When you want to increase productivity in your dental office, improving the billing process is a great place to start. You’re a dentist looking into outsourcing your dental billing, and wondering if this choice will add to your IT equipment costs. As you start to build up a list of questions, you might think, “What exactly do I need on my end to outsource my dental billing?”
At first - this question may cause you to hesitate on the decision to outsource because you’re nervous it involves overhauling every part of your practice. Well, we have good news! That’s not true at all.
At Dental ClaimSupport, once we move through introducing ourselves to dental teams, we get into logistics. The technical equipment needed to work with a dental billing company successfully is important, especially since most dental billing companies will be working remotely in your practice management software.
As we mentioned, this does not mean an overhaul of your entire practice. In this article, we will run through a checklist of the things you need to work with a dental billing company. The logistical equipment and software needed to work successfully together will lead to a stronger stream of income for your practice and a great partnership between you and the billing company.
1. Dedicated access to dental practice management software
Just like an in-person employee, your billing service expert will be working in your dental practice management software. The only difference is they work remotely. They will be submitting insurance claims, working through your insurance aging report to get claims paid, and posting insurance payments within the software.
If your software is cloud-based, the remote billers will access this software via a computer or website and a secure online connection.
It might feel a little weird at first to have a remote employee access your patient’s information, but the biller won’t have access to your actual bank account, just the practice management software - it’s where they do their entire job!
Some examples of up-to-date practice management software include:
- OpenDental
- Eaglesoft
- Dentrix
- Curve Dental
- DentiMax
The remote billers have experience with the software programs listed above in addition to many other software programs, so you will not need to worry about “showing them around.” You only need to provide dedicated access to them, and they can typically help you with that.
2. Digital x-rays and charting
Since our billers will be working remotely, claim attachments will need to be in digital format. Supporting documentation is the evidence attached to an insurance claim, which tells the insurance company why the dental procedure was necessary. Digital attachments help get you paid faster.
So it’s crucial that the biller has access to digital originals or print information that’s scanned into digital form, especially when it comes to insurance claim appeals.
Digital x-rays and charting that can be entered straight into the practice management software make it easy for billers to look through and use to submit your claims and work to appeal if denied.
Most dental practices have modernized with digital x-rays and charting, and these dental office updates also improve the efficiency of your claims process. You want to minimize time spent scanning documents into your software or filing paper. It’s all right there in your software for you and your biller to view.
3. Scanner for checks and EOBs
If your practice is receiving paper checks from insurance companies, you will need a scanner. The biller will need to see the check in order to post that payment to your software - remember, billers don’t have access to your bank account.
So if you deposit the check and never show it to the biller, they won’t have the information for posting the payment to your software!
You will also need a scanner for scanning EOBs (Explanation of Benefits) so that your remote biller can then post the insurance payment and any insurance write-offs that may be necessary.
Once the EOB is scanned into the software, the EOBs can be saved together as one scanned file, and is organized by the date they posted the insurance payment or write-off. This keeps things efficient and organized when the biller and your practice can see everything.
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4. Reliable and up-to-date internal network
Your internet speed and software security are important. Even if you weren’t outsourcing, you should have a reliable and up-to-date internal network.
For HIPAA compliance you must use network passwords that are updated monthly. To protect your Patient Health Information (PHI) and your data, the doctors and team members should have individual usernames and passwords for your practice management software.
A slow internet connection halts productivity, especially when trying to work with a remote biller. Internet speed over 10 MBPS is ideal for offices with 10-15 devices connected to the WiFi network.
5. Webcam for communication
Like we said - the remote biller is just that: REMOTE. That doesn’t mean there will be zero communication! In fact - our billers specifically prefer Zoom for communication because it feels more “face to face.”
It’s preferable for the dental biller to see your face too, so a webcam is important for meetings with your dental billing team. It will help create a relationship and make the biller seem like part of the team even though they aren’t in the office. It also helps put faces to names and build trust.
Luckily, most computers have webcams built into them these days. And if not - they aren’t too expensive to attach to your screen.
Ready to learn about what to expect from an outsourced dental billing company?
Now that you have this simple checklist for working with a dental billing company, you can learn more about what to expect as far as results go.
How does getting claims paid as fast as one week sound? Some payments come this quickly when you have a clean, efficient submission process. The best results from any dental billing company can only happen when you use modern technologies such as digital charting and x-rays, a scanner, easy access to your software, a webcam, and great internet connections.
You may already have most of the tech tools in place, and with an expert’s service, you’ll see high collections and a lower aging report.
Dental ClaimSupport has worked with all kinds of dental practices that vary as far as what updates their offices need to qualify for outsourced dental billing. To learn more about what you can expect from a dental billing company, visit our Learning Center.
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