You’ll get the most out of your automated dental patient billing solution when you: clarify your needs and make sure they’re met, monitor progress towards earning goals, and work with a company that is a collaborator and not just a vendor. You’ll see better financial results, a happier staff, and more satisfied patients.
In today's healthcare landscape, using patient billing software solutions has become a popular option for many successful healthcare organizations, including dental practices and groups like yours.
But you don’t want to go into it blind — with so many options available, it’s understandable if you have no idea what to expect when exploring patient billing software for your dental business.
That’s why we’re sharing 3 tips to help you maximize your results when choosing and using an automated patient billing solution.
As a revenue cycle management provider to dental professionals, DCS offers our own patient billing solution with a special feature that you won’t find anywhere else — and that your dental team will love.
These automated features ensure seamless collections from your patients, and our customers’ experiences have shown us how you can make the most of them.
Key takeaways on maximizing dental patient billing results:
- Do thoughtful research on different providers and features to ensure you get exactly what you need
- Consider automated patient billing solutions as an investment with a significant rate of return
- Choose a patient billing solution that includes data, metrics, and reporting to support informed decision-making
Tip #1: Make sure you’re getting what you really need from your patient billing solution
If you could automate best practices for patient billing, what would you expect the system to do for your patients and your business?
Patients want their choice of payment method — whether cash transfer, credit card, or payment plan — to be frictionless. Your goal for automating patient billing is to provide that convenience, and also to free up your team to provide better patient care, all while collecting patient payments faster.
Some must-have features you’ll need in a patient billing solution are:
- End-to-end automation, from initiating statements to direct deposit
- 24/7/365 secure online payment acceptance
- Accept multiple forms of payment — debit card, credit card, digital wallets (Apple Pay), etc.
- Seamless integration with your practice management software (PMS)
- Insightful reporting for data-driven decision-making
Then there are notable features only some providers offer that are a real bonus:
- Automatic write-backs to all major PMSs
- Personalization and branding options
- Customizable payment plan and financing options
- A user-friendly dashboard your team can monitor at any time, from anywhere
We’ve jumpstarted your research for you with the chart below. You can see which features are common among the 4 popular patient billing providers, and which are harder to find.
Note that DCS Patient Billing is the only solution that offers write-back capabilities to make the entire patient billing process hands-free for your team.
Our patient billing solution also boasts a straight-forward setup and onboarding process that can start bringing you results within a few days of installation. Picture that: streamlining your billing process for both your team and your patients within a week.
Read more: Compare the top 4 patient billing solutions in our Learning Center.
Quick tips for researching automated patient billing providers:
To expand on our comparative research, Google each provider and look at their website, taking note of:
- Google reviews from clients and customers
- Glassdoor reviews from their employees
- How clearly the provider describes their services
- How easily they communicate with you by phone and/or email
Each of these factors indicate the quality of service you will receive as the months and years go on.
You want to work with a provider who is rated highly by the people who work with, and within, the company. You also want to understand all the features you’re paying for, how each will benefit your dental business, and ensure the provider has knowledgeable staff to answer your questions.
The goal is to decrease your patient AR while still providing an excellent patient billing experience, and for that, you’ll need today’s technology and expert support from your solution provider.
Tip #2: Set earning goals, and review patient billing metrics often
When it comes to choosing a third-party solution for vital parts of your revenue cycle, it’s important to define the roles, responsibilities, and success metrics with your team and the provider.
Clear expectations help ensure that your organization and the billing provider are aligned and working towards the same goals. By establishing your goals and the metrics you will use to check performance, you’ll be able to monitor progress and make adjustments to ensure the highest return on your investment.
We can’t really speak for other patient billing solutions, but when it comes to DCS Patient Billing, after the setup is complete, your team’s only responsibility will be to monitor the easy-to-use dashboard. In your leadership role, you’ll review the metrics, decide what changes (if any) need to be made to improve collections, then communicate your insights to your team.
For example, our patient billing dashboard lets you track every transaction and adjust the data view based on the date and transaction type.
You can dive even deeper into what the DCS Patient Billing Dashboard has for you when you read our article, “Instant insights: The easy way to check your patient billing revenue.”
Tip #3: Build a collaborative relationship with your point of contact
What’s unique about DCS Patient Billing is that your team won’t have to communicate regularly with their point of contact at DCS, but they’re not left on their own, either.
The fast setup and seamless automation make continuous interaction unnecessary. But DCS always has real people available for our client-partners to speak to, ask questions of, or share their concerns.
And at DCS, we encourage this!
You can see your point of contact as an extension of your team: There to help you achieve your revenue goals, as well as your goals for patient and personnel satisfaction. Our experts might see something out of place in your revenue cycle that you haven’t noticed — something that is keeping you from collecting all that you can from patients or maximizing your insurance claims collections.
DCS supports dental practices, groups, and DSOs with a combination of automated technology, personalized service, and industry best practices for both patient and insurance billing — that combo sets us apart. So if you’re reading this and realizing that your insurance claims process is also in need of expert guidance, we’re here to help with that too.
Either way, your point of contact is there for you. Many of our client-partners do consider their point of contact to be part of their team — one client-partner used to call their point of contact at the end of every day to get a recap of the day’s collections.
It’s a true partnership, and you and your Account Specialist get to shape the collaboration style.
Read more: DCS Innovations: Account Specialists spearhead collaborative strategies with dental teams
Ready to get the most from an automated patient billing solution for your dental practice or group?
To recap, here are 3 tips for maximizing your results when working with a dental patient billing solution:
- Tip #1: Make sure you’re getting the features and support that you really need
- Tip #2: Set earning goals and review patient billing metrics often
- Tip #3: Build a collaborative relationship with your point of contact
DCS Patient Billing solution customers often see dental business results within a week — collecting from patients who haven’t paid for months.
You’ll see what our current client-partners have discovered: The easier it is for patients to pay, the faster and more likely that they will pay. Your revenue will thrive, plus your patients and your team will love the convenience and ease of automated patient billing.
Our client-partner, Horizon Dental, describes their experience using DCS Patient Billing:
“We had an office manager that was doing the billing. They weren’t doing it correctly, and we weren’t getting paid for a lot of stuff. With DCS Patient Billing, we’ve seen higher payouts and consistent follow-up on balances. We definitely recommend DCS: DCS is extremely good to work with, and we love working with them.”
Collect what you’re owed with DCS Patient Billing Solutions: Book a free 30-minute consultation today.
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