Sky-high Dental A/R? Here's how to boost dental insurance collections

If your dental practice is struggling under a hefty accounts receivable (A/R) balance, you’re not alone. In fact, most dental practices face high A/R at some point. What separates successful practices from the rest is what they do about it.

As Dental Claim Support co-founder Josh Smith said on The ZeroBalance Podcast:

“Sometimes you feel like you’re the only person with a problem, when everybody else actually shares the same problem; they just don’t want to talk about it. Once you talk, it’s amazing how many people all share the same connection.”

A high A/R balance is an emotional burden, not just a financial one. Acknowledging that outstanding claims and overdue patient balances have grown to 6- or 7-figures can feel frustrating, overwhelming, and sometimes even embarrassing.

The reality is that this problem is incredibly common, and the sooner it’s addressed, the sooner your practice can regain financial stability and you can restore your confidence. 

For dental practices looking for an A/R overhaul, that’s where DCS A/R Special Projects comes in.

With a specialized team dedicated to cleaning up insurance aging reports and practice management software, DCS A/R Special Projects helps dental practices quickly and efficiently recover lost revenue while taking a load off your in-house team. 

To help you decide whether to reach out to a company like DCS for an A/R cleanup, let’s dive deeper into why A/R grows into a crippling headache for so many dental businesses, both big and small. 

Key takeaways on high dental A/R:

• More often than not, A/R accumulates because a team is stretched too thin
• Your outstanding A/R can reach a point where you need to bring in additional help to clear it out
• Every claim left on the aging report is money left on the table — or lost to timely filing — that could be in your pocket

Why are dental insurance aging reports such a struggle?

Dental offices don’t fall behind on A/R quickly; it happens gradually due to common operational inefficiencies. But when your team is facing unpaid claims worth hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars, it's more important to understand how it got that way, and how long it will take to recover, than to focus on how long it took to accumulate.

The biggest causes of high A/R balances we’ve seen:

• An unclear collections strategy or inefficient billing processes. If your practice doesn’t have a designated team member and a streamlined system for following up on unpaid claims, those tasks can easily fall through the cracks. Without focus and automation, it’s difficult to stay on top of aging reports.
• Insurance complexities. Dental payers will delay or deny claims over minor technicalities, as well as larger issues such as vague narratives, inadequate documentation, and plan limitations. Denied claims require extra time and effort to rework and resubmit the claim. 
• Overworked staff. Many front-office team members juggle multiple responsibilities, making it hard to dedicate enough time to A/R management. 

Read more: Dental insurance claims denied? Here are 10 reasons why

Over time, these factors cause insurance aging report balances to spiral out of control, making it increasingly harder for a busy dental team to recover revenue before it’s lost to timely filing.

What’s the cost of ignoring a climbing dental A/R?

There are significant financial consequences for neglecting an ever-increasing aging A/R balance, including:

• Slowed cash flow. Uncollected claims mean less working capital, making it harder to pay staff, invest in new equipment, or grow your practice.
• Less overall revenue due to write-offs. The older an unpaid claim gets, the less likely it is to be collected. Insurance companies have strict timely filing deadlines, and patients become more resistant to paying balances as time passes. These claims end up as write-offs (i.e., a portion of your revenue that you will never collect).
• Operational inefficiencies. When staff are occupied with chasing old claims, they have less time to focus on patient care and front-office operations — and vice versa.

Read more: What is the best way to track unpaid dental claims?

A large A/R is more than an administrative inconvenience — it represents lost revenue that can weaken your practice’s financial health and your ability to manage overhead expenses.

How can DCS A/R Special Projects help?

We are your fast and effective solution to all that doom and gloom!

Once your insurance aging report becomes too overwhelming for your team, hand over the cleanup to our trained and experienced Account Specialists.

DCS A/R Special Projects offers:

• Dedicated A/R specialists. A skilled team who focuses solely on resolving your outstanding claims, ensuring no claim is overlooked or goes unpaid 
• Fast results with minimal disruption. Practices have seen A/R reductions of up to 90% while decreasing the stress on their in-house teams.
• Deep dive into insurance aging reports. Identifying patterns, reworking denied claims, and maximizing collections.
• Proven recovery strategies. Customized solutions tailored to each practice’s unique needs.

Our proven results are documented in our case studies, such as this success story for Aspire Oral Surgery. DCS reduced Aspire Oral Surgery’s overall A/R from $472,281 to $238,214 — a decrease of 50%. We not only cleaned up their A/R, we also streamlined their billing operations to prevent future billing backlogs. 

Our head of A/R Special Projects, Jeff Smith, shares this insight on A/R reduction as a project and how it sets a practice up for the future:

“The ultimate goal of DCS Special Projects services is to tackle A/R as aggressively as possible so that we can get it into more of a ‘maintenance mode’ that puts that office in a much better standing going forward.”

This benefits both your patients and your practice. When your team isn’t constantly chasing down older insurance claims, they can focus on patient care and everyday tasks that support a well-run office — free from the burden of a growing aging report looming in the background.

Are you ready to take back control of your revenue with a reduced A/R?

Let DCS experts clean up your A/R for revenue you can be proud of 

A manageable A/R is essential for a financially healthy practice, and reducing your A/R is possible, no matter how high it is or how many claims it represents.

Whether you’re a private practice with a 6-figure A/R balance or a group or DSO with a 7-figure balance, our A/R Special Projects team has tackled a similar case, and they’d love to take on yours.

By bringing us in now, you can halt timely filing losses, collect long-delayed revenue, and improve cash flow—all while your team focuses on providing excellent care rather than pressing payers and patients for payments.

DCS has helped hundreds of private practices and DSOs recover revenue and regain control of their accounts receivable. Our A/R Special Projects is the ideal service to support your team when you’re ready for an A/R overhaul that turns revenue left on the table to profits in your pockets. 

Don’t leave your hard-earned revenue on the table: Book a free 30-minute consultation today.