Buying a dental practice in Jacksonville and Northeast Florida

• A full hygiene schedule and patients who come back on time, not just a long list of names in the software.
• New patients every month from sources you can see: referrals, a visible location, online search, insurance directories.
• A clear picture of who pays. A practice that leans on one or two low-paying plans is at their mercy.
• Revenue that doesn't all come from the owner's own hands. An associate dentist or a strong hygiene team carries real weight.
• Long-serving hygienists and front desk staff, who can be hard to replace.
• Equipment and software that are reasonably current, and a lease with enough years and renewal options to stay put. Building out a dental office is expensive, so moving is a real cost.

Ask for production (what the practice billed) next to collections (what it actually received after insurance adjustments), by provider and by month. The gap tells you how much the insurance contracts really pay. Count only recently seen patients as active, not every chart ever opened, and look at treatment plans never scheduled: they can be real upside or a sign of weak follow-through.

Get each insurance contract and find out how long credentialing under your name will take, because claims can stall in the meantime. Check how much of the work the seller does personally and how long they'll stay. Look up the seller's license and any public discipline on the Department of Health's license verification site, and ask about malpractice claims. Finally, have the equipment inspected, confirm which software licenses transfer, and check whether the lease needs the landlord's consent to pass to you.

• How many patients have you seen in the past year, and how many new ones in a typical month?
• Which insurance plans are you in network with, and have you joined or dropped any recently?
• How far out is the hygiene schedule booked right now?
• Which procedures do you send to specialists, and which do you do yourself?
• How long have your hygienists and front desk team been with you?
• How long would you be comfortable staying on to introduce patients to a new dentist?
• When did you last replace the main equipment, imaging and software?

This region covers Duval, St. Johns, Clay, Nassau, Baker and Putnam counties: Jacksonville, Jacksonville Beach, St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra Beach, Orange Park, Fleming Island, Green Cove Springs, Fernandina Beach, Yulee, Macclenny and Palatka. Jacksonville merged with most of Duval County in 1968, which makes it the largest city by land area in the lower 48 states.

The economy leans on logistics, the Navy and financial services. Logistics runs through JAXPORT, major rail lines and the meeting of Interstates 95 and 10. The Navy has Naval Air Station Jacksonville and Naval Station Mayport. Insurance and health care matter too. St. Augustine, founded by the Spanish in 1565, and Amelia Island draw steady tourism. Trucking and logistics firms, the building trades, medical practices and home services all fit this market.

Northeast Florida is less seasonal than South or Southwest Florida, with fewer winter residents and more year-round employers. Direct hurricane landfalls have been less common here than on other parts of the coast, but storms still bring flooding along the St. Johns River and the beaches, so check insurance costs and flood zones.

Military families bring skilled workers and working spouses into the labor pool, though they also move on when orders change. St. Johns, Clay and Nassau have added the most new homes, and companies serving those suburbs have grown with them. Georgia is close, and some companies here serve customers across the state line. Work in Georgia may need Georgia licenses, so ask how much revenue comes from there and who holds those licenses.