Champions for Children

Dental Kidz

Owners: Christopher Harvell, Dr. Lezli Levene Harvell

Location: Newark, NJ

Number of full time employees: 12

Founded: 2008

What it does: Full-service private pediatric dental practice servicing a lower socio-economic area

2009 Revenues: $476,000

2010 Revenues: $1.1 million

2011 Revenues: $1.6 million

2012 Projections: $2 million

How they made it: Husband-and-wife team created private pediatric dental practice model in which 80% of patients pay with government-subsidized insurance. Couple intends to expand their dental practice regionally over the next three to five years.

Christopher Harvell and his wife, Dr. Lezli Levene Harvell, have melded their expertise in business and in medicine to form a lucrative yet socially conscious enterprise that endeavors to do well by doing good. Their cutting-edge facility provides dental care for children in the Newark, New Jersey, area where 42% of children live below the poverty rate and around 73% receive government medical assistance in the form of New Jersey FamilyCare/Medicaid.

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The Harvells’ 2-year-old business, Dental Kidz (www.dentalkidz.com), follows a business model in which 80% of its patients pay for their services with a state-subsidized healthcare plan or Medicaid, the federally and state-funded health insurance program for low-income families and other people in need. “Putting a state-of-the-art practice in a lower socio-economic area was important for us because my husband grew up poor and he grew up receiving services in facilities that were outdated or not child-friendly,” says Levene Harvell, 33, a pediatric dentist with a doctorate of dental medicine from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

Getting credentialed to accept Medicaid was not hard; any doctor that meets the criteria and wants to take a government-subsidized plan can do so. However, Harvell, 36, says accepting the majority of payments from Medicaid is rare and not something that you will see most dentists doing, because Medicaid insurance reimburses dentists for their services at a significantly lower rate than private insurance does. Eric Elmore of the New Jersey Dental Association says that the state of New Jersey reimburses dentists for Medicaid at the lowest rate in the country. To counter this, Dental Kidz makes up the revenue difference in sheer volume.

The practice has 12 employees and about 6,500 active patients, and sees roughly 50 children a day. During its inaugural year, 2009, Dental Kidz generated $476,000 in revenues and broke even in its first 14 months of operation. Revenues for 2010 reached $1 million and 2011 revenues are estimated at $1.6 million. This comes after a total project investment of about $2 million, which the Harvells funded with a $650,000 loan from the Brick City Development Corp. and the Grow America Fund, two equipment loans totaling $350,000, a $250,000 personal investment, and reinvestment of funds.

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The Harvells’ dental practice is a brand-new, 8,000-square-foot office with the latest equipment and the ability to seat about 24 pediatric dental chairs. Families are welcomed into a massive, luminously colored space appointed with a TV tuned to age-appropriate programming. The Harvells found the facility by partnering with the Brick City Development Corp. and a local real estate agent. After an exhaustive search, they found a landlord who was open to their concept and negotiated favorable rates on the terms of their lease.

The Harvells started Dental Kidz with the intention of operating a pediatric practice that focuses on eliminating oral healthcare disparities in inner cities, starting in Newark, where the need for oral care is great. According to the New Jersey Dental Association, the state ranks 49th in its percentage of residents who drink public drinking water that is fluoridated at the level recommended by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Lack of water fluoridation can accelerate tooth decay, because fluoride keeps teeth strong and helps prevent cavities. Elmore says that New Jersey has not made oral health a priority, noting that in 2003, then-Gov. James E. McGreevey tried to eliminate adult Medicaid dental plans altogether.

Levene Harvell is in the trenches every day with Dental Kidz patients, treating the children as though they were her own. Her husband helps on the business side of the practice, drawing from his M.B.A. days at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business, first-class business experience on Wall Street with Credit Suisse, and consulting knowledge at Booz & Co. “We’re at the pinnacle of both our industries,” he says.  “Not only is my wife a dentist, but she’s a specialist with many honors. If you couple that with my skill set, you’ll see what a great team we are.”

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All dentists who work at Dental Kidz are pediatric specialists who’ve attended school an additional 24 to 36 months beyond the training it takes to become a dentist. However, specialty training is not the only requirement. The Harvells say Dental Kidz dentists must also have a great manner with the children and share the Harvells’ vision of all children having access to care, regardless of socio-economic status.

In spite of all the effort, energy, and capital the Harvells invested in Dental Kidz, they faced some resistance from the community and the insurance companies who weren’t sure if Dental Kidz was coming to Newark to take

advantage of the population. Residents also didn’t know if the practice was really a community clinic in disguise. “There’s a lot of bad press out there about healthcare providers who work in low-income areas that take Medicaid as reimbursement,” says Levene Harvell. “So people didn’t know if our intentions were pure.”

But in the end it was community involvement and altruism that convinced residents that Dental Kidz had Newark’s best interests at heart. The couple won over residents’ trust by doing everything from providing free comprehensive oral exams to visiting churches, preschools, and even mommy groups to speak and educate the community about the importance of pediatric oral healthcare. “We really engage the community as partners,” Levene Harvell says. “We have a culture of involving everyone that is responsible for the well-being of the child.”

Over the next three to five years, the Harvells hope to expand their social dental practice model regionally, even nationally. “What we have done here with Dental Kidz is show that you can have a profitable business model by treating the medically underserved,” says Harvell. “We have the opportunity to be a double bottom-line company that has a tremendous social impact. We’ve been able to prove that you can make money by doing good.”