As a hard-working dental professional, you want to get paid what you’re worth, right? Unfortunately, many dentists are not collecting as much as they are owed on their dental claims. If you’re one of them, that means you’re missing out on thousands of dollars each month.

So how do you find out if you’re collecting what you should be? More importantly, since it’s likely that you’re not, what needs to change to make that happen? Let’s discuss.

The 99% collection rate benchmark

If you’re not already aware of this, a healthy dental practice should be collecting 99% of production. Because of the monthly fluctuations of insurance receivables and other payment cycles, you shouldn’t measure this over a short-term period. So, look at your collection percentage over a one-year period. 

If your practice is like most dental offices, you’re probably collecting about 91-92% of your production. You might think that’s pretty good. After all, that percentage will earn you the coveted ‘A’ in school. Anything over 90% is good, right? 

Well, not when you realize how much money you’re missing out on. For example, if your production is a nice even $100,000 per month, 91% means you’re missing out on $9,000 per month! It gets even worse when you look at the whole year. You’re leaving $108,000 (more than one entire month’s revenue) on the table.

Why aren’t you collecting what you’re owed?

Why is this happening? Who is dropping the ball at your practice?

It’s likely that there isn’t one specific reason. Dental billing and claims can be complicated and keeping track of all the little details is time-consuming. What’s worse, many dental office employees simply don’t have the time to be managing it all. 

You’re running a busy practice and your staff is hard at work with many tasks. The front-desk staff, who are usually responsible for billing and payments, wear a lot of hats. They are responsible for promptly answering the phone every time it rings. Plus, they must greet patients with a bright, warm smile and ensure their visit is pleasant from the moment they walk in the door. 

When there isn’t an immediate need with a patient in front of them, they have to squeeze in verifying insurance, scheduling dentist appointments, calling about outstanding insurance claims, auditing patient accounts, presenting treatment plans, preparing and sending outstanding patient statements – and the list goes on. That’s a lot for anyone to manage!

Ask yourself if any of these things have ever happened in your practice (or worse, happen often).

• The front desk person was busy with the insurance company on the phone and a patient left without paying their copay
• Your phone is often tied up with patients calling about their insurance statements or bills, making it hard for other patients to get through to schedule new appointments
• Said phone calls take far too long because the person at the front desk is trying to figure out and explain the issue with the patient’s statement
• Your front desk staff get stuck fielding calls from upset patients who didn’t appreciate how their billing was handled
• Your outstanding patient collectibles are slowly (or not-so-slowly) piling up

Last but not least, you are seeing less-than-glowing online reviews from patients upset with the financial side of things. We don’t have to tell you how crucial positive reviews are and watching your average go down for billing issues is disheartening, to say the least.

Now, before you go jumping down your employees’ throats about missing this money or unintentionally upsetting patients, remember, they are juggling a lot. There are tools you could be giving them to succeed that they don’t have. 

How to ensure you’re collecting what you’re owed

So, it’s time to get more organized about your financials and up your collection rate for dental claims. How do you do it? The first thing is to set clear payment goals. From there, you need to figure out how to meet them. 

Meet the 99% collection rate

The 99% collection percentage that we already mentioned should be your first goal. But how do you improve your collection rate? Your staff is already working hard to ensure you get paid, you can’t just grouch at them to work harder. 

It might seem unrealistic to you to reach this standard, but we can tell you it’s not. It can be a little difficult when you task your front staff people with doing it, but not when you take advantage of a service like ours. 

Here at Opencare, through our revenue cycle management service, we take care of the financial side of things – particularly dealing with insurance companies and explaining patient benefits. We are proud to note that our collection rate is 99% – a standard we stick to. 

Furthermore, by reducing the burden on your front staff, they’ll be able to provide your patients with better customer service. When your patients walk in, they’ll be met with a bright smile and a greeting rather than someone politely gesturing for them to wait while they finish their phone conversation. 

Ensure no more than 20% of your accounts receivable are 60 days or older

It’s good bookkeeping to make sure no more than 20% of your accounts receivable are over 60 days old. By sticking to this, you’re ensuring 4 out of 5 of your patient accounts are paying on time.

However, keep in mind that the aging report in your computer program will probably only track from the date of service, not the date of the last payment. The date of the last payment lets you know if the patient is keeping up with the payment plan you arranged with them.

Again, a service like Opencare makes it much easier to keep track of these accounts. Your front desk staff doesn’t necessarily have the time to be checking the aging reports, payment histories, and contacting patients who have fallen behind. 

Outsource your claims processing

We are dedicated to helping dentists succeed at providing their patients with a high standard of oral health. With Opencare, patients can find a dentist near them that we’ll select and match to their preferences. This ensures you get a quality lead when we send you a new patient. 

Plus, when you take advantage of our revenue cycle management service, you can take all the headaches out of the financial side of your business. Improve your collection rate and enjoy all the proceeds of your work the easy way.

No more will your front office staff be stressed and pulled in different directions trying to answer customer questions about insurance or talking to insurance companies all day. Instead, they can offer your patients the five-star customer service they deserve. 

Get started today and start enjoying the 99% collection rate you deserve. Now that’s something to smile about.

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Every dental practice staff member knows the true lynchpin of the operation is the office manager.  This multi-skilled superstar must keep on top of the day-to-day running of the business, manage a team of disparate individuals, keep stock levels up to date, check insurance claims are being pursued in a timely manner and keep an eye on the bottom line.

Combining the job descriptions of logistics expert, sergeant major, accountant and agony aunt takes an incredibly special individual.  If you find a talented office manager, hold onto them with everything you’ve got. If your office manager isn’t properly supported, their effectively spinning plates and it’s only a matter of time before one comes crashing down! 

Three areas for immediate improvement

In what ways can you help this most crucial staff member manage their workload and keep everything running smoothly? It comes down to three things:

1. Time management – allocating their responsibilities effectively
2. Process support – providing software or serviced solutions that make day to day operations simpler
3. Financial management – feeling secure that things are on an even keel

With the above in mind, we’ve put together eight tips to help you support your office manager.

Eight strategies to help your office manager

1) Keep them off the phone

Ideally your office manager should not be covering the phones at all. They need to have an overview of the business. Instead, it’s your receptionist’s responsibility to help patients with booking appointments or spending time on the phone with insurance companies. Remember, it’s more cost-effective to hire extra reception staff than replace a burnt-out OM.

2) Automate or find faster solutions to routine activities

Insurance verification is one of the most mundane and repetitive tasks involved in running a dental practice.  

As the office manager staff at Waterview Dental reports: “One of the key time consumers for receptionists is insurance verification. Freeing up time from the receptionist in verifying insurance may be one of the keys to improving overall office efficiency.”

Your office manager and reception staff should not need to chase after patients’ eligibility. Fortunately, there are solutions that allow you to outsource insurance verification and billing claims. You can pre-verify patients before they turn up for their appointments and keep your office manager off of the phone with insurance companies.

3) Know the bottom line

Regularly check the practice’s financial performance against hard targets. This is perhaps the most important responsibility of a good practice manager. It may seem complex and stressful working out how the business is doing, but in fact it’s straightforward arithmetic. 

There are around 192 working days in the year for the typical dentist. Your practice should have at least an annual target but a monthly target is much more effective (T). Let’s say you have two hygienists pulling in a set amount per day (H). The daily target for your doctors’ daily billings is therefore:

T – (H*192) + 10%) / 192

The 10% is margin for error and allows for contingencies you can’t predict.  

4) Reinvent team roles

 Firstly, look at what aspects of your office manager’s role properly belong to administrators, reception staff or hygienists. It’s all too common for the OM role to become a catch-all for tasks that nobody else wants to do.

Secondly, start to think of your team as sharing in revenue generation. You can use automation and data pushed to desktops and even smartphones to demonstrate to assistants, hygienists, and doctors how they are performing and where they might upsell or prevent that most costly of syndromes – cancellations.

5) Invest in solutions

Proactively research ways to support them with software or outsourced services that optimize day to day efficiency. Whether it’s sending email marketing campaigns to customers, or scheduling appointment reminders or follow-up appointment prompts by text, there are straightforward and effective technological solutions to help generate revenue and keep those bookings rolling in.

6) Develop a claims schedule

Rather than applying an ad hoc approach to revenue protection, set aside a regular time slot each day, or each week, to chase up unreimbursed claims. This will improve cash flow, reducing anxiety. Revenue cycle management is key to a practice’s ongoing performance, and the good news is that much of this can be optimized through software solutions too.

7) Provide continual professional development

Make sure your office manager has protected time to keep up to date with new billing codes, new business practices, and developments within the industry. This ensures they remain integrated in the success of the business, and able to relay news to the team at the regular team meetings we sincerely hope you’re having!

8) Stick to tangible goals

Specified, concrete KPIs that can be measured are infinitely preferable to vague objectives. Make sure your OM buys into this process and that they devise a realistic set of goals against which to measure practice performance.  Reviews should take place at regular intervals. Remember, you are not primarily measuring their performance, but rather the success of the business.

Bonus tip: talk about it

And one more thing… when everyone’s frantically busy it can be hard to find time to take stock. But you need to do this. If it means closing the office for a Team Building Day, so be it.  

Perhaps you can combine a fun morning activity with open and honest conversation in the afternoon. It’s best not to attempt both simultaneously, however – it can be hard to offer meaningful criticism when you’re dodging paintball bullets or riding the rapids!

There should be no hierarchies at play when talking openly – and no consequences (other than business improvement) for anyone speaking their mind. If problems are brought up, make the conversation about ideas and creative solutions, rather than blame allocation.

Once you’ve talked about the practice, what’s working and what’s not, you should see an immediate boost in morale. Now everyone owns the solutions you’ve jointly agreed on.

Follow these tips and your office manager (and the rest of the team) will feel the benefit.

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Is this the year you mean to grow your practice, build accountability, and usher in a transformation? Perhaps you’re focused on attracting new patients, expanding your social media engagement, or improving profitability.

Whatever goals you may have for 2021, it’s wise to ensure they’re SMART. That stands for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. Setting SMART goals will help you boost dental practice productivity, eliminate inefficiencies and enjoy higher revenues.

Here are seven power-packed strategies to incentivize your staff, innovate your dental practice management and up your productivity. 

1) Discover new ways to motivate your team 

It’s natural for your team’s productivity to fluctuate. But how can you promote a motivated and focused team that firmly believes in your goals for your practice? It starts with finding creative ways to incentivize and motivate team members.

There are no one-size-fits-all solutions when it comes to motivation. While some staff members will be motivated by authority and delegation, others will be by financial rewards or recognition. Employee of the Week and Month awards are age-old and traditional strategies that remain popular today. You can also explore (COVID-protocol-friendly) team-building exercises, luncheons, and activities to create a strong team spirit and a sense of community. 

Several experts believe a daily huddle is an excellent strategy to boost motivation levels and productivity. Before the working day begins, call your team for a quick meeting or a short session. You can revisit the week’s or day’s schedule, suggest changes, and take feedback for improvements. If an early morning huddle isn’t possible, you can schedule one right after lunch or at the end of the day. 

It’s also essential to build one-on-one relationships with employees and help them actualize their true potential. 

2) Master new marketing channels 

Dental practices rely on social media and digital marketing tools to acquire new patients and maintain client loyalty. More importantly, potential patients seek social verification to establish the credibility and credentials of a dentist. For instance, a patient looking to find a dentist will perform a Google search to explore directories, Facebook listings, and more. (Typically, Facebook introduces users to reviews from existing patients and clients.) 

If you’re still struggling to master digital marketing in 2021, you’re putting your dental practice at a significant disadvantage. So, what should you do? Aim to master one social media channel each quarter. It’s a SMART goal, and you can gradually work toward embracing multiple marketing channels over the course of a year.

For instance, start by revamping your Facebook layout and boost engagement on your website. Facebook is an excellent platform to generate leads and uplift your overall SEO game. In the next quarter, embrace email marketing to cement loyalty across new patients you’ve acquired through Facebook.

Mastering new marketing channels and tools will help you increase dental practice productivity by creating a dynamic marketing mix. 

3) Embrace paperless intake and treatment plans 

What’s one of the best ways to make your office more efficient and well-organized? Go paperless and embrace the numerous digital tools available to store and manage patient records. It’s a strategy that offers numerous advantages, such as making dental practice management eco-friendly and well organized.

If you have multiple employees to manage and handle paperwork, you’re wasting resources and resisting innovation. Today, many patients (especially your younger ones) seek digitized and paperless interactions, given the rise of telehealth and e-health records. Some patients may feel more comfortable filling out online forms or using apps to make a dentist appointment. 

Additionally, going paperless eliminates the clutter and promotes a well-organized and healthy workplace. Cloud computing, ehealth records, and digital tools also eliminate the possibilities of human error and boost efficiency. Digital check-ins and records also improve coordination and save loads of resources and time. 

Once you start reducing (and ultimately eliminating)  office stationery, printers, and storage costs, your dental practice can save thousands of dollars annually. You can spend all that money instead toward innovating, embracing new dental technologies, and revamping your practice. Efficient paperless transactions and communication will also help you win over patient trust and confidence. 

4) Promote transparency 

Be up front with your patients. It’s the first step in building their trust and confidence in your practice. Adopt a transparent and upfront method of presenting treatment costs.

You can print out brochures or pricing plans that patients can explore online and in-person while visiting your clinic. Outlining the costs without any hidden charges proves immensely effective at securing patients and increasing revenues. 

Patients fear dental services are likely to cost more than general healthcare services. You can build trust by shattering this belief. Maybe use your first consultation session to discuss treatment costs and insurance coverage. Walking your patient through their insurance coverage is instrumental in acquiring new patients and establishing loyalty. 

5) Use revenue cycle management processes

An efficient revenue cycle management system can help you expand your dental practice’s earning potential. Most dental practices struggle with claims management, EOB reconciliation, aged claims, and verifying insurance. Luckily, today there are numerous management tools and processes that offer superior convenience and ease. Find out more here.

You can explore revenue cycle management to innovate claims submission using your existing management software. You can also hire a trusted third party to verify the benefits and eligibility of payors on your behalf.

Employees often struggle to review and manage aged outstanding receivables and follow-ups. Luckily, you can outsource this sensitive responsibility by engaging a competent third party for an accounts receivable analysis. Essentially, revenue cycle management helps increase dental practice productivity by allowing employees to focus on core operations. 

6) Embrace the power of automation 

In 2021, automation powers some of every industry, be it healthcare, entertainment, tourism, or energy. Automation is the key to enhancing the consumer experience, building a powerful brand identity, and emerging atop the competition. 

As a dentist, you can’t ignore the potential automation offers to reduce expenses and drive dental practice productivity. You can automate numerous processes, such as financial bookkeeping, customer service management, appointments, and much more. There are multiple automation tools and solutions designed to automate marketing, accounting, employee salaries, and other activities.

Embracing these tools will free up your business resources and save up more money for core business innovation. Automation will also help promote efficiency and make dental practice management more effortless and straightforward. For instance, you can automate patient appointments through online forms and maintain an efficient digital schedule. 

These small but meaningful innovations have a far-reaching impact on boosting dental practice productivity. 

7) Revisit goals and progress

Ultimately, you can increase dental practice productivity and stay steadfastly focused on your goals by holding yourself and your team accountable. And doing that doesn’t have to be hard. Start by  organizing weekly and monthly meetings to revisit goals and examine the team’s progress. The key to boosting dental practice productivity is setting achievable milestones, evaluating progress, and celebrating growth. 

These goal evaluation meetings will help you motivate your team and ensure everyone is on the same page. Evaluate the contributions made by each employee, recognize their potential, and underscore their weaknesses. As a leader, you must increase dental practice productivity by identifying outdated practices and ushering in innovation.

It is also essential to get feedback from your team members, value their opinions and incorporate them effectively. If your team members feel unheard, they’re unlikely to align their goals with your ambitions. 

Final thoughts

Besides ensuring patient safety and quality treatments, you must also strategize to ensure profitability and dental practice productivity. This agenda requires you to adopt the mindset of a leader and innovator. In 2021, you can deploy multiple technological tools to boost efficiency, eliminate human errors and improve the patient experience.

If you’re just starting with a private dental practice, these SMART goals will help you create a well-organized foundation. It’s vital to prioritize digital marketing tools because potential patients rely on digital media to find credible dentists. It doesn’t have to be difficult, but with some dedication and energy, you can make your practice everything you want it to be. 

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Getting and analyzing reports for dental practice accounts receivable is crucial to understanding the health of your practice. Medical billing reports are vital and arguably serve as the lifeblood of the practice’s cash flow. 

Let’s look at the 7 reports for dental practice AR that’ll help you understand the health of your practice.

1) Patient analysis report

The patient analysis report is arguably one of the most essential reports for dental practice AR. In fact, it’s the report you should be checking most often to see how your practice is performing. Ideally, you should inspect this report every month. Many people recommend running through the report every week.

It’ll showcase where the practice stands by describing several different variables. The report will indicate the types of patients you’re seeing, how often you’re seeing them, and where they’re coming from. It also contains information on the active patient base, the insurance base, and patient hygiene.

The best way to analyze the report is to look at patients seen in the last year, the last two years, and the last three years. Take a further look into these percentages to see any areas that you might need to improve.

2) Accounts receivable reports

If you’re not already receiving a dedicated accounts receivable report, you’re not doing your practice justice. It’s the main report for dental practice AR and is typically available through most accounting software on the market. Most software allows you to add filters, but you may wish to ignore these to get the most accurate numbers possible.

When calculating monthly production, consider any credit values in the accounts receivable. There may be individual balances that need adjustment, so it’s vital to review the report periodically.

You should also take a look at the aging category. That essentially allows you to identify what represents the most considerable portion of the practice’s accounts receivable. Keep an eye on the age of the balance. As that grows older, the probability of collecting the amount diminishes significantly.

3) Outstanding claims by aging category report

A lot of modern dental practices accept insurance payments regardless of their participation with an insurance plan or not. These practices need to keep a close eye on the outstanding claims by aging category report. It’ll help ensure a consistent collection of these outstanding claims and help you maintain a balance.

The report will showcase all patients with open claims, and you can see which ones belong to the same insurance company. Once you’ve identified the following, it can become a simple task of calling the insurance company and taking care of multiple outstanding claims simultaneously. It’s beneficial when you’re looking to see the total amount of claims over a 60-to-90-day period.

4) Provider productivity and collection productivity reports

Also essential are provider reports. They help provide specific information regarding the level of production and any necessary adjustments suppliers need. They’ll provide you with a summary of all production collections and adjustments for a specific month. They also contain all the necessary information on the number of patients and the average visit from each patient.

5) Service code and type productivity reports

Service productivity reports essentially show dentists their practice according to the respective service category and coding. Their purpose is to showcase the services charged out for a particular month or year. It also contains useful information like the average patient fee and the total productivity level in the respective period. 

6) Patient master report

For any practice, the most important contributing factor is the patient body. The patient master report will contain information on new patients joining the practice and the level of current patient retention.

Getting new patients and building retention is all about how your practice can build trust with the patient. It’s important to ensure your whole staff understand the importance of this report. Once you’re done analyzing, be sure to inform everyone what they can do to help bring in more patients and improve the level of retention as well.

7) Referral reports

One of the most common ways dental practices get new patients is through referrals. If dentists want to track these referrals, they will have to rely on referral reports that’ll help them keep track of how they’re getting new customers.

These contain information about their top referral sources and which recent patients have come through referrals. They also typically include information on patients that have visited your office after a referral and did not return afterward.

8) Hygiene recare reports

Another vital report to help keep a check on your practice’s overall health is the hygiene recare report. Hygiene recare is essentially tips that dentists share with their patients to help them maintain their hygiene and remind them to keep their cleaning appointments. 

Final thoughts

Without analyzing the proper reports, it can be difficult to keep a pulse on your practice’s accounts receivable. Use all these reports to help get the best indication of the health of your practice. By effectively keeping track of the practice’s accounts receivable, you give yourself the best chance of success.

If you’re confused about how to read these reports or don’t know which ones to include, Opencare is here to help you out. We offer revenue cycle management to take these tedious tasks off of your plate, and give you time back into your day. 

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As a dentist, you want to focus on providing excellent service to your patients, but you may find yourself neglecting certain administrative duties. That can lead you to leaving money on the table. 

Dental billing is a critical part of your practice. When you can’t effectively bill clients and collect payments, you’re not making money. The same goes for submitting claims to insurance agencies. When they do not make a payment, the client needs to be held responsible — something only possible if you’re keeping tabs on your accounts. 

Let’s look at some dental billing tips to help you keep your practice’s admin organized.

1. Staff education

Dentists are taught how to work with dental problems, not how to do accounting. While you are prepared to work with your patients while they sit in the chair, you may not fully know how to run a practice.

So make admin  education a priority. Take a short course on the business side of running a practice. Even if you think you know it all, there may still be some useful information available. Make sure the course provides details on how billing should work and all other related matters.

Do the same to ensure your staff are up to date with their knowledge for running a practice. The better off they are, the more successful you’ll be. This also ensures staff members can fill in for each other when their coworkers take vacation or call in sick for a day. 

2. Know your codes

Dental coding is critical when it comes to submitting claims. When setting up a bill for a client, you need to ensure the correct dental codes are added to the bill. 

A few changes have been noted in the past, particularly when looking at codes used in the dental industry. For example, there was a time when D1203 and D1204 (fluoride treatments in kids and adults) were combined into a new code, D1208. But if your office reports an older code, your practice won’t receive proper reimbursement,

Likewise, lots of practices submit code D0140 when performing a limited evaluation or procedure. The reimbursement is minimal, as this is dedicated to standard evaluations done twice a year. Instead, know when you should report a D9110 code. This can help to increase the accuracy of your bills and ensure you’re being reimbursed properly. 

3. Consider outsourcing

Outsourcing is a subject that’s met with mixed opinions. Some find outsourcing to be an excellent addition to their business. Others stress at the sight of the word. The thing is, with the right strategy, outsourcing can actually be a way to save both time and money when you run a dental practice.

Your staff may already have their hands full when making appointments, organizing patient files, and performing other administrative and reception tasks. By outsourcing elements like billing, the collection of owed money, and the handling of insurance claims, you can relieve the burden placed on your staff. This also means you may need fewer staff members compared to dealing with these tasks internally. 

4. Use automation 

With your dental practice, there are numerous tasks that can be automated. For example, when you enter dental codes into a system, an invoice can be automatically configured. Client data is automatically pulled up by the system, and an invoice is sent. 

The system connects to your business banking account, allowing it to monitor for transactions with the client’s reference number or the invoice number. Automated billing reminders can also be sent, clearing up some time from your hands and allowing your staff to focus on other important tasks. 

5. Be aware of balances

One statistical report claimed over 25% of adults in the US have outstanding medical bills that have not yet been paid. In another publication, it is reported about 137 million American adults have trouble paying their medical bills. 

When patients have outstanding balances, it means you’re losing money. You already provided the services, so now it is time to collect the payments due.

While it’s important to be reasonable, you do need to implement a system that allows you to obtain the money you’re owed. This may involve handling client data over to a debt collection agency, for example. While it is a move that some dentists prefer not to make, in the business world, it can become an essential part of keeping your practice running. 

6. Understand the claims process

Make sure you understand how to submit a claim to each insurance provider. Get to know how each provider is different. You might have to register with the provider when you initially start your practice. Know how the process works and how they do their respective reimbursements. 

7. Adjust your fees accordingly

Making money includes keeping up with changing times, which generally includes rising prices. As your electricity costs, rent, and the need for medical equipment rises, you need to consider these additional expenses. 

With this in mind, consider adjusting the fees you charge for your services once per year. This allows you to make up for increases in your overall expenses. Be reasonable with the increase, and patients are likely to understand. 

8. Use the right software

And of course, ensure you’re using the right software. There are several integrated solutions that can help simplify claims, billing, and keeping track of balances. 

Some of the software solutions make it easy to set up a dentist appointment when a patient calls, for example.

You can also consider revenue cycle management. This is a useful option that helps you increase your overall revenue while keeping costs at a minimum. These management services generally give you full access to your own accounts, which means tracking and checking up on your practice’s performance is easy. 

Final thoughts

Billing the right way is critical for your business. And our dental coding tips will ensure you know how to structure a bill while also helping you streamline the process. This will end up saving your practice precious time while also bringing in more revenue. Good luck!

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