Advertising, fee splitting, and unprofessional conduct
Advertising, fee splitting, and unprofessional conduct
This domain covers how a practice may market itself, how money may and may not be shared, and the behaviors the Board treats as unprofessional conduct. Items are usually scenario-based: identify the conduct and name the rule it breaks.
Advertising
Advertising must be truthful and not misleading. Permitted content includes fees, office hours, services offered, and accurate credentials. Prohibited content includes guarantees of results, unsubstantiated claims of superiority, "painless" or "permanent" assurances, misleading specialty claims, and advertising under a name implying a professional relationship that does not exist. A dentist may announce a specialty only when the claim is accurate and consistent with the Board's rules; certification by a recognized specialty board supports the claim.
Fee splitting and inducements
A dentist may not split fees with an unlicensed person or pay a commission for the referral of patients. Paying a percentage of collections to a non-dentist owner of a management company for patient referrals is the classic violation; paying salaries, fair-market rent, and laboratory bills is not. Giving something of value to another provider in exchange for referrals is a kickback even when it is labeled a marketing fee. Discounts must be real, disclosed, and not a disguised payment for referrals.
Unprofessional conduct
Enumerated grounds typically include fraud or deceit in obtaining a license, gross negligence or incompetence, practicing outside scope or while impaired, failing to maintain adequate records, violating infection-control requirements, aiding unlicensed practice, abandoning a patient without notice and an opportunity to transfer, sexual misconduct, and failing to cooperate with a Board investigation. The list is not exhaustive; the Board may act on conduct that undermines public confidence in the profession.
Worked example
A dentist agrees to pay a marketing company 15 percent of collections from new patients the company recruits, and the company's owner is not a dentist. This is fee splitting: compensation tied to patient volume and paid to an unlicensed party. A flat monthly advertising fee, unrelated to patient volume and not paid for referrals, would be permissible.
Traps
- Assuming a signed contract makes an arrangement lawful.
- Treating a "consultant fee" as outside the fee-splitting rule.
- Advertising a specialty because a laboratory or course uses the term.
- Forgetting that failure to cooperate with an investigation is itself a violation.