Tips to increase dental collections

What is a good dental collection rate?
January 28, 2022
What is dental coding and billing?
February 4, 2022

There is a traditional thought among individuals that they should not pay for their dental treatment at the moment of their visit because the dentist has plenty of wealth or their insurance carrier will reimburse the bill.

To make it worse, dentists hire attendants “too gentle” or “too timid” when it comes to requesting and asking for the fee due from a patient.

Many dentists fail in the collection process too because they feel collecting on outstanding accounts is more of a hassle and it is slightly more manageable to write them off as a bad debt. For a dental practice to perform smoothly, a useful dental billing and collection approach should be implemented.

Here are a few tips to help you design and enforce a collection policy

  • Embrace and Offer Payment Modes: Want to increase your collection rate? Make it effortless for patients to pay. In addition to cash payments, accept check and debit/credit cards and offer third-party payment options. It saves time because the front office does not have to fold, stuff, and stamp statements.

  • Financial policy: Have a written document/e-document giving a clear view of the financial policy. Make sure to review the policy with the new and existing patients before they begin with any treatment to ensure no confusion when payment is expected, have them signed, and give them a copy to take home.
  • Insurance: Dentists participate with dental insurance plans to boost the rate of income. It can also be the origin of lost revenue. Patients must pay for their part of the treatment, which is not covered under their policy.
    Appoint one staff associate to follow-up on insurance claims, bills, receivable, correct and punctual filing of claims, and manage conflicts.

  • Raise insurance claims every day: Claim applications for a structured arrangement are a must and should be raised daily to avoid hold time. The practice should also enforce an approach that forewarns staff when payments are overdue. If repayments are late, get in touch with insurers instantly to see if there’s an issue.
  • Connect on Preferred Social Platforms: As an office supervisor, it’s your job to stay in touch with your patients on their chosen platforms. Billing often gets neglected when it comes to linking with patients on their preferred channel.
  • Membership Enrollment Plans: Offer in-house enrollment plans straight to your patients and offer patients reasonable dental advantages. Patients can either opt for monthly or annual subscription plans to avoid bearing at the time of service.

Improving the collection of payments is very important for a good dental practice. This way, you can provide more care to your patients.

Also, make sure that you share your objectives and collection goals with your team members and how it will help them all operate together to achieve these goals.