Are you a dentist struggling to get maximum return on investment? We know it’s challenging to provide good dental care and also generate revenue. The success of your dental practice depends on how you handle billing. If you talk to insurance companies well, you’ll get paid faster.

Most patients have dental insurance. So, you need a plan to check their benefits, tell them their costs, and send bills to insurance companies. If your billing plan is clear, it’s easier to get paid by patients and insurance companies. A good plan helps you get paid without wasting time.

 Make eligibility verification your primary concern

To ensure payment for dental services, start by verifying the insurance before the appointment. Dental offices should confirm whether patients can use their insurance, what services it includes, and if it’s currently active. Additionally, it’s important to inquire with existing patients about any changes to their insurance or if they have obtained new coverage.

In the case of patients acquiring new insurance, the office should be aware of the coverage details.

According to a recent report by the ADA, checking insurance has become even more vital. Dental offices may encounter patients who have lost their insurance due to job loss during lockdowns.

Check Your Contracted Fees

Every year, look at the fees you agreed to in your contracts. This helps your finances in the long run. Examine your fees and think about raising some of them. Don’t just raise all fees by the same percentage. As mentioned on www.marketplace.ada, changing your fees can bring in extra money right away. 

The ADA recently gave advice that taking precautions against infections and wearing protective gear will make dental procedures more expensive. This means dental offices should rethink their fees. To discuss higher fees with insurance companies, dentists might need to share this information.

Here are the main points:

• How much they want to get paid for each thing they do
• The money needed to run the business
• When they last changed their fees
• According to the ADA guide: Fee amounts are usually in a contract between the dentist and the insurance company. Before planning earnings and discussing fees with the insurance, check these papers carefully.

Set up simple and clear payment rules for patients

When patients visit, make sure to collect any co-pays or charges not covered by their insurance. Write down a clear payment policy so patients know what they need to pay.

If they do not pay on time, make a plan to remind them and send bills every two weeks, every week, or even every day.

You can also give a reward for paying early. Having clear rules helps lessen worries, makes sure you get paid on time, and keeps revenue coming into your office regularly. 

Make sure you submit claims the right way

Getting paid back through insurance claims needs a good system. To get revenue on a timely basis from insurance, send claims every day. Also, make a system to check claims for mistakes before sending them. Keep an eye on your claim status to know what is happening. If a claim takes too long or is not paid within the stipulated time, call the insurance company right away. Find out why and fix it. If you are having trouble, it is smart to get help from any dental billing company in USA. That’s a good idea to deal with claim issues.

Use the Right Codes

It’s really important to choose the correct codes when billing for dental procedures. Dental practices need to understand the CDT and ICD code sets and when to use them. These codes have specific purposes, and insurance providers have their own rules about using them for claims.

The codes change every year. Dental practices should look at the changes, especially for the codes they use a lot. If the code doesn’t match the procedure, it could be seen as fraud.

Sometimes, the insurance company might change a code to a simpler or cheaper one. But dentists should always use the right code that describes the actual procedure. For example, using codes D1110 and D4910 in certain ways could be seen as fraud.

We should code for the actual procedure, not just for what insurance covers.

Keep an eye on claims

Medical billing companies need good systems to track claims. This is a big job a billing company does. They watch over claims in the dental practice software. They also look at reports about insurance from the system. This helps them stay on track from sending the claim to getting paid. It doesn’t matter if you are billing for the dental practice or doing revenue management for Physicians Immediate Care in Algonquin. If a claim is turned down, ask again, fix things, and send it again on time. 

Conclusion

Making sure dental practices get as much money as possible from insurance is really important for keeping the practice financially stable. To do this, they need to know what things affect how much money they get from insurance. Following these steps can help them get more money for the treatments they do. Staying organized, informed, and efficient is a must to get the most money from insurance.