Proven Dental Billing Processes Needed for Practice Profits

Across the nation, more than 70% of dental practices are unknowingly leaving around 9% of revenue on the table because of missed dental billing steps. Dental insurance billing has become so complex that it is a full time skilled-based job requiring knowledge, experience, and efficient processes. With everything else on their plates, even the most hard-working administrative staff struggle to keep pace with all that is required to complete every step of the dental billing process in order to collect 100% of what the practice is rightfully owed. 

The missed dental billings steps are what the insurance companies are counting on. They are also in business to make money, so they want to pay out as little as possible. There are ever increasing complexities in the dental claims process, so it is no surprise that the average dental practice forfeits around 9% of its annual collectible revenue to uncollected insurance revenue. When you do the math, the totals are staggering.

Which dental billing processes are most commonly skipped?

One crucial step of the dental billing process is timely claim submission. Many dental administrative staff, due to an enormous workload, set aside one day a week on average to submit claims to insurance companies. Delayed claim submission obviously results in delayed insurance payments, and if any information is missing or incomplete on the claim, that claim may sit in the insurance’s “pending pile” for even longer. 

When the insurance sends a claim back as needing more information — or worse, incorrectly denied — does your administrative staff have the capacity to pull together the needed, or missing, information before the claim filing deadline? If the claim needs a strongly worded appeal, that takes even more time and resources. Following submissions, if the administrative staff doesn’t have the time to consistently work on accounts receivable, the practice’s cash flow becomes inconsistent and unpredictable. This means hours on the phone, managing paperwork, and fighting on the phone with insurance companies while patients are in the office. 

Patients notice when they have to compete for the attention of the office staff, and they can certainly feel the stress and tension when the administrative priorities are centered elsewhere. The entire staff should be focusing on patient care, patient experience, and growing the practice by scheduling, marketing, and patient acquisition. 

How do I ensure these processes are followed?

So how do you stream-line your dental processes so 1) you aren’t leaving nearly 10% of your rightful revenue on the table every month, 2) your patients aren’t stressed, and 3) you unburden your administrative staff so they can focus on growth? 

At eAssist Dental Solutions, we’re proud to say we have collected more money for more dentists for longer than any other dental billing company. That’s why we are the leading dental billing company in the nation. We invented and perfected the dental billing process, and are here to put that expertise to work for you. We work with you and your team as an extension of your staff — a trusted and reliable business partner dedicated to maximizing your income. Take a look at what was rightfully owed to our clients in 2020, and we fought to collect it to provide them the peace of mind they deserve.

You deserve this peace of mind too. We work all of the 50+ dental practice management software systems, so you won’t need to make any software changes or put your staff through the time-consuming process of learning a new practice management software. This is dental billing for dentists by dentists.