Dental eligibility can be quite a challenging task for both patients and dentists. For running a dental office smoothly, it is essential to verify the dental eligibility before the patient’s visit. However, many patients do not know about their specific insurance plans and their benefits so it becomes difficult for them to answer all the questions related to insurance. Thus, it becomes essential to verify the patient’s insurance before they come to the office. One benefit of doing so is that dental practice can educate the patients about their coverage. It also helps the dental office in being on good terms with patients.
To understand the process of verifying dental insurance eligibility, SCROLL DOWN!
Benefits to the patient:
Verifying patient’s insurance before they reach the office helps the dental office to educate the patients about their active plan benefits. With it, the admin staff can even pre-inform the patients about the percentage of the amount covered by insurance and what will the patient be responsible for before providing dental service to patients. Many patients are unaware of basic concepts of insurance like copay, co-insurance, out-of-pocket maximum, and deductible. Thus, informing patients about their active insurance plan, makes the patients aware of charges they need to pay. This step even shows that you care about your patients and value their emotions, and patients feel respected and grateful towards you after getting the service.
If a dental office fails to verify the patient before providing them dental services and if some amount of deductible is charged to them without their knowledge then it may make the patient frustrated and the office may lose the money later.
Benefits to the dental practice:
When the patient has complete information about their insurance, they are able to schedule an appointment. This is because when they have their details at their disposal they are able to quickly provide them. This helps the dental office keep the patient information in a separate folder which is easily accessible later on. Other benefits of staying updated with patient insurance are that it reduces the number of denied insurance claims and makes the financial transactions fast. This way your dental office leaves a positive experience on the patients and makes them come back sooner rather than later.
Check out some tips that will help your dental office successfully streamline the insurance eligibility verification process:
1) Set up a separate insurance file for every patient: Try to keep all the insurance information that is received on either call or any other note in a separate folder or file.
2) Contact the insurance provider: Dental offices should call directly to active insurance companies to obtain exact up-to-date information about a patient’s benefits.
3) Verify and document all the coverage details: All the relevant insurance should be verified and documented such as the patient’s name, address, policyholder name, social security number, phone number, etc. Coverage aspects should be verified including tooth cleaning, grafting coverage, and other services.
4) Tell patients in advance about what is covered: Patients are not aware of their coverage, benefits, and costs. Dental offices should tell the patients about their insurance plans that avoid the troubles associated with surprise bills.
Managing dental insurance and patients’ expectations is not an easy task. A dental practice needs to deal with lots of insurance plans that are constantly changing and updating with time. These above-listed tips can help dental offices to manage their insurance process, improve financial status and make patients satisfied.
Hiring a company for patient eligibility verification is a worthwhile option that can help the dental offices to focus more on patients and less on the difficulties of insurance verification. We at Capline dental services have an efficient system for dental eligibility verification. It helps dentists to submit error-free claims and ensure steady cash flow. With us, dental eligibility verification becomes a simple process.
