The two versions
Take a month with $60,000 collected and a $5,000 lab bill you cover half of, on a 30% contract.
Lab before the split
The lab share comes out of the pot first, then your percentage is applied to what is left.
$60,000 − $2,500 = $57,500. 30% of $57,500 = $17,250.
Lab after the split
Your percentage is applied to the full amount, and your lab share is deducted from your side.
30% of $60,000 = $18,000. $18,000 − $2,500 = $15,500.
$1,750 a month. About $21,000 a year. Nothing else about the deal changed.
The reason is simple once you see it. Under "before", the practice is effectively sharing the lab cost with you in proportion to your percentage. Under "after", you carry your full half.
How to tell which one you are on
Take a pay stub from a month with real lab cases on it and read it in order.
- Collections, then a lab line, then a smaller figure your percentage is applied to: lab is coming off before.
- Your percentage applied to the full collections figure, with lab deducted after: lab is coming off after.
If the stub only shows a single net number, ask for the calculation. This is a reasonable request and it is the kind of thing a good office is glad to show you.
The other lab questions worth asking
- What percentage of lab do you cover? 50/50 is typical. 100% exists and is worth knowing about before you sign, not after.
- Is lab charged when the case is sent or when the crown is seated? This decides which month it hits, and matters if you are near a tier threshold or a guarantee.
- Are remakes charged to me? A remake on a case that failed for a lab reason should not be, and often quietly is.
- Can I see the lab invoices? If lab is coming out of your pay, you should be able to check what you are being charged for against the cases you actually sent.
That last one is where lab quietly goes wrong. Not fraud, just ordinary mess: a case attached to the wrong provider, a remake billed twice, a unit charged that never got sent. Nobody catches it, because almost nobody keeps a list of their own cases to check the invoice against.
What to do about it
Keep your own list. Every case you send, the date, the code it came from, and what the lab charged. Then each month put your list next to the invoice that hit your pay. Most months will match, and that is worth knowing too. When one does not, you have a specific question instead of a vague feeling.
cuspd keeps that list as a side effect of logging your day: flag a visit as a lab case, and the lab page becomes the list you check the bill against. The demo shows it with real cases, no account needed.