According to the National Association of Dental Plans, 164.2 million Americans have private dental insurance coverage, and that number has increased from 57% to 77% in the last decade*. This reflects a growing dental industry with more patients seeking affordable care options than ever before. Dental practices that know how to navigate dental insurance have a great tool to market their services as well as help their patients access coverage for their care.
At Zentist, we understand that navigating dental insurances can be one of the most challenging parts of running your practice. Dental insurance rules are often obscure and complicated, and expert insurance billers are hard to come by, not to mention the anxiety that comes from bad reviews when a patient misunderstands their coverage and blames the staff. In this article, we discuss the various components of dental insurance management and how Zentist can alleviate this burden for the dental practice.
Dental Insurance Processing Challenges
Dental insurance is without a doubt one of the most important sources of revenue for private dental practices. While new payment technologies now allow consumers to transact with a single click or tap, insurance claim processing involves navigating outdated practice management software, manually tracking and calling to follow up on unpaid claims, and painstakingly posting individual payments back into the patient’s ledger. In some cases, insurance claims take months of follow ups and appeals on multiple long phone calls to get paid. This not only wastes precious front office staff time, but causes significantly delayed cash flow for the practice.
- Outdated technology
- Lack of billing expertise
- Wasted staff time corresponding with insurance companies
- Tracking unpaid claims
- Out of control/snowballing insurance aging accounts
- Surprise bills for patients
Dental Insurance Aging Account Receivables
If your accounts receivable over 90 days is more than 5 percent of the total, you are losing money. We estimate the value of every dollar owed past 90 days is worth under 20 cents.
Insurance billing challenges 90% of dental practices experience result in growing aging accounts. Aging reports cause thousands of unpaid insurance dollars your practice needs.
Patient surprise bills
Taking care of dental insurance claims slowly can cause you customer frustration and even loss. Even if your staff handled claims correctly, speed matters. With a slow claims turn over your patients who still have to pay a copay or deductible you are likely to surprise them. And anger for a fee that they need to pay after such a long time.
Dental billing and coding guidance pdf
Zentist recognizes the extraordinary circumstances dentists and their patients face. Zentist supports and commits to American Dental Association’s recommendation that using telecommunication technology can be leveraged to support dental care. We help dental practices automate dental insurance billing.
Keep your staff and patients safe. Download “COVID-19 Coding and Billing Interim Guidance: Virtual Visits” by ADA PDF.
Dental billing jobs
At Zentist, we promote a productive and collaborative environment. We work hard, play hard, and treat people with respect. Our benefits include a competitive salary, equity package, and a culture of nurturing personal and professional growth. We can’t wait to learn from you!
Dental billing and coding books
In the beginning of every year dental office staff wonder if they need to buy a new dental billing and coding book. We know how the common dental terminology can get complicated. Also we want to learn more about changes or updates in guidance. Here is the top 3 recommended books for 2020:
1. 2020 Reimbursement Guide for Dentistry
This “Reimbursement Guide for Dentistry” gives you the coding, billing, and documentation support you need to get paid properly and keep it. With input from customers, coders, and auditors, we have combined all these needs into one great resource for professional services.
2. Insurance Verification of Eligibility and Benefits
Includes templates as an effective starting point for your own Insurance Verification of Eligibility and Benefits form.
3. CDT 2020: Dental Procedure Codes
Get paid faster and keep more detailed patient records with CDT 2020: Dental Procedure Codes. The 2020 edition includes all CDT codes and descriptors, and is updated with 37 new codes, five revised codes, and six deleted codes.
ADA recommended dental insurance billing tips
- Educate yourself
Many dentists lack the basic training needed to keep their managerial systems in tip-top shape, so the first job should be to educate yourself.
2. No Agreements, No Services
One absolutely essential component of medical billing for dentists is to get all the information up front, signed for, and processed before any services are offered.
3. Outsource If Possible
Maybe you consider outsourcing one of the most frustrating components of your practice. Dental billing companies help keep your practice profitable and hassle-free by offloading the billing procedures to them.
4. Dental Billing- Wrap-Up
Take the time to understand what needs to be accounted for, and be sure you have your bases covered before the patient receives any services.
Solutions to dental billing challenges
Connect with a service like Zentist to take care of dental insurance billing. Zentist provides end to end insurance claims processing powered by high tech machine learning algorithms. Zentist also improves your practice’s efficacy with easy tasks management and tailored data-driven recommendations. Zentist excels in dental insurance billing by helping you:
- Collect your insurance revenue consistently, reliably and quickly.
- Reduce your insurance aging accounts receivables.
- Free up valuable staff time to focus on patient engagement and boosting production.
Ready to improve your dental insurance billing?
Manuchehr Kurbonali, Paulina Song
