Every job comes with challenges, but when it comes to dental insurance verification, there are quite a few that front desk personnel at a dental practice must deal with. What are these problems? What makes this necessary task so daunting? Here are just four challenges your front desk team faces every day with verifying dental insurance and what you can do to resolve these issues for the good of your entire practice.
Inaccurate Patient Information
No one is exempt from making mistakes. Whether the patient says the wrong numbers, or you mishear them over the phone, little errors can come up in patient information. That’s why verification is so important! You would much rather catch the mistake before the appointment than slow down the payment because of inaccurate information in the claim.
Verifying each patient’s insurance information in advance makes the billing process go more smoothly because you know you have the right ID numbers and all the rest of the information you need. Taking care of verification before the appointment should give you plenty of time to correct inaccuracies moving forward.
Long Waiting Times and Calls
Does anyone enjoy being put on hold? Unfortunately, this happens often when you work with insurance companies, sometimes for hours at a time. Tedious, frustrating, and time-consuming, these calls usually leave the caller frustrated, which can negatively impact your office atmosphere.
Although these calls are often a necessary evil, your team doesn’t have to make them.
Changes in Insurance Coverage and Benefits
If it seems like dental insurance is a moving target, it’s because it is constantly changing. Providers can adjust things up without notice, which is why you need to verify insurance for everyone, even for a patient you’ve had for a long time. They may not have moved or switched their provider, but the company may have changed their benefits.
Although it may feel frustrating to verify insurance for a patient who has been coming to you for years, you still want to avoid running into trouble down the line with billing.
Divided Attention in the Office
Many dental practices believe that their front desk team members can handle managing incoming phone calls, checking patients in and out, collecting payments, performing other office duties, and verifying insurance—often simultaneously. However, these tasks often spread these administrators thin. As a result, your in-office customer service can start to suffer, and more costly mistakes may pop up.
To maintain a high level of care and office efficiency, it may be best to have someone else take over insurance verification.
The simplest solution to all these challenges is to work with Dental Support Specialties. We can do dental insurance verification for your team, helping your front desk personnel stay happy and productive with in-office tasks.
About Dental Support Specialties
In addition to insurance verification, Dental Support Specialties provides dental practices throughout the country administrative services like billing, phone answering, chart auditing, and more. Our team members have years of experience working with insurance companies and can perform these tasks, saving you the trouble of handling them in the office. See why practices have trusted us for more than 15 years by contacting us online for a consultation.