Dr Phillip & Simon Palmer, November 2012 - From December 2012, there has been no more patients treated under the Medicare CDDS scheme.

While this scheme was highly contentious for its ability to be accessed by the wealthy and by its ability to be abused by unethical dentists, its cancellation is going to leave a massive gap in many practices’ revenues. There was a claim made recently that the CDDS was providing almost twenty percent of the revenue collected by all of the dentists in Australia.

There is no doubt that many dentists and many dental practices had come to depend upon it to be viable, and there is a lot of fear among these dentists and dental practices about what will happen to them in the post-CDDS world.

It is hard to predict exactly what will happen. But here are three things that dentists should consider if they are worried about the impact that the closure of the scheme is going to have on them:

1.  As soon as the closure of this scheme was announced, patients and dental practices alike hurried to do as much work under this scheme as possible before it disappeared. As a result, the percentage of CDDS work done has been over-represented in the last 6 months in many practice.
2. If the statistic is correct, and the CDDS indeed made up 20% of the revenue for the industry. In the post-CDDS world, the industry won’t simply shrink by 20%. While some of the work that was being done under the CDDS scheme was happening because the government was paying for it, some of it would have needed to be done anyway. We just don’t know how much.
3. While many dentists and dental practices will struggle in the post-CDDS world, the hardest hit practices will be the ones that:

• Became lazy with their case presentation and their communication skills, and got most of their case acceptance from patients by simply explaining that the government will pay for it.
• Became lazy with their overall customer service and recall systems for regular check-ups, thinking that patients will come back because the government will pay for it.

The dentists and dental practices that will survive and thrive in the post-CDDS world will be those that:

• Effectively communicate the patient’s dental condition and the value of their dental services.
• Maintain their customer service levels diligently, through constant staff training and patient surveys.
• Show their patients value.

There is no doubt that the cancellation of the CDDS Scheme will represent a very significant change to the Australian dental industry. While the government was quick to point out the failings of the CDDS it is important to realize that its cancellation will definitely mean that some patients lose access to dental treatment that they very much need (at least until a new scheme is introduced).

After the initial loss, the cancellation will mean that practices and practitioners need to focus more than ever on providing quality and effective communication with patients in order to get treatment done, and patients returning. That can’t be a bad thing.