Trying to collect an estimated coinsurance from a patient can be challenging if the patient wants an exact figure. If you are in network or out of network, the insurance companies do not guarantee the amount of payment to be your estimate. Explaining to the...
The lament of many dentists as the day unfolds with a full schedule for the next 8 hours with patients in the office for treatment with the dental team and also with the hygienist. If there are evaluations/exams on the hygiene schedule that means that...
Quality radiographs are essential for complete diagnosis. While visual detection is important many conditions can only be seen by radiograph such as lesions on the apex of the tooth or changes in pulpal health and evidence of loss of supportive bone structure. When filing claims for...
Do you know what is happening at your front desk? When an insurance company contacts a dental office requesting an audit on selected dental records, this must be taken seriously. There are different issues that can trigger an insurance company to take a second look at...
With each New Year the ADA committee brings forth new codes, revised codes and deletes codes that they consider no longer applicable to the current set of codes. On March 15, 2016, from Kelly Soderlund of the ADA, news of the upcoming code changes in 2017...
“Is there a code for that?” That is a familiar question for the business staff that has to match the clinical notes and documentation to a code that exists in the ADA’s current CDT coding manual. If a code doesn’t exist that properly describes the...
Let’s face it, we all like a good story but at whose expense? Certainly if it were something about you that was personal and you didn’t want it discussed it would hurt to find out others were discussing your private affairs. Gossip is a form...
Dentists recommend that a young child see a dentist for an evaluation before the age of three years old. A very valuable service but often not charged to the parent or to the insurance because it is called a “get acquainted” visit or a “look...
Many dentists become fed-up fighting with PPO insurance to get paid for what they feel are legitimate claims of warranted services. When it comes to money being paid to dentists it really boils down to their processing policy not whether the dentistry is deemed professionally...
Primary and Secondary Insurance Question: I have a 24yr old patient who, according to the software setup is married, has her primary through her husband and then a secondary insurance through her mother. The husband's DOB is 1/16/90 and mom's DOB is 3/3/75 so in keeping with...
