“5 Minutes With” is a fun talk show that showcases individuals and companies in the community and is focused on leadership and giving back. It’s titled “5 Minutes With” because we spend about 5 minutes with the guests uncovering some fun facts about them, their companies, and their community engagement. Today, our host Miranda Gahn spoke with Daniel Johnson of Peak Performance VA.
Daniel Johnson
CEO of Peak Performance VA
Website Address: https://www.peakperformanceva.com/
Short company description:
Where your healthcare practice’s potential meets our expertise in virtual assistance. At Peak Performance VA, we specialize in elevating the efficiency of medical and dental practices, enabling professionals to devote more attention to patient care.
What’s The Biggest Challenge you are facing in your business or industry?
Quality help for our dental offices.
How do you see your field evolving in the next 3-5 years?
Moving towards mid integration to VA (virtual assistants) and AI technology.
What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment?
Helping office systemize and make their healthcare facility more patient-centered by taking all the tedious tasks off their plates.
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Transcript:
Miranda:
Hi. Welcome back to another episode of Five Minutes With. I’m Miranda Gahn with Lex Aero Aviation Law Firm. This morning I’m here with Daniel Johnson. Good morning Daniel.
Daniel:
Good morning.
Miranda:
So tell us what you’re up to Daniel.
Daniel:
So just, been working in the dental industry and, trying to find ways to help Dennis and the medical professionals, have their systems. A little more efficient, and so they can provide better health care and care to their patients. So it been a good 15 years in this industry. And so I’m excited to share a little bit about what we do and how we do it.
Miranda:
So would you say that, your space is more technology based, where you come in and you help, dentist offices run more efficiently?
Daniel:
It’s a mixture of both. We utilize technology, AI technology currently, but also a mix of humans because when it comes to the medical industry, you have to always have the human touch. And so we utilize what we call virtual assistants, that actually go in and help do the tedious tasks that, dental offices and medical offices don’t like to do, like insurance verifications, claims, all these back end stuff that a lot of companies struggle finding people to do it efficiently and stay around and then, be able to be efficient.
And then we’ve incorporated AI technology into that, to help with, streamline a lot of those processes. So it’s a pretty cool industry, a pretty cool time where AI and technology is meeting a personal touch, with patients in the healthcare industry.
Miranda:
Well, that’s really fascinating. So you said you’ve been doing it for 15 years. How did you get into it?
Daniel:
So my brother’s actually a dentist, and he had kind of recruited me when he was at school. And in dental school, I was doing another business venture, and he kind of recruited me to come down and help him with dental because dentist don’t really learn business to go all clinical. And so I came down, 15 years ago.
More of just help with operations, and growing dental practices for him and myself. And then it just kind of morphed into where, you know, as I think of business wise, there’s a lot of need for dentists and medical professionals, to help be more efficient in their practices, not only for their business side, but also for their patient side.
And so it helps both sides of the, from the dental side and from the patient side.
Miranda:
Well, that’s really fascinating. So how many practices would you say you support?
Daniel:
We support about 1200 practices. Wow. Yeah. And so it’s the cool thing is, is, you know, there’s so, so, so much of a need of help in the medical space. Most of us know, like when we go to a dental, a medical office, we wait a long time and we don’t understand why we wait and why there’s such a long lag between patient care and seeing the physician or the doctor.
But a lot of that has to do with the back at the back. And so if we’re talking about making sure your insurance is right, that it’s verified that we there called breakdown of benefits and making sure your benefits are covered. And so that those are all processes in the background happening why people are waiting. And so what we’ve done is we’ve found systems through people and AI to speed up those processes.
So hopefully it helps us when people go into these clinics or, to see procedures or see doctors that can speed up that process so they can get in and get out quicker.
Miranda:
Well, what a fascinating niche. And that sounds like you have a unique perspective and an approach and how you support these Dennis offices. It sounds like not only do you implement systems and technology to improve operations, but it sounds like you care and consider the customer experience or the client experience in these offices as well.
Daniel:
Yeah, a lot of it has to do with personal experience. I think it’s all like that. That’s why I mention that we all have gone into an office, any type of medical office, and wonder why you wait and wonder why they’re there. Seems like it takes so much time. And so a lot of it we don’t understand as patients.
We don’t understand the back inside of it, of what’s really going on, because it’s like any business, right? We, medical offices and dental offices have to deal with insurance companies, that are really about themselves. They will downgrade. They will not pay as much as they should and so on our due diligence. And we’re trying to get the best we can from the insurance companies, from information standpoint, and knowledge standpoint, so we can pass it along to the patients.
And I also think a lot of patients, including myself, before I got into the industry didn’t realize, like medical offices and dental offices actually don’t necessarily need to do that for patients. It’s actually on the patients. The patients are the ones us to be doing that, but we do it as a courtesy, because we understand it and we can help them maximize benefits.
And but a lot of patients think that, you know, since me and my brother have four dental practices, he pays you. A lot of our patients think that we are the one that actually working with or for the insurance agency. We don’t. We’re just there as a middleman, trying to make sure that the patients get the best possible care in office, but also that they’re getting taken care of by the insurance that they that they’ve provided.
Miranda:
Well, is there anything exciting or new this year that you guys are working on? Any goals or objectives?
Daniel:
Yeah. So that’s where I comes in. I know I has been a hot topic for the last two years. For us, it’s actually been a topic for the last five, six years because we jumped into AI early, realizing that there’s a lot of, benefits to utilizing that system and that technology where it can scrape and do a lot of the back end stuff really, really quick and efficient that just regular people can’t do.
And so when you integrate AI with real people, it actually enhances experiences for everybody. And so one thing we’ve actually I mentioned is that we have virtual assistants, which are real people. They’re based all over. But one cool thing we found is as we place a virtual assistant, which virtual assistant is a real person, just they’re not working in the office or they’re remote.
They’re remote employee or remote contractor. And what we realize is, is as we service different parts of the country, let’s say Boston or we got California or we got Alabama, Arkansas, every every region has a different dialect. And we found that patients really like it when this person or sounds like they’re from the area.
So what I’ve been doing is we’re working on a technology that allows, like me, you’re talking. I could change the influx, or the, dialect of my voice to specific regions. And so, like, if I’m in Boston, I can sound like I’m from Boston. If I’m from Washington, I can sound like I’m from Washington. And so that’s that’s kind of the next game changer we’re working on just more the voice interaction.
It’s not there yet. There’s about a two second lag when we talk. And what it’s allowed us to do is is it kind of localizes the service. And so you can actually say, hey, I’m Amy from ECR dental or whatever it is, and you sound like you’re from that area.
And so and then also we’re using AI to incorporate a lot of, of the back in verifying insurances. It’s just lot faster when you’re going to websites. I can get into websites and look at things and break things down a lot quicker than, than humans can. And so but then you still need the human aspect of calling patients set up appointments.
And so some really, really, really cool things coming with I know a lot of people get nervous about AI and think they’re going to take over jobs, but I’m a big believer I just going to increase, efficiency and create more jobs just in different sectors. It’s just going to create more jobs in different ways. And so we jumped on early about five, six years ago, and now it’s really coming to a head. So we’re really excited.
Miranda:
Well that’s really impressive. So it sounds like you have a really successful practice. How is it that you marketed your business to grow so much? And it sounds like your practices are outside of your home state of Texas. It sounds like you help dental offices all over the US.
Daniel:
So we don’t really market. Ours is all word of mouth. We have. Yeah, we have partnered with, we have partner with a couple, dental and medical groups that are on social media. So they were kind of like an influencer. But then we just provide ours is all service based.
When people realize, I can hire a remote service employee for, a fraction of the cost of what you can hire in office employees, because what we found over the years is these tedious tasks that I’m talking about.
You might hire somebody after a year or two. They get it burned you out real quick. You’re talking about being on the phone. Be on hold for a half an hour with insurances going through all this information, and it’s a struggle for a lot of people. And so we found what and not to mention the cost, for a business in the dental and the, medical industry, we are regulated by insurance costs.
So what that means is, say a patient comes in and they have a procedure done. The insurance company says we have to write off a certain amount. Usually it’s 30 to 40%. So you’re talking like if you have a product that you say you sell for $100 and somebody’s telling you, hey, you’re only can charge $60.
So that means on our end, we have to be efficient with that $60 to make sure we stay viable as a business. And I think a lot of people don’t realize that in the medical industry, that’s what happens with insurance, is they regulate how much we charge. And so great for the patients, for the most part, not so great for medical practices and dental practices, because we are taking a 30 or 40% off the top.
And so we have to find those, we call them 1 or 2 percenters, in the business that we can save money on, and having a virtual system where they’re very affordable, we’re talking to a third of the costs, utilizing AI technology that most offices can use that because then it adds that revenue, because in medical and dental offices, our biggest expense is payroll.
Always it’s human. It’s like any business. My favorite part of business is people, but my heart is part of my business is people. And so it’s it doesn’t it doesn’t change in, in medical or dental as well.
Miranda:
Wow. That’s really insightful. So, obviously you have a very successful business. You’ve seen a lot of growth. You’ve jumped on, some industry trends early in. You’re about to capitalize on it. What is some advice out there for people who are looking to grow their business, or someone who’s maybe thinking of taking the leap of starting their own business?
What would you say to them? What’s the best advice.
Daniel:
Versus take that step forward? You know, my thing is, is I don’t I’m not afraid to fail forward. Which means if I’m stepping forward and I fail, no big deal. You know, I can always use my brain and my mind to start over. I think a lot of people get stuck in the failure mode, worrying about failing, and not willing to take that step.
And so it’s just take the first step and then be willing to adapt and change. I’ve of the multiple businesses I’ve had over the years, I’ve learned that you might start something in some way, but as you go along, it actually morphs into different areas.
I thought you had told me 15 years ago that I was going to do different, business assets in the medical field. I’d be like, no, I’m happy. But as you get into you realize there’s such a need in different ways. If you’re willing to be open to what’s coming and test it out.
Like I was skeptical with I five years ago, you know, I, I thought it was cool. But I was very realistic that, hey, trends change, technology changes. Same thing when, you know, back in the day, if you were to tell me, I could hold a phone that could have, do anything I want by touching, I would have told you you’re crazy.
I right, I would have thought it would be cool, but. And so it’s the same thing with technology. As you move forward, embrace technology. Learn about it. And then, just like I said, be willing to fail forward.Miranda:
Well, I really appreciate that, Daniel. That’s some really powerful advice. I tend to agree. We really appreciate your time today. Thank you so much for joining us.
