In this newsletter, I’ll cover:
- CDA Respiratory Protection Program
- PPP Loan Forgiveness
- A Quick Reminder to Stay Vigilant
- Focusing on the Nervous Patient
- Dental Practices for Sale
- Another Musical Interlude
Best Wishes on Memorial Day
Believe it or not, this Monday is Memorial Day.
The de facto beginning of summer has taken me completely by surprise. I thought it was next week and honestly hadn’t thought much about it at all. But I’m glad it’s here. It is good to mark time, especially these days when everything seems to flow together.
On Memorial Day, we remember the courageous men and women who fought and died in the defense of our country. I’m grateful for them.
I wish all of you a good, safe, and relaxing Memorial Day!
OSHA Waives Fit Testing Requirement for N95 – But You Still Need To Take Proper Steps for Compliance
From the CDA: “Dentist employers should understand that although the required annual fit testing requirement has been temporarily suspended, they are still required to provide the initial fit test for each employee who is required to wear a respirator.
Get the CDA’s Respiratory Protection Program compliance document here.
PPP Loan Forgiveness
The PPP still has about $100 billion dollars remaining, but the hot topic this last week was loan forgiveness.
The SBA released the loan forgiveness application on May 15th. You can find it here.
Unsurprisingly, it’s a rather complex application. But it does basically confirm what we’ve been saying all along about the conditions for forgiveness.
It’s important to note here that you will be responsible for helping yourself. The bank will not fill out this application for you, and you’ll need to stay on top of this if you want to receive the loan forgiveness.
Your lender will process your forgiveness application, just as they processed your loan application, and they should reach out to you with instructions on where to apply – but don’t let too much time pass.
What are the step for determining the amount that can be forgiven?
The US Chamber of Commerce wrote a fantastic guide that can be found here. The following is from that guide:
How does the 75% rule work?
If your PPP loan amount is $100k and you spend $50k on payroll, that means that your maximum forgivable amount is $66.6k, leaving $34.4k as an ordinary loan (due in 2 years, 1% interest, 6 months of deferred payments, and no pre-payment penalty).
The formula is simply this:
[total amount spent on qualified payroll expenses] / 0.75 = maximum forgivable amount.
What counts as a qualified payroll expense?
- Compensation (not exceeding $15,385 per employee for the eight week period) in the form of gross salary, gross wages, gross commissions, and gross tips, vacation, parental, family, medical, or sick leave;
- Employer contribution for employee group health care coverage;
- Employer contribution for employee retirement plans; and
- Payment of state and local taxes assessed on compensation of employees.
Again, here’s the detailed Treasury (Official) application for loan forgiveness.
Stay Vigilant
As more and more states open for business, attitudes towards COVID are becoming increasingly relaxed. In my opinion, we should move about without fear while protecting the vulnerable to the best of our abilities. But a relaxed attitude doesn’t mean we shouldn’t still be prudent.
Consider body armor for law enforcement (police PPE). It is very unlikely that a police officer will be shot in the line of duty, but officers continue to wear body armor, even in low crime areas. Why? Because of a prudential risk assessment. They would most likely be fine without it…but you wouldn’t want to need it without having it. The same goes for seat belts in your car.
Until there is a vaccine or effective therapy, COVID will remain with us, invisible and, for some, potentially life-threatening. It’s a nasty and poorly understood disease (though our understanding increases every day). Just because anxiety levels are reducing (I think this is a good thing) doesn’t mean we should let our guard down.
This is just a simple reminder to stay vigilant with your in-office screenings, PPE, and infection control procedures.
Focus on the Nervous Patient
As with any customer service interaction, remember to gauge patient feelings and work to keep them comfortable. For some patients, this might mean taking more precautions than you personally think are necessary.
Dentists and patients are widely split on COVID-related risk tolerance. Some dentists and patients think that this entire lockdown is completely unnecessary while others will be waiting to return to practice until there are better infection control procedures in place than we have now (like point-of-care testing or a vaccine).
This is not the time to drive away any patients. Respect for your patients means making them as comfortable as possible (within reason) in your practice, especially those who are the most concerned.
ew Listings and Coming Soon
In the spirit of slowly returning to (semi-)regular business, here are some fantastic new listings that our team has brought to market in the last few weeks.
Los Angeles General Practice
Asking Price: $190,000 | 6 OPS* | Seller Net Income: $105,000
Building Type: High-rise Professional Building
Revenue Sources: FFS 30%, PPO 70%
Summary: 34-year established, 5-star reviewed, General Practice located in a very prominent, modern professional building on Wilshire Blvd.! The sunny and spacious paperless office features 6 fully-equipped operatories (2 of the operatories are currently sublet to another doctor) and he is the only dentist in the entire building! Sign the NDA and receive more information here.
Southern Central Valley Area Implant Practice – COMING SOON
5 OPS | Revenue Sources: FFS 40%, PPO 51%, Denti-Cal/Medi-Cal 9%
Building Type: Shopping Center
Oceanside General and Implant Practice – COMING SOON
4 OPS | Building Type: Strip mall
Tracy General Practice – COMING SOON
Musical Diversions – More Yo-Yo Ma
Stay safe out there.
Good health and best wishes to you and your families,
Trevor Kimball, PhD
President, Integrity Practice Sales
trevor@integritypracticesales.com