by Mike Bileca looks to the future…
And it’s looking good for DSOs
Twenty-one years ago, Mike Bileca was working for Ernst and Young in its healthcare division when a friend introduced him to a dentist and his partners who owned multiple practices in South Florida.
“They had recently opened a multispecialty practice and were struggling,” says Bileca, an executive at Dental Care Alliance, and president and interim executive director of the Association of Dental Support Organizations.
“I spent some time understanding their challenges and saw an opportunity to streamline the business processes, implement better training and development programs, and integrate technology and systems that would alleviate a good amount of the in-practice ‘headaches’ for the dentists.” He founded Towncare Dental Partnership.
“Over time, and through a lot of trial and error, mistakes and experimentation, we were able to create an effective approach that created a tremendous amount of value to supported practices. As we grew, we were able to augment our initial platform with additional resources in IT, marketing, insurance contracting and other areas. In 2012, we merged with Dental Care Alliance to be part of a larger platform that shared our philosophy and approach.”
Bileca stepped into his role with ADSO in June, to help the organization in a period of transition in leadership.
“I am honored that my colleagues selected me to help lead ADSO through this great time for our industry,” he says. “DSOs are serving a vital role at a time of incredible growth. I think our primary mission will continue to be to look for ways to add value to our member companies. We firmly believe the stronger each of our individual member companies are, the stronger we are as an industry.
“Our greatest opportunities lie in providing a forum and venue that allows for sharing best business practices and networking. Our challenges are continuing to get our story out about our industry to various constituencies. We have such a great story to tell; our goal is reaching out to as many constituencies as possible.”
One of those constituencies – and an important one at that – are state lawmakers.
“I think the strength of our government affairs work at the state level has come from the coordination of the ADSO government affairs team with engaged member company executives and their teams,” he says. The time and dedication spent by our member company CEOs and their teams enables us to tell our compelling story in an impactful manner.
“We can’t always predict when a state may start looking at the DSO model, but we have been very successful dispelling many of the myths and answering questions, which both educates and creates comfort for policymakers. In the end, we believe we provide the tools to our supported practices that enable them to lower the overall cost of dental care, provide greater patient access and allow dentists to focus on clinical care instead of spending their time and energy managing business functions.”
In addition to his work at Dental Care Alliance, Bileca is a member of the Florida House of Representatives, and has been since 2010.
“I ran unexpectedly, but had just reached a level of frustration with our political environment and the direction of our country,” he says. “I decided that if I was unwilling to make a sacrifice and enter into the political arena, I could not expect that from someone else.
“Although it has been more of a time commitment than expected, I am proud of the work I have been able to do for the people in my district and for Florida. A lot of my focus is in areas outside of healthcare, such as education. Some of my proudest achievements in the legislature relate to my sponsoring and passing educational options for low income and special needs children.”
Summarizing his thoughts about the role of DSOs in this country, Bileca says, “There are nearly 40 million Americans who don’t see a dentist. If we are able to help reduce that number by supporting dentists who can lower costs and expand access, then we’ve done a very good thing.”
