19 Oct Accounts Receivable: Keeping Up with Insurance Payments Keeps a Dental Practice Healthy
Accounts Receivable are the monies owed to a practice for services provided but not collected. The word “provided” is just as important as the word “collected” because no practice can deliver services without receiving timely payments, and continue to sustain viability.
This may seem obvious, but many practices view their Accounts Receivables (A/R) as simply “the cost of doing business.” Nothing could be further from the truth. When it comes to Accounts Receivable and dental insurance billing, best practices are very clear:
- Dental practices should collect 98% of net production
- No more than 10% of a practice’s A/R should be more than 60 days past due
- No more than 3% of a practice’s A/R should be past 90 days due
Easy to say, but for a dental staff, keeping up with payments from insurance companies is both time-consuming and complicated.
Accounts Receivable Follow-Up
If a claim hasn’t been paid by an insurance company within a 30-day period, a follow-up process is necessary that includes finding out why the claim hasn’t been paid, identifying necessary attachments or missing dates, resubmitting the claim, and entering the updated information into the office’s practice management system.
All of this must be done accurately to prevent further late payments or claim denials. But these administration tasks not only take time, they take time away from important and meaningful interactions with patients.
This is why a practice should consider having their A/R handled by Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) professionals. Dental RCM professionals are up to date on all regulations, codes, and procedures, and can relieve office staff of time-consuming A/R tasks that have significant impact on the practice’s financial health.
Accounts Clean-Up
Identifying a patient’s insurance plan can present many challenges to staff. Duplicates of the same plan type are often created in a practice management system. Or plans might be identified as Individual when, in fact, they’re at the Group or Employer level. Depending on the software, these mistakes can be exceptionally difficult to rectify. RCM professionals with comprehensive knowledge of insurance plans and the variety of software programs in use can help sort out and correct these situations.
Professional grade A/R
Struggling with unpaid insurance claims that require accurate procedure codes, correct attachments and dates, as well as implementing updated notations in practice management system can be frustrating for staff and hamper the overall growth of a practice.
If your practice is ready for professional grade A/R, call Medusind. As the national leader in Dental Billing solutions in Wisconsin, Colorado, Minnesota, Wyoming and other states, Medusind helps thousands of dental practices with A/R services that include Insurance Follow-Up and Accounts CleanUp.
Our experienced RCM staff fulfills robust, ongoing educational requirements that ensures they’re working with the most current information regarding payment models, codes, and procedures, providing deep knowledge in all aspects of A/R.
Medusind also offers total Accounts Payable Outsourcing solutions that promote a positive staff culture and create a healthy financial future. Find out more. Contact Medusind today.
