Dental office management is the key to your practice's financial and professional success. But dental office management can be done in so many different ways.
Where do you start when you want your practice to be both patient-centered and financially healthy?
DCS is a full-service dental billing solution. We’ve spent the past decade helping dental teams streamline their billing process in order to get the cash flow they can count on. We’ve seen dental practices and DSOs of all shapes and sizes learn how to manage their dental office successfully.
And more often than not, they elevated their dental office management using these three keys to success:
- The right systems for consistent cash flow
- A dental team aligned on a common goal
- Detailed reporting
In this article, we will share how you can use these elements to take your dental office management to the next level, make more money at your practice, and keep providing your best patient experience.
1. The right tools to get you consistent cash flow
The “right tools” might sound vague, but let us explain.
Efficiency is crucial to managing your dental office successfully. You need a good process that works seamlessly because every step of the dental billing process depends on the previous one.
The two best solutions to creating a seamless dental billing process are:
- Outsourcing your insurance and patient billing processes.
- Investing in continuous billing education for your teams.
Note that these two solutions are not mutually exclusive. You can use both for dental billing management in order to get easy revenue collection.
Outsourcing your billing
We know what you’re thinking. “If I outsource my billing, do I even need an in-house administrative team?”
Yes! You do. Outsourced billers do not replace your current in-house team. They are like an extension of your current team. They will remotely work in your practice management software, handling the more difficult and time-consuming billing tasks that otherwise distract your in-house team from patients.
Related: 3 ways an outsourced dental biller is an extension of your team
There are two parts to your billing process: insurance and patient. These are the two sources of your revenue. And both can be outsourced to experts.
Insurance billing
When you outsource your insurance billing, your team will still create insurance claims. But from there, your outsourced expert biller will take over.
They will see the created claim in your software, make sure everything looks accurate, and submit the claim for you. They will also work through your insurance aging report, follow up on unpaid insurance claims, and appeal denied claims. Then they will post these payments to your software.
Because of their expertise, they will be able to do all of this much faster than your in-house team would be able to. And through this, you will see your insurance collections increase. The process they apply to your insurance billing will also help your team feel more organized.
Patient billing
You can also outsource your patient billing. We cannot speak on how other companies choose to handle patient billing, but DCS sets your practice up with software that will automate your patient billing.
Patients will also have access to this software, able to see their balance and their breakdown of insurance benefits. The software will send automatic email and text reminders when patients owe you money.
Related: 3 reasons to automate your patient billing services ASAP
With this, your team can spend less time calling up patients asking for payment, and more time creating relationships with patients actually in the office. And with this software making it so easy for patients to pay you, you will see your patient collections increase.
Invest in continuous education for your team
Dental billing best practices, insurance policies, and even technology, change all the time. It can be a lot of information to keep up with. But doing so is a great way to elevate the way dental office management at your practice.
Investing in continuous training or education for your dental team can empower your dental team to perform more efficiently and provide a better patient experience. There are many resources you can choose to help your team stay up to date on dental billing information:
- Dental billing information/best practices courses
- Newsletter
- Support groups
- Conventions/industry events
- YouTube channels
These resources can elevate your dental office management by giving your team the information and confidence they need to deliver a great dental experience.
2. An aligned dental team working toward a common goal
Your team needs to be working together to help the practice collect more, and give amazing dental patient care.
It helps if you have a mission that you consistently remind your team members of. For example, our mission at DCS is “Dental billing company ensuring dentists get paid by eliminating insurance strain.”
We say our mission in every meeting we have to remind ourselves that this is the goal we are all working towards. This helps us stay cohesive.
Clear roles and responsibilities
Every dental team member has a different responsibility. Make sure each team member has a job description so they know exactly what they are responsible for. And it helps to have a written Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) so they know the process for how to complete their responsibilities.
Related: 3 ways to reduce stress at the workplace: Dental practice edition
This keeps your billing process streamlined and prevents people from stepping on one another’s toes.
Provide goals for each team member
Not only should team members understand their role, they should also know what their goals are. Each position at your dental practice works differently, and as a leader, you’ll need to understand each team member’s goal.
This way you can communicate it to them, and they will have a “north star” to look to while they complete their tasks. This is also an opportunity to incentivize your team members. For example, if they bring in 25 new patients next month, they could get an Amazon gift card as a thank-you for hitting their goal.
3. Regular reporting & tracking of progress to make changes when necessary
Successful dental office management means you know how your dental billing is performing.
Regularly run reports and track your progress in order to see what parts of your dental billing process need to be adjusted to improve.
Here are a few reports you should regularly check to see your practice’s progress:
- Dental production report
- Gross (before write-offs and adjustments)
- Net Production (after write-offs and adjustments)
- Write-off and net production report
- Insurance write-offs
- Professional courtesies (adjustments)
- Collections report and collections percentage
- Insurance collections
- Patient collections
- Accounts receivable
- Patient AR
- Insurance AR
- Daily deposit report (reconciliation at the end of every day)
You won’t be able to properly manage your dental billing if you don’t know how your dental billing is performing. For example, if your insurance collections are low, you’ll check out your insurance aging report to see your list of unpaid claims. Is this list high?
How often is your dental team working your insurance aging report? If it’s less than once a week, this is a process you’ll need to reevaluate. (If this sounds like your practice, this is a good sign that you should outsource your insurance billing!)
Ready to take these steps to elevate your dental office management?
You now have the keys to manage your dental office successfully. With the right billing tools, a cohesive team, and regular reporting, you will see your revenue increase, and your patients’ experience improve.
DCS is a dental billing solution that provides both insurance and patient billing services for your dental team. Easy revenue collection isn’t a pipe dream — it’s your reality when you work with DCS.
Schedule a call with one of our experts to learn more about our billing management services.
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