You’ve invested in marketing for your dental practice, and it seems to be making a difference. Your schedule is filling up, and you’re gaining new loyal patients. Then, why aren’t you seeing your revenue reach the goal you’ve set?
When you take a closer look at the numbers, it becomes clear. You have a ton of claims that haven’t been paid and outstanding bills. If your administrative team hasn’t been doing dental insurance verification properly, you are leaving money you’ve earned on the table. Keep reading to learn why this is a necessary step and how it can affect your income.
What Information Do You Need for Insurance Verification?
When a person calls to make an appointment, you need to ask for the following information to contact the insurance company and confirm benefits:
- Name of the patient
- Name of insurance provider
- Member ID number
- Member date of birth (as well as the patient’s date of birth, if it’s not the member)
- Name of employer
- Group ID number
- Telephone number of insurance
To a prospective patient, collecting this information over the phone before their appointment can seem frivolous, particularly because your staff will make a copy of their insurance card when they come, but it is essential if you want your billing process to run smoothly.
Why Is It Important to Verify Patient Insurance Information Before the Appointment?
At first glance, it may seem like an unnecessary hassle to do the pre-work of verifying benefits with a patient’s insurance before they even show up for the visit. However, it takes time to confirm the details. Starting early gives your staff time to fix any mistakes prior to the appointment. That way, your team can provide an accurate breakdown of the patient’s benefits.
With a clear understanding of their benefits, the patient can then make more informed decisions about their care and know what they will be expected to pay upfront for their treatment options.
How Does Insurance Verification Bring in More Revenue?
Unfortunately, it can be difficult to reach patients, especially when it’s concerning money. As a result, if you don’t verify insurance information before they come in for their appointment, you could be stuck playing phone tag until it’s corrected after they leave. Meanwhile, your practice is left with unpaid claims and bills.
Taking care of verification earlier helps your practice work more efficiently once treatment has been performed. With accurate information and fewer delays, your team can file claims more quickly, which means you get paid on time.
If you want to avoid getting a pile of unpaid claims and bills, you need to implement insurance verification into your billing and scheduling processes.
About Dental Support Specialties
Our team members at Dental Support Specialties have years of experience working with dental insurance companies. We know how to get necessary information and can verify insurance for your team, saving them time they could use for other tasks. In addition to insurance verification, we can also file claims and follow up with the provider or patient as needed. To learn more about verification, you can contact our team by calling 330-639-1333 or going online here.