One of the 7 deadly sins of insurance claim denials is an inexperienced or inadequately trained team. Having a dental team with the knowledge that you need to ensure the success of your dental practice can feel impossible, especially due to the specialized skills sets needed. Transversely, if you hire someone new, your training and onboarding process may not be setting the new hire up for success due to low staff and time. Here are 6 of the best training and support tools for your dental team to protect your dental practice from low collections and claim denials.
Look for lifelong learning mindsets in team members
Every dental office has a secret weapon — the team powering it. The key to cultivating a team that boosts the success of the practice is hiring team members with lifelong learning mindsets. Do you already have at least one team member with that mindset? Loop them into the hiring process, get their feedback, and proactively formulate the right interview questions to ensure you hire a team of unicorns.
Trust, but verify
There is a definitive level of trust that is given to the team to keep keen eyes and firm hands on your revenue cycle management, but that doesn’t mean that an extra set of eyes isn’t necessary. After all, everyone is human. Human errors and mistakes aren’t uncommon but can delay consistency — and necessary — cash flow to the practice.
Encourage growth and continued education
If you have lifelong learning mindsets, you need to foster those mindsets! Encourage lunch & learns, CE webinars, leadership books, cross-training team meetings, etc. to help your team grow in their roles. When your team succeeds, your practice will succeed.
Give praise and celebrate growth and improvement
When there are wins, celebrate them! Did your outstanding patient A/R drop? Did you, your associates, and your hygienists hit your daily production goals recently due to proper and efficient scheduling? Is treatment plan acceptance up? Take a moment to celebrate the wins that are moving your practice in the right direction. Celebrating these wins in the morning meeting is a great way to positively start a workday. You can also use gift cards, paid lunches, gourmet coffee — there are many ways to show appreciation and celebrate success. Just get creative!
Set realistic goals
The most common reason that an employee doesn’t accomplish a task is because they are unsure of the scope of the task, or the desired outcome. If they don’t have all of the information and a clear path, they won’t do the correct thing in most cases. Set realistic goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure success and hold dental team members accountable.
Be ready to support when necessary
Certain daily dental practice tasks can bog your staff down and take up the majority of their time, so they feel like a hamster on a wheel. Insurance phone calls — to verify benefits or follow up on outstanding claims — can take anywhere from 20 to 60 minutes each. Dental administrators have the incredibly difficult task of balancing current growth with regular daily tasks needed to ensure consistent cash flow. These shouldn’t work against each other.
We can help
You may have hired your unicorns, encouraged growth, and set realistic goals…but you aren’t seeing the growth you anticipated. One reason could be that your team needs expert support in order to focus on the success of the practice. Consider outsourcing your dental billing processes to a trained team. This allows your in-house team to focus on what truly grows the practice, while your cash flow remains consistent. Learn more by emailing team@eassist.me, calling 1-844-327-7478, or clicking here!
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