dental assistant

dentist

dental hygienist

dental receptionist

practice manager

Heartland Dental

I was hired six months prior to the expected opening of a new office due to the extensive training involved in the role.  I was very excited that the company was willing to put so much time into my responsibilities.  The company has put a lot of effort into creating a training program that consists of online modules, hands on, and virtual training sessions.  They are very insistent that everyone complete the training in order to decrease turnover, which was apparently a huge issue in the past.  The online/virtual trainings were fantastic.  The hands-on training was not so great.  I was sent to multiple offices to train and fill in because they were short-staffed, which meant that there was no focus on my development at all.  I was very vocal about the lack of one-on-one time that I had with the practice managers who were supposed to be training with me.  I constantly felt behind and had to try to train myself on a lot of things.  There was also quite a difference between procedures among the offices that I trained in.  Heartland is big on "systems" to make the offices run smoothly, and when followed, they work well.  However, the primary office that I was in did not follow them effectively, which was a known issue.   

Because the office I was hired for was not open yet, I had to commute to offices that were able to support me.  When I began hiring my team, they had to commute as well.  The company did pay partial mileage, but not the full IRA recommended amount.   We were told to claim the difference on our taxes.  Also, the company does not match 401K contributions.  They focus a lot of energy on collecting patient balances/insurance payments so that doctors can be paid and an earn bonuses.  The bonuses for the team level sound great until you realize how difficult they are to earn, and then must be split among 15 people.  

Despite have 20+ years of management experience, I was offered a salary that was slightly lower because I lacked dental experience.  I accepted the position because I was told that I would have a performance review after 60 days for a pay increase, but the review never happened.  I did complete my self-review in the designated time period, but nothing occurred after that.  

The company is growing rapidly, which means that a lot of people have been promoted to upper management without the skill or experience to operate in those positions.  My RMO had just been promoted to her role, so she had a lot to learn.  She complained about her lack of training and support from her peers/RDO as well.  There were many times that she was unable to complete her tasks, but instead of taking responsibility, she twisted it around and said that they were things that I should have handled; however, I was never asked to do so.  She and I both agreed that there were a lot of cliques in the offices and among upper management.  I did not feel as though I could trust very many people with my frustrations. My RMO talked to me about performance issues in the office that I was training in, including telling me about a doctor receiving corrective action because he was hiding supplies from another doctor.  I heard all about the write ups that the practice manager there had received as well because of her behavior.  It made me wonder what my RDO was saying to others about me as well.  It was very unprofessional.  

The final thing that really bothered me is that the company does not have/enforce a policy regarding nepotism.  One of the RMOs in our area interviewed potential Practice Managers for one of our offices, and instead of giving the position to a seasoned Heartland manager (with 5+ years of experience), the RMOs own daughter was hired for the role (with no management experience or degree, etc).  This created a lot of conflict and made a lot of people (myself included) question the ethic involved.  

Overall, I think that the company had great potential, but they were unable to make all of the dots connect.  I really liked all of my interactions with people from the corporate office, but the local level management left a lot to be desired.  There are a lot of people who have been there for many years and enjoy it, and I truly hoped to be one of those people.  This area, however, was absolutely toxic.  

TLDR: As a doctor, you can have a good or bad experience. I did not have a good experience. Management is BEYOND terrible (specifically in the region I worked in). Do some research before applying because this can be a truly rewarding job.

I am one of those people that read reviews about everything, including Heartland. I heard good things from fellow new grads about Heartland as a corporation. so I wanted to do some research. I saw the negative reviews and ignored most because not a lot of doctors submitted a review. I'm here to tell you, please learn from my mistakes.

As a company, Heartland is a good corporate job for dentists. You get decent benefits (!!), their systems work, and you receive free CE. They also handled the COVID crisis in April  in a very professional manner, and did everything they could to provide for their doctors and hourly staff, and provide a safe working environment with PPE and new safety protocols. That all being said, they really do want you to drink the Heartland Kool Aid and there are some employees that really like the taste of that Kool Aid. To each their own.

Ah, the negatives. Where to begin?
Management. Isn't it funny how most of these negative reviews talk about management? I do not know what kind of training they do for new managers but home office really needs to re-evaluate those learning modules. Management is very location dependent in Heartland. Offices are broken up into regions and sub-regions, and a lot is dependent upon who the regional and sub-regional managers are, and their personal level of professionalism. If you are in a well managed region/office (read: profitable), people tend to have a better experience. I was not in one of those regions. What I experienced was a lot of gossip, and a healthy dose of nepotism. 

So.Much.Gossip. Whether it is about you, your treatment decisions, your family (with no affiliation to Heartland), other offices, or home life. If you aren't in the "inner circle", have fun having rumors spread about you. Pro Tip: make sure to communicate in writing, or record phone and face-to-face conversations. NO ONE is your friend. Remember that. 

Most of the hourly workers were hired because the managers knew them. Not saying they can't be good workers, but when an unqualified person is hired to an office manager position without experience or adequate training to become experienced, there is something wrong (btw, training for this position is subpar). Don't worry, it's acceptable to hire someone when it's your best friend's mom or your BFF from high school. 
Office manager leaving during office hours for personal reasons like going to the salon or being too stressed? That is more than acceptable. 
Doctor wanting to discipline staff (verbal warning/write up), but the staff had their "feelings hurt"? Not acceptable. Now we must have a multiple manager phone call.
But remember! Doctor led!

I'm going to stop there because I could write a non-fiction novel of all of my issues. However, this is all my opinion but I am not the only doctor with these issues.  

Now I'm sure HR will be leaving that message of "give us a call". I've known people that went to HR with truly slanderous grievances, and all that came of it was a slap on the wrist and a pinky swear that it won't happen again. So, I'm not sure much would change.

People will say "I'm not a corporate person" or whatever, but I truly did love my first few months at this job. I loved the support, the people, the courses, the knowledge I was gaining. Then management changed.
I would encourage people to at least do their research before applying because this can be a particularly good company to work for. Unfortunately, I had more negative experiences than good, sadly.

PS: If you  happen to read comments with 5 stars written around the beginning of Aug 2020, a group of doctors decided they wanted to increase Heartland's rating on job sites by adding the 5 star reviews. 

Get ready to hear the word "support" 1000 times a day for the rest of your life working with this company. There are pros and cons to this position as with any. I do think it made me a faster and more confident dentist, but somewhat at the cost of my sanity/quality of life during my time with them. You will be expected to run 2 full columns, and assistant/chair space allowing, a 3rd may even be encouraged. The doctor has the final say in all treatment decisions and they will not try to overstep you there, but they will constantly "encourage" you to do what they think will make the office produce more. As a "supported" doctor, you will be put on a pedestal and viewed as a god in the office. All other office staff should listen to what you say without question, and if they don't listen there are higher ups to reprimand them for it. Works out great, except that not every dentist practicing is an ethical doctor so for most staff it will be completely location dependent whether you like the office culture or not. Doctors and hygienists are compensated pretty well, front desk staff and assistants not so much. Doctors only make 25% of collections, but this is balanced out by the fact that office fees are high, lab fees are low, and insurance reimbursement is marginally better since this is a DSO. You will be "encouraged" (pressured) to "prescribe" (sell) every patient on life changing Invisalign treatment that only costs $7000 (more than some orthodontists charge) even if you've had zero previous experience with Invisalign. They have lots of CE/training/mentorship available, but actually getting it scheduled is a completely different situation. You also have a regional manager and regional director who you and the practice manager must go through to get most things approved. This is another area where your experience will be location dependent because some are good and some are bad. My RDO was good, but the RMO had terrible follow up so a lot of things took too long to get done or just did not happen at all. They love hiring new grads and making them solo dentists or lead doctors, even though the last thing any new grad knows how to do is manage an office. There are plenty of opportunities to try out new equipment/materials, but it must be approved by your RMO/RDO who will likely only do it if you have been hitting your production goals for the past x amount of months. If you haven't been reaching your goals, they will encourage you to do things like open another column, sell more Arestin, open early/late/weekends. 

On a positive note, they did handle the COVID-19 pandemic very well with constant updates, PPE supply, adhering to all national and state recommended guidelines, and by not furloughing the doctors or deducting their pay. 

One piece of advice, if you are a new dentist and are asked to join one of their "de novo" practices, DON'T DO IT!!! Unless you really want to put the work in. They'll stick you in a brand new practice alone and expect you to make it profitable ASAP. They are always dangling the promise of bonusing (for the doctor and the staff) over your head like Pupperoni in front of a dog, but especially with the de novo offices the criteria to begin bonusing is extremely difficult to meet, sometimes for years. Any month that a doctor does not produce their base salary, it counts as a negative toward you ("the hole") that you must overproduce in following months until you've turned it positive, and only then will you bonus. For the staff, it's even harder. 

Overall, I am glad for the experience and there was a lot I learned in my time with Heartland. I was glad to be working for them during the pandemic. However, I will not be seeking employment with them in the future and my daily stress level is much lower at my current job than it ever was with them. 

I began working with this company as a new-grad with high hopes that I'd found a good dental home for the start of my career as an officially licensed dental assistant. I’d also like to mention that before this I worked at another office as an unlicensed dental assistant. I thought this would help me transition and give me the experience I needed to fit in this new place. However, I couldn't have been more wrong because I ended up picking the most unsuitable company and location to do so and it was the worst experience ever.. 

From the very beginning I was thrown in without any clear guidelines or training on how to operate as a Metro Dentalcare assistant using their software and methods. It was completely different from my last office and any office that I interned at. After about two weeks I was just expected to kinda know everything after watching endless E-Learning videos, and if they think those E-Learning videos teach you anything they don't because I still had no idea what to do other than chairside assisting, you know... the stuff I actually went to school to learn. My coworkers weren't very eager to help me and often got annoyed that I would ask questions or tell them that I didn't know how to do things that I was either never properly taught to do by them or in school such as checking insurance information, checking patient balance information, managing the schedule, answering phone calls, scheduling new/existing patients, emailing x-rays to other offices, etc. Basically all the ‘admin’ stuff. Which to be honest shouldn't be a part of an assistant's job when there were already two capable “business assistants/patient-care coordinators" who worked at the front desk including the manager, Like why was that something I was required to do? The clinical team and admin team should have separate tasks and they usually do in other offices. I don't know why that was a problem at this place, it stressed me out. But to be honest there was a lot of that going on, duties that we (the clinical team) were told to "help out in" whenever we could, but truthfully we were just getting overused because I never saw them help out in the back seating patients, performing procedures, assisting, or cleaning teeth. But all these ridiculous issues were thanks to having a terrible manager who didn't know how to run an office or lead a team. Poor leadership = Poor team performance.

The work environment was incredibly toxic. ZERO team synergy. Just the worst team you could ever ask for. A bunch of GROWN ADULTS that don't get along, don't communicate, and act childish. The constant negativity and aggravation from certain individuals here singlehandedly ruined my mood each and every single day and got so bad to the point that my mental health began to suffer and I started to actually experience depression at work.

Like with many jobs, the workload was way too much in comparison to what I was compensated for. Putting us under so much unnecessary stress for a small amount of financial gain that only benefitted the company and not even us because bonuses were pretty much unreachable. Patients would always get squeezed into the schedule everywhere and anywhere. Other appointments would get shortened to fit these patients in, causing a lot of issues. We'd often run behind and then be forced to move at high speed all day long, lunch break would become non-existent on days like this. 

Sadly, I spent the first few years here being very unproductive with my career.

In conclusion, don't work here.

-Very unorganized atmosphere. 
-No one is on the same page. 
-High turn over rate

I've been with my office a few years. I come to management rarely because when I do I am turned away and nothing is done about it. This fake positivity energy is displayed as if positivity alone will fix errors. Patients are treated better than employees. They tell you communication is important and leadership in your role is key but If you speak up or bring something to light they immediately shut you down as if you're just being negative and there isn't actually an issue that needs to be resolved. I was working 12 hour shifts without a lunch for a year... I still rarely get a lunch. Management wants nothing to do with lunches and tells you that assistants are in charge of making time for their own lunches but if you leave to get food they treat you like you're a slacker/ you're in trouble. Also there is 3 columns across all day long with restorative next to restorative and only two assistants per one doctor. How is there time to go to lunch? They act like they are helping you out by telling you to "go ahead and run to the back and take a few bites of your food.".... That's not a lunch and it's not legal.

I can go on and on... Dr's are nice for the most part but expect the world out of assistants for very low pay. Also, we're scolded first thing every single morning if we don't meet our $15,000 production goal the day before. You only get a 1% raise YEARLY and act as if you should be pleased with what they are giving you. I can go to any private practice and get quite a bit more an hour. The reason I've stayed is because I am too loyal in all honesty. I have multiple certifications and know I am worth dollars more than what I am paid. The ONLY good thing about this company has going for them is vacation time and benefits. Everything else is HORRIBLE. They also hire front desk at the same pay rate as experienced certified dental assistants that have professional training. Hygienists and doctors are treated like gold and assistants are the entire office slaves. Hygienist don't ever have to clean or help with ANYTHING and assistants are expected to not only run around all day long (literally run- I walk 6,000 on average steps in a work day) without lunches but also clean after everyone, work on the schedule, do inventory, do all the house duties and do receptionist duties. If we see a scheduling error we are told we need to call the patient and fix the BA's mistake because the front is too busy with other things... As if assistants aren't busy. They have computer modules that you are supposed to complete by a certain amount of time or you do not get raises. They do not give you any time to complete this and tell you that you should consider doing it at home... Again I think it's illegal for them to tell you to work from home for free because they can't afford for you to not be on the floor for an hour.

Maybe other offices are different but this office has put a mental strain on me. I wouldn't recommend ANYONE to apply for this office... Maybe other Heartland offices are better but it doesn't look like it from the reviews I'm reading.

When I first started working at my practice there was a great system of how things were done. Up front we were expected to schedule patients, answer phone calls, check patients in and out, verify insurance eligibility, review treatment plans, and follow up on preauths. We also once had an accounts receivable/billing team that received/posted insurance payments and made any necessary adjustments and would send billing statements to patients and insurance coordinators who for the most part did all things that involved insurance. The biggest thing was creating new coverages and make any necessary updates to existing coverages so that we could ensure patient treatment plans were accurate.  When my practice affiliated w/ heartland everything went south. To be completely honest I feel like everything was dumped on the front staff. We’re not only expected to manage a schedule to meet production goals, we’re expected to deal with patients face to face, phone calls, check in & check out, billing ,A/R, auditing accounts for credits and balances, ALL things insurance, coordinate/discuss treatment plans and financials w/ patients. While this may not seem like a lot I feel as if this would be more manageable for a small office. My office is constantly accepting new patients. We have 2 dentists and around 7-8 hygienists and a periodontist twice a week. Heartland needs to do better. You are expecting way too much out of your front staff and it’s not fair. Many offices have treatment plan coordinators, insurance coordinators, and billing/accounts receivable. I feel as if I’m expected to do the work of several different departments and we can never get ahead. I’m always swimming in piles of work and every time I think things are going well, we have yet another task added to our plates. The front staff is the first impression of a patient’s experience at our/ any other office out there. I hear it over and over again in all the training I’m required to to take (which takes time away from my work causing me to fall even more behind). How can you expect us to live up the expectation of being cheerful and positive when we are overworked, burnt out, and underpaid for all of the work that is expected from us on a daily basis? Why would a good business model eliminate essential positions that help operations run smoothly? How can you expect me to believe my practice is still patient centered when there is so much pressure to schedule high production appointments (I.e crowns, bridges, and SRP)? I thought the whole point was treating patients/ focusing on PREVENTATIVE CARE so they don’t get to that point. Also, having your PMOs on multiple calls every day also takes away from the practice/work. I need my PMO to be available to run the office. Not be in meetings for multiple hours at a time throughout the day. Heartland please do better and pay attention to your low ratings from business assistants. From what I can see, the low ratings outnumber the good ones, and that says a lot.

As a dentist from dental school, I was hoping to join a well established, supporting organization which could help me improve clinically and financially. My experience was far from this. Please at least read this before signing your contract so that you are prepared.

PROS: Homeoffice is efficient and will get you your medical insurance, credentialing, CE hours done quickly and flawlessly. I do believe the company has good intentions and ideals. However, this begins to breakdown from the district managers on down to the practice managers. 

CONS: Nepotism is highly prevalent among the managers. They get positions because their sister, mother worked for a heartland office in another state, or have connections with home office, etc. Many of the managers I dealt with do not have degrees in business or degrees at all. What Heartland is doing is opening up many new offices without the proper management, strategies, and staff for you. Production for our office and the nearby 3 offices that just opened were dismal for the entire year. The mangers actually blamed the dentists for this, saying that we were making excuses. Dentistry is hard enough, let alone being cornered in the doctor office by regional managers twice a week for your production performance or persuading you to change hours, days, etc, and being very rude and disrespectful. The truth is that new offices take very long to produce. Maybe 2 years, maybe 5. You will also be in what is called a "hole" which you have to financially get out of through production. Me and 4 other new dentists in the area never got out of the hole for the entire year. Our office went through 3 office managers in the year. Regional manager left. Assistants left. Never enough staff. Looking back, I wished I could of joined an established office, but generally you will not have this decision when you sign on. In my experience in SW Florida, the regional and district managers are inept at their responsibilities and are rude to the dentists and staff. After one year, about 8 dentists who started in Florida from my graduating class, including me, left and have found much better positions out of Heartland. It was an absolute nightmare for us. And the regional manager "accidentally" threw out my dental license right before I left. Please do your homework at the office you will be assigned to before signing on. Find an established one, or get out. Don't get into a "de novo" because you will be the guinea pig. And get to know your district and regional manager before joining. I'm sure some managers are in good faith and competent, but not in SW Florida. I'm in a much better position now in private practice, financially and personally. Good luck.

I would not recommend Heartland to a new graduate dentist. They give a 3 month "deficit deferment" meaning that if you don't produce the base amount to cover your salary within those months its ok. However, after the 3 months is up you will start to go into a "deficit" and if you're in a deficit you cannot make more than your monthly base (even if the office and you are super profitable at some point) because once your in a deficit aka "the hole" you can't bonus until you've made FOUR TIMES the amount you're in the whole. Ex: My monthly base was about 50,000 that i had to produce. If i only produced 40,000 i am now in the "hole" by 10,000. It doesn't affect my current pay, I will still make my base amount BUT i can never make more than that until i produce an EXTRA 40,000 (10,000 x 4) to get out of the hole. Then the next month if i only produced 47,000 i now have 13,000 in the hole and have to produce 52,000 to get out. And it just keeps accumulating if you don't start producing a lot at a quick pace. This is hard, or it was in my case because I acquired NO patients. I started from scratch and only got 40-50% of the new patients. The other doc had all of the recare exams and half the NP exams. I also split the limiteds that came in too. Not to mention when you first start they make you go through an "onboarding" in which you take 8 weeks worth of online videos and can't see patients. Then you have to go to 4-5 CE's within the first 6 months where you miss a couple work days each time. Being a new doc and learning to get faster at procedures, faster treatment planning, learning to use the computer system...it's all very overwhelming and if you're ok making a base salary and no opportunity to bonus then take the risk. Otherwise, get used to real world dentistry somewhere else and look for a heartland job a few years later. It's a great company as far as benefits, time off, CE's, and support, just not for a beginning dentist. They have high expectations and will micromanage you with monthly meetings with sayings like "you diagnosed 150 crowns last month, why did you only do 34?" or "your case acceptance went down 5% from last quarter, do you need the office manager to listen to your presentations and see if you're using limiting terms?" 
or "you only did 3 root canals this month, why is that?" - MAYBE because only 3 people needed root canals?? So prepare to be questioned if you're not producing more than like 50K a month.

Also, the CE's are technically "Paid for" but by your own office. So if the other doctor doesn't want you taking a chunk of money from the office because it will affect their own paycheck then they won't let you go to the CE. 

Where do I begin?! First off the initial interview was not at the office I would be working and the person who interviewed me was not my future manager either. Then the second interview, a work interview at 7AM, was at a completely different office - again, not the one they were considering to hire me. And then I trained at multiple offices! It was hard because although they are a chain business and they mean for all to follow the same rules and procedures, each office has their own ways. Which is fine, except that it's not fun when you finally go to the office they promised you'd be hired on, then having to learn how to interact with the new coworkers, manager, doctors and patients. 
Because I went thru so many different trainers, training was a joke. They have boring videos we must watch at work. if we are too busy, too bad, we had to find a way somehow to watch them within the deadlines.
Be aware that most new offices will have "fresh new" doctors. One of our doctors had never ever worked before and had absolutely no clue how to conduct himself on a work environment. He was rude and micromanaging. To put this in perspective, in less than one year the office went thru three managers. One was too good for all that sh**, the other was too awful. Those managers had no training whatsoever!!! And then I decided I didn't want to see what the third manager could do for that place. 
I feel like the offices have no autonomy. Everything has to go by what Home office says. Not to mention they have stupid goals, which made us having to harass patients because we had to call them to confirm appointments more than once, or to get more than one crown, etc. 
You'll get lucky if you get a lunch break. Home office also says employees can take 15min in the am and pm, but don't you dare grab a bite to eat during your break or make a personal phone call, you will be harassed in front of the entire staff. Or don't you dare ask to come in a hour late so you can go to your doctor appt- they will tell you "take the rest of the day off". Or they simply close the office because the doctor has a trip or training scheduled, and even if you have paperwork to do and haven't met your hours for the week, you can come in. So they can't even guarantee that you will work the hours you need.
Be aware of the gossip; they all know each other thru the offices (like I mention, they train us at different offices, they also "borrow" employees from other locations), and they also have conventions where they all meet and gossip. 
They were really good at convincing how great it is to work for Heartland Dental. But don't let them fool you. They treat loyal employees like mere numbers and easily replaceable.

Heartland Dental does an excellent job showing each and everyone one of their employees and supported dental offices that they have value in the company. Heartland Dental provides great benefits, great advancement opportunities and they are willing to listen to ideas even from the "low man on the totem pole". 

For my job as a Patient Services Representative (PSR), a typical day consists of answering phone calls for over 500 of the dental offices supported by Heartland. PSRs schedule/reschedule/cancel appointments for offices, answer simple questions and make sure that the dental offices know of any concerns their patients might have. 

I have learned that every dental office, every person working in the dental office and every patient at the dental offices are different. There are several personality types and I, as a PSR, have to adapt my own personality to theirs. At times this can be a challenge because my personality doesn't always mix with personalities opposite mine. This can also be challenging with dental offices in general because some dental offices are much more strict than others. As a PSR, I have to quickly know how the office likes their appointments scheduled, how their patients are to be treated and how detailed I must be in answering questions and recording information. 

My biggest challenge with this job is the job itself. I personally have a difficult time sitting in one spot answering phone calls for more than a couple of hours. I am fine with sitting and/or answering phone calls but I also like to get up and move around and perform other tasks as well. This job can be very boring but also very stressful depending on the day and type of calls I get. 

The most enjoyable thing about this job is my co-workers and management. Everyone that I work with is so nice and encouraging especially to new employees. The management is great at making sure that each new employee feels comfortable talking phone calls before sending them out to take calls alone.

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Practice manager 3 salaries reported	$74,333 per year

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