Proven Best Practices for Achieving Increased Dental Insurance Collections

Increasing dental billing claims collections means defining your processes. There are a lot of moving parts when it comes to setting up an appointment and getting a patient in the chair. Everything from beginning to end has a direct effect on your cash flow. Not sure where to start when implementing new operations? Let’s take a look at some easy tips to get your dental billing house in order.

Pre-appointment readiness

Once you’ve booked a patient in for treatment, what happens next? Forget sitting around and waiting for the calendar days until the appointment. There’s plenty that your staff can do to ensure that patients will make it on time and pay their portion in full:

• • Confirm appointment times/dates via phone or text at least two weeks in advance, and then again two days prior
• •Double-check the patient understands and approves of the procedures they will get
• •Be ready to offer future appointment dates for patients who may need to cancel or reschedule

Excellent dental patient experience

Dental billing claims and patient experience go hand in hand. They just can’t exist without the other. Without concerted dedication to your patients in and out of the appointment chair, your overall collections and cash flow will suffer. Let’s talk about ways to nail down your expectations for staff about making patients feel comfortable and satisfied with their treatment:

• •Use your pre-appointment readiness tools to ensure that patients are covered for the procedure scheduled
• •Be upfront about out-of-pocket costs and collect copayment up front to prevent “chasing” of payment
• •Allow patients to provide honest feedback about their experience and take it constructively

 
We all have bad days, and we can’t always anticipate certain issues with patient experience. Yet, by effectively managing your staff’s compliance with day-to-day, patient-forward tasks, you can minimize conflict and help cultivate a professional, friendly office environment.

Clean dental billing claims and timely submissions 

What does your “clean claim checklist” look like? Possibly something like this:

• •Accurate personal information, including patient’s legal name, address, insurance information
• •Treatment plan outline with services provided and their respective procedural codes
• •Clinical notes taken during the treatment
• •Any diagnostic forms like intraoral photos and x-rays

 
While creating a clean claim is as simple as adhering to a proper clean claim list, sending them on time is what gets your cash flow really moving. It shouldn’t take longer than 24 hours for a claim to be sent in order to get timely reimbursement. This also helps to smooth things along if something goes wrong with the claim. Common reasons claims are rejected or denied include:

• •Missing or incorrect patient information (date of birth, address)
• •Incorrect CDT coding (using outdated resources)
• •Frequency limitations (too many fillings within a defined timeframe)

Outsource your dental billing claims to put reimbursement on autopilot

It’s time to say goodbye to inaccurate claims and waiting for the money you’re rightfully owed. eAssist Dental Solutions was created by dentists, for dentists. We know the ins and outs of claim submission, coding, and insurance reimbursement. The money in your outstanding AR books is money that should be in the bank. Our dedicated dental billing teams have experience in reducing your AR and bringing peace of mind to everyone in your office. There’s no need to stress over every single claim that comes through the office. Get ready to put your dental billing claims on autopilot. Schedule your no-obligation consultation here and let us know where you’d like to see your practice in the near future.