My Practice My Business: The Clinical Business of Dentistry

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If you’ve ever done the right thing for your patient and then been told you have to write it off — this episode is for you.

In 2025, Utah passed one of the most important laws in modern dentistry — part of HB 495 — that made it illegal for insurance companies to force write-offs for services that were already rendered.

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“HB 495: Dispensing Practitioner Status — Restoring Common Sense to Dentistry”

It took months of discussions, revisions, and clarifications, but in 2025, Utah passed HB 495, officially adding dentists to the list of approved dispensing practitioners. 

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The sky is falling according to some of the numbers reported by the ADA and Health Institute. The numbers they report are somewhat misconstrued and don't add up. Having said that, Tracy and I give a narrative on the numbers, and are happy to report that 2026 is looking great for dentistry.

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Have you ever opened your insurance payment report and realized that money was taken from one patient’s payment — to repay an ‘overpayment’ on someone completely different?

If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Insurance companies have been playing this shell game for years, taking money from one patient’s account to pay back another, sometimes without any warning.

That’s exactly why Utah passed House Bill 495 — the Overpayment & Recoupment Protections Law. And it’s one of the most important reforms for every dental office to understand.

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I want to start today by talking about something that almost every dentist and practice owner I know has experienced at some point in their career.

Frustration.

Frustration with insurance companies.
 Frustration with contracts.
 Frustration with reimbursement.
 Frustration with feeling unheard.

And when that frustration boils over, most dentists are told one of two things:

“You signed a contract.”
Or… “Just drop insurance.”

I’ve heard that response from state associations.
 I’ve heard it from leaders in the dental industry.
 I’ve heard it from colleagues.

And I struggle with it — not because it’s always wrong, but because it has become the default answer, and default answers don’t solve systemic problems.

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In the last episode, we talked about why speaking up matters.

Why silence isn’t neutral.
 Why caring sometimes requires discomfort.
 And why staying quiet to preserve the status quo has not worked.

But today’s episode is different.

Because it’s one thing to say, “We need to speak up.”
 It’s another thing to answer the question everyone is really asking:

What does effective advocacy actually look like?

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There’s a difference between complaining… and caring enough to speak up.

And today, that’s what this episode is about—saying something because you care, not because you want attention, not because you want conflict, and not because you’re trying to tear something down.

It’s about speaking up when staying quiet would be easier.

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Today’s episode is… honestly, it’s personal.

Because bullying in dentistry isn’t just “someone being mean.”

Bullying in dentistry becomes:

• fear-driven decision-making,
• silence when people should speak,
• compliance when something is wrong,
• and retaliation when someone asks questions.

And I want to say something upfront:

This isn’t an anti-insurance episode.
This isn’t an anti-association episode.
This isn’t an episode meant to create enemies.

This is an episode about one thing:

The bullying mentality—wherever it shows up—and how it holds our profession hostage.

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If you’ve ever wondered why your insurance payments seem just a little lower than expected — this episode is for you.

This week, we’re talking about one of the sneakiest tactics insurance companies have used to skim money from providers — virtual credit cards.

And how Utah just became one of the first states in the nation to say ‘no more.’

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In 2021, Utah made history. We became the first state in the nation to pass a law regulating write-offs due to bundling — and it changed everything.

That law was House Bill 359 — the Network Leasing, Downcoding, and Bundling Protections law. It took months of research, countless meetings, and intense discussions with insurance companies who didn’t want to give up control.

We passed it anyway — because it was the right thing to do.

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