Top 5 Ways to Improve the Cash Flow of Your Dental Practice
A healthy cash flow is like blood in the veins for a dental practice. However, most of the dental practices have to deal with bottlenecks that reduce efficiency and hinder the growth of the practice. The biggest threat to a dental practice’s long-term success is not a lack of profit, it’s a lack of cash flow. Though the providers often try to plug the loopholes, there might still be that slight room for improvement or a better way of handling things that does wonders with the overall profitability of the practice. It’s imperative that time be given to think as to how you can increase the efficiency and eliminate the bottlenecks in the way you are currently handling the workflow. This article deals with issues that might be affecting your efficiency as a dental provider and are worthy of being given a read even if you think things are under control.
1) Effectively coordinating with patients to keep track of patient appointments and verifying patients’ insurance eligibility well in time
Most practices struggle with a true scheduling system with synchronous steps and clear guidelines for patient appointments that the front-desk staff follows. Practices just try to “fill in the holes”. This approach hurts the cash flow the most. Often, patients who come to dentists for a visit, complain about improper communication of appointment times, delay in service and incomplete information being provided to them about their share amount they have to bear for the service in the overall cost of a dental procedure. All these issues have a common cause and that is mismanagement or inefficient management of the patient appointments and insurance eligibility at the office. Often, the staff at the dental office struggles with keeping up with the timely execution of these important tasks besides taking care of routine operational tasks at the office. This aspect needs to be well thought about and needs proper and expert execution as it has maximum impact on the cash coming into your practice. A solution for this is to obtain and store data of each patient in a dental software. All the relevant information for a particular patient should be fetched by an initial phone call and entered in a patient file well before the actual appointment. Providers can take the assistance of reliable dental billing companies for efficient handling of this process.
2) Implementing measures to assist the office staff in better deliverance of operational tasks
Once the issues with the scheduling system and patient eligibility verifications have been dealt with, the other area to focus on is to improve the execution of the operational tasks such as front desk activities, systems to facilitate more efficient performance of dental assistants and hygienists, patient management on the office floor, keeping a check on the ambience and office decor, overall cleanliness of the office, and so on. These are some of the aspects that impact the contentment and satisfaction of patients after a visit to your dental office. Often, because of overburden of work and little time for these routine works, these things are ignored and leave a dent on your service delivery.
3) Regularly scrutinizing the cash-flow statement of your practice
We have discussed how important it is to optimize the execution of activities at your dental practice. However, it’s important to keep a note of and regularly scrutinizing your cash-flow statements. Even if you have outsourced the billing services to dental billing company, you should always prefer a dental billing company which provides you with timely reports on the overall health and performance of your practice on key parameters. You should know where your practice financially stands at all times. Having a clear estimation of incomes and expenses puts you in a comfortable position to deal with any unexpected shortfall.
4) Keeping updated about the changing guidelines and policies of insurance companies for insurance plans
Insurance companies can severely affect your cash flow and cripple your profit margins. Dental practices have to deal with plans of various insurances and with policies and guidelines for plans changing very frequently, inaccurate claims filing becomes a major cause for claim denials. It becomes one of the major factors in determining if you get paid for the services rendered. So, you have to keep a check on the updates and ensure that before you provide a service to patients, you carefully calculate the patient portion of the payment and submit accurate claims with the insurances.
5) Managing a reserve fund for your practice
Keeping updated about the overall cash flow of your practice helps you keep ahead of the financial exigencies all the time. However, sometimes we have to deal with situations which are out of our hands like the current situation of Covid- 19 which has severely affected the cash flow of dental practices across the country. So, you should start to put money away for a rainy day, kind of a reserve where you put a certain amount of money every month to help you during any financial difficulty that might arise. This reserve can help your practice get through tough periods of slow revenue and help you cover employee salaries, order equipment for procedures, or invest in growth opportunities. This step might be the most difficult to follow but could go a long way in providing the financial stability to your practice.
Healthy cash flow is the most important part of any practice. Irregular cash flow poses difficulties in every aspect for practices. The ideas suggested in this article may not end all your issues at one go, but they can go a long way in ensuring that every aspect of your practice’s cash flow and practice management is dealt with utmost efficiency and that your practice gets poised for higher growth.
Dental insurance services including verification, claim submission and approval, are a game-changer, when it comes to the satisfaction of dental patients. That’s the reason a lot of dental practitioners choose to outsource dental billing and insurance services. However, it’s not always an easy job for dental services providers to complete the claim submission & approval process. One of the most recurring problems among denial management scenarios, for dental billing and insurance services experts is - “claim not on file” status. The status not only just halts the claim submission and approval process, but also makes a patient wait longer than usual to get the approval for the claim. It’s a problem not just for dental services providers and dental practitioners but for patients also. Let the article guide what exactly needs to be done when “claim not on file” happens?
It’s been an amazing experience for both patients and dental services providers since the introduction of electronic claim submission. The mechanism saves time & effort and the rate of claim approvals is also quite high. Patients get timely approvals and they go home post treatment happily. However, many insurances are still not willing to participate in the electronic system which causes the “claim not on file” issue. The issue seems to help the insurance companies delay the claim payment.
The cause for - Claim not on file issue:
Billing and insurance experts send clean claims to the insurance company. When the claim is not resolved for over 30 days, the experts contact the insurance company to find out the reason behind the same. The question they have is, “why is the claim amount not paid yet?” And, the usual reply they get from the insurance company representatives is, “Your claim is not on file.” This usually happens when the claims are required to be mailed because the insurance is a non-electronic payer.
Mailing claims always create some sort of problem. Sometimes, claim files are not received or sometimes misplaced. This either misplaces the patient’s information or it doesn’t reach the right address. Whatever is the case, the patient has to wait and the dental services provider needs to put-in extra efforts to bring the claim approval process back on track. So, it becomes a responsibility for both dental practitioners and dental services providers to make sure that the problem does not occur very often. And, if it does, they should know the exact solution to it.
Solution to - Caim not on file:
As a dental billing and insurance expert, you must be aware of certain things before you start resolving the issue. As soon as you get the “claim not on file” status, you need to verify the mail address of claim, eligibility status, filing period, fax number, doctor’s referral letter, date limit, whom to fax the claim, and fax number.
Professional follow-ups with the insurance company and timely submission of a claim with thorough verification of patient’s details can remove this one of the many denial management scenarios, “claim not on file.” The lesser the issues with claim approvals, the happier the patients would be!
Dental offices in Texas are now open with additional safety protocols for patients. All these measures have been taken after following new guidelines to ensure that patients get the required treatment safely amid COVID-19. Dentists are exercising independent professional judgment to ensure that patients in need of dental emergencies in Texas, do not get deprived of the required treatment, when they arrive at offices. Our dental offices in Texas are also ensuring the availability of personal protective equipment and are diligently following COVID-19 workplace safety guidelines in dental offices, to protect the health of patients, dentists, and other staff members all together.
A set of new guidelines will be followed with respect to the waiting area, office reception, screening questions, removal of high-touch items like magazines, newspapers & toys, the number of patients allowed to accompany a patient, and others. Our offices have made these new guidelines simple and convenient for you so that care and protection from coronavirus can both go hand in hand.
Scheduling dental appointments amid COVID-19 is now not only possible but also safe in Texas. You just need to be aware of the following aspects when your next visit gets scheduled.
Reporting emergencies to your dentist amid COVID-19
If you or any of your family members are experiencing pain or discomfort in their gums or teeth, do not hesitate to report your dental emergency to your dentist. The office staff will assess the situation and will advise you accordingly or will ask you to meet your dentist on a priority basis. Uncontrolled bleeding from the gums, cellulitis, swelling of the mouth are some of the conditions that may be judged by your dentist as an emergency. Getting care for dental emergencies during the coronavirus pandemic is possible now in Texas. We have adopted new safety protocols to treat your emergencies while protecting you and your near ones from getting exposed to coronavirus when you visit us.
What may be considered a dental emergency?
Any condition, which when left untreated has the potential to affect your overall health, can be considered as an emergency by your dentist. The professionals will use their experience to evaluate whether the symptoms exhibited constitute an emergency or not, and will accordingly recommend and suggest a treatment.
Scheduling appointments amid COVID-19
If you already have a pre-scheduled visit for a routine cleaning or for braces tightening with your orthodontist, you will get a confirmation call from the dental office at least a day before your appointment is scheduled for. In other cases, when you need to fix an appointment for an emergency such as falling off the crown or breaking of the denture, inform them immediately about your situation. Your dentist will evaluate your situation and may allow you to visit one of the dental offices in Texas on a priority basis so that you can be kept out of the emergency room.
Screening of your health before an appointment
A day before your appointment, you will receive a call from the office staff who may have a set of screening questionnaires for you. Simple questions such as your body temperature, any symptoms such as cough or breathing problems, etc. will be asked from you by the consulting staff member. Similar screening questions will be asked from you when you arrive at the office for your treatment.
Arrival at your dental office
You will then be confirmed by the office staff on the scheduled day informing you about your time slot. You may be asked to wait in your car once you reach the office location. You should walk into the dental office only when you get a confirmation SMS or a call from the office staff. The day at the office is scheduled and pre-planned in such a way that there is minimum inconvenience to the patients arriving at the dental office.
Carry along accessories
The office staff will let you know if you need to carry your own mask or any other PPE. In all likelihood, they will give you a new disposable mask to wear while you undergo your treatment. Please take the advice of the office staff if you need to have gloves or goggles supplied to you as well during the treatment.
Changes in the dental office set up
You may notice no seating arrangement in the waiting area of the dental office as only one patient is allowed to come inside at a given time. Once the patient goes out after the treatment only then the next scheduled patient is allowed to come inside the office for attend the treatment. All high touch items such as magazines or toys have been removed to neutralize any chance of cross-contamination.
Come along caregiver
Patients are advised to come alone for the appointment unless the company of a caregiver is required. Only one patient at a time is allowed inside to avoid crowding and to maintain social distancing at the office. With a child, it is being advised that only one parent should accompany the child to the dental office.
During Care
You will find everyone in the dental office including your dentist and other staff wearing PPE and gloves. Every surface that gets touched by anyone is getting cleaned every time before a new patient comes in. Separate emergency rooms have been made for patients who may need to stay longer at the office depending on the nature of their treatment.
Under the new protocol and guidelines, patients’ next visit to their dentists in Texas will be a lot different than earlier one. This new protocol will help you in protection against coronavirus while you continue to receive dental care. Our staff is going to make you feel at ease. In case of any further queries or clarifications, feel free to call us or drop an email. You may also visit our website for a live chat. We want you to KEEP SMILING & Be SAFE.
There are various reasons for carriers to deny an insurance claim. The reasons for denials can vary depending on the payer, however, the first thing to consider is to know why the claim was denied? The good news is that appealing a denied claim is much easier.
Preparing to Appeal a Denied Claim
Once you are confirmed about the reasons for denials, there are some simple steps you can take to appeal a claim denial.
Reasons for Claim Denial
One of the well-known reasons for claim denial is submission of an inaccurate information. Therefore, attention to detail is of utmost importance for billing and coding. Submitting the right claim for wrong treatment is quite common and this happens because the practice is already occupied. So, there are more chances of mistakes. A thorough and detailed system of checks will go a long way in resolving errors.
Your dental practice can avoid denials by asking these simple questions:
Another common mistake is incorrect coding or treatment diagnosis. It is important to use the most up to date codes. Another way to avoid mistakes is avoiding the confirmation of benefits. The patient’s insurance benefits should be verified before the visit is scheduled.
At Capline, our experts can help you appeal a denied claim. We work relentlessly to solve these problems. Get in touch with our experts and say goodbye to claim denials and rejections.
Considering the amount of time spent on processing a claim manually, along with cost and other factors, it has become mandatory for dental practices to switch to electronic claims. Switching over from paper to electronic claim processing comes with a lot of advantages. Besides cutting down costs and hassle, electronic claims have proved to be quite beneficial in eliminating the most time-consuming tasks of your staff.
Have you ever given a thought why insurance carriers always promote dentists to use electronic claims? The reason is simple! The cost of an electronic claim is comparatively lesser than the ones submitted on paper. Paper claims go through different clerical channels before final submission. This turns out to be time consuming. However, electronic submission reduces the time for payment. Error reduction is another advantage with automatic claim submission. Managing payments electronically also makes it easier to track checks and pull information if required.
Automating claim submission process helps with the following:
Electronic claims processing makes payments quick because claims are submitted electronically. Presently, you can send an electronic claim to almost 2,000 insurances and government payers. As discussed above, accuracy, efficiency and speed of submission are some major elements where electronic processing is highly helpful.
So, avoid the costly delays and disruption to your cash flow by opting for electronic claim processing. At Capline Dental Services, our experts can help you submit claims electronically. Our potential lies in our commitment to accuracy, efficiency and flexibility, which we incorporate across the entire process of claim submission.
Our experts have a profound control over the claim processing. They can easily check how the claim is progressing and also analyze the efficiency at various stages of claims handling. Our electronic claim processing can ease your work and contribute in the improvement of your practice.
If you’re not using electronic claims, you are seriously hurting your practice. With the above compelling reasons, we can help you understand how electronic claim processing can maximize cash flow for your practice. Schedule a call with us today and speak to our representative to make submissions more accurate and quick.
Following up on unpaid claims is an important part of the collection process. However, if it is done in the wrong way, it can result in loss of revenue. The only solution to the problem is to analyze your collection process for inefficiencies or missed opportunities. The more you keep analyzing your process, the greater are chances of denials and rejection, which in turn maximizes revenue.
When following up on claims, there are certain things to be considered:
Are Your Claims Being Received by the Insurance Provider?
This problem occurs the most with paper claims. So, filing claims electronically can help resolve the issue.
Are Claims Being Denied or Rejected?
It is extremely important to identify the reasons behind claim denial or rejection. Claims that are rejected can certainly be fixed whereas denied claims should be appealed and take longer to process again.
Claim rejections occur when claims do not meet specific data requirements or basic formatting as designed by a set of guidelines in Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. If the payer did not receive claims, they can’t be processed. Rejected claims can be resubmitted once the errors are fixed.
Denied claims are an entirely different issue. They are defined as claims that were received and processed by the payer, however, a negative determination was made. This kind of claim cannot be resubmitted. A research should be done to identify why the claim was denied. This helps in writing an appropriate appeal or reconsideration request.
Are You Tracking Outstanding Collection?
Proper tracking can help identify issues quickly and following up on them help in addressing correctly and timely. It is important to track and analyze trends in payer denials and work to those issues to fix them as quickly and efficiently as possible.
So, if you are not proactive about why a claim was denied or rejected could seriously impact your practice’s revenue. Therefore, we constantly encourage practices to follow a thorough process towards claim management. Our trained staff works on immediate appeal of all denied claims and closure of all paid claims. With our trained staff in insurance verification and charge entry, we minimize denials.
We understand that denials are a universal problem for providers across the world. At Capline Dental Services, our billing experts can resolve appeals and denials. Additionally, we also provide reporting. So, you have less headache with maximized cash flow. Give us a call today if you have any questions about improving your follow-up process.
Payment posting is a fundamental part of revenue cycle. It affects the other major functions of the billing and can have a major impact on patient satisfaction, efficiency and financial performance. Accuracy in payment posting is extremely important for an optimized revenue cycle. Once payments are posted to the patient accounts, any kind of denials can be easily addressed. Payment posting should not be ignored as it helps you catch billing issues promptly and make corrections.
Why Is Payment Posting Important?
The dental billing process comprises a large number of steps with multiple claims being processed on a daily basis. It acts as the first line of defense to identify payer problems. At Capline Dental Services, we have a team of extremely talented professionals who take up the responsibility of payment posting for your practice.
Our team validates all data entries to ensure that your practice receives results without a glitch.
Factors:
In this the payment records of patients are recorded in the practice management software. It also helps identify the problematic areas and their reasons along with action to be taken:
Analyzing Explanation of Benefits (EOB): EOB has all the personal details of patient starting from services rendered, to the amount of insurance billed, allowed and adjusted money. It also includes denials, co pay etc.
Analysis is conducted to verify the information and to check if the claims were processed accurately.
Patient Billing: If there is payment pending from the insurer, the rest of copays, deductibles, coinsurance and uncovered bills are further sent to the patient for payments. This info should be passed to the billing department to increase cash flow.
Denial Management: Denial management is about bringing denials down. It includes charge entry analysis, tracking payer denials, claim resubmission and so on. Denial claims should be resubmitted within a week. Tracking of denials help to ensure that claims are not denied for the same reason again. It is the first step to getting paid successfully.
To help your practice thrive with better cash flow, payment posting must be done right. The faster problems are spotted, the quicker will be the billing process. Billing issues can be addressed quickly, payers will be billed correctly and patients will receive their statements immediately, thereby increasing the entire billing cycle efficiency.
In short, it will be a win-win situation for your practice all the way round. Your dental practice should always look for ways to improve each area of the revenue cycle. Therefore, it is important to continuously monitor processes that multiply reimbursement by staying in compliance with the other billing practices.
Every dental practice aims at getting paid for the service delivered on the day of treatment. However, there are a lot of challenges that comes as an obstacle to make this seemingly simple task unachievable. It all starts with waiting for dental insurance to process claims. This means your office doesn’t get paid in full until the insurance company processes paperwork.
There is always a scope of error and there could be times when the insurance pay less than expected amount, thereby leaving your patient with an out-of-pocket expense. This also leads patients to cancel their appointments, leaving a remaining balance on books until the patient reschedules.
Listed below are some of the best ways that can be adopted to get your patients pay on time:
Have an Established Payment Procedure
Having a written payment policy beforehand not only maintains transparency but also avoid the scope of unexpected billing errors. You must have a policy that allows patients to pay co-pays or service fees before the appointment. Taking care of payments before the appointment allows your staff to avoid excessive billing chaos throughout the month. It is also convenient for patients since they are no longer waiting for a balance due, searching for payment method and signing receipts with a question in mind.
To eliminate such hassle, you should make it easier for your patients to pay before the appointment. Also, offering multiple payment methods like cash, credit card or cheque is an added benefit.
Make Payment Due on or Before Day of Service
You should avoid billing patients for Copays. Collecting payments prior to the appointment reduces the chances of no-shows and cancellations. Another thing you can do is collecting copays before patients go back for treatment, especially if they have treatment scheduled for one or more days.
So, you need to make it comfortable for them by collecting their payment and making any necessary follow up appointment before they go for a treatment.
When Insurance Is Involved
Tell them about the full treatment fee, the estimated insurance amount and copay that is due at the time of treatment. Let patients know you will be sending them claim and inform them if anything changes. Keep a close eye on your insurance aging report and quickly follow up on any unpaid claims, rejected claims and request for additional information.
Be Upfront About Fee
Patients are more likely to hold back payments if they don’t understand what they are being charged. You need to take time to explain patients that their out-of-pocket expense is based on the estimated amount the insurance provider will pay. The patient may be responsible for more if the insurance company pays less than projected.
It is your responsibility to explain in full the cost of treatment. A set payment policy ensures that everyone in the office is following the same guidelines. This helps in keeping payments streamlined.
Outsourcing your collections to Capline Dental Services and we will handle your finances successfully. This will help your office staff to focus on patient care and improving collections at the same time.
With the inception of technology and other advanced procedures, operating a dental business has become quite simple and hassle-free. However, there is still room for improvement as far as record keeping and patient management is concerned. Billing and collection has always been a challenge but this can easily be overcome if you follow the below given tips:
Stay Up to Date With the Coding Changes
We have discussed this earlier too. Coding allows insurances to understand whether certain procedures should be reimbursed, reduced or strictly denied. Therefore, it is extremely important that practices don’t make any errors while coding.
Using the wrong coding could result in a claim being denied even though the actual service provided to the patient is covered by their insurance. To prevent such errors from happening, it is important for practices to review and note the changes for codes and understand how they are affected. Coding updates help to innovate ways for receiving reimbursements and address new procedures. These could be changes in material or even technology.
Owing to plentiful regular changes, our billing specialists keep themselves pre informed to ensure that they bill and code the procedures accurately.
Collect Co-Pays in Full
Collecting payments and co-pays at the time of service is best for both the patients and the practice. A huge bill after a procedure could be more difficult to pay, therefore, practices must collect copays and inform patients of policies. Effectively communicating to patients that payment is expected at the time of the visit can eliminate potential excuses. You should also train your staff members on the importance of collecting payment before patients are seen.
Unpaid balances are sometimes bound to happen in a dental practice. It also may be unpleasant to ask patients to pay their outstanding balances but as far as maintaining the revenue stream is concerned however, practices must adopt this practice or better revenue cycle management.
Approving Procedures That Require Pre-Authorization
Before opting an expensive procedure, the provider must know what all is covered under a patient’s plan. It helps in determining if there is something the patient needs to cover as an expense. There are many patients who are unable to cover the cost of their portion of the procedure. However, there are a few who may think a procedure is fully covered by insurance, however, the patient is responsible for the uncovered portion. If the patient is pre-informed and offered a payment plan before procedures, he would be able to manage the payment terms and conditions.
Billing challenges will continue to evolve, but if you follow the right procedures and address shortcomings, it becomes easier to handle. At Capline, we have the best billing experts hired to take care of your practice’s billing and collection needs. Don’t let your practice suffer, get in touch with us and give us a chance to manage your practice’s billing requirements.
Rather than just wasting time, patient no-shows can cost your practice money. Missed appointments are a great source of frustration and lost revenue. No matter how well organized your office is but if your patients fail to appreciate you for your schedules, it’s a no-show. While it is not possible to get rid of every no-show, here are a few tips that can help:
Use an Automated PMS for Appointment Reminder
The Griffin survey also says that the biggest reason for no-show is patient forgetting their appointment. There are some dental offices that remind patients of appointment via a phone call. This could be of great help for patients who prefer this mode of communication. However, to make the process efficient for everyone, it is important to have something that works best. To prevent this from happening, practices should use a PMS that reminds patients of their upcoming appointments. This can be made possible via an automated text, email or call reminder at specific dates and time before the appointment.
This type of engagement with the patient has proven to decrease the number of no-shows drastically.
Reduce Waiting Times
If you keep asking the patient to wait for 20-40 minutes, there are increased chances that the patient will move out by canceling the appointment. If at any moment, the patient feels you don’t value their time, they are less likely to show up.
Pre-Pay for Appointments
Offering prepayment options creates an urge to be available for the appointment since patients have already made a financial commitment. The number of patients registering online can also be increased if you offer discount options to those who opt to pre-pay. Offering discounts will compel them to come back to your practice again.
The possibility to show is enhanced when patients know that they have already paid for the appointment.
Be Transparent About Your Appointment Policies
Emergencies and mishappenings can occur anytime. They also contribute a major role in choosing patients not to show up. However, with a structured late arrival policy, you will be able to ensure clearer communication. To make this easily accessible amongst patients, place it on brochures and website. The more informed patients will be about the policy, the better decision they will be able to take.
Patient no-shows can hit your practice’s bottomline. However, following these tips will limit patient no-shows and help appointments to run smoothly.
