Sibling Rivalry & Market Share
Quote:
> They call is "social comparison theory." Well, that is the polite way to
> put it. They also call it sibling rivalry and dentists are more guilty of
> it IMHO than any other profession.
> As explained in a recent study by the University of PA' Wharton School,
> many businesses are more concerned with market share (lots of patients)
> than market return (profits). Dentists seem to be in the same boat.
Are you generalizing from the Wharton study to denistry? What evidence do you
have?
With
Quote:
> the fear that market share will be lost, practices have been negociating
> some really poor performing or risky agreements with managed care
> companies.
Are you suggesting that this is even one of the more important market factors
driving dentists to accept managed care arrangements? A little shallow, don't you
think? Aren't you generalizing from a small group of observed practices to
denistry as a whole?
Quote:
> As an example, I have observed practices in Pennsylvania, California, and
> Florida take on more staff, increase their hours and accept EVERY plan
> presented to them. They reason that with a large enough piece of the
> market, they can exclude other suppliers from taking their patients.
Granted, this may occur in some practices. But how generalizable is your
observation to the profession as a whole?
Quote:
> The problem with this is a fundamental ignorance of the bigger picture of
> the dental marketplace. Patients are less loyal to a provider than EVERY
> before.
Did it occur to you that this may be driving their marketing strategy?
Companies also have no loyalty to a particular plan so they are
Quote:
> as apt to change their contracts yearly. And no one knows what will
> happen if insurance benefits (including dental) become portable.
> As a thought provoking question: wouldn't you be better to scale your
> fee-for-service practice back to 3 busy and profitable days, share your
> office space (and staff) and fish?
Are you suggesting that the managed care segment has stabilized; that there will
persist a viable segment of fee for service patients? What trends substantiate
this? How viable a strategy if all practitioners adopt this approach. You see,
the dental industry is segmentalized. There will be practices whose strategy is
high volume, low "markup", and who will do very well in a capitated environment.
There will be room for strictly fee for service practices as you describe. The
segmentalization of patient types allows for (necessitates) such practice strategic
differences. The delivery of dentistry is not homogenious. Lets not try and apply
one shoe to fit all foot sizes.
The number of dentists I see working 5
Quote:
> and 6 days per week is growing. Perhaps someone will think of an
> alternative.
> Scott McDonald & Associates, Dental Marketing Services and Demographic
> Research, (800) 424-6222
Ira A. Satinover DDS, MS, MBA
