Episode 133: Victim or Victor: The Choice is Yours

Naren: Hello everyone welcome, to another amazing episode of the less insurance dependence podcast show. This is Naren your co-host. The topic today is victim or victor, the choice is yours, victim or victor the choice is yours. Before we jump in, I have a quick announcement. The last master class that Gary did was sold out it was amazing. We got so many people saying wonderful things great reviews. The next one is on the 12th of May of Wednesday from 7 to 10 pm, 3 hours of CE and the topic is, grow your practice 10 percent or more every year grow your practice 10 or more every year. We’re going to include a link it’s thrivingdentist.com forward slash masterclass if there are seats left, we are we are positive because the last two have sold out this is also going to sell out if there are seats left quickly sign up and reserve your spot. Now let me start talking about this topic today victim of victor the choice is yours. You know one of the reasons I think both Gary and I were attracted to dentistry was you know these people who end up becoming dentists are typically at the top of their class. They’re in the top you know five percent of their class. I think you know both Gary and me kind of like to you know do whatever we do really well and you know succeed at it, so I guess this kind of made a lot of sense now we were thinking you know even though that’s how they start their career you know as victors PPO and many other things perhaps make at least some of the victims, you know they just give up and they just accept that 44 write off so we wanted to have a conversation around it carry over to you 

Gary: Yeah, Naren I think this topic is one that’s very pertinent for our audience here in the less insurance dependence podcast. Let’s tie it into the topic of our podcast victim or victor. You know on the victim side it’s you know sadly when you adopt the mindset of a victim and you feel like you’re a victim, the number one reason for that is that you feel like you don’t have any control, that you have lost control and as a result, you experience the negative consequences of being victimized and the context here is that many dentists feel like they have absolutely no choice other than to sign up for PPO plans and that’s because of what, what, what, I think you know the terrible mindset that the insurance companies try to set among dentists, that the only way they’re going to be successful is they sign up for these plans and you know I’ve said before, who needs who if there are two entities here there are the insurance companies and the dentists who needs who. Does the insurance company need the dentist or does the dentist need the insurance company? Well, if you can step back and look at this objectively, at a very core level, the insurance companies need your doctor because if no dentists sign up as participating providers, they have nothing to sell. They literally have no plan to sell if they don’t have any providers and that’s at a very core level. However, they’ve done a masterful marketing job, Naren you know marketing better than anyone I know on the planet the insurance companies have done a masterful marketing job of flipping the switch turning it upside down and convincing dentists that the dentist needs the PPO plan, when in fact the opposite is the truth. It’s like you know when it’s light outside we know it’s the day, it’s daytime, you know when the sunlight’s out it is daytime when it’s dark we know it’s not it’s like they flipped it they said no, no, at night-time this is the day, it’s the day, and they flipped it and they’ve tricked dentists. This has been going on you know since the 1970s. So, this is not a new trick on their part but it’s been a trick they’ve been pulling for many, many, many, years and I wanted this episode to ring loud and clear about, if you currently feel like you’re in a victim status regarding whether you need to accept insurance or not, I want to share with you that you absolutely do not need to be a victim, you can be a victor and here’s the first point that I want to make Naren, this happened somewhere around 2016 2017. So, this isn’t new I don’t have the exact date this will make sense in just a minute, I don’t have the exact date but it was somewhere between 2016 and 2017 and the inflection point that I’m going to share with you is something that you need to embrace and that is whenever that inflection point was sometime between 2016 2017, there were more adults in the united states that didn’t have dental insurance than adults that did have dental insurance. That was a switch that happened.

Naren: so you’re saying now the majority of the people in the united states do not subscribe to a dental insurance plan

Gary: the majority of adults in the united states do not have dental insurance now prior to that inflection point the opposite was true slightly more had it but it’s been going down ever since and it’s dropping precipitously, I’m talking about what’s dropping is the percentage of adults that have dental insurance is dropping precipitously and that number is radically shifting in favor of those that don’t have dental insurance. So, there’s one piece of information that if you embrace this as it is you say wait a minute, I know I don’t need to there are more people that don’t have it. Let me go find them; they are better when I say better, I’m not talking about a better human being. I’d like to think that they’re all good human beings but if you’re going to build your practice on patients that would choose you as for other than you have their insurance

Naren: then you take their example insurance

Gary: make sense Naren?

Naren: more than half the jobs in the United States are created by small businesses. I bet small businesses many of those small businesses don’t have identical insurance, you know all the freelancers the ETSY owners the Airbnb owners you know the what are you called eBay sellers the uber drivers, I mean the idea of being an entrepreneur working for yourself is has like taken off you know in the last you know 20 years or 30 years. It just exploded. So of course, what that means is not too many corporations that have ten thousand employees or a thousand employees and a dental insurance plan.

Gary: exactly and let me list another group that’s growing you know based on lifespan and healthspan and that’s retirees. You know, it used to be if we go back a generation when people retired their benefits stayed with them the rest of their life. That’s no longer true because those retirement benefits became a massive liability for big corporations and so they changed it and they said, hey once you retire, we’ll provide a short period of benefits but once you hit the end of that you’re on your own and so a massive group of people retirees doesn’t have dental insurance and just another group you know in that. So, I want to share some great information, you know going back to-our listeners know that I enjoy everything about running and track and field and Roger Bannister that’s a name that if you follow track and field everyone recognizes, he was the first person to ever break the four-minute mile barrier. He did that in 1954 he was an English runner, a runner from England, and before then there were scientists that actually publish scientific papers that said it could not be done because there wasn’t enough oxygen content the oxygen couldn’t flow enough to the legs and to the other you know parts of the body to allow someone to run less than four minutes and Roger Bannister did it in 1954 it was 359.89 three minutes 59 seconds 0.89 hundredths. He beat it by 11 100ths. And all of a sudden that completely upended the scientific community because they were proven wrong and interestingly enough Naren, remember this had never been done within three months three other people broke the four-minute barrier. Now in science, you can’t tell me the cellular development in those three months is what made the difference. So, in other words, the human race you know when you look at three months’ time, it’s a grain of sand on the beach you know in terms of the scientific measurement of time. So, you can’t say that the body adapted in those three months to make humans that much faster. What happened what was the one thing that happened, someone did it and they figured hey if roger did it, I can do it right?

Naren: yeah absolutely and I love that experiment the elevator experiment if you google elevator experiment on you’ll find it it’s like there’s an elevator and there are three people facing the back of the elevator and these are hired you know actors and then everyone who entered the elevator from that moment on they all turned around and faced the back you know human beings really take a lot of cue as to what’s possible what can be done from other human beings. Unfortunately, right now 95 percent of the practices are insurance dependent I think you said it might be even 98 percent right 

Gary Yeah

Naren: because only two percent are service so what do you see around you it’s everything that’s you know unfortunately but I think what you are doing Gary and I commend you for this I mean your coaching work your coaching clients not only have you and your expertise but they have peers who are doing it with them and they all meet every week or every month and they share ideas with each other and they learn from each other and then, of course, the RITA project I know you’re going to talk about it more but the reducing insurance dependence academy I think a huge coup for the insurance companies because they had billions of dollars and you know to throw at it they did an amazing job making you believe that facing the back of the elevator because that’s what 95 percent

Gary: Well, let me be blunt. They did an amazing job of playing a dirty trick on dentists

Naren: they did yeah

Gary: they did an amazing job of pulling the wool over your eyes, convincing you that when it’s dark you now think it’s daytime ‘

Naren: Yeah

Gary: And that’s what they did now here’s what we’re going to do because you need Roger Bannisters in your life as a listener to less insurance dependence you need Roger Bannisters in your life three links in the show notes you can get the show notes from lessinsurancedependence.com just scroll down. These three links are three dentists who successfully started a fee-for-service practice from scratch. I’m going to name these dentists and these were interviews that we did on the thriving dentist show. The other podcast, my, flagship podcast Lincoln Parker dentist who opened a scratch fee first in orange county California. Brian Baliwas opened ace and successfully I want to make the statement that all three of these did it successfully Brian Baliwas opened a scratch fee for service practice in downtown San Francisco and then Paymen Raisy opened a scratch fee for service practice in 2018 in Nashville Tennessee and I want you to hear their stories and I want you to hear what they did but one thing you need to understand Naren as these doctors as Lincoln and Brian and Paymen talk to their colleagues you know, hey Doctor so I’m, I’m, thinking of opening up a fee for service practice in orange county is something Lincoln Parker would have said guess what everyone told him what do you think everyone told him

Naren: it’s not possible 

Gary: you can’t do this. His banker told them you can’t do this. His accountant told him he couldn’t do this the attorney told him he couldn’t do this. The same thing happened, with Brian Baliwas was the same thing happened, with Paymen Raising well they were the scientists the naysayers were the scientists that told the world that nobody could run less than a four-minute mile 

Naren: right 

Gary: and it took it only took one person to prove that you know and that one person proved it proved the scientists wrong well in the analogy of our, of our profession these three dentists are simply three of many who they were you know they actually reacted differently. So, think about it Naren let’s go back to the title victim or victor so what could have they assumed? It would have been logical to assume the position of a victim oh well I guess it was a bad idea you know I mean I really want to do it but everyone’s telling me I can’t do it I guess that’s just a bad idea I guess I got no choice other than to be a fee for you know to be a PPO dentist but they didn’t do that they actually said two words all three of them said two words watch me and what’s that is that victim or victor perspective 

Naren: victor 

Gary: that’s a victor

Naren: it’s the same kid who said watch me and got into dental school right so I guess that 

Gary: you’re all victor because statistically, you didn’t have a chance of getting in you had a snowball’s chance in hell getting into the dental school you know you’re Vic you’re victors you’re, victors and you just have to flip that switch because you do have a choice. You know one of the coolest things about you know being in the united states is we have freedom of choice you can choose your path. There are no rules or laws, there are no regulations that say you cannot reduce insurance dependence in your practice. You can absolutely do that. So think about it doctor do you want to be a victim or do you want to be a victor. You know intuitively what the answer is to that I know intuitively you’ve got it in you to be a victor because you’ve already been that you’ve already been there done that you’ve done it throughout your career. You got into dental school, you survived dental school, you passed the boards you got to a position where you own your practice that’s even getting into the elite of the elite Naren, 

Naren: yes 

Gary: you know just being a dentist you’re in that top four or five percent intellectually but now only a practice it elevates you even further you are innately victors and I want to share that message I strongly encourage you go to the link the links that we’re sharing the interviews with Lincoln Parker Brian Baliwas and Paymen Raisy and just drink in their stories and have those stories you know kind of filed away in the back your mind you know coming back to when roger bannister broke the four minute mile here we are today Naren less than 60 years from the time he broke it broke the four-minute barrier by the way the record the world record in the mile today is 3 43, 3 minutes and 43 seconds and world class high school athletes routinely break the four-minute barrier so and again human evolution in that 60-year period of time is a grain of sand on the beach there’s nothing about human evolution, that’s made our lung capacity or our ability to transport oxygen to the to our limbs it’s none of that it’s the fact that there were pioneers paving the way that proved it could be done and here’s three Lincoln Parker Brian Ballywas and Paymen Raisy. Naren fun conversation I hope it’s inspiring and motivating for our listeners because sometimes we need that you know we need that guidance we need that vision of what’s possible and I really want you to ask yourself, doctors, this question am I a victim or am I a victor and ask yourself that question and I think the only answer to that is you are a victor now start behaving like one and take the steps to take those steps. Hey Naren as we come to the finish line for this particular episode, I want to provide another resource for our listeners. You and I have partnered together to recently create a wonderful resource, the reducing insurance dependence academy this is the very first digital all digital association in dentistry and its association of people and resources to help you successfully reduce insurance dependence. We have just launched this; we’re excited about this project and again it’s dentists team members and resources that are members of the RIDA reducing insurance dependence academy and it’s all about providing you all the tools and resources you need to successfully drop PPO plans. We playfully like the acronym R-I-D-A but we also like the way it rolls off your tongue I want to get rid of PPOs if you want to get rid of PPOs and we’re doing something very cool at least for now there is no membership fee at least for the first year we reserve the right to change our mind down the road but as of right now there are no membership fees you can join for free and if you’d like to do that come join us at www dot rid dot academy and again that’s www dot rid dot academy. Come join us the water’s warm and you’ll be surrounded by victors like yourself thanks for joining us on this less insurance dependence podcast. Thanks so much for listening we appreciate each and every one of you.