A pediatric office runs a floor of assistants, a payer mix that leans on Medicaid and CHIP, and sedation permits and PALS cards on top of the usual license. WageTime runs the splits on collections and tracks every permit before it lapses.
There are about 9,300 practicing pediatric dentists in the US, and the office that supports one runs more chairside staff and more paperwork than a general practice its size (KFF / ADA). The person running payroll reconciles assistant bonuses, splits paid on Medicaid collections, sedation credentials, and a surgery-day contractor, mostly by hand, every payday.
Pediatric dentistry is labor-intensive: behavior guidance, distraction, nitrous, and sedation support all take hands, so the office runs a one-to-two or one-to-three dentist-to-support ratio and keeps more assistants than a general office (Teero; AAPD). Each is hourly, several earn a behavior or quality bonus, and the whole team’s pay is rebuilt in a spreadsheet every period.
About 40% of US children are covered by Medicaid or CHIP, and those programs pay roughly 61% of private-insurer rates for children’s dental work, as low as 27.8% in some states (KFF). An associate paid a percentage of collections earns on dollars that land lower and slower than the production report shows, and the split has to run on collections, not on what was billed.
A production-paid clinician has a light week, cancellations, a denied claim, a school holiday, and the collected dollars don’t clear minimum wage for the hours actually worked. The practice owes the difference, and the office manager is supposed to catch it by eye, every period, for each provider paid on collections.
On top of the dental license, DEA, radiography, and CPR, a pediatric provider holds a state sedation or anesthesia permit and a current PALS card, and the assistants who monitor sedation carry their own. Washington now requires a pediatric sedation endorsement with valid PALS to sedate a child (WA DOH). Each renews on its own clock, and a lapse is a board problem, not a paperwork one.
On surgery days a mobile anesthesiologist arrives as a 1099 contractor to run general anesthesia, and every late summer the back-to-school rush means a hiring-and-rehire wave and a month of evening and Saturday coverage. Both land on the same person, and neither fits a small-business payroll tool.
The assistant floor runs in WageTime as it is actually staffed: hourly dental assistants, several earning a behavior or quality bonus that lands as a pay code on the same check as their hours, not in a spreadsheet rebuilt every period.
Replaces the assistant-bonus spreadsheet, and the minimum-wage check done by eye.
WageTime pays production on the money that actually comes in, not the amount billed: the split runs on the collected-revenue basis you define, so a Medicaid-heavy month pays on Medicaid collections rather than a production report that overstates what arrived.
Replaces the split paid on billed production, and the underpayment nobody caught.
The pediatric set sits on one employee record: the sedation permit and PALS card renew beside the license, DEA, radiography, and CPR, with onboarding paperwork and the I-9 alongside. WageTime tracks the dates; the sedation rules stay between the provider and the board.
| Employee | Credential | Expires | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dr. A. Nguyen | Moderate-sedation permit | Aug 12 | 17 days |
| Dr. S. Patel | PALS certification | Oct 05 | 71 days |
| J. Alvarez assistant | Radiography cert | Mar 20 | Current |
| M. Reyes assistant | CPR/BLS card | Jan 09 | Current |
| Dr. A. Nguyen | State dental license | May 31 | Current |
Replaces the permit renewal nobody was watching, and the board letter that follows a lapse.
The anesthesiologist runs as a 1099 in the same WageTime payroll as the W-2 clinical team, so one run covers the whole surgery day. Nothing about a contracted provider forces a second system or a separate check-writing routine.
Replaces the separate check to the anesthesiologist, and the 1099 tracked off to the side.
A wave of seasonal and returning staff self-onboards with e-signatures in bulk, rehires come back on retained records, and the surge pays on unlimited runs at no extra cost. The busy season is a schedule and a few pay codes, not a payroll project.
| Stage | Count | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Self-onboarding sente-signature packets | 14 | Complete |
| Rehires reactivatedrecords retained | 6 | Complete |
| I-9 / E-VerifyList A/B/C captured | 14 | 13 cleared |
| Schedule publishedevening + Saturday coverage | 20 | No conflicts |
Replaces the week of summer onboarding by hand, and the surge run that waited for the next cycle.
Full-service payroll is $10 a month per person paid that month, plus $50 a month per company, with unlimited runs. No long-term contracts, no per-run charges.
Off-cycle runs and bonuses cost nothing extra. No long-term contracts; cancel anytime.
Example: 50 people paid × $10 + $50 company = $550 for the month
HR & hiring, onboarding, PTO, time tracking, benefits, and workers’ comp are optional add-ons, priced separately when you’re ready.
See a demoSet the bonus once as a pay code, a flat amount per behavior case or a per-unit incentive, and WageTime runs it every period on top of each assistant’s hourly rate, so it lands on the same check as their hours. Weighted-average overtime computes when hourly hours and a nondiscretionary bonus fall in one week, and evening and Saturday differentials ride the same math.
Set the split as a custom pay code that runs on the collected-revenue basis you define, so an associate on a percentage of collections is paid on what Medicaid and CHIP actually pay, not on billed production. Because those dollars land lower and slower, minimum-wage processing checks a slow or denied-claim week and applies the make-up. Tiered, flat, and per-unit types run side by side for different deals.
A production-paid clinician still owes minimum wage for the hours worked. WageTime measures collected pay against the federal, state, and local wage floor and, when a slow or denied-claim week falls short, applies the difference rather than leaving the office manager to spot it. How the wage-and-hour rules apply to your practice is a question for you and your advisor.
Each employee record carries the pediatric set: the state sedation or anesthesia permit, the current PALS card, the dental license, the DEA registration, the radiography cert, and the CPR or BLS card, each with its document attached. WageTime fires renewal alerts 30, 60, and 90 days out, and the office manager reads what comes due this quarter for the whole team at once. Categories match your state’s rules.
Yes. The mobile anesthesiologist who contracts for your surgery days runs as a 1099 on the same payroll as the W-2 assistants and hygienists, coded to the surgery day so labor cost stays clean, and the year-end 1099 is filed with the team’s W-2s. How the contractor is classified is your and your advisor’s call; WageTime pays and files whichever way you set it.
Bulk onboarding puts the seasonal and returning wave on payroll with self-onboarding, e-signatures, and E-Verify, rehires keep their retained records, and a bulk termination wizard clears the wave afterward. Publish the summer and after-school schedule with double-booking and rest-period checks, and pay the surge on unlimited runs at no extra cost.
The platform behind WageTime is SOC 2 Type II audited and ISO 27001/27018 certified, with safeguards built for handling HIPAA-covered data, and business and employee data is protected end to end with bank-level encryption. Pediatric practices routinely ask about business associate agreements on the demo, so bring the question. WageTime describes its security posture and does not represent a specific compliance outcome.
$50 a month for the practice plus $10 per person paid that month, with unlimited payroll runs. Off-cycle runs, surgery-day runs, and seasonal surges cost nothing extra, every federal, state, and local tax is filed automatically, and year-end W-2s and 1099s are included. A practice that adds a summer wave pays for who was paid, not a per-seat block. Multi-EIN groups are covered on our DSO and dental groups page.
Your assistant team’s behavior bonus, one provider paid on collections, and a surgery day with a contracted anesthesiologist. Twenty minutes with a payroll specialist on a live demo practice: you’ll watch an assistant run with weighted overtime, a collections split with minimum-wage processing, and a 1099 anesthesiologist paid alongside the W-2 team.
Book a 20-minute demo