Episode #361: The BOSS Approach- Practical Financial Systems for reducing Insurance Dependence with Brandon ParkHurst

Narrator: This is the Less Insurance Dependence podcast show with my good friend Gary Takacs and myself, Naren Arulrajah.

Narrator: We appreciate your listenership, your time, and most of all, we appreciate your intention to reduce insurance dependence in your practice. Our goal is to provide information that will help you successfully reduce insurance dependence and convert your practice into a thriving and profitable dental practice that provides you with personal, professional, and financial satisfaction.

Lester De Alwis: Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Less Insurance Dependence podcast, your trusted source for insights, strategies, and expert advice to help you take back control of your dental practice and career. I’m Lester De Alwis, your co-host, and I’m thrilled to bring you another value-packed episode with a very special guest, and that is Brandon Parkhurst. On this podcast, our mission is to help dental professionals reduce their reliance on insurance and create thriving, profitable, and patient-centered practices.

But before we dive in, a quick word from our sponsors. Ekwa Marketing is offering a complimentary marketing strategy meeting for anyone who is looking to understand how to attract high-value new patients, rank number one on Google locally, and consistently grow your new patient calls. So if you ever wonder why you are not receiving or not getting the patients that you desire through your doors, or you want to check your online visibility, you can visit lessinsurancedependence.com/marketing-strategy-meeting to book a complimentary session to understand your marketing.

Lester De Alwis: And if you’re looking for mentorship or coaching to create a thriving fee-for-service practice, schedule a complimentary coaching strategy meeting with Gary Takacs at thrivingdentist.com/csm.

Now onto today’s episode. I’m excited to welcome Brandon Parkhurst Consulting, managing partner at Parkhurst Consulting, where he helps dental practices achieve clarity and growth through outsourced CFO and financial services. With his BOSS model, Brandon provides practices with real-time financial data, budgeting, and consulting, helping them make smarter decisions, avoid financial pitfalls, and build confidence to reduce reliance on insurance.

So Brandon, we are excited to have you here. Thank you so much for being part of this podcast.

Brandon Parkhurst: Thank you for having me.

Lester De Alwis: So let’s start with this. How does outsourcing accounting and CFO services through models like BOSS help dental practices reduce their reliance on insurance?

Brandon Parkhurst: Well, what it really does is it establishes an objective foundation to what their true why is for being in private practice. And so we go beyond that to making sure that they have certain goals way before the practice that they want to accomplish. It’s just bringing meaningfulness to their identity as they practice during their career, how they can understand the freedoms that they can have, and just understanding what their—what we call—equipment check is.

None of this has been financial so far. But you have to understand that when they set up a practice, they need to make sure that they have the right team going into it and knowing how they’re gonna execute their strategy. And it’s long term, but when they start their practice, kind of everything goes to focusing on the first patient and just to see the first patient that writes a check.

Brandon Parkhurst: And so, getting into the minutiae of a practice is where, having separate discussions with them, they can feel like they’re empowered to know, "Hey, this is how it looks. Here’s how you have an opportunity to make your practice what it is, and how we can measure that during these different stages as they grow it." So it’s really a part of how they—it’s establishing the actual concrete evidence that they know they can achieve these goals by hitting certain benchmarks. Otherwise, it is completely people and culture that drive these goals to be successful or not.

Lester De Alwis: Exactly. Exactly. That’s a strong point about how outsourced CFO services provide clarity. So let’s build on that. How do tools like financial statements and budget reports specifically change how practices plan around PPOs?

Brandon Parkhurst: It’s an eye-opening experience, especially when you look at things beyond the financial statements, right? Financial statements are helpful—looking at overhead is—but in reality, it completely fixates everybody away from what the main issue is: net collections, right? So you gotta go into their practice management software to really see all the chaos that goes into how they’re operating in their overhead.

They have to see how they operate and what’s causing everything to happen. It just starts showing them hygiene and restorative production and just all the areas that they have to do 40, 50% more of to pay the same bills that any business on their sign has to do. It shows them that there’s a pathway, but not necessarily that they’re committed to it yet, because they don’t know or see how they can see themselves through that just yet. It’s more about showing them that there’s a way.

Lester De Alwis: Right? Right.

Brandon Parkhurst: And a reminder, when they come home from a very stressed-out day, that working extra hours isn’t going to get you ahead in a private practice for the long run.

Lester De Alwis: Yeah. So I think it’s mostly working smarter, right? More than working hard, most—

Brandon Parkhurst: Most definitely. And just showing them where they are when they set this up a long time ago and just going all the way back to the whys.

Lester De Alwis: Amazing. Amazing. Now, when practices start this journey, they often run into challenges. What are the common pitfalls you’ve seen, and how do smarter systems help solve them?

Brandon Parkhurst: Most importantly, it’s getting the right mindset for the executive team and their practice culture. I mean, they need to go in hiring, for the most part, the core team that they want to have when they make this happen—not the current lowest dollar per hour to get somebody in the door—but they need to have somebody that can spread that culture and the independence that the private practice can have without having insurance requirements, how that can be communicated while they’re doing the dentistry.

And so when we show them their overhead’s going to be high salaries, they don’t need to go back and think that that’s something they need to trim on. They need to know that only their collections, at a certain point, are gonna drive that to the next level.

Brandon Parkhurst: And we just have to show them why things in their practice and their overhead are going to look different. But when they start getting off plans, how that will completely flip once they’re done going partial and then dropping some of the final plans. Most practices get to a decision point where they are growing, and they either decide, "Well, I think we’re ready for a second location now," and then, at that point, it’s like—well, they should have maybe considered if their values are the right way for going private.

You may not need to go into a second office and then all of the inefficiencies that go along with it. They can have their own house and work smarter and less and offer more to their practice if they consider that. It’s usually too late.

Lester De Alwis: Exactly. I think that’s—it’s very eye-opening. I think that’s where most practices fail. I guess that is the main problem I see.

So now, another concern dentists often share is unpredictable expenses. How can bundled solutions give them more confidence and stability?

Brandon Parkhurst: They know that they have somebody that can communicate with their team internally and their executive team to know what they are—what their DNA is—that we have been around with them the whole time. And so whenever things get too detailed or, you know, we’re trying to hire and make some of the basic "learn to walk and talk" decisions when you’re frozen in your cash flow and overhead, we always want to come back and show them what they’re trying to do.

And that maybe they’re in a situation where they’re thinking something different because of stress, but in reality, we’re just going along with a plan and giving them that understanding as to where they are.

Lester De Alwis: Alright. Alright. So that makes so much sense for practice owners. But ultimately, as you know, patients feel the impact of financial systems too, right? How does this translate into a better experience for them?

Brandon Parkhurst: Well, in general, in private practice, there are really two models you can have in the long run, right? You have insurance and corporate—which, you know, their scale is one area—or being autonomous and going private. And so when they see the benefits of going private, it automatically brings their options to hire the right people, the right hygienists, and pay them more, and to give all the right internal small business benefits that give the team that reinforcement that they know that the practice is protecting them.

But also, the doctors and the practice’s goal—that the patient care matters the most. When they make decisions, they know that they don’t have to rush these appointments. It’s relationship, and it allows, you know, when the door’s opening about 30%, 40% less in the day, you have more concentration to focus on what matters—the patients that come in.

Lester De Alwis: All right. Okay. That makes sense. And I think in all of this, to bring it full circle, it’s all about that—when you have that financial freedom or the clarity, you can take the decisions you want to take without any hesitation, right? So that’s basically the end goal of any dentist listening to this podcast—it’s about the financial freedom and the clarity.

So Brandon, to bring it full circle, what is the one final advice that you want to share with our listeners listening to this podcast?

Brandon Parkhurst: It’s to really understand what their why is, and why dentistry can be the best profession that they could have had—as long as they know to ask the right questions, to surround themselves with the right people in the right environments, like the Thriving Dentist Podcast, and the options of how you can become less dependent.

You know, when somebody goes to a dentist down the street, they automatically think that they’re all equal. And when you look at it, you can peg a certain—this practice is automatically gonna have 60% of their net production to give to the team. And this other practice down here can keep 97%. And when somebody’s applying for a job or hygiene or things like that, when it’s difficult to compete with other practices like corporate, they see how confident they can offer the right people and know they can afford it—and to know that they’ve got a profit center in hygiene, not having it be just what it takes to get the restorative work so they can show their profit.

It’s allowing them to focus on patients and referrals, and it allows them to spend more on employees, marketing, and just doing the things that they want to do in their practice—and not feeling like everything they get is just red.

Lester De Alwis: Exactly. Amazing insights. So finally, if any one of our listeners is listening to this episode and wants to get in touch with you, how can they get in touch with you?

Brandon Parkhurst: The best place to go is our website, which is parkhurstconsulting.com. You can just give us your name and email and what you’re wanting to do. If you want to have us look at your practice and just start a conversation to see, you know, how can we not have to be going this alone, and how can we become a team so that we can understand what our possibilities are early on. It’s just important to have that support and a village.

Lester De Alwis: Exactly. It’s always better to take the—what do you call it—how do you say this… the prevention before you actually get into the obstacle. It’s better to always prevent the obstacle.

So, fantastic insights, Brandon. Any, any, any final thoughts you want to add?

Brandon Parkhurst: You know, there’s a lot of expertise out there that can serve the private dentist. And if they lean on that and build that trusted team, it gives them the confidence that they don’t have to be carrying the burden from the moment they walk into the office all the way into the operatory and out. Private dentistry is something that is not going away, and it’s something that is very important for the best dentists to have meaningfulness—to know that they can have a great career and not feel like they have to operate under constraints or limitations that they may not have already thought they had signed up for.

Lester De Alwis: Exactly. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Brandon. Fantastic insights. Again, thank you for connecting the dots between financial clarity, patient care, and the reason of reducing insurance dependence. I mean, you shared a lot of nuggets. You shared your expertise on financial clarity and growth strategies for dental practices. Thank you so much for joining us today.

Brandon Parkhurst: Lester, thank you for having me. It was a very—it was a strong pleasure.

Lester De Alwis: So the key takeaway from today’s episode is that strong financial systems, through outsourced CFO services or smart accounting, don’t just keep the books balanced. They give dentists the confidence to reduce PPO dependence, make bold decisions, and ultimately build practices that thrive independently.

And as always, this podcast is about taking action.

First, if you want to attract more high-quality patients and reduce reliance on PPOs, schedule your complimentary marketing strategy meeting with Ekwa Marketing at lessinsurancedependence.com/marketing-strategy-meeting.

Secondly, if you’d like personalized coaching or mentorship to build a thriving insurance-independent practice, schedule a complimentary coaching strategy meeting with Gary at thrivingdentist.com/csm.

Now, both of these are complimentary resources. They’re here to help you take meaningful steps toward the practice and the life you truly deserve.

If you found value in today’s episode, please share it with a colleague, a friend, or anyone who could benefit from this. Together, we can help more dentists take control of their future.

Thank you for joining us, and I look forward to connecting with you again on the next episode of the Less Insurance Dependence Podcast.

Until then, keep moving forward. Keep moving forward towards a thriving independent practice.