Territorial Office Managers

Have you heard this one?  “We’ve always done it this way and if we change it could get worse.”  or “You don’t need to know that doctor, I have everything under control.”

You just want to know what is happening because you are having a hard time paying the bills.  The schedule looks lighter but the front office staff seem busy with administrative tasks or on the phone.  You don’t want to incur the wrath of your Office Manager after all she has been here for ten years but there are questions you want answered.

Not being kept aware of issues and happenings in your dental practice can be a signal that all is not well.  If you have a dental software that you don’t know how to use you need to learn it to view these reports daily:

• Receipts Day Sheet to verify payments.
• Deposit Slip should match payments on day sheet
• Day Sheet (chronological)  to make sure all patients seen are on the day sheet and the procedures are reported correctly, make sure credit for production is too right provider
• Adjustment report to show you what you produce and what is getting adjusted off the total in the form of discounts, courtesies and insurance adjustments.
• Aging Report.  Check carefully the balances in 30, 60, and 90 days past due.  You want to know why these balances are aging.  Are there outstanding insurance claims?  Are there patients who have not kept their financial arrangement and are they being followed up on and what are the results?
• Insurance Claim Aging Report. You should not have any claims aged past 90 days. What is being done to get the claims paid?

This is just checking the pulse of the practice. You say you don’t have time and you trust your Office Manager.  If this is what you have always done then you need to ask yourself, “Is this working for you?”