by Pam Snell, Dental Managers Society Advocate
It’s been a rough year for many of us in, and supporting, the dental professions! We recently caught up with Jeff Nauges, VP, Network and Business Relations for Chewsi to see how he’s doing.
Pam: Hey Jeff! It’s nice to talk to you! We’ve checked in a few times over the past year. . It certainly didn’t go as we planned; a week or two in quarantine and then back to business as usual. It’s a year later, and we’re just starting to see hopeful signs.March 2020 was our last DMS meeting. What’s been happening with Chewsi since we saw our friend and Chewsi Rep. Judie Brum at that meeting?
Jeff: Thanks Pam, and it really is great to reconnect with you and DMS managers! Honestly, one of the biggest challenges has been staying in touch and communicating with family, business associates and our partner practices. Judie and the rest of the team have been doing well and managing in lots of new ways as we navigate the new normal. We continue to add new Chewsi members and practices every day. We’ve even added some new features to make it easier for patients to find practices and practices to engage with patients to get them back to the office.
Pam: What changed in your day-to-day routines?
Jeff: We’ve actually been able to maintain our schedules, but we are working remotely and have had to adapt to technology challenges, students learning virtually, and not having face-to-face meetings with our partner practices. Early on, we leveraged the shutdown to polish up on some skills and team-building exercises and make it a fun learning experience. Like most of us, we’ve been challenged to maintain our work-life balance, health, and changing protocols related to the Pandemic.
We’ve built out new training videos, email content, social media posts, and some great new tools on the platform that can help practices stand out. They can promote their services to new and existing patients that are slow to return due to uncertain financial, health, or work-life challenges. We added search filters to our Find A Dentist tool on the Chewsi app and on www.ChewsiDental.com to help practices stand out by offering orthodontic services, new patient or recall specials, and cosmetic services. We have heard from practices that maximizing patient visits is critical in returning to pre-pandemic production levels, so we are excited to offer these unique tools.
One of the silver linings has been our weekly Virtual Happy Hour which has been a great way to wrap up the week. Staying connected, motivated, and focused on managing our work, life and family has provided us with a new outlook and perspective that hopefully gives us all a new appreciation for the connections we have when we return to normal.
Pam: You’ve been supporting the dental industry. Tell me what Chewsi has been doing.
Jeff: Chewsi and our sister companies found new ways to give back by providing support for dentists, members, and the community overall during the Pandemic.
Our sister organization supported local restaurants and the public through their #Share a Smile campaign. They donated office space to state government for their COVID-19 contract tracing initiative. They offered emergency access-to-care grants for a range of community organizations, including local dental clinics in need during the Pandemic. They also provided premium credits and refunds for consumers that were hard hit financially during the crisis.
The relief efforts to the dental community included interest-free loans for network dentists and accelerated value-based care payments so they could continue to provide essential emergency dental care while restrictions on practices were in place. Chewsi helped in several ways, including on-going donations of PPE and an exciting new endowment for Tufts University School of Dental Medicine. It includes a $500,000 endowed scholarship to dental students looking to complete their training to deliver essential dental care and navigate uncertain financial times.
Pam: What changes have you made in how you are doing business from now on?
Jeff: We are focused on finding the right level of savings for our partner practices. We know they are also challenged financially due to staffing, scheduling, and added business expenses. Unlike insurance reimbursements that are being reduced, Chewsi continues to increase reimbursements in a way that allows practices to use Chewsi to help with patient treatment planning and maximizing each patient visit. Helping practices promote more services like bone grafts, implants, adult orthodontics, and those not covered on most plans while reinforcing this in our marketing efforts to our members has resulted in some really big cases. Chewsi’s average charge is $494 per visit, but some of our most recent cases have totaled over $10,000.
Pam: Thanks, Jeff! I look forward to seeing you and Judie in person soon!
