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Doctor of Dentistry, 2006
Dental Health Associates Commercial - 7/2006 |
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Merrill Lynch Business Life, November 2002
In the spotlight
Dental Health Associates: Preserving the Relationships
Helped by a term loan from Merrill Lynch Business
Financial Services, Dr. Louis Spelios and his Uncle Mitch Spelios acquired their
group’s dental practice in January 2002. Thus,
Dental Health Associates (DHA), Inc. (Atlanta) was
born.
But coordinating the new company’s offices
in three states was formidable, until Merrill Lynch
showed how to simplify DHA’s cash management
with a Working Capital Management Accountâ
(WCMAâ account). Its integrated online banking
services saved time by allowing them to review and
reconcile balances and to place electronic funds
transfers themselves.
A cottage industry spreads out
Mitch Spelios, president and C.O.O., explained,
“Dentistry is still largely a cottage industry.
Ninety percent of it is based on relationship building.”
He said dental management networks often become
top-heavy with administration. They can easily lose
their focus on individual practice, which is so
important to the profession and to better patient
care.
At DHA, Louis and Mitch hope to preserve the local-practice
aspect of dentistry, while giving the member dentist
the potential to grow and have a stake in the larger
enterprise. DHA has 273 employees based at 11 offices
in the Atlanta area, 7 in North Carolina, and 5
in Florida.
Cash management made easy
With offices so spread out, coordinating routine
tasks like payrolls, insurance payments and employee
benefits was daunting. Then they spoke with a Merrill
Lynch Financial Advisor who listened to their needs
and responded with an idea that has worked very
well. The solution was online banking services through
two main WCMA accounts – one for payments
from their employee-funded health plan, and the
other as a hub for 23 WCMA SubAccountsSM, one for
each office in the network.
Electronic funds transfer
“We keep accounts at a large bank to receive
patients’ checks,” said Andy Litton,
DHA’s vice president of finance. Then through
Automated Clearing House transfers, the money is
credited over to the WCMA SubAccounts. From there,
it is moved into the hub account in Atlanta.
Insurance payments to DHA are directed to a Lockbox
in Atlanta. “This feature is awesome,”
said Litton. “Once in the Lockbox, the funds
are immediately credited to our account. Overall,
the Lockbox has improved our collections by approximately
10 days,” he explained. Mitch Spelios added,
“That’s been a real boon to our cash
flow.”
Service
DHA’s philosophy of relationship building
is in tune with Merrill Lynch. “They’ve
done a great job,” Mitch says, “serving
both our business needs and our members’ personal
finance needs. It’s been a tremendous benefit.”
DHA also uses Merrill’s Visa Business Signatureâ
debit card, which helps them control expenses by
designating managers to make budget-limited purchases.
“We like the delayed-debit feature, which
lets our money stay in our account working longer
than in a standard bank checking account,”
Litton said.
DHA expects to establish a solid business in their
regions over the next year and a half, while planning
to expand in the months thereafter. They’re
confident they can preserve dentistry’s strong
relationship practice, with help from their own
employees and the people of Merrill Lynch. |
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