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How Outsourced Dental Billing Services Can Improve Collections and Reduce Staff Burden
Good patient care alone cannot keep a dental practice running successfully. A dental practice is mainly confronted with serious issues in handling complicated billing tasks, insurance verification, coding accuracy, claim submissions, follow-ups, and denials management. These administrative tasks take up a lot of time, call for certain skills, and require a calm mind. In case these tasks are done in the company, the staff is usually in a position to be under pressure and have less time for patient care.
Therefore, many practices have made a decision to hire dental billing services remotely. Outsourcing is among the fastest growth trends in the dental industry as it allows practices to increase collections, decrease the number of claim errors, reduce their operating expenses, and therefore, greatly alleviate the in-office staff’s workload. This article is about the effect of the outsourced dental billing on the transformation of dental practices and the reasons why it might be the cheapest solution in a highly competitive market.
1. Improved Accuracy With Professional Dental Billing Experts
One of the largest reasons which dental offices fail in collections is the billing errors. Among the mistakes that have a significant impact are wrong CDT codes, absence of documentation, errors in patient information, and outdated insurance details which, in all, lead to claim denials.
An outsourced billing team is a group of certified professionals who are specialized in dental coding, claim submission, insurance follow-up, and revenue cycle management. Their expertise results in:
Correct CDT/ICD-10 coding
Submission of clean claims
Proper documentation
Updated knowledge of insurance policies
Reduced errors that result in payment delays
Because there are fewer mistakes, your claims are approved faster, therefore, your cash flow and collections are generally improving.
2. Faster Claim Submission and Follow-Up Improves Revenue Flow
Dental billing is time-sensitive and it is very important that the claims are submitted on time. One of the reasons that some practices fail to make money is their delayed submission of the claims and their negligence in following up on them.
By hiring an external company that deals with your billing, you get a dedicated specialist who will ensure your claims will be:
Submitted within 24 hours
Tracked for outstanding claims
Insurance companies will be contacted for follow up
Denied or underpaid claims will be handled
Rejected claims will be appealed effectively
Regular and timely follow-up is the main reason that leads to higher reimbursement rates, faster payments, and increased monthly revenue. It is very difficult for in-office teams who are already loaded with administrative and patient tasks to give constant attention to this matter.
3. Reduces Staff Burden and Increases Office Productivity
Your front desk team is like a real-life circus juggling patient scheduling, calls, appointments, treatment planning, and customer service. In case you had decided to assign the task of insurance verification, claim submission, billing errors, and payment collection to them on top of their existing workload, they would, certainly, have been quite shaken by a sudden rise of stressful situations and probably felt overwhelmed. Therefore, by outsourcing, you give your office staff the chance to take some time away from this heavy load, and they will be able to focus on:
Patient communicationAppointment schedulingTreatment planning assistancePatient satisfactionIncreasing case acceptance. When your team is relieved from the burden of administrative work, they become more productive and provide better patient care.
4. Saves Costs and Eliminates the Need for Additional Billing Staff
It is quite costly to manage the hiring and training of your own medical billing staff internally. You will be required to pay for the following expenses:
Wages
Benefits
Education
Billing software
Compliance programs
PTO and sick days
If you engage in dental billing outsourcing, you are free from all these expenses. Dental clinics can take a step towards saving money and thus lowering their nonproductive business parts while still being able to keep their collections at a higher level. This is because, instead of spending resources on a full-time employee, they can have a team of experts for a fixed monthly fee.
5. Enhanced Insurance Verification Before Treatment
Doctors when using the staff in-place are performing the most difficult, the longest, and by far, the insurance verification is probably the most complicated issue in a dental practice. A wrong way of verification can lead to results whereby it will be difficult to get the claims paid, the patients satisfied, and the loss of the practice’s total revenue will be accumulated.
The bureaucratic dental insurance verification, that is done by an external unit, comprises the following:
Eligibility checks
Policy coverage Frequency limitations Waiting periods Annual maximums and remaining balances Plan exclusions The precision of this method leads to a very low number of treatment billing conflicts from the patients’ side and the dental practice getting the right patient portion in advance. It is an excellent instrument in the reduction of the practice’s lost revenue inflows and in the cleaning of the unpaid balances.
6. Real-Time Reporting and Transparent Revenue Cycle Management
Comprehensive financial statements are a norm of an expertly externalized billing company. These statements uncover the information regarding:
Submitted claimsApproved claimsDenied claimsBilling errorsOutstanding balancesDaily, weekly, and monthly revenues
Such a great level of transparency allows dentists to be more careful in their practice and locate the areas that are most difficult for them at the very moment. Effective dental revenue cycle management reporting is a powerful dental revenue cycle management tool.
7. Helps Practices Stay Compliant With Billing Regulations
Dental billing regulations, CDT code changes, and insurance policies are always changing. It is quite a challenge for the in-house teams to be always up-to-date with the compliance requirements.
External billing vendors maintain their compliance with:
HIPAA regulations
Changes in CDT and ICD-10
Policies of the insurance carrier
Medical-dental cross-coding requirements
Being current with these changes avoids billing fraud, coding errors, and audit risks. This ensures the safety of your practice from fines and loss of income.
8. Scalable Billing Support for Growing Dental Practices
As your practice either grows or opens new locations, the intricacies of billing also become more complex. Dentists who use external billing services can easily increase their dental office staff without the need for additional hires or the purchase of expensive systems. If you are a single practice or a multi-location DSO, outsourcing enables you to have: Bigger billing teams Advanced billing software Automated claim tracking Cross coding specialists Multi-location reporting This adaptability is a great help for your continued growth.
9. Increases Patient Satisfaction and Trust
Clearly and accurately detailing the charges is a great help for patients to know what they are charged for. Proper handling of claims and providing patients with correct cost estimates will result in openness and trust of patients towards your practice.
Outsourcing the billings will:
Provide faster responses to billing questionsEnsure correct billing records of the patientProvide transparent payment plansReduce billing-related conflicts to a minimum
Satisfied patients not only will come back but also, make a referral of your practice to others which is an excellent way to grow your patient base.
Final Thoughts
Dental-practices today are in a position where they cannot entertain the option of treating outsourced dental billing as a mere optional service any longer. In fact, it has undoubtedly turned into a formidable victorial engine that dental offices drive their success with in the modern age. The perks are simply endless: employee fatigue is lowered, collection rates are increased, claims are more accurate, and the revenue cycle is more efficient. In other words, the billing process is less stressful when the staff members are liberated from the usual drudgery, and therefore, they can focus on what is really important, i.e., delivering excellent patient care.
If your clinic is facing situations like frequent claim denials, slow payments, staff burnout, and high overhead costs, then it is most likely the smartest decision that will increase your practice’s income and guarantee its stability to outsource your billing department.
