in New York City, you went to Columbia for your master’s in elementary education, and then also you went back there for dental school, and then you moved down to – you’re based out of Maryland right now, correct?

Dr. Jane Whang: Yes, yes. So New York, New Jersey is my hometown. But at the time, I came across Benevis, which was located in Baltimore. And so I relocated to Baltimore, Maryland, where I didn’t know a single person, but I loved the people I met during my interviewing process at Benevis. So I knew that it was a place that I wanted to be. So I relocated for the company.

Bill Neumann: Excellent. And Bryan Carey, Chief Executive Officer, 20 years of experience in multi-site healthcare. You’re involved in oncology, physician practice management, behavioral health, hospital-based services. So I could see how you could pivot relatively easily over to dental, but let’s talk a little bit about your background, Bryan.

Bryan Carey: Sure. Thanks, Bill. As you indicated, over 20 years of multi-site healthcare experience. So I went to business school, ended up working with A company in durable medical equipment actually, wheelchairs, walkers, and canes. But the end market was healthcare. And quite frankly, just found if you’re going to spend the better part of your working day doing something, it’s great to do it where you’re improving people’s lives and improving outcomes. And I’ve done that in a few different sectors in sort of traditional healthcare, oncology, substance use, behavioral. And then three and a half years ago, became involved with Benevis and then two and a half years ago, stepped in as CEO. The two things that are different from my prior experiences, one is, you know, focused on the, the underserved communities. So we’re over 80% Medicaid beneficiaries. The second thing is, it’s really the first time I’ve been in an organization where the mission of the enterprise is really an asset of the business. We have people who choose to work at Benevis partially or in many cases, largely because they really relate to serving underserved families. And so it’s kind of a big responsibility because kind of valuing that asset of that business and making sure that we continue to be true to it is just critical to our success and our growth.

Bill Neumann: Thank you, Bryan. Yeah, I’d love to get you a little bit deeper into that mission of benefits. And you mentioned it earlier that you are really focused on underserved children and their families and and maybe why it’s so important to oral health, that Benevus exists and that that’s your focus. But Dr. Whang and Ryan, it’d be great to just find out a little bit more about that. This is gonna be a deep discussion on this underserved audience because it’s so important. And I know there’s a lot of challenges that you face too, but maybe a little bit more about that mission.

Bryan Carey: Sure. So, you know, at its core is really that it’s a challenge for families in underserved communities to be able to get care. And our mission is to really enable that care to occur. And so it really has, you know, sort of three components. First and most important is access and availability. It’s just the case that, you know, people’s lives are busy getting kids to school, getting to work, you know, handling in some cases, you know, caregiving of parents while also, you know, taking care of children and working. And so our way of really helping that is access and availability. What does that mean? It means, you know, extended hours. It means, you know, Saturdays. It means having, you know, our offices in locations that are easily accessible by transportation and mass transportation. The second thing is, you know, just, of course, a tremendous focus on high quality care. It’s important because, again, it’s a challenge for our patients to get to our offices, just the complexities of life. And so we want to make sure we take every opportunity we can to do a lot of preventative care so that if they, for some chance, are not going to get back to the dentist for a year or more, that we’ve done as much as possible in terms of, you know, good oral health. But also just really trying to take care of any needs in the day when they’re able to get to the office. And so the sort of focus on that. And then the last piece is diversity. So, um, we have found that, um, you know, patients have a greater level of engagement. Um, if the sort of people that they’re working with and being treated by represent their community and That diversity ends up in, we think, better care, also ends up in better retention because people really sort of relate to our communities. And so, as I say, at its core is understanding the challenge that families face in terms of, you know, accessing care and maintaining care. And then everything we do is really to sort of support making that possible and making it easier and making sure there’s a level of engagement where they are likely to come back and continue on treatment plans.

Bill Neumann: Thanks, Bryan. Dr. Whang, on the clinical side of things, I mean, can you talk a little bit about, you know, how clinicians interact with especially, you know, the underserved community and children and I guess the families as well? Because a lot of the Families are involved. They’re bringing the children in. Is there an educational process? I mean, is it a little bit different than patients? And you had experience previously working at a multi-specialty practice. So can you talk a little bit about the differences?

Dr. Jane Whang: I think it starts with the interview process. When I’m interviewing, I make sure to share my story so that they can relate to it and they understand that I joined Benefis for the mission, and I’m still here because of the mission. And due to that I think it attracts a lot of like minded leaders and that includes dentists, I interview a lot of new graduates as well as those with experience who’ve had their own practice but now want to get back to the community. starting at the interviewing process where we can meet such individuals makes a big difference because they’re coming in with that in mind. And then I think during, we have a very thorough onboarding process where we talk about what we do and why we do it and how to do it successfully in an efficient manner so that we are spending the time educating and spending the time having consults with the parents because that’s important. That’s one of the things I talk about a lot with our new dentists when we’re working with children, especially because so many of us are so good with children, but we forget that the children came with adults and we have to make sure that we engage them because the adults are the ones who are bringing the children to our practices. So, and that’s how we started. We started where we were only focusing on children and then we added access to care for the parents. And then now we see families. And I think the transition itself shows how we want to serve the communities where we are, where we exist. And I think it’s great that we have practices where the communities are. For example, in Baltimore, we have five practices in the city of Baltimore, because we know that even if you are 10 miles away, for some of our patients, that can be a big deal who don’t have cars and access to transportation as easily. So it’s great that we make it easier for them to take care of their oral health.

Bill Neumann: That’s great, Dr. Whang. Yeah, and I know Bryan pointed that out earlier, where public transportation is so important for access to care, especially in the inner city when people don’t have cars. Maybe we’ll start with you, Bryan. Can you discuss some of the challenges that Benevis faces when you’re supporting mostly Medicaid patient population and how you might manage that? Because I know there are, you know, One of the things that you hear in the DSO space is when you’ve seen one DSO, you’ve seen one DSO. So there are many out there that really don’t serve the underserved, right? Medicaid patients. In fact, they kind of steer clear of that. Obviously, Benevis is part of the mission. You’ve embraced it and you’re able to be successful. However, I’m sure there’s still challenges.

Bryan Carey: Yes, thanks, Bill. So, couldn’t agree more, you know, if you’ve seen one DSO, if you’ve seen one. And, you know, Benevis is, I like to describe it as a purpose-built organization. Unlike other DSOs, we actually built 115 of our 120 offices. So rather than through acquisition, they’ve been sort of built in the communities where we identified a real need. And the challenges really are sort of twofold. One is that it’s just difficult for people who are oftentimes, you know, in Medicaid eligibility to get to an office. You know, just life gets in the way. You know, work, caregiving, getting kids to and from school. And so, you know, for us, for example, only 50% of our scheduled appointments show up in any one day. And we have to do a lot to try to help people get to their appointments. by reminding them, by trying to adjust making availability if they need to reschedule. And then we have a lot where our teammates essentially have to juggle because inevitably what happens is you have 10 people show up at 10 o’clock and one person show up at 11 o’clock and trying to balance that both from a sort of care delivery, but also from a patient experience. The second thing is Medicaid pays, you know, about 70 cents on the dollar relative to sort of commercial or PPO or other health insurance for dental. And we of course are committed to delivering, you know, the same high quality care. And so in order to do that, we use what you might sort of call an extender model. So we call it assistant hygiene. So the hygienist obviously is doing the cleaning and examination, and then the doctor is doing the oral health examination. but we use assistance to try to do as much as possible in prepping the patient and making sure some of the notes are recorded in any of the sort of nutritional follow-up counseling, things like that. And so by using this assisted hygiene model, we’re able to sort of make it work where We’re effectively providing extensions for the caregivers, the clinicians, and those two things, you know, kind of dealing with the challenges that people face in getting to a scheduled appointment, and then making sure that we are using the clinician time at its highest and best use of actually providing care are kind of the things that are most critical to us to be able to continue in the mission that we do.

Bill Neumann: Dr. Whang, I’d love to get your feedback on this from the clinical perspective, how you deal with this, these challenges, because it is, it is pretty unique. And Bryan’s talking about, you know, patients coming in all at once or, you know, having like lulls. So how do you, um, kind of, how do you deal with that? That’s, that can be pretty challenging when a schedule is pretty predictable and when it’s not, it can be a little chaotic.

Dr. Jane Whang: Yeah, and I think that’s why a lot of providers who want to see Medicaid patients, they fear away from it because of the challenges that Bryan has mentioned. It’s hard as a sole provider at an office to handle a situation where you don’t know if the patients can show up or not or and you can’t hold them accountable to it. So I think that having numerous multi-practitioner offices, that is one way that can be helped, where we have, you know, two, three doctors at different offices. But also another method is that we have a support services department that helps with reminders, whether it be through texts or phone calls. And so it doesn’t have to just remain at the office level, which is so helpful. And that’s where the whole dental service organization aspect helps us because it allows us to, as providers, focus on dentistry and not have to worry so much about the schedule being filled and the show rate and and for it to be adjusted according to the individual offices, because we do have some offices where the show rate may be 60% and another office where the show rate can be 30%. But our dental service organization support services understands that and they’re able to support the offices accordingly.

Bill Neumann: So you have pretty creative scheduling, it sounds like, that they can adjust very, very quickly. Question about accessibility. So Bryan, I’ll ask you this. Why do you feel it’s so hard for people that are covered by Medicaid to find a dentist today? Is it just that a lot of the practices aren’t accepting Medicaid?

Bryan Carey: What are your thoughts on this? You know, there are a number of practices that Medicaid sort of anomaly, if you will, but they are really not set up to have the access and availability. And so it could be, you know, many sort of different factors. They may not have kind of evening Saturday hours. They may not have the appointment availability near term that oftentimes works with, you know, trying to balance sort of school and work and. then, you know, it may not be a location, um, that is, you know, really accessible. And so, uh, when you sort of factor all those things in, um, less than 20% of the dental offices in the U S see more than a hundred Medicaid patients in a year. Um, so it really is sort of a, um, a small fraction that really are sort of set up to be able to have the access and availability that really means they effectively can serve the community.

Bill Neumann: Beyond the accessibility side of things, are there any other challenges that you see whether it’s Medicaid or some of the patients that have the CHIP plans that they’re dealing with. I mean, accessibility is one of them, but are there any other issues that you happen to see or that you are up against?

Bryan Carey: You know, I just always have to think in terms of nutrition. So, you know, I think we all know in group dentistry now, listeners know, You know, it is a challenge for children in school and outside of school to get, you know, good healthy meals at the right time in the right place. And so I mentioned that only because you know, oral health is total health. And one of the many sort of challenges that communities that we serve face is in, you know, access and availability of, you know, great nutrition. And so, you know, I think it falls into just the overall challenges that communities that have high medicated population, you know, face in terms of just, you know, health access and availability. And we try to do our part both in terms of access and availability and also just in terms of kind of counseling wherever possible to help families.

Bill Neumann: Dr. Whang, I’d love to find out from you how you do that as a clinician. I mean, what’s that education process? It’s a great, great point. You talk about the diet. Is some of that education, some of that’s affordability, I’m sure. It’s expensive to get good food. Is some of that education as well?

Dr. Jane Whang: Yes, and of course, and I think that Bryan mentioned the assisted hygiene program we have. And I think that’s a big part of it, allowing hygienists, because they are our providers as well. And they, in our model, we have assistants that support them with radiographs and other things that usually hygienists have to do. So that allows the hygienists to have the time to really spend time talking to the patients and educating them and talking about the oral health care and how it affects the body, which I think hopefully our goal is to ensure that patients are so good about the oral health care that they are seeing the hygienists more than us dentists, right? So they spend so much time with them during the pro-feed process. It’s great that the hygienists have that opportunity to do the educating aspect of it. We also do a great job where some, a lot of our offices will make efforts to attend community events, go to schools whenever possible to talk about what we do and talk about oral hygiene, which I think is important.

Bill Neumann: That’s great. This is definitely the first time we’ve had anyone from Benevis on the podcast. However, we have done many articles in the past, and we have a couple on some of the things that you do, whether it’s at the school level or community-based. So that’s what I’ll make sure we do is I’ll drop a couple of those more recent article links in the show notes so people have access to those as well. I’m going to switch gears here. Let’s talk about an issue that’s been, gosh, going on for several years now is really recruitment. And whether it’s clinical recruitment, hygienist, assistant, dentist, or even on the office manager side of things. There have been huge challenges in the dental industry, DSOs in particular. So how does Benevis attract and then retain talent? I mean, it’s so crucial. It’s like you spend a lot of time recruiting, and then if you’re not retaining them, it doesn’t really matter. So maybe discuss that a little bit, because it’s a huge issue for most of the people in our audience.

Bryan Carey: Sure, Bill, I’ll jump in and would love to have Dr. Whang provide some commentary as well, because she spends time on campuses, you know, really trying to make sure people understand Benevis. So on the sort of recruitment, talent acquisition side, Uh, we’ve really spent a lot of effort in the last 18 months, uh, to try to clearly articulate the benevist mission. Um, so that, uh, for, you know, cause cause In essence, we know there just are more jobs than there are healthcare workers. Um, and that applies to hygienists and dental assistants, uh, and to dentists. Um, and so, uh, what we have found is, you know, our best chance is to make sure we do a really good job of articulating, uh, benefits as mission, because it does resonate with a portion of the people that are available to work. And so we just do as much as we can on that. On the, in many ways, more important side of retention, because there are more jobs than people, obviously you want to make sure it’s fulfilling work. With us, that has been a focus on investing in our people. And we’ve done that primarily through uh, training and certification. So on the training side, um, we used to actually not have a formal training program when dental assistants joined us. Uh, we now do, uh, so we commit at least 40 hours of training so that they really kind of understand, you know, how to operate in the benevist model, um, how to be successful in the benevist model, um, and how to feel supported. And then we have certification as they reach certain milestones. whether they be very technical around radiography or they be around their ability to sort of work in addition to the hygienist, be able to work in the operatory side with the dentist. And so by kind of recognizing their accomplishments, we’re effectively showing them how we’re investing in them. And we find that, you know, doing that same thing with hygienists who then become kind of a lead hygienist for a region are kind of the types of things that we do to invest in people, which I have found is really kind of your best chance of having people, you know, continue to work if they can see kind of growth for themselves from a development standpoint. Dr. Whang, I don’t know if you have, obviously, you know, we do a lot of that. with associate dentists who join us and maybe you can comment on some of the things that we have found work.

Dr. Jane Whang: Oh, definitely. Well, first of all, I think we attract dental talent because of the model, our model, which stresses operational and clinical partnership, which is why I’m still here. It exists at every level of the organization where Bryan, as the CEO, works closely with Dr. Mayfield, the chief dental officer. And so it starts at the executive level and it cascades to the office level where the office manager partners with the office dentist so that they’re successful in just taking care of our patients. But attracting is one thing. And Bill, as you mentioned, retaining is another aspect, right, which is important. And we, Bryan spoke on the hygiene growth, hygienist growth model, but we also have a really growth a great growth plan for dentists, which is what I followed. I joined as an associate dentist, then was given opportunities to train other new dentists, and then held a district dental director role where I worked and helped to manage about six offices in the district. And then now as a regional dental director, I get to flex other aspects of leadership that I didn’t imagine I would when I graduated dental school and where I get to work with the district dental directors in various states, but also help to train new associate dentists. I think that’s one of the most rewarding aspects of my job when a dentist who I interviewed after they graduated dental school, where I helped their onboarding process. And now I see them in a leadership role in the organization. So I think that that’s a great way that we have learned to retain great dental talent.

Bill Neumann: I’m really tied into this. You’ve got, you have something pretty unique at Benevis and we, we actually featured this in an article a couple of weeks back. So relatively recently, I’ll make sure I drop the article and the show notes, but it’s really, it’s, it’s focused on your dentist. mentorship program. And I’ve been doing this for a while, looks like 16 years. So let’s talk a little bit about the mentorship program that you offer, and then what really makes that different than maybe some other mentorship programs that exist.

Bryan Carey: Sure, I may also give an overview of, you know, what’s new and then Dr. Whang can really speak to the specifics of kind of, you know, what’s what’s involved in the sort of clinical training. But In many ways, we’ve now kind of evolved to this is a more significant part of benefits is growth. So this year alone, we will hire about 35 new graduates from dental school. And the mentorship program has gotten to the point where, you know, I think of it as always our version of Teach for America. And I want to come back to probably the most important component of that. But before I do, it’s just, you know, we have the ability because of the sort of geographic focus we have where, you know, Dr. Whang mentioned, you know, we have five offices in Baltimore. So when a new grad joins, they are oftentimes partnered with an existing seasoned doc, and they’re also in a geographic cluster. and then also have a district dental director who spends a lot of time kind of coaching, mentoring, and support. And so for a new grad in particular, there are three things. One is it’s highly supported. Two is they’re going to be very busy because we obviously have very busy practices. But then three, there is a growth opportunity to become a senior associate or to become a district dental director over time. And because they are exposed, they get a sense of, you know, the profile of those sort of experienced and leadership dentists that are in our organization. But the one key component, as I mentioned, is, you know, I think of it as our version of Teach for America. They bring a lot to us. So they bring their life experiences, their generational exposure, and oftentimes exposure to new technologies and new treatments. And so they bring something, much like students who go into Teach for America, bring something to sort of those schools that they work with. And so it’s a program that has been around, but it is larger, more structured. And we find it’s even more desirable because in many cases, students have not had as much hands-on experience as they would like. Dr. Ryan, maybe you could just, you know, because you do it every day, you know, talk about some of the sort of mentoring that does happen in some of the clinical pathways that they are effectively trained on.

Dr. Jane Whang: Oh, definitely. Well, first off, I always tell the associate dentists when I’m starting off my onboarding process with them is that, hey, I am here to be your biggest cheerleader because your success is a direct correlation to my success and the best care possible that we can deliver for our patients, which is the most important. If every decision is made in the interest of the patient, we can’t help but be successful. And that starts with just being confident. I think a lot of times our new graduates come to our practice just having been handheld through everything, but to have them understand that, hey, you are now a dentist. You have the autonomy to make decisions as a provider, but that we, as district dental directors, or regional dental directors that we’re here to support you and that we are here to answer any questions that you may have or Bali cases where we can talk about it and that they know to know that they have that at their fingertip. I think it’s so helpful. There have been many times where. I’ve had dentists tell me, hey, I want to start doing root canals, but I’m a little nervous. And then I will tell them, I can visit your office on this date, from this time to this time. Schedule those patients at that time, and I’ll be at the office. 100% of the time, they don’t even need me. But the fact that they knew that someone was there to bail them out or support them gave them the confidence to just expand their skill set and become better in their field. And I think that’s a great part of it. But also, we do treat a lot of children. And a lot of our dentists are general dentists. They don’t have that exposure or training in dental school. So we spend a lot of time where they can just have better behavior management techniques, where we talk about how to do communicative guidance, tell, show, do, and different skill sets that allow them to be successful with children. And I think that that’s helpful because I But they want that exposure and they want to be better at being able to provide their care for young children.

Bill Neumann: Thank you, Dr. Whang. I mean, it’s so critical. You have younger clinicians coming out of school, and they do need that mentorship, whether it’s the support and just to have somebody there, even if they really didn’t need you, but to know that they can rely on somebody that has more experience than them. It’s a great idea. You’ve been doing it a long time, and when we survey our audience, we survey young clinicians, clinicians looking to partner with DSOs, and that mentorship is at the top, education. What type of, how are you going to continue to educate me? How are you going to support me? It’s one of the roles of a DSO, right? It’s not just the non-clinical support, it’s also the clinical support from clinicians. So, as we start to wrap things up here, a couple of final questions. And I’ll ask both of you this. Bryan, from your perspective, are there any new technologies or innovations in the industry that you’re using or Benevis is evaluating to help you become more efficient? Anything that’s really exciting out there that you’ve seen?

Bryan Carey: Yes, actually. So on the sort of administrative side, one of the greatest challenges that we face, as I mentioned, is only 50% of our scheduled appointments actually get fulfilled in any one day. And that creates, you know, real challenges for our air delivery. Because, you know, again, we’ll have 10 people show up 10 o’clock and one person show up at 11 o’clock. but also just a frustrating patient experience because they have long wait times. And we’re actually using machine learning and artificial intelligence to use sort of predictive technologies in order to figure out who is likely to show and then balancing our schedule. And essentially, there are attributes around someone’s previous appointment experience around, you know, kind of the ways and times in which they confirmed or did not confirm. And then also just around, you know, their sort of age and other demographics. And we’re using all that to build more predictive schedules so that we sort of make sure we have really solid schedules for those people that we know have a high propensity to show. and that we’re balancing the ones where it’s likely that they’re going to end up canceling rescheduling or no showing. And that’s using technology that just didn’t exist, you know. two years ago to be able to look through our data. We will do over a million appointments a year. And so looking through that data and effectively building a propensity to show model. It’s the thing that I am most excited about because it has the opportunity to really improve our caregivers experience as well as improve the patient experience. And I think a year from now, Uh, people are in benefit’s office, uh, are going to just, you know, not recognize it, uh, relative to what they’ve seen with the historical volatility in terms of, uh, sort of patient flow.

Bill Neumann: That’s great. Great. And on the clinical side of things, uh, Dr. Whang, anything that you’ve seen that has really been a game changer for you? Um,

Dr. Jane Whang: Yes, it’s Curidon. Curidon is a product that’s been around for a bit, but now Medicaid reimbursement has increased and is now being reimbursed in some of the states, which is great news because it used to be just silver diamine fluoride that was available. But to have this Curidon, which is which doesn’t leave a stain but still helps to repair teeth where we would normally either treat or watch. It’s great because it’s a non-invasive, non-staining fluoride treatment. We’ve rolled it out in Connecticut. We plan to roll it out in Georgia. I think that’s one of the most exciting things that I’ve seen lately.

Bill Neumann: Great, thank you. Curidon. Okay, that’s good. I’ve heard much about that in the past year, so it’s great to hear that that is being reimbursed in certain states by Medicaid. Final question for you both. It’s kind of the crystal ball question that I ask just about everybody, but just love to hear about your 2025 initiatives, what you feel the future, and Bryan, you kind of alluded to it earlier using your technology that you’re gonna, yeah, the plan is to have a much smoother, more predictable schedule, better patient experience. So that’s certainly one, sounds like one initiative. What else?

Bryan Carey: The other major one is we just have a tremendous opportunity to expand our provider base. And this year we will treat about 700,000 kids. And not in 25, but probably by late 26, we think we’ll probably end up treating close to a million kids. Because in so many of our locations, there just are not enough providers for the community. And so, really, really excited about hiring even more new grads. and building out the teams to be able to reach that goal of a million, and then we’ll go on to 2 million from there. So in addition to sort of an improved patient and team member experience, I’m really excited about just the growth opportunity because there are so many people that just don’t have providers in their area.

Bill Neumann: Thank you, Bryan. Dr. Whang, any final thoughts about that question, 2025 initiatives?

Dr. Jane Whang: I think it expands upon what Bryan said to have more providers, but also have more specialty practices in our offices where they can just come to our office and get the ortho care in an affordable way if the insurance doesn’t cover it, and have the oral surgery services, endo services, and all that in one place, which makes it easier for our patients, and they can get the follow-up care that’s recommended for them, which is very exciting.

Bill Neumann: Excellent. Well, thank you both. This was a really great conversation. I appreciate you both taking the time, Bryan and Dr. Whang. If someone wants to find out more, if you’re in the audience and you’re a clinician and you’re looking for a new career opportunity, you can go to Benevis.com and there is a career tab that you can click on. to certainly find out more. It looks like all the available career opportunities would be there. You can apply. If you want to just learn more about the organization, you can certainly go to Benevis.com, see the information there. We have, like I mentioned earlier in the podcast, several articles about what Benevis is doing at the practice level, community level. We discussed their mentorship program in detail, but just a lot of great insights. So I would recommend that you check out their website and ours to find out more about Benevis. But again, thank you, Dr. Whang, for being here today. And Bryan, great conversation. And thank you, everybody, for listening in. We always appreciate your support. And until next time, this is the Group Dentistry Now show and I am Bill Neumann. Thank you. Thank you, Bill.