"You will be on 30%." It sounds like the whole deal. It is maybe a third of it.
The three bases, on one month
Take $80,000 of production in a month, a mostly PPO office, a 30% contract.
- Gross production: 30% of $80,000 = $24,000
- Adjusted production: after roughly 17% in plan write-offs, 30% of $66,400 = $19,920
- Collections: at a 95% collection rate on adjusted production, 30% of $63,080 = $18,900
Same contract number. A $5,100 spread in a single month, about $61,000 over a year.
What each one really means for you
Gross production
You are paid for the dentistry you did at full fee. Write-offs and collection problems are the practice's. This is the best basis for an associate and the rarest, and where it exists the percentage is usually lower to compensate.
Adjusted production
You absorb the insurance write-offs but not the collection risk. This is common and reasonably fair: the write-off is a real reduction in what the work was worth, and neither of you controls it.
Collections
You absorb both. Your pay now depends on the front desk chasing claims, the office's contracted rates, and how aggressively it follows up on aged receivables. None of that is in your hands.
That is not a reason to refuse a collections contract, most associates are on one. It is a reason to know your office's collection rate, because on a collections contract that rate is a direct multiplier on your income and you are unlikely ever to be told it.
How to tell which one you are on
Look at your pay stub, not your memory of the interview. Find the largest number on it, the one your percentage is applied to, and compare it to the production report for the same period.
- Matches your production figure: gross production.
- Meaningfully lower than production, roughly by your write-off rate: adjusted production.
- Lower still, and lagging behind the month you actually did the work: collections.
If your stub does not show the basis at all, that is worth asking about on its own. You are entitled to know what your pay was calculated from.
The question to ask at the offer stage
One sentence: "Is the percentage applied to gross production, adjusted production, or collections?" Get the answer in the contract, not in conversation. Any practice worth joining will answer plainly, and how they answer tells you something too.