3 ways patient billing mistakes harm your dental business

7 minute read

Patient billing is the lifeline of your dental practice, impacting both your revenue stream and your reputation.

Part of the heavy load your patient billing process carries are the challenges it holds. When these patient billing challenges go unresolved, you face aggravations that can damage your revenue and your patients’ goodwill.

DCS is a full-service revenue cycle management provider that offers patient billing services to private dental practices and emerging dental groups. Through more than a decade of working with dental teams on their patient billing, we’ve seen first-hand the many challenges patient billing can bring to a dental business.

In this article, we will cover 3 harmful results of inaccurate patient billing so you and your team can make decisions about your patient billing process with a clearer understanding of its impact and your options. Stay tuned to the end of this article for one simple solution to your patient billing challenges.

But first, here are 3 harmful results from improperly managing your patient billing process:

1. Restricted cash flow from delayed payments

Patient payments, combined with insurance reimbursements, fuel your dental revenue.

Although you are first and foremost an oral healthcare provider, you are also a place of business. It’s imperative you collect payments from your patients, ideally, before they leave your office. Here’s what Dental Intelligence says about upfront payments:

“Patients might not pay the entire bill for weeks if you send it in the mail after a procedure. Delayed payments can mean cash flow backups and financial uncertainty for your clinic.” — Dental Intelligence

In other words, the longer a patient bill goes without being paid, the less likely it will ever be paid.

And even punctual patient payments will be delayed by the time it takes both your bill and their payment to travel through the postal service.

Here’s how you can resolve the delayed payment problem…

To avoid restricted cash flow: Make time to present treatment to patients

To collect up front, your team will need to effectively present treatment to patients.

This means sitting down with each patient to explain why they need treatment, and presenting their insurance coverage to them. This will give patients an estimate of how much they can expect to pay out of pocket for the treatment.

When your patient is presented their treatment and payment options, they will understand why they owe what they owe, and be more agreeable to the costs. They’ll also have time to prepare for their payment, ensuring your steady cash flow.

2. Disgruntled patients from improper billing

Your patients are why you have a dental business. They depend on you to take care of their teeth, and they know there will be costs for that. But they entrust you with more than their dental health — they also trust you to correctly handle their bill.

If you went to a place of business that had a pattern of mishandling your bill, you’d stop visiting that business. Why wouldn’t your patients do the same?

Faulty patient billing practices will lead to patients leaving your dental practice and finding another dentist for their care.

There are a few reasons your patients might be unhappy about their bill:

You miscalculated their out-of-pocket expenses, and now they’ve received an additional bill.
You did not explain what a downgrade was regarding the patient’s dental insurance plan. Some dental insurance companies will only pay for the least expensive procedure when multiple options are available.
Your mismanagement of coordination of benefits (COB). You failed to send a secondary claim on a patient’s behalf, and/or you inaccurately calculated the patient’s out-of-pocket cost because you didn’t take COB into consideration.
You failed to follow up on a claim on their behalf. (This only applies to fee-for-service practices who send patient claims as a courtesy).

Again, look at this from the patient’s perspective: if you can’t handle their bill, why should they trust you to handle their teeth?

Every billing error has the potential to irreparably damage a dentist-client relationship, leading to lost patients, a loss in revenue, and even lasting damage to your reputation.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. Here’s what you can do to avoid disgruntled patients…

To avoid losing patients: Maintain a fast and accurate billing process

Automating your patient billing process is the best way to ensure your collections are easy for your patients — and for your office.

Here’s an example of how it works: After insurance payments are posted, if a patient balance remains, the patient billing system automatically generates outreach to the patient.

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Automated patient billing services also sync with your practice management software (PMS), which ensures the outreach being sent to the patient matches the patient’s balance in the dental PMS.

And if your patients have questions, they’ll still contact you: the person they know and trust.

Imagine: Your team doesn’t have to prepare bills, mail them, or follow up on overdue payments—all those tasks are taken care of automatically.

You might be thinking, Wait… implementing an automated patient billing system is easier said than done. Keep reading to see how it actually is easily done.

3. Strain on your admin team from rework and damage control

Addressing billing issues demands significant time and attention from your administrative team.

This increase in administrative workload will harm other processes at your dental practice. Your team’s time spent with patients decreases, leading to a less pleasant patient experience.

Patients will notice if your team is stretched thin, and that can have a negative impact on their trust in you.

Plus, constant rework and damage control will drain your staff’s energy, as well as their time, leading to decreased efficiency and potential burnout. Your dental staff is the heart of your business. If they start resenting their role, they might leave for a better position.

And if you’re dealing with chronic patient billing issues, an increase in staff turnover is the last thing you need, especially in the midst of a nationwide staffing shortage.

To avoid losing your team: Turn to experts to share the load

Patient billing mistakes create more work for your already busy team.

When you automate your patient billing systems with the help and guidance of revenue cycle management (RCM) experts, your team’s workload is reduced, and their workflow is streamlined.

In fact, their main responsibility becomes managing in-office patients instead of chasing down patients with outstanding bills.

You can take care of the people who take care of your patients. Partner with experts who specialize in the dental revenue cycle and will implement an automated patient billing system for you.

We told you we’d get to how automated patient billing is easily implemented: It’s with RCM experts by your side. Let’s dig into it.

Your #1 solution: Use patient billing services to rescue your dental business from damage to its reputation, team, and revenue stream

RCM experts will implement your automated patient billing system to:

Issue statements automatically
Reduce time and costs spent mailing paper statements
Provide easy online payment options and friendly reminders
Monitor direct deposits and outstanding balances instantly

With the entire billing process streamlined for your team and convenient for your patients, you’ll not only avoid lost revenue, annoyed patients, and an overworked dental team. You’ll also see:

Improved cash flow
Enhanced patient experience
Overall increased efficiency throughout your dental business

At DCS, in 2023 alone, our patient billing customers have seen an over 8,400% return on their investment in our services.

You don’t have to write off lost patient payments. It’s money you’ve earned, and with RCM experts managing your patient billing systems, you won’t keep leaving money on the table.

Patient billing has its challenges… but it doesn’t have to

Let’s recap. The problems that come up due to patient billing mistakes hold a lot of weight, including:

Restricted cash flow
Disgruntled patients
Increased workload for your dental team

Understanding the gravity of these problems is crucial for finding a solution. But you can avoid all of these challenges by partnering with the RCM experts at DCS.

Our automated patient billing services make it easy for your patients to pay you, and even easier for your team to collect.

Explore how the patient billing services at DCS can revolutionize your practice and unlock its full potential. Book a call with one of our RCM experts.

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