Dental medical billing seems fairly easy until you are facing denials and revenue leakages. Even a slight error can affect your bottom line adversely. So, optimizing medical billing becomes fundamental to maximizing revenue.
However, the dental billing process is filled with roadblocks, and healthcare providers must find a way out. Only then can they ensure maximum reimbursement with limited hassle.
Reaching this goal requires dental billing skills and knowledge. Without a proper strategy, healthcare providers cannot streamline the process and achieve desired results.
This blog highlights the role of the dental billing process, dental insurance billing, and dental billing services. Continue reading to discover this concept in detail and take your dental practice to a greater level.
Understanding the Dental Billing Process
The dental billing process is similar to the medical billing process of any other medical specialty. It involves a sequence of steps resulting in reimbursement for rendered services.
The process may seem direct, but there are various challenges that impact dental revenue. The dental billing process includes seven steps, and they are: ]
- Scheduling Patient Visits
- Eligibility Verification of Insurance Policy
- Documentation of Treatment Information
- Coding and Claim Filing
- Submission of Claims
- Denial and AR Management
- Payment Processing
These are the steps of dental medical billing, but there are two more important terms known as dental insurance billing and dental patient billing. However, how are these two different?
Analyzing the Difference Between Insurance and Patient Billing
Here’s a brief explanation -
When a dental practice receives revenue through insurance claims (following steps like claim filing, submission, follow-up and payment collection), it is referred to as dental insurance billing.
On the other hand, when dental practices receive revenue directly from patients without following a bunch of steps, it is referred to as dental patient billing.
Both processes have their merits and demerits. However, usually practices follow insurance billing due to its transparent nature. To simplify their task, they tend to opt for dental billing services for adequate reimbursement while managing workflow.
Ensuring comprehensive accuracy and efficiency is a complex task. Dental practices often find themselves in a constant cycle of making the same mistakes and losing valuable revenue.
Crucial Tips to Improve Dental Medical Billing
The process of dental medical billing is intricate, posing many obstacles in the journey of receiving adequate revenue. However, healthcare providers must ensure streamlined dental practice. For that, they may need to take some measures and incorporate certain changes.
Making efforts can optimize the revenue cycle and uplift operational flow, resulting in maximum collections. So, here are some tips to improve your dental billing process:
Verify Insurance Eligibility Properly
- Insurance eligibility is the initial step in the dental billing process, yet many practices fail to complete it.
- Neglecting eligibility verification disturbs the entire process, causing other issues like coding errors and delays.
- The step involves analysis of the insurance policy and cross checking with the insurance company.
- As the patient’s insurance coverage aligns with the procedure, healthcare providers can proceed with their treatment plan.
- Verification also helps in determining patient responsibility and initiating a conversation with the patient.
- This fosters transparency, ease in performing medical billing, and collecting proper revenue.
Never Miss Prior Authorization
- Prior authorization is essential and missing it out is not a good idea for dental practice.
- Not ensuring this step can result in inadequate revenue disrupting the bottom line of the practice.
- Prior authorization effectively reduces the chances of claim denials and revenue losses.
- Verifying if the insurance policy covers your patient’s diagnosis, treatment and procedure helps in starting the process early.
- Acquiring prior authorization allows dental practitioners to prepare a treatment plan and streamline the dental medical billing process.
- Therefore, healthcare providers must ensure obtaining prior authorization always.
Accurately Document Dental Procedures
- Documentation is crucial to ensure an accurate coding process and claim filing.
- It becomes significant to record every single detail related to a patient’s dental procedures.
- Documentation must include important factors such as X-rays, medical history, personal information, treatment, follow-up, and many more.
- Accurate recording in the beginning can save healthcare providers from faulty coding in dental medical billing.
- It also ensures a reduction in denials and less hassle in completing the entire process.
- Proper documentation is vital to optimizing medical billing and maximizing revenue.
Stay Current with Dental CPT Codes
- When it comes to dental medical billing, the CPT codes are constantly changing.
- Not staying current with the changes can result in errors at the time of coding.
- Dental coding needs skill and expertise but a lack of these features can lead to denials.
- To prevent such errors, healthcare providers must ensure coding proficiency.
- Healthcare providers can partner with a dental billing company and solve the problem of dynamic CPT codes.
- Accuracy and efficiency together can help providers avoid minor mistakes and denials.
Ensure Timely Claim Submission
- Delays in claim submission are another reason for claim denials and reimbursement leakages.
- Apart from that, the workflow gets disrupted, hampering the operational efficiency.
- Insurance providers set deadlines, and not meeting them is not beneficial for dental practices.
- Dental care providers must solve this issue and ensure timely submissions.
- Choosing dental billing services can help healthcare providers complete the dental billing process.
- Preventing delays improves the overall process, assisting in upgrading the bottom line.
Outsourcing Dental Medical Billing
The dental billing process is quite different from other medical specialties. Healthcare providers need to be aware of specific details, regulatory standards, and much more.
Outsourcing is the best option to face such complexities and improve revenue cycle management. Choosing dental billing services assists in various ways, such as:
- Expert medical billers handle every dental billing step with precision and contribute to improving the revenue cycle.
- Dental practices are able to avoid common errors such as recording inaccurate information or missing details. They reduce the scope of manual errors.
- It is a cost-efficient way, as handling an in-house staff requires more investment and resources, whereas dental billing services can manage everything single-handedly.
- As a dental billing company takes over the administrative tasks, healthcare providers get more time to improve the quality of patient care.
- This also enhances the patient's experience as the entire dental medical billing process is streamlined.
- Sensitive patient data is safeguarded from unauthorized use with adherence to HIPAA compliance standards.
- Dental billing services make sure they follow proactive denial management and recover lost revenue.
- They also keep us with claim processing and follow-up on the revenue status of the dental practice.
- Dental practices can finally optimize their workflow, maximize revenue, and enhance the bottom line.
- All in all, a dental billing company benefits practices positively, leading to exceptional revenue results.
Choose Eminence RCM
If you are searching for dental billing services, then Eminence RCM is the right choice for you!
Eminence RCM has been a leading medical billing services provider for consecutive years. We have a dedicated team of medical billers and coders who proficiently handle dental medical billing. Our team ensures complete accuracy and efficiency in the steps of dental billing. We provide tailor-made solutions to fulfill the unique needs of your dental practice.
With Eminence RCM, you never have to worry about adherence to regulatory standards and staying current with the latest trends. So, choose our premium dental billing services and take your practice to the next level without any hassle!
.png)