7 Ways DSOs Can Leverage Walmart Health's Closing

Dental Service Organizations (DSOs) can leverage the opportunities created by the recent Walmart Health Clinic shutdown to increase efficiencies made possible by experts in dental care, while improving access to care. Here are seven strategies DSOs can use to serve former Walmart patients and attract new patients as well:

1. Expand Networks and Services:

Because DSOs understand the dental industry and are willing to make investments in streamlining front and back-office processes in collaboration with software vendors, they are able to create efficiencies in modernizing the dental patient care experience.

Already, Walmart is in discussion with health care insurers to acquire its 51 health clinics, according to Fortune, relying on their expertise. Similarly, Walmart would benefit from discussions with an experienced DSO provider.

How Walmart would balance service to its existing clientele, while attracting a loyal base of Walmart dental patients who schedule ahead of time, can best be managed by competent operations managers of a DSO.

Another benefit for DSOs is for them to understand how to better expand their own networks. First appointments within a week, along with new point-of-care testing, are what patients expect since they are used to getting appointments for medical care on their phone. They want the same convenience from their dental practice! DSOs can make dental appointment scheduling available on a phone or mobile device, even after hours.

In addition, DSOs can work with dental software companies to streamline front office intake and the back-office processing of claims. DSOs have the ability to leverage software marketing to reach more patients.

In addition, DSOs can extend same store dental hours, while increasing the number of affiliated dental offices, to accommodate more patients, especially in those areas where Walmart closed clinics.

What’s more, according to the Journal of Dental Education, expanding these service networks and hours can significantly improve patient access to dental care, particularly in underserved communities. Since at least half the population doesn’t visit the dentist in a year, DSOs can contribute to changing this grim statistic. They can even track their progress on the EDRs.

2. Implement Affordable Care Programs:

When DSOs introduce or enhance programs that offer discounted rates, sliding scale fees, and in-house annual membership plans, they can provide affordable dental care options for low-income patients.

In-house plans provide preventive care and discounts on restorative dental care, without the eligibility, verification, and guesswork on patient share of costs for “covered services.” For insured patients, DSOs understand Explanation of Benefits (EOBs) claims issues, the wiles of insurance adjudication and the final payment in a way that most dental offices don’t.

Knowing what they are paying builds trust with patients because they know exactly what dental care costs upfront, not the twists and turns of outdated dental insurance plans with low annual ceilings for payment and claims processing.

Annual cost caps from dental insurance have not changed since the 1970s! In some cases, DSOs are successfully moving toward filing for some major dental services using medical codes and claims.

For example, PDS Health is already filing claims to medical insurers for sleep apnea with medical codes. They have also created more efficiency in quick access to medical histories by integrating with one of the two common electronic medical record platforms – Epic.

3. Strengthen Community Outreach and Mobile Dentistry:

Walmart has a loyal local community base of customers, many of whom are in rural areas, which could benefit from regular, routine dental care. The American Dental Association (ADA) highlights the effectiveness of affordable care programs, such as sliding scale fees, in increasing access to dental services for low-income populations, and the gap in the number of insured patients.

DSOs can ensure that dental care is delivered beyond their “brick and mortar” building and become a more valuable community asset. Mobile dental units can be deployed by DSOs to serve patients where they are. They can participate in community outreach, including school, workplace, and health fairs, to provide free or low-cost dental services directly in their communities, like those affected by the Walmart Health shutdown.

4. Enhance Outreach with Telehealth Capabilities:

By expanding their teledentistry services, by offering virtual consultations, triage, and follow-up care, DSOs can help reduce barriers to accessing dental care. It should be noted that Walmart’s telehealth arm, Walmart Health Virtual Care, did not have teledentistry capabilities.

This seems odd when you stop to consider that the ADA supports a standard to leverage the integration of teledentistry as a means to improve access to care, especially for patients in remote, rural, or underserved areas.

In some studies, teledentistry can help patients overcome barriers in transportation, such as in home-bound patients or rural areas. Teledentistry can improve efficiency in patients accepting and receiving care, receiving customized patient education, and cost containment.

What was a missed telehealth opportunity for Walmart can be an advantage for DSOs.

5. Partner with Local Health Organizations:

Collaborating with local hospitals and health care systems, local health departments, community health centers, health non-profits, other outpatient care like dialysis centers, and nursing homes can help DSOs identify and reach patients in need, ensuring continuity of care.

Research from the Journal of Public Health Dentistry indicates that partnerships between DSOs and local health departments have the potential to enhance delivery of dental care, along with reaching patients more effectively. Health Departments came to be important during the pandemic in assessing risks for providing patient care locally, and they continue to be a resource for DSOs. In addition, interoperability between dental and medical records will make referrals and consultations from specialists more efficient. Many DSOs are already addressing interoperability between various dental specialists and their stores, so it will be easier to do that for the former Walmart facilities.

6. Increase Patient Education and Preventive Care Initiatives:

Focusing on preventive care and patient education can help reduce the overall need for extensive dental treatments, making oral healthcare more manageable and affordable for patients.

Delivering prevention and customized education tailored to a patient’s needs is now occurring in DSOs, building the connection of the DSO to their patients over time. Emphasis on prevention of oral disease, along with appropriate care and treatment, is critical to improving a patient’s oral health outcomes and reducing long-term costs.

7. Ensure Administrative Efficiencies for Dental Payments and Building Capacity of Dentists:

DSOs can provide the proper back and front office processing to reduce the “headaches” of administrative dental processing. Unlike a retailer like Walmart, DSOs only provide expert dental care, and have administrative support to collaborate with a range of dental software developers that are helping to streamline front and back-office processes with new innovations. This includes AI verification of insured patients and annual benefits, and even AI-projected costs for a treatment plan based on similar care with the same insurance company.

Systems like these help the private practice dentist, who may lack both the scale and time to develop more efficient back and front office processes. DSOs can provide training and resources for affiliated dentists to address its communities’ needs, including workflow, with unique ways to meet increased patient loads, ensure cultural or linguistic sensitivity, manage emergency care, and augment in-patient care with use of telehealth platforms. DSOs also offer ongoing training and professional development for dentists to improve service delivery and patient care.

Conclusion:

By adopting these seven strategies, DSOs can help fill the gap left by the closing of Walmart Health Clinics to ensure that patients continue to receive the dental care they need. Filling this oral care vacuum is one way that DSOs can lead the way forward to better serve more dental patients, more efficiently. The time is right!

About the Authors:

Margaret Scarlett DMD, is a dentist, futurist, population health expert and the founder of Scarlett Consulting International. She is also the co-founder and Chief Science Officer of Dental Transformation Partners – a company focused on helping launch the next generation of innovations that will transform dentistry and ensure that oral health is recognized as a critical component of overall health by providers and patients alike.

A member of the American Dental Association Standards Committee on Artificial Intelligence in Dentistry, Dr. Scarlett is a contributor to the December 2022 ADA whitepaper, “Overview of Artificial and Augmented Intelligence Uses in Dentistry.”

Dr. Scarlett transitioned to private practice after 23 years in the US Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and US Army. Her career focus has been on health and overall health outcomes through population health data for chronic and infectious diseases. Contact Dr. Scarlett at mscarlett@ScarlettConsulting.com. Connect with her on Margaret Scarlett | LinkedIn.

Michael Ventriello is widely regarded as the “Dental Product Launch Expert,” and the owner and founder of the PR-forward dental marketing agency, Ventriello Communications. He is also the co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Dental Transformation Partners.

Michael is an award-winning copywriter, former journalist and experienced brand communicator who specializes in developing strategic marketing communications, public relations, social media and advertising programs for game-changing dental products, services, and companies.

He is also a frequently published author and dental industry pundit. Contact him at Michael@Ventriello.com. Connect with him on Michael Ventriello | LinkedIn.