Top 5 Tips for Dental Revenue Cycle Management Practice

Strong Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) is paramount for the success and sustainability of a dental practice. It reflects a consistent cash flow achieved by optimal dental billing and coding practices that ensure timely reimbursement. The financial stability thus achieved allows the dental facility stakeholders to invest resources in other areas. However, errors committed during documentation, claim submission, and coding dent the dental revenue cycle management process. Practices suffer a lot financially due to these errors. On the other hand, practices that take preemptive measures to avoid these uncertain circumstances have more chances to grow and achieve patient satisfaction. This article is focused on this crucial aspect and will give you five dependable tips to streamline the revenue cycle of your dental practice.

1) Patient Registration and Insurance Verification

An effective dental revenue cycle management is a breed of a smooth and accurate patient registration and insurance verification process. Ensuring that you obtain the correct information at the beginning of the dental process will contribute to a smooth financial workflow. Adequate documentation lays a solid foundation for healthcare revenue cycle management as it minimizes claim denials. To catalyze this process, practices prefer incorporating technology into their dental billing settings. It is focused on automating data capture and verification through modern solutions such as Artificial Intelligence and NLP. This not only speeds up the patient registration process but also minimizes the chances of errors as human involvement is limited. Consequently, the claim denial ratio reduces significantly. However, when it comes to dental insurance verification, your front desk staff needs to be vigilant. They should attend recommended periodic training plus keep themselves aware of any latest changes in insurance policies to avoid indulging themselves in outdated practices. Eligibility criteria and benefits should be verified and determined promptly. In case of any copays or deductibles, patients should be foretold.

2) Accurate Claim Generation and Submission

Undermining the seriousness of claim generation and submission errors can lead to a malfunctioned dental revenue cycle. Any shortcomings in the claim generation and submission process can lead to denial, crippling the whole billing process. If measures are not taken, soon you will find yourself in hot waters with plenty on your hands. Long queues of delayed reimbursement due to denied claims is nothing short of a nightmare for a dental practice. So, emphasizing on accurate dental claim generation and submission procedures is paramount in RCM. Adapting best practices such as following current CDT, HCPCS,payer-specific coding guidelines, and compliance regulations will result in rapid reimbursement. The following methods can be used:

  • Electronic Claim Submission

Electronic Claim Submission, although it may be a newbie for some practice but top dental billing companies have made it a part of their coding arsenal. It is a paperless method of rapidly sending dental claims to insurance companies through secure electronic channels. The information is fed into the system or obtained from integrated EHR systems. This method promotes accuracy and transparency as payers and providers can track claims in real-time.

  • Clearinghouse services

Clearinghouse services help in the formation of a secure bridge between your practice and insurers, acting as claims carriers. Claims submitted via a clearinghouse are appreciated as they translate the claim format into the format required by the payer. It also offers the luxury of claim scrubbing, helping identify claims' errors before submission. A clearinghouse can streamline dental revenue cycle management by allowing connection with numerous insurance companies through a single platform, eliminating any need for individual portal logins. Plus, they adhere to strict privacy guidelines, ensuring the security of your data.

3) Effective Accounts Receivable (A/R) Management

Accounts Receivable (A/R) management is critical in sustaining a healthy dental revenue cycle management practice. Maintaining a steady cash flow is the biggest challenge in dental billing. However, preemptive measures such as timely addressing outstanding balances and monitoring payment trends are paramount in ensuring the financial stability of a dental practice. To improve A/R efficiency, you can utilize automated reminder systems to help notify patients of upcoming payments or overdue balances. This allows patients to avoid situations in which they are caught off guard. Additionally, automation relieves staff of the unessential administrative burden, permitting them to focus on other aspects. A/R for efficient revenue cycle management in dental billing also necessitates transparent breakdowns of charges and easy-to-understand statements that help patients make timely payments. It also helps practice in gaining patients’ trust and satisfaction. Plus, to accommodate all patients, you can offer flexible payment options and online payments, citing the convenience and priorities of all the parties involved in the billing process.

4) Know the KPIs

For effective dental revenue cycle management, dental practices tend to review data and analytics to pinpoint the areas where improvement is required. The emphasis on tracking KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) allows practices to make changes to smoothen the Revenue Cycle Management process. Focusing on areas such as claim acceptance rates, average reimbursement times, and denials helps practitioners monitor the functionality of their revenue cycle. They take help from advanced analytic tools to better understand their financial system. These tools include but are not limited to

  • Business Intelligence (BI) Tools are employed by dental practices to visualize and analyze large sets of data, especially during dental coding. They can help you in navigating KPIs by providing you reports and dashboards. e.g Power BI.
  • Predictive analytics uses data from previous patient interaction to predict future revenue and identify potential issues e.g IBM Watson Analytics
  • Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) softwares are dedicated softwares aimed at effectively managing billing, claims processing, and financial management for dental practices. E.g Open Dental

5) Educate patients about treatment options and continuing care

The essence of an effective dental revenue cycle management lies in the consistent desire and commitment to impart as much information as possible to patients. This could be anything ranging from the latest digital imaging technology to new dental products; you should share as much info as possible. You must know your patients' likes and dislikes, allowing you to offer them products that they might prefer using. Provide them with multiple treatment options and tell them the positives and negatives associated with each option. Refrain from getting imperative in your discussions. This contributes towards a transparent environment, causing the increased trust of patients in you and your recommendations. This fosters patient loyalty, ensuring a steady flow of revenue over time. Also, the ratio of patients abandoning their treatment halfway through will significantly drop. You can also avoid billing headaches, as treatment plans will be discussed in advance.

Outsource to Meds Dental for an effective Revenue Cycle Management

Meds Dental offers you a one stop solution to streamline your dental revenue cycle. We ensure a seamless patient registration process by incorporating technology plus double checking the information at every junction. Our experts have sound industry knowledge allowing them to effortlessly navigate the complicated process of insurance verification. Our dedicated team promptly generates claims in an accurate fashion, paving the way for a timely reimbursement. Meds Dental upholds transparency by allowing you access to Key Point Indicators through secured channels. We observe compliance and our practices adhere to governing laws both national and state specific.

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