07 Aug 5 Billing Challenges Confronting Dental Providers
These Are the Problems That Could Be Holding Up Your Claims
The steady flow of revenue into your dental practice is what keeps it afloat. If the money isn’t coming in, you can’t keep your doors open. And you only benefit from incoming cash if you’ve first mastered the art of dental billing, also known as dental revenue cycle management (RCM).
Mastering the complex art of dental billing just doesn’t benefit you and your bank account. It also benefits your patients. By ensuring uninterrupted care and making sureyour patients’ claims are processed properly so they’re not subjected to surprise bills, you win their loyalty.
What are the dental billing challenges that your practice faces? And how can Medusind help you overcome them?
Before any of your patients can even sit in your dentist’s chair to get any work done, you must clarify one thing first: do they have dental insurance, and to what degree does their policy cover various types of dental work?
When you verify your patients’ dental insurance, you mustanswer these questions:
- Is their coverage up to date?
- What kind of dental work does their policy cover?
- Does it cover what they need to have done now?
- When does their policy expire?
- Has their coverage kicked in yet, or have they signed up with new coverage that hasn’t gone into effect as of today?
- Are there any updates to their policy you should be aware of that would affect what kind of dental work you can perform?
The verification process differs from one insurance provider to another. And if you don’t verify your patients’ insurance correctly, there can be billing discrepancies, which can generate financial stress for both you and your patients.
The Medusind Solution: Medusind is considered one of the top dental insurance verification companies in the United States. We process eligibility and benefit verification for over 15 million patients a year. We obtain eligibility and benefits verification of all payors through calls, websites, fax, and Automated Voice Response Systems. We’re able to do three-hour expedited processing for urgent appointments, and we enter the datainto your project management system. And we just don’tspeed up this process — we ensure its accuracy.
Claims submission requires a lot of time and strict attention to detail—but your dental practice’s financial health depends on it. You just don’t submit a claim and wait for the check to arrive—you have to chase after it make sure it didn’t disappear down a bureaucratic rabbit hole.
Your claims can be get tied up with administrative delays or delays in processing. If a discrepancy is detected, you can be forced to track your claim’s reimbursement status in a tangled maze of paperwork.
The Medusind Solution: First, we follow up on claims to determine the reason why it wasn’t paid. We checkaccounts receivable to resubmit the claim and insure timely payment. Then we complete a backlog of claims and current unpaid claims. Finally, we undertake denial management to resolve deficiencies in claims rejected or underpaid by payors. and we draft appeals for them. This process includes resubmissions, adjustments, and balance transfers.
Improper coding can doom a claim faster than anything. In fact, it’s a major reason for claims rejection. Today’s coding system is incredibly complex and ever-changing. If you don’t use exact right code for a given procedure or service, you don’t get paid.
The Medusind Solution: We maintain an army over 350 certified coders who do nothing but keep up to date on the latest changes to dental codes. They make it a point to use the right code for clients—so you get paid.
Did you know those regulations changed? If not, then your claim is in trouble. New regulations and policies are constantly becoming the law of the land in the dental world—and if you aren’t submitting claims that jibe with these new rules exactly, you’re in trouble. But who has time to keep up with all these legal complexities?
The Medusind Solution: We do. A major reason why Medusind has been a national leader in dental billing for over 20 years is that we constantly keep up to date with the latest rules and regulations governing claims management. We keep you compliant so the revenue flows.
Is your dental practice taking full advantage of today’s technology? Just as technology is transforming dentistry through rise of tele-dentistry and enhanced electronic systems, there are additional tools that could be decisive in how successful your dental billing is.
The Medusind Solution: Medusind’s robust technology infrastructure is supported by Tier 4 co-located data centers with redundancy and remote monitoring, utilizing industry–leading network security tools and procedures. Our experienced in-house infrastructure team handles all planning and maintenance.
In addition, Medusind’s proprietary QuickVerify technology platform rapidly provides all the insurance information you need for same day and future appointments. How quickly does QuickVerify work? It completes same–day eligibility verifications occur within three hours. You can also use the system for future appointments. We enter information directly into your practice management system with existing plans attached to appropriate patients or new plans created.
Collect More Revenue and Save Big on Labor Costs
In the challenging arena of dental billing, you’re not alone. It’s not easy meeting the challenges to dental billing detailed above. If you’re having trouble with claims management, or if you’re just interested in learning how your dental billing could be better managed, feel free to contact us. Medusind clients enjoy a 10-15% increase in collections revenue and a 40% reduction in labor costsdevoted to billing.
