See if this sounds familiar: Your dental insurance aging report is high. You’re sending hundreds of claims to insurance each week. But you’re not 100% sure that you’re being reimbursed for every single one.
If you’re trying to improve your billing system to keep your aging report short and maximize your revenue, you have probably asked yourself, “How often should I work my dental insurance aging report?”
The short answer from our experts? Once a week, minimum.
Your insurance aging report represents money you’re owed, but have not yet collected. That’s why it’s one of the most important financial reports to understand, review, and work through weekly — a large portion of your revenue is on the line.
In this article, we will answer common questions about:
- Why you want to submit claims right away
- Why the dental insurance aging report is a key part of your billing process
- How often you should be working it
- Reviewing the aging report vs working the aging report, and
- Why it’s worth the ongoing time and effort
The answers will help you and your team understand the gravity of neglecting the insurance aging report, and how much revenue you are missing out on when you do so.
Quick reminder: What is a dental insurance aging report?
Your insurance aging report is a list of unpaid — or “aged” — claims.
What’s considered “aged” in the dental billing world is claims that were submitted and not paid within 10 business days. Most dental claims should be paid and received by your office within two weeks.
#1. How often should my team be submitting dental claims?
You should be creating and sending claims within 24 hours of the procedure to avoid an extensive aging report. The sooner you send them in, the sooner you can be paid.
Also, submitting a claim right away means that if there are problems with it, you’ll have the maximum amount of time to make corrections and submit an appeal.
Sometimes an insurance company denies a claim for a simple error that’s quick to fix, whether it’s an incorrect birthdate, patient name, ID number, or procedure code error.
But some appeals require much more time to resubmit because you’ll need to:
- Do research
- Calls the insurance company with questions
- Complete and compile additional paperwork, and/or
- Communicate with the patient
You want to avoid claims lingering on your aging report. Due to the challenges in following up and timely filing periods, the older a claim gets, the less likely it will be paid. When claims are filed quickly and correctly, you can check them off of your list and be done with them.
Related: 5 dental claim submission mistakes that will cost you time and money
#2. What does it mean to “work” a dental insurance aging report?
As you know well, cash flow is everything to a dental practice — or any place of business! You have staff to pay, supplies to stock up, and a building to keep open.
For many dental businesses, insurance claims revenue accounts for 40% to 50% of overall revenue. So if someone isn’t continually and consistently “working” the aging report — that is, making sure every claim is resolved and paid — your practice’s cash flow can be a weak trickle instead of a healthy, steady stream.
So, your insurance aging reports needs weekly attention. Here are the exact steps to work your aging report:
Prep step: Get organized
Take advantage of the sorting feature in your practice management system (PMS) to prioritize unpaid claims and minimize your time on the phone with insurance companies.
- Group the aging report by insurance company, so that when you finally get to speak with a real person, you can address all of that payer’s problem claims on the same call. By packing it all into one phone call, you’ll spend much less time on hold.
- Sort the aging report with the oldest unpaid claims listed first. This will help you avoid losing revenue to timely filing.
Step 1: Call the insurance company
Contact the insurance company by phone for the best results, though you may also use their web portal. When you call the insurance company, provide the following information for the first claim on your list:
- Your practice information, such as its Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN)
- The dental provider’s information
- The patient’s information (name, date of birth, etc.)
- Date of service
- Service(s) performed
Step 2: Ask for the claim status
Then ask the insurance company representative about the status of the claim:
- Has the claim been paid yet?
- If yes: On what date was it paid, and when do they expect you to receive payment?
- If no: Why has the claim not been paid? What is needed to get it paid?
Step 3: Take detailed notes
Record information about the call in your PMS, including:
- The date of the call
- Who you spoke with
- The status of the claim
- A list of information needed to complete and submit the appeal
- The claim reference number, in case you need to call about the claim again
Step 4: Repeat for all claims for the insurance company
Once you’ve confirmed the status of a claim and know what to collect and correct for its appeal, move on to the next claim on your list for this insurance company, and repeat Steps 1 – 3.
Continue until you’ve addressed all the claims for the insurance company — this is when completing those prep steps really starts paying off!
Step 5: Repeat for all listed insurance companies
Continue working your way down your aging report, repeating Steps 1 – 4 for all the insurance companies.
Step 6: Submit the claim appeals
Now that you know what’s needed to collect and/or correct each unpaid claim, gather it up without delay, and submit your claim appeals as soon as possible. That timely filing clock is always ticking.
#3. Is reviewing the aging report the same as working the aging report?
No, it’s not. Reviewing your aging report is when you browse the pages and eye the total to see that you have $40,000 in claims over 90 days old.
Working your aging report follows multiple steps to go through your list of unpaid claims, do the necessary research, call the insurance company, gather information, and then, if necessary, send in a claim appeal.
If your insurance coordinator is simply re-submitting claims as-is instead of contacting insurance companies for more information, then honestly, they’re wasting their time. There’s nearly always a reason the claim was not paid. It probably needs changes, corrections, and/or additional information, instead of just a resubmission of the same claim.
#4. How often should my team work my dental insurance aging report?
Someone should work your insurance aging report once a week, at a minimum. It should be worked more than once a week if:
- Your aging report is several pages long
- Your over-30-day total is more than 20% of your total AR.
Continue working the insurance aging report at least twice a week until your collections are at 98%, which means the over 30-day-total is 2% or less of your total AR. Make sure every unpaid claim is addressed, and notes are logged in the PMS for every outstanding claim.
Remember: If the aging report is neglected for too long, claims will reach their timely filing, and you’ll never get paid for them. If this happens frequently, tens of thousands of dollars of your hard-earned revenue could be left on the table for insurance companies to keep.
The more often someone works the aging report, the sooner unpaid claims are resolved, and the steadier and heavier your cash flow.
Related: Denied insurance claims: 3 ways they damage your dental business and 1 solution
Does this seem like a lot of effort? That’s because it is — and it’s worth it
A well-managed insurance aging report is vital to your dental business’ bottom line. But as you see, keeping up with claims status and appeals is a time-consuming and tedious process.
Ideally, you would have a designated team member to work the aging report. Unfortunately, many dental teams are unable to make time to work the insurance aging report at all, and every month, dozens of claims — and thousands in revenue — fall through the cracks.
One option is to hire a full-time insurance coordinator with the knowledge and years of experience to get claims paid. Unfortunately, the continued staffing shortage has made hiring difficult — and expensive.
This is why many dental teams turn to revenue cycle management services like we have at DCS.
Our Account Specialists have the expertise to handle claims management for you. All of that insurance aging report work we detailed in this article? Those are the steps they’ll take to support your dental business — and their effort pays off.
For example, for our customer Sprout Dental, we reduced their outstanding insurance AR past the 30-day mark from 90% unpaid to 23% unpaid — our experts collected $800,000 for them in just 7 months.
And while the big revenue boost was welcome, that wasn’t the only benefit.
With our experts managing their insurance aging report, Sprout Dental’s in-house team is free to focus on managing the dental practice and pay more attention to patients. The owner Sprout Dental, their team, and their patients are all happier as a result — that’s a win-win-win.
Partner with our RCM experts to manage your dental insurance aging
Your dental insurance aging report is a reflection of money you’ve earned that insurance companies are holding on to.
In a way, your aging report is a map to buried treasure. If you dig in, you’ll find that there’s gold waiting for you. But if your team can’t make time for it, you’re paying the insurance companies, instead of the payers paying you.
Take back control of your revenue by prioritizing your insurance aging report. Turn to experts like the ones at DCS, and your team will never again have to spend hours on the phone with insurance.
You’ll get the cash flow you deserve, and your team can focus on creating an amazing dental experience for patients.
One of our customers specifically appreciates the increase in collections that DCS provides:
“DCS is a fantastic company to use to help us improve the collection percentage and insurance reimbursement times of our office. They are always available and glad to help you with any issues you have concerns with. I highly recommend!” —Richton Dental Care
Collect confidently and consistently with DCS: Book a free 30-minute consultation with our experts today.
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