New England's supply of dentists, patient demand and dental school landscape have made it a valuable area for one DSO to operate in.
Sharon, Mass.-based Qualitas Dental Partners CEO Robert Rubino recently spoke with Becker's to discuss the benefits that come with leading a DSO in the New England area.
Editor's note: This response was lightly edited for length and clarity.
Question: Are there any specific goals for expanding your network?
Robert Rubino: New England is a great marketplace, and there are more dentists per capita in Massachusetts than any other state in the union. Connecticut is seventh. New Hampshire is 12th. New England has also been slower to adopt corporate dentistry models than the rest of the country for a lot of different reasons. So, our opportunities here in New England are vast. It's an attractive market. We have an older and higher net worth population than most. There is a high degree of knowledge about dentistry among New Englanders. There's a high percentage of the population that has insurance. They want to see the dentist. New Englanders understand oral health is the gateway to overall health. So, there's a lot of demand for dentists' time here.
We are all New Englanders, so we can say this about ourselves. We are all kind of particular, and we are kind of skeptical people. So, it's one of those situations where it's hard to be an outsider and be effective in New England. They want their own, so I think that's why we're seeing such great opportunities, because we live and work here. We are not from outside.
New England also has five dental schools. Three in Boston, one in Maine and one in Connecticut. A lot of our providers and our partners are on faculty or teach at those universities, so it's a wonderful opportunity to get to know the younger residents. Having partners on faculty helps with training and mentoring of new providers. They are naturally good teachers and mentors.
The other thing about New England is it's geographically dense. So you can take the state of Washington, and throw it over New England, but New England has six states. It is also dense from a provider and population perspective. This works well with our model, which is what we call a GP Comprehensive Cluster. Dentistry has always been organized in clusters [with] specialists interwoven around general practitioner practices. That way of organizing makes intuitive sense. Qualitas is organized the same way. We love [general practitioners], they're the heart of what we do. Wonderful specialist practices are located around the GP practices. Patients love it because they get to go see the specialists who are conveniently located nearby. New England also has a very good road and highway infrastructure, even though we curse it often. This transportation infrastructure is good for patients and for hiring people.