Losing Track of Claims Means Finding Yourself in Hot Water with Patients

Do you find yourself having difficult financial conversations with patients over balances that are not verified due to “pending” insurance claims? These conversations can go sideways quickly, with patients potentially losing trust in the office’s dental billing processes — and even overall integrity. While refined levels of communication is a key resource to have, there is a much more important, skill-based protection needed to stay ahead of these conversations: keeping track of outstanding claims. 

What does “keeping track of outstanding claims” mean?

Tracking the claim from start to finish is the best practice for dental billing processes to ensure the payment is received, applied correctly, and all accounts are reconciled. When looking at a patient’s account, here are a few things to notice:

• All claims for services rendered have been created, batched, and sent to the correct insurance company?
• Did the patient pay their estimated copay at the time of service?
• Were payments line-item posted to the correct providers?
• Are there any credits on the account? Are they accurate?

Why is this important?

Collecting outstanding patient balances becomes increasingly harder when the patient’s account is not reconciled and verified as accurate. Many times the patient is confronted with an outstanding balance that is inaccurately calculated in the practice management software due to a claim not being sent to the insurance company, or even created in the first place. This will cause compounding chaos — including distrust in financial protocols and your patient collectibles to appear inflated month over month, just to name a few. 

Help hold your dental billing processes to your standards, keep the valued trust of your patient base, and collect 100% of what is rightfully owed by tracking your claims. Need help? We are here for you.

Gina Berg

Director of Patient Billing