There are a lot of terms that some people in the dental world commonly confuse. Especially when it comes to the insurance process, it can get really confusing. A lot of dental billers call themselves “self-taught” because there isn’t any formal education on dental insurance billing. This can sometimes lead to misinformation.
Have you ever sat on the phone with customer service and there was so much static, you couldn’t totally understand what they were saying? Or maybe all of the customer service responses are automated and you desperately just want to speak to a real human?
You’re a dentist who just wants to have a successful practice, and your hard work to set up the best billing system has given you a major headache. As you explore options like outsourcing your billing, it might occur to you that you’ve done something wrong, or made some kind of misstep to get to this place. You haven’t found the right person to handle your billing or process, and your collections percentage is low because of it.
As a dentist new to outsourcing any services, it may feel a little weird having a new company handle your insurance billing. So how do you work with them? They are not in-person like your office team, and you will be connecting more by phone, Zoom and email than face-to-face.
Ever heard the phrase, “too many cooks in the kitchen”? We see the reality of this phrase in dental offices all the time when a specific person or people aren’t responsible for insurance billing. Trying to complete a task when too many people are involved can be counterproductive and downright annoying.
You’ve been working with an outsourced dental billing company, and you’re feeling that you’d like to go back to using someone in-house to handle insurance billing. You’re stressed because you’re caught between a rock and a hard place. Do you cut the billing company loose and hand over your billing to your office manager? Or are you wanting to hire an in-house insurance coordinator?
We had an amazing time at the 2021 AADOM conference. We sent 3 members of our team to attend: One of our founders, Josh Smith, our head of sales, Tyler Bell and our Chief Claims Officer, Dilaine Gloege.
When exploring the option of outsourcing, you may think, “Why do other dental practices outsource?” It helps when you understand why your colleagues are making this leap, and what factors you might consider for your own practice as well.
Outsourcing billing has become pretty common for dental practices. Dealing with insurance is such a time-consuming process that it only makes sense to either have at least one person dedicated to it on your team, or outsource the insurance billing process to someone else. As you use these billing services, you might ask yourself, “Am I overpaying for my insurance billing?”
While procedure codes such as CDT and CPT® become effective beginning with dates of service on January 1 of each calendar year, ICD-10-CM diagnoses codes become effective beginning with dates of service October 1 of each calendar year. The 2022 ICD-10-CM code set effective date is upon us.
