PPO

A PPO, or Preferred Provider Organization, is an insurance arrangement where a dentist signs a contract agreeing to accept a set, discounted fee schedule in exchange for being listed as in-network and, in theory, receiving more patient volume as a result. It is the dominant insurance model in general dentistry, and for most practices it is also the single biggest lever on profit per hour, because the discount is negotiated once and then applies to every visit under that plan for as long as the contract stays in place.

The decision every PPO-heavy practice eventually faces is not emotional, even though it feels that way. It is arithmetic. What does this plan pay against your full fee, what does that translate to in profit per hour once supplies, lab and doctor pay come out, and how many of those patients would genuinely leave if the practice went out of network. Ryan's experience, and the data behind it, is that fear of losing patients is almost always larger than the number of patients who actually leave.

Before deciding whether to keep, renegotiate or drop a specific PPO, run the actual numbers on that one plan rather than reacting to insurance as a category.