Australasian Dentist Issue 89

Category 16 AustrAlAsiAn Dentist W estern Australia’s largest health insurer, HBF has opened its third HBF Dental centre. With 12 more planned for the next three years, the group is looking to attract a growing number of experienced dental practitioners. HBF executive General Manager – Health, Dr Daniel Heredia said HBF’s transition from a passive payer to an active participant in health services was a key plank in HBF’s strategy to keep downward pressure on premium increases for its health insurance members. “One way to do this is to reduce our reliance on health insurance revenue alone and diversify our business, which includes growing outside of WA and expanding into health services that will provide value for our members,” Dr Heredia said. “Dental is by far our most claimed non-hospital service line, so it was an obvious place to start,” he said. HBF Dental will welcome all patients, not just HBF members. “i would stress that our members will always have choice of where they go for dental care,” Dr Heredia said. “We will never have enough practices to service our whole membership (around 900,000 members in WA), so we will continue to encourage our members to visit a dentist that is part of the HBF Member Plus provider network – be that one of our centres, another dental chain or an independent practice.” Dr Heredia said HBF partnered with the highly experienced Pacific smiles Group (PsG) because of its long track record running successful practices on the east Coast. “Our partnership with PsG gives dentists practising at HBF Dental access to PsG’s e-learning and in-person training and upskilling opportunities to ensure they remain at the forefront of dental practice,” Dr Heredia said. “Our business model allows ‘dentists to be dentists’, giving them complete clinical autonomy and freeing them of administrative burdens that come with running a dental centre. Dentists in our centres can focus on providing the best patient care, knowing they have the full support of HBF Dental through their fully trained support staff team and ongoing marketing.” HBF is looking to house most of its practices in major shopping centres. each will have a similar layout, look and feel, with a minimum six A-dec 500 chairs and intraoral cameras standard in every treatment room, plus a 3shape trios intraoral scanner, OPG and cone beam Ct onsite. Construction of HBF Dental’s next two centres is underway at Perth’s two largest shopping centres, Karrinyup and Carousel. u To learn more about opportunities with HBF Dental, including relocation support for interstate dentists, register at hbfdental. com.au/practitioner-opportunities or email prac.engagement@hbfdental.com.au Opportunity calls at HBF Dental n ws GIN TONIC + PERSIMMON Sweet persimmon fruit. A twist of juniper berry. All the fun of a gin & tonic without the alcohol. CURAPROX Patients will love you.... Gin & Tonic banner.indd 1 23/11/2020 2:33:24 PM t he international team for implantology (iti) invites all researchers who have demonstrated new findings in implant dentistry to apply for the 2022 André schroeder research Prize for Preclinical research or the André schroeder research Prize for Clinical research. submissions for the awards, which are presented annually by the iti, will be accepted until september 15, 2021. the award winners will each receive CHF 10,000 as well as a gold medallion. in addition to this, the iti will provide a flight to the official award ceremony, hotel accommodation as well as a free congress ticket. the award ceremony will be held during the iti Congress italy in rome in April 2022. the iti invites researchers to apply for the 2022 andré schroeder research prizes the André schroeder research Prize has been awarded to independent researchers for 30 years with the aim of promoting new scientific findings in implant dentistry. the awards are presented in honour of Professor André schroeder, the founding iti president, who pioneered implant dentistry and whose lifework contributed significantly to modern dentistry. u More information as well as the terms and conditions of participation and the application form are available at http://www.iti.org/Andre-Schroeder-Research-Prize. HBF CEO John Van Der Wielen and Executive General Manager – Health Dr Daniel Heredia