For some positions, you can’t imagine having someone work with you remotely. You might be able to have a conversation with your dental patient without being in the same room, but at some point, you’ll need to see them in person to give them any helpful care. In other jobs, remote support works perfectly! When it comes to dental billing, should you opt to have someone in-house or hire a separate service company to take care of claims, collection calls, and getting bills paid on time? Although there are pros and cons to both, here are some ways in which remote dental billing support can outperform an in-house financial coordinator.
Number of Denied Claims
The fewer denied claims you have, the faster you’ll receive that payment, and the less time, frustration, and money you have to spend on rework. With in-house insurance or financial coordinators, they manage the entire process alone. Depending on how many patients you see in a day, that could amount to hours on the phone with insurance companies and patients.
On the other hand, remote dental billing support typically involves a team of experts working together on your account, minimizing rework and denied claims. Also, if anyone goes out on vacation, sick leave, or other time away, your billing can still go through seamlessly.
Pile of Accounts Receivable
When you have a staff member trying to juggle multiple tasks simultaneously, they are bound to drop one or more of them. Sometimes, billing is set aside to work with a patient who has arrived for their appointment. However, delaying or rushing claims or making collection calls negatively impacts your bottom line and can make a booming, successful dental practice look broke.
A remote dental administrator can focus exclusively on your billing needs, making sure every claim is approved and posted, every bill paid, and every patient happy.
Quality of Interactions with Patients
Have you ever tried to talk to someone who is on the phone? You can feel that you’re disturbing them, inconveniencing them with your presence and needs. As a customer, you may not leave with the best impression. Now, consider when your patient enters your practice. Are they greeted warmly with undivided attention from the front desk personnel? Are they waiting for a break in the phone conversation for help?
While you can interact face-to-face better with in-office coordinators, your staff’s customer service will likely improve when you outsource billing, because they can then return to the main priority: your patients!
Amount of Business Overhead
If you want your business to grow and increase revenue, you must think about your expenses and overhead costs (i.e., staff salaries, supplies, rent, etc.). Hiring an employee to work in your office costs significantly more than hiring a remote service. Rather than paying for a full-time salary, benefits, and training, you can have a smaller fee for a group of administrators to take care of your billing concerns.
Other than missing out on personal interaction with another employee, you really don’t lose much if you choose remote dental billing support, but you have so much to gain! Improvement in these areas can help your practice reach new levels of growth and success. If you don’t currently outsource dental billing, consider doing it now!
About Dental Support Specialties
After nearly 20 years in business, Dental Support Specialties was one of the early companies that offered remote administrative services to dental practices. Now, we serve offices all over the country, and our team of experienced professionals rarely needs much training to immediately start working for our clients. On top of dental billing, we also offer dental insurance verification as well as other smaller projects like chart auditing and call answering. Would you like to learn more about how we can help your business boom, reach out to us today.