A confusing interaction with a patient about dental insurance verification impacts the patient experience. At the exact moment of the scheduling appointment, they tell you about their insurance, and you verify the eligibility. However, after the verification, the patient’s benefits aren’t active.
You have to tell them the limitations of the plan and the updated insurance information when they come in for their appointment or even before through the phone. The patient does not read the fine print. That is why dental practices perform insurance verification for them, firstly, for a smoother experience and to collect money on time.
What is dental insurance verification?
It is a process of checking a patient’s insurance coverage and benefits before the scheduled appointment. A patient must have active coverage to receive the treatment and be paid by the insurance company.
Importance of Dental Insurance Verification
Better communication about the insurance breakdown
Insurance verification helps you provide the full breakups of the patient’s plan, such as covered dental procedures benefits, what percentage they are covered, patient plan limit, benefits used elsewhere, out-of-pocket expenses, etc.
Knowing all this information develops trust and better communication with the patient if there are any issues with the benefits. Because the maximum number of times the patient does not know about their plan’s coverage can save them from unexpected expenses.
Clean claims
Clean insurance claims can help you get paid promptly by payors. Once you verify the patient’s benefits, there should not be any problem understanding the payer’s amount and the patient’s amount for your practice to collect before they leave the office.
Usually, after the eligibility verification, the claim sent to the insurer gets approved, and the practice receives the payment within a week or two, keeping your revenue consistent. Verifying insurance before the procedure is the key to avoiding denials. Communicating to the patient about their plan benefits and receiving the payment on time keep the ledger clean.
Improved and proactive service to patients
Conducting insurance verification can provide better service to the patients as you do not need to worry about last-minute cancellations, claim denials, or co-pay rejections. There is a positive impact on the revenue cycle.
Patient loyalty and better relationship
Happy patients are likely to pay on time. It can happen with excellent dental care and transparent billing services. This also allows the patient to come back to you and refer you to family and friends. They will know about the treatment, coverage, what their insurance company is paying, the overall treatment cost, and what they are liable for; only if the eligibility verification process gets done beforehand.
Dental Insurance Verification Process
As soon as the patient appointment gets done, verification should be performed simultaneously. It seems like a time-taking task, but it can save the dental practice from a lot of last-minute cancellations.
The process follows:
Implementing dental eligibility verification services can save the dental staff from long phone calls verifying patient information. To put it all short and condensed, it reduces claim denials and delays. The practice and practitioner efficiency improves. The chances to collect the owed money from the patient and insurer also increase.
If it is overwhelming as the staff also have to handle the other core operations, you can always utilize the option of outsourcing to the company that fits your need.
