You maintain excellent clinical practices and have a wonderful chairside manner. But if your administrative team consistently struggles with billing and insurance, it can affect nearly every aspect of your practice. Dental billing mistakes can drastically reduce patient satisfaction, seriously harm your financial stability, and even set you up for legal action. Fortunately, with expert assistance, you can get your billing back on track to match the outstanding medical services that you provide.
At Dental Practice Enhancement, we are experts in all things related to billing and insurance. With decades of dental experience, our team can provide financial training to reduce the costly mistakes you may be making. Or you could outsource your dental billing to us, allowing your team to focus on great patient care.
Whichever option you choose, we are excited to take your practice to the next level. Contact Dental Practice Enhancement today to get started.
1. Failing to Verify Insurance Prior to Treatment
Insurance verification is the first step in filing any insurance claim – and it’s a vital one! When you neglect to verify insurance upfront, you and your patients may face unexpected denied claims. This leaves patients understandably angry and may cost you loyal clientele. It can also result in a high accounts receivable if patients are unable to pay their full share of the claim.
2. Waiting Too Long to Submit Claims
Some insurance companies require dental offices to submit claims within 90 days. For maximum efficiency, however, we recommend that you file claims within 24 to 48 hours. Waiting any longer increases the risk of lost documentation and inaccurate claims information. It also results in a buildup of paperwork and a greater stress load for your administrative team.
3. Missing or Incorrect Patient Information
About 33% of denied healthcare claims are the result of incorrect patient information. Often these inconsistencies are something as simple as a misspelled name or a typo on the patient’s date of birth. While these are relatively simple fixes, having to resubmit a claim can be a major headache for your billing coordinator. That’s why it’s essential that your team take the time to check and recheck claims before submission.
4. Coding Incorrectly
Dental insurance codes change annually. Failure to list the right code can result in a claims denial. Further, improper bundling of dental codes – even honest mistakes – could leave you vulnerable to a lawsuit.
5. Not Providing Enough Training for Your Team
With the many complexities involved in billing and insurance, it’s essential that your team stays on top of the latest changes and best practices. At Dental Practice Enhancement, we can train your team in nearly all aspects of dental billing, including establishing a payment policy, making collections calls, and setting up financing options.
6. Overburdening Your Administrative Staff
When your administrators are overworked, they simply don’t have the time to focus on dental billing. Or your staff is having to work overtime, affecting morale and job satisfaction. That’s why outsourcing your dental billing to Dental Practice Enhancement can be a great solution. Virtual billing will lighten the load on your team and improve the level of care you can provide in-house.
Contact Us to Improve Your Dental Billing
To learn more about our services or to schedule training for your team, contact Dental Practice Enhancement today.
Reach us via our website or give us a call at (833) DPE – FOR – U.
