User:Stephanie from ADMI/Aspen Dental

Aspen Dental practices are independently owned and operated dental offices that share a common brand name, supported by Aspen Dental Management, Inc. (ADMI), which is headquartered in East Syracuse, New York, in the United States. ADMI was founded in 1998. As of April 2016, there are nearly 550 Aspen Dental-branded practices in more than 30 U.S. states.

History
Aspen Dental Management, Inc. (ADMI), the Dental Support Organization that supports the Aspen Dental brand, was founded in 1998 by Robert Fontana, who continues to serve as chief executive. Fontana had completed business school in 1991 and worked at Upstate Dental in Syracuse, New York for a few years. ADMI's predecessor was founded in 1981 and supported dental practices in Upstate New York. It was a founding member of the Association of Dental Support Organizations (ADSO). After predecessor company Upstate Dental merged with East Coast Dental in December 1997, the resulting firm was launched as Aspen Dental Management, Inc. in 1998.

There were more than fifty Aspen Dental offices within five years of ADMI's establishment. In 1998, there were 13 offices, and by April 2007 there were 106 branded practices in Arizona, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. The company was initially headquartered in Salina, New York but in 2006 moved to a new headquarters near Syracuse in DeWitt. The new headquarters was designed to include a training center to cater for both Aspen Dental employees and other firms' training events. ADMI plans to move into a new facility in downtown Syracuse in 2017 and add up to a further 400 employees by 2020.

Business model and services


Each Aspen Dental-branded practice is owned and operated by a licensed, independent dentist. Aspen Dental Management, Inc. (ADMI) offers business support services to these contracted practices using the Aspen Dental brand. The company's headquarters are located in DeWitt, a suburb of Syracuse, New York. The firm operates a practice support center out of the headquarters location, carrying out non-clinical work such as human resources, IT support, marketing services, and training and development. In addition to the New York-based practice support center, the firm also has "regional representatives" located in states with Aspen Dental-branded practices.

Aspen Dental opens an average of one office per week (or 60 practices annually). As of April 2016, there are nearly 550 Aspen Dental locations in more than 30 U.S. states. According to a 2013 study by Syracuse University's Martin J. Whitman School of Management, each practice location supports ten employees and has an "economic impact" of $1.3 million, including "construction, furniture, fixtures, jobs created, wages and benefits, taxes and marketing/advertising".

According to its website, Aspen Dental practices provide "comprehensive care that addresses both your short- and long-term dental care needs". All practices come equipped with an in-house laboratory for the creation and restoration of dentures and other dental prosthetics. New patients are given treatment plans following examinations. Aspen Dental accepts emergency and walk-in patients. It also accepts most insurance and makes third-party financing available.

The company's services are aimed at individuals who do not have an established dental routine or regular dental provider. In 2012, Fontana described a typical Aspen Dental patient as middle-aged and possibly struggling to afford their day-to-day expenses, or someone who sees dental work as "discretionary" and therefore may have an emergency dental issue arise. According to Fontana, Aspen's locations and marketing are aimed at providing services to those individuals.

Criticism of business model
In 2012, the Center for Public Integrity and PBS' Frontline examined the company for months and issued a report which concluded that "the same business model that makes Aspen Dental accessible to people short on cash can also lock people into debt and has led to complaints of patients being overcharged or given unnecessary treatments". Aspen Dental responded to say that it provides services to people "who otherwise wouldn't go to a dentist" and said that dentists do not perform unneeded treatments.

Fontana has acknowledged that 1,000 complaints related to Aspen Dental were filed on consumer websites between 2006 and 2010, but countered this by saying that Aspen Dental practices treat 12,000 patients each day.

Legal issues
In October 2010, after a probe of complaints regarding its discount services and finance programs, the company entered into an assurance of voluntary compliance with the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office, without admitting wrongdoing. It agreed to pay $125,000 to reimburse customers of the company and $50,000 for consumer protection probes. Complaints involved services provided before May 28, 2009.

In October 2012, a class-action lawsuit brought by 11 patients in New York accused the company of "illegally owning dental practices and of deceiving patients". The lawsuit said that the company was in violation of laws in 22 U.S. states which allow only dentists to own a practice. The company responded that the accusations were "entirely without merit". The United States District Court for the Northern District of New York dismissed the case in 2015.

In June 2015, the New York Attorney General's office reached a settlement with ADMI requiring the company to pay $450,000 in civil penalties. ADMI "neither admitted nor denied" the Attorney General's findings, and entered an agreement that it would "stop exercising control over practices' clinical decisions and will not directly communicate with clinical staff about the dental care, sales of procedures or products to patients or the revenue generated by those sales". In addition, ADMI agreed to stop taking a share of practice fees, to clarify on its website that it "only provides administrative and business support to independently owned and operated dental practices", to no longer employ clinical staff, and to let independent practices remain financially independent. The company issued a statement calling Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman's allegations "sensationalized" and said the office's press release "does not accurately reflect the actual agreement the two sides reached". ADMI's statement read, in part:

"Contrary to the headline of the press release, ADMI does not, nor has it ever, made decisions about clinical care for the 1.2 million patients who visited independently owned and operated Aspen Dental-branded practices in New York State over the past 10 years. To suggest that the dentists only 'technically' own their practices is a gross misstatement of fact. Today, and every day, the owners of these practices are in their offices, treating patients and exercising complete control over all clinical decisions. Contrary to the sensationalized allegations in the press release, ADMI has never employed clinical staff nor has it exercised any control over clinical care ... The focus at ADMI remains the same: We care for the people who care for the patients by providing business support to the independent dentists who own and operate Aspen Dental-branded practices. With ADMI supporting the administrative and nonclinical aspects of their business, dentists are free to do what they do best: Care for their patients."

In December 2014, the Massachusetts Attorney General reached a settlement with ADMI, requiring the company to pay $990,000 and to "limit pre-payments, to provide accurate estimates of charges, and to disclose details of financing agreements". The company paid $770,000 to first-time consumers who the Attorney General alleged paid for services Aspen said would be free and $220,000 to the state. ADMI released a statement which said its offices "strongly disagree with and deny the attorney general's allegations but cooperated fully and ultimately agreed to resolve the matter".

In October 2015, the Indiana Attorney General reached a settlement with ADMI after patients complained about the company's advertising practices. Attorney General, Greg Zoeller alleged that Aspen promoted free or discounted services as well as no-interest payment plans "without adequately disclosing the limitations or qualifications of such lending agreements". ADMI released a statement which read, in part: "Aspen Dental Management Inc. cooperated fully with the Office of the Indiana Attorney General but we disagree with their conclusions,' according to a statement released by the company. 'The Office of the Attorney General itself acknowledges that many of the issues were addressed by Aspen Dental Management Inc. prior to settlement. Also, it is important to note that the 73 complaints cited by the Office of the Attorney General were received over a nine-year period during which the 30 independently-owned Aspen Dental practices in Indiana provided care to more than 338,000 individual patients. We are proud of the fine work the Aspen Dental practices we support do every day to help improve America's oral health."

The settlement required ADMI to pay $95,000 to the state of Indiana, of which $15,000 was distributed to affected consumers and the remainder was used to offset state investigative costs and fund consumer protection.

Community programs and sponsorships
According to its website, Aspen Dental's "Healthy Mouth Movement" is a "community giving initiative" to provide "free dental care and oral health education to people in need across the United States". The campaign launched in 2014. Dentists and staff in more than thirty U.S. states donate their time to provide no-cost dental care services, sometimes via the "MouthMobile", a 42 ft fully-equipped and mobile dental office that provides services in about 25 cities annually. Services include cleanings, denture repairs, extractions, fillings, and X-rays. Danica Patrick served as a spokesperson for the campaign and attended multiple events to raise awareness about the importance of dental health. In its first year, nearly 2,000 volunteers participating in the campaign served nearly 3,000 patients, delivering more than $1 million in services to communities with less oral health awareness and fewer dental care options. By November 2015, more than 5,000 volunteers provided more than $3 million in services to nearly 7,000 patients. The campaign uses the hashtag '#HealthyMouthMovement'.

For 2015, Aspen Dental concentrated their efforts on veterans. That year, more than 300 practices partnered with the collaborative campaign "Got Your 6", which seeks to "empower veterans and strengthen communities nationwide by uniting veterans' organizations and engaging civilians to bridge the civilian-military divide". In June, Aspen dentists committed a Saturday to providing services to veterans. By November, volunteers had contributed $2.8 million in dental care services to over 4,000 veterans. Practices also began offering a 25 percent discount to veterans from November 11 (Veterans Day) through the end of the calendar year. During 2015, veterans received dental care services at 30 stops in 24 U.S. states. Healthy Mouth Movement (2015):

Aspen Dental volunteers have also provided free dental care services overseas, completing dental missions in Haiti, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

In addition to promoting the "Healthy Mouth Movement", Patrick served as a spokesperson for Aspen Dental. In September 2015, the ADMI confirmed an extension of its partnership with Patrick and Stewart-Haas Racing, doubling the number of races in which Aspen Dental was a primary sponsor. The agreement calls for Patrick to drive the "No. 10 Aspen Dental Chevrolet SS" for four races per year, beginning with the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, with "associate sponsorship status" for Patrick in all other Sprint Cup Series races.