You may have never seen an ad on TV or your streaming service for a small dental practice in your community, but these small businesses are essential to the local economy and give access to necessary dental care to the public—in rural and urban areas alike. Regardless of size of your dental practice, refining the billing process can particularly benefit small dental practices, and here are some of the best solutions for success.
Verify Insurance Benefits before the Appointment
As soon as your patient (whether new or existing) has been treated, you need to work on submitting the insurance claim. If you put it off, you will not receive payment on time. However, confirming their coverage and available benefits a few days before the visit, you can save time having to correct mistakes in claims, chase down patients for additional payment, and recover from other serious consequences.
Ongoing Training for Your Team
If you want to handle your billing process in-house, just be sure you allow time for your team members to be properly trained and keep learning more about insurance changes. Dental insurance companies have the chance to adjust their coverage or requirements at any time, so you need to have someone stay on top of these updates and guide the process through smoothly.
Hiring brand-new employees can be exciting, but training can also be time-consuming. Not only do they have to get used to the office culture and processes, but they also need to learn how the team communicates and work efficiently.
Make Sure Your Claims Are Correct and Flawless
When it comes to small businesses, owners typically don’t have much cash to spare and, therefore, can’t afford to deal with a financial crisis or even criminal charges. Unfortunately, the legal system doesn’t recognize ignorance as a valid excuse for putting down the incorrect coding. In fact, it may be considered insurance fraud! If you continue to file claims yourself, you must double check every detail to make sure it’s correct. Otherwise, you could face scandal, a lawsuit, or charges with the police.
Outsourcing Billing Tasks
With a small number of team members at your dental practice, some have to wear multiple hats simultaneously. Your dental assistant may answer incoming phone calls, your hygienist may assist with complex procedures, and the like. In other words, you may not have time or money in your budget to hire a dedicated billing team member, potentially leading to burnout and more mistakes. Outsourcing these types of tasks often costs less than a full-time employee’s salary and allows the rest of you to focus on the patient, your clinical performance, and your chairside manner.
Accuracy and efficiency in the billing process matters to both large and small dental practices, but offices with just one or two dentists perhaps need billing help and outsourcing more!
About Dental Support Specialties
Starting in 2008, Dental Support Specialties became one of the first remote companies to offer administrative support for dental offices throughout the United States. We work with dental front desk teams on the billing process to get insurance and patients to pay in full and on time. In addition to billing support, we offer phone answering, chart auditing, and other important services for dental practice success. To meet with us and discuss your needs, get in touch with us and get on our schedule!