Automation is the key to an efficient, modern dental business. Our DCS Expansion Pack will automate 3 critical steps of your revenue cycle to boost your income and create consistent cash flow: provider credentialing, dental patient scheduling, and dental patient billing.
When your revenue cycle processes are broken, disorganized, and inconsistent, you’re setting the stage for errors that result in revenue dips and losses. We see this all the time among dental teams that seek out our solutions: Their workflows need a makeover and continuous maintenance.
Their income depends on efficient administrative processes, and so does yours. To get things running smoothly — and keep them running smoothly — many dental businesses are modernizing with automation. Gary L. Kadi, CEO of NextLevel Practice via the ADA explains:
“Technology is a career changer for dentists who left dental school and were not trained to run a business. The automations bypass having to get an MBA from Wharton for dentists. Use technology and turn what you hate into what you love.”
Automation is your friend. It transforms complicated, tedious manual processes into consistent, accurate, and hands-free workflows — that, to put it simply, get the job done.
Key takeaways about dental office automation:
- Automation increases the speed and accuracy of your routine processes
- Automation frees up your team to focus on providing amazing patient care
- Automation will decrease your staff’s busy work while increasing your overall revenue
Our DCS Expansion Pack is a bundled offering that will automate 3 key parts of your revenue cycle — credentialing, patient scheduling, and patient billing — for a discounted rate. This article covers why these 3 key parts of your dental office should be automated.
Automating the critical endpoints of your revenue cycle is as easy as 1-2-3. Let’s go…
1. Automate the provider credentialing process
Most dental professionals would describe the credentialing process as an administrative headache. You have to gather a stack of personal and professional documentation about each dentist and submit all of that paperwork.
It’s tedious and, let’s face it, it’s easy to forget about it, and also forget how to do it, because you do it so infrequently. Every year or two, every dentist in-network with an insurance company has to be re-credentialed with that insurance company before the deadline.
If your credentialing or re-credentialing submission is completed incorrectly (or even forgotten about!), you’ll be unable to collect from insurance companies until you’re back in-network — which could take months.
Expired payer credentials create a whole mess of problems that you don’t have time to deal with.
But when you automate the credentialing process, all of a sudden, the administrative burden is lifted from your team’s shoulders, and you never again have to worry about missing a renewal deadline.
When you use the DCS Credentialing service that is included in the Expansion Pack, our automated technology will:
- Monitor and track critical expiration dates
- Provide you with an easy-to-use digital dashboard with 24/7/365 access
- Offer everything you need for high-speed approval
Read more: 3 things you'll love about DCS dental provider credentialing services
Our automated credentialing services ensure cost-efficient, secure, and compliant enrollment administration that goes from call center; to data collection, data entry, and data integrity; to integration and analytics.
2. Automate dental patient scheduling
Keeping dental patient scheduling organized and the calendar full is a monumental task. It’s easily complicated by cancelled appointments, no-shows, dentists taking time off, or last-minute emergency appointments.
Plus, when a patient has to call your office to make their appointment, it can lead to a frustrating game of “phone tag” if they don’t connect with your team on the first try. In fact, I have a team member who experienced this recently…
She called her dentist to schedule an appointment, and then needed to reschedule it. She called back, but the office was closed, so she left a voicemail. When the dental team called her back, she was busy in a work meeting. Do you see where this is going? 
The experience left her feeling annoyed and unsatisfied. If there had been an automated, online scheduling option, she could have rescheduled her appointment at any time, on her own, and the entire negative experience with her dentist’s office would have been avoided.
Also, the dental team wouldn’t have had to spend time returning her call, interrupt other tasks to take the call, or miss engaging with in-office patients because they’re on the phone. You can see how everyone wins when the routine task of scheduling appointments is left to today’s technology.
Automated online patient scheduling services typically use software that integrates with both your practice management system (PMS) and your website to allow patients to book their appointments at their convenience, without calling your office.
The DCS Scheduling service includes:
- Real-time availability
- Customized branding
- Automatically charge for no-show
- Complex schedule handling, and more
Read more: Welcome to DCS dental patient scheduling! 3 things you need to know
Scheduling is a process that can be managed in so many different ways — but when you go the automation route, your team spends less time on the phone trying to juggle patients’ needs and dentists’ requirements, and more time providing an exceptional experience for patients in your office.
3. Automate dental patient billing
The last part of your revenue cycle we recommend automating? Patient billing.
Besides claims reimbursement from insurance companies, patients are your main source of revenue. But consistently collecting an accurate amount from every single patient by the due date is easier said than done.
If there are issues with the patient’s insurance coverage leading to an unexpected higher cost, the patient could be resistant to paying their fee. And it can feel awkward to follow up and demand payment — and even more awkward if that’s done face-to-face in the office.
But, you’re running a business, and you delivered a service they promised to pay for.
When you automate dental patient billing, the entire process is seamless and hands-free. Your patients will be able to go online from their phone, laptop, or tablet; see their balance; and pay then and there with their debit or credit card. If they need to pay in installments, that’s an option as well.
DCS automated patient billing services include:
- Payment links sent as soon as the balance is known (no manual processing)
- Friendly automatic payment reminders via email and text message
- Accepting payment from all major credit cards and wallet apps from any connected device
- Monitoring direct deposits and outstanding balances instantly
Read more: 3 reasons to automate your patient billing services ASAP
No longer will your team have to spend time on the phone chasing down a patient for their payment. And your expenses for paper, ink, and postage will drop significantly when they’re no longer issuing paper statements and reminders. 
Your automated patient billing software will do all those things for them. Your patients will love this convenient and transparent way to pay for their treatment, and your team will be freed up to do other essential tasks.
With this service, as with all the services included in our Expansion Pack bundle, you’ll see efficient processes, higher collections, a less stressed team, and happier patients.
And when you automate these 3 crucial parts of your revenue cycle, it maximizes the time your team has available to dedicate to the patient experience, including treatment plan presentations, which increases cost transparency with your patients. Combine that sharing of information with the automated billing process, and collecting from your patients will be a breeze.
Let our automated technology take a load off your team’s plate: Try the DCS Expansion Pack
To recap, essential business processes like provider credentialing, patient scheduling, and patient billing bring the following challenges when done manually:
- Piles of paperwork to organize and store
- Broken, inefficient administrative processes
- An overworked and stressed out back office team
- Lower, inconsistent cash flow
- Unhappy patients
When you automate these processes using our DCS Expansion Pack, you avoid every single one of those challenges. At a discounted bundle rate, you’ll streamline these critical parts of your revenue cycle, and give your in-house team the freedom to focus on in-office patients and growing your dental business.
Your cash flow will thrive, your reputation will grow, and so will your business’ success. Don’t let defects in these vital parts of your revenue cycle bog down your dental team: Automate them all with the DCS Expansion Pack.
To learn more about how the DCS Expansion Pack and if it's right for you, take our quick 2-question assessment.
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