HCD Headlines 4-6-2026

Rachael
21 hours ago
6 min read

Zima Pods

"The pods are coming! The pods are coming!" ...Coming to HCD by the end of April! We will have a few Zima Pods on hand for our patients and/or team to purchase. The costs are listed in Dentrix already under code "ZimaPod." If we have a good response to purchasing them in office, we will look into having more on hand in the future.

Rollover Requests

Per our discussion at the last team meeting, here is information from the 401(k) group regarding rollover requests.

From Julie Cook:

Attached is the Incoming Rollover Form which has all the information needed for Incoming Rollovers to the plan. Please feel free to give participants my contact information if they have questions when filling out the forms and I am happy to assist as needed.

Participants need to complete the Incoming Rollover Request form and can send it to me when it is complete, and I can submit American Funds. This is in addition to whatever paperwork the institution currently holding the account requires. Some institutions will allow participants to initiate a rollover by phone or email, but the participant will have to contact them to determine their specific requirements.

Yes, entry is Quarterly.

In regards to the app from Capital Group, she said this:

American Funds said that they may have not loaded the correct App. There are a couple of different apps but the 401K App should ask for SSN and DOB and not a PIN. American Funds said to let them know they should look for Capital Group RKDirect 401k App.

The contact information for our 401(k) people is: Travis Warnock - Travis.Warnock@equitable.com

Julie Cook - julie.cook@equitable.com

Darron Rizer - Darron.Rizer@equitable.com

Copying Clinical Notes

I thought this was an interesting conversation in a recent Facebook group regarding copying notes from previous appointments. I know some of our providers use this option for their notes. Sometimes it is obvious no changes have been made. For example, having a patient's SH note reflect they "just found out they're pregnant" for the past 3 visits. Could it be true? Maybe...

This was the response to the above question from a hygienist:

Just my 2 cents- I am a hygienist of 40 years but I also am a past Senior Dental Fraud Investigator for multiple Fortune 500 Insurance Companies and just an FYI if you get audited and they see this in the notes and we are pretty through when reviewing notes plus they can ask for the metadata which shows keystrokes, when made/date, time, and who made it ….. we caught many with this and if something was billed out incorrectly they would bring up the fact that the records were copied and pasted and the AG, OIG or whatever agency it was sent to sometimes (the Dental Licensing Board) it would make the records unreliable/UN credible. They would then require office to take an ethics class, and records course besides taking money back, possible fines…..because they could not confirm that the treatment in the record was actually done or accurate because of the copying and pasting… and not being reliable….

I would always educate offices on the fact you can use templates BUT then you need to make it individualized to the patient because no two patients or appointments are identical…

This also goes with perio charting copying and pasting-saves time but does not prove it was completed that day because it was not typed in that day.

I would often get records where they did notes before the patients appointment or after the appointments ( we would look at the time typed in the meta data the strokes and you could see some were just running through and typing over/copying all numbers of what was in there previously-as it took a whole 3 minutes to reprobe the whole mouth in the metadata when you know you are probing then turning to type or have someone put in for you and it normally takes longer….one of the big things in perio they would say: localized moderate perio, slight gingivitis but would not note “where” and would not write stable or active perio, or what stage and grade it has to be written so anyone looking/reading the notes can confirm everything. It should state Dr diagnosed xxxx( as hygienist can not diagnose only the Dr) or the notes did not match probing or bleeding based on staging and grading or they would not do staging and grading or were missing half of the documentation.

I would use a template that you have to click through each selection and then you have to do the narrative on diagnosis and what was discussed with patient and the patients response to treatment plan or recommendations…

If not written, it did not happen.. you can document perio/treatment plans but if you do not have it written that you discussed with and their response it did not happen pros, cons, and this is a quality of care concern…

Good luck- you just need a good template that has all the selections that they click on in each section and then a lt the end a narrative for tx plan, next visit and narrative of discussion with or and patients response. I set these up on Dentrix at a couple of the offices I worked at over the years.. everyone can use the same, nothing gets missed , the notes are the only detail..,

Oh and another thing commonly seen was perio exam: within norma( yet they had perio or gingivitis, or they would have a line that says perio charting: no changes or localized gingivitis, mod sporadic perio-but did not state where??? It should be noted in there the specific areas, this is part of staging and grading noting areas of concern in notes… you can direct them to see perio charting but you are still supposed to write down areas of concern…

....

Please remember all Drs should be reviewing all tx notes failure would also look at tho to make sure it was being done before the notes were locked; and notes should be completed the day of service as this also brings notes accuracy into question when being reviewed (God forbid you ever have to go through an audit-hopefully not)

I am only sharing my experience and knowledge from being an investigator and having to go through the findings with the Dental Directors and peer review committees as well as the OIG, AG, FBI, State Licensing Boards when working with them…

TLDR: Copying notes without paying attention to updating details and actual treatment will bite you in the caboose. If we need to make more notes that are applicable to specific treatments, let's do it! Dentrix doesn't have a limit to note templates.

SOP - Standard Operating Procedures

Part of meeting with Burkhart regarding analyzing the clinic is looking more closely at our SOP - Standard Operating Procedures. We have many of these written up and stored in the Policy Manual in my office. Others are on the shared drive for easier access.

In order to ensure we're on the same page regardless of the treatment or protocol, we are going to update all of our procedures to a standardized layout and location. I will take this project on as lead and will need your help on certain topics.

This is a major undertaking and will take a few months to complete properly. I'm giving you a heads up as it will be part of our discussions at team meetings and huddles. It's not because anyone has done anything wrong in regards to these SOPs. It's just a matter of being organized as a team and organization.

We ask for your constructive input and assistance as needed to ensure HCD moves forward in a unified direction. Unified in the mission, policies, and execution.

Fee Increase

You may notice that a few of the fees have increased in our fee schedule. This is to adjust for inflation per recommendation by Burkhart Consulting. I have forwarded the specific codes and costs onto the admin team. Please let me know if you have any questions regarding the fees.

Team Reminders

Since we won't meet again as a team for a while, here are a few reminders for the month of April:

April 9th @ 8AM - everyone come to help pack up the office IF we don't finish it Wednesday night.
April 10th @ 7:30 is Cirque Mechanics: Tilt! I've been informed we have 9 team members coming with us. That means each team member can bring one person along with them. It'll be good family fun this time - like real Rated PG due to crazy stunts :o)
April 21st - 12th Anniversary for Rachael (Woot! Woot!)
April 24th @ 8AM - Situate the office to reopen smoothly on 4/27. All team members are required to be there. Please speak with me if you cannot attend.
April 26th - Joselyn's birthday (Woo-hoo!)
April 27th - Office reopens so long as no issues arise during restoration
April 30th - 1 hour team meeting

If you would like any of the monitors for your personal use, you can take them as each restored operatory will have a new monitor. If you would like any of the cupboards/cabinetry, you can take that as soon as it's taken down. It would make great storage for a garage... maybe.

Send a pic or gif showing your team what you plan on doing during the break to show you've read the headlines this week. Thank you all for your help!!