Plan to switch to a different dental billing service?
Before making a choice, one must know the 20 most common mistakes people make when picking a dental billing service.
In the long run, you can save time, money, and stress by researching and avoiding these common mistakes.
Please continue reading to learn about these errors and how to avoid them.
- Not Doing Your Research
Check the company’s history and past clients before hiring them. Read reviews and ask in forums about dental billing. Think about price, quality assurance, and customer service.
See what services are available by comparing them. Do they specialize in billing on your practice management software? Is there a long contract? How fast can they begin? Next, ask other dentists who have used a service what they thought about it.
- Not Knowing What You Need
When choosing a dental billing service, knowing what you need is essential. Assistance with claims? Patient billing? Insurance verifications? Which services are right for your organization will depend on your practice size and office staff capabilities. Compare service providers to find the best match.
- Not Looking For A Company That Is HIPAA Compliant
Ask the dental billing service if they follow HIPAA and for proof that they are certified. HIPAA-compliant services must use the most up-to-date security methods to protect patient information, set up procedures for dealing with data breaches, and educate their staff every year.
- Not Getting Quotes From Multiple Companies
Get quotes from companies to find your business’s best prices and services. Check the services and prices of each quote. This will help you choose a billing service. Finally, when comparing estimates for dental billing services, you should look at the expertise and customer service.
- Not Asking For Referrals
Referrals could help you choose the right dental billing solution for your business. Ask other dentists who have used the services you’re considering if they’d recommend them. They can tell you what they liked and didn’t like about a company and how well it did in accuracy, customer service, and other vital areas.
- Not Reading The Reviews
Customer reviews could show what a company sells. In addition, customer service, job quality, and experience should be reviewed. Both good and bad reviews help you decide on a company. Reviews from Google, Yelp, and the BBB can be trusted. Look into the company you’re considering to make a good choice.
- Not Understanding The Contract
Misreading the contract is a typical error when picking a dental billing service. Before signing any document, please read it carefully since certain billing services may have hidden fees or other stipulations. Not having a backup plan could leave you without the support you really need for an extended period of time.
Some billing companies have long term contracts, hefty sign on fees, or require you to purchase expensive equipment.
- Not Staying Current With Dental Billing News
Follow dental billing news to know what’s going on in the field. When you read news and industry magazines, you learn about changes in the law, new technologies, and industry trends. You can also learn if the billing company in question was recently acquired which may not be a good sign as transitions for service-based businesses can be turbulent.
- Not Being Organized
Organize your information before you choose a dental billing company. Prepare questions to ask potential billing companies before you meet with them. Ask about the tools they have for keeping track of payments and denials, best form of communication, their guarantees, reporting, etc. If you have stacks of EOBs in your office that have not been handled…or you’re not sure if they’ve been handled…scan them into a PDF file. Let the billing company know how many pages needs to be sorted through.
- Not Taking Advantage Of Technology
Find a billing service for dentists that uses electronic billing and integrates data. This will make it easier to manage accounts and speed up operations.
- Not Monitoring Your Statements
Make sure your monthly statements are correct. You should contact your billing managers immediately if the figures seem incorrect. Your reporting should show the lengths your billing company took for the day/week/month/year to collect all outstanding balances for your practice as well as the status of your accounts receivable.
- Not Knowing Your Insurance Contracts
Know the basics of your insurance contracts if you are participating as an in-network provider. For example, you may have to ensure that your billing service will be following up on outstanding claims in a timely manner so you do not surpass the timely filing limitations of the plan. Some insurances require claim submission within 90 days, others require one year from date of service. The insurance carrier may also disallow payment for certain procedures done together.
- Not Knowing When To Outsource
Find someone who knows about billing and can navigate through your software. Billing companies may offer a free discovery session to show you the pain points and how much money is really being left on the table. If turnover in your practice is holding your collections back, it’s time to outsource. They should be able to give up-to-date advice and provide solutions.
You might save time and money by outsourcing dental billing, but you must make the right choice for your business. If your front office rockstar is overwhelmed with keeping the schedule full, answering phone calls, checking patients in and out, verifying insurance, and keeping the office running smoothly, there may be little time & energy left for the tedious task of billing. It’s time to outsource.
So before you hire a billing company, think about what you need.
- Not Considering All Your Options
Compare the features and prices of companies. You should also think about training, customer support, and software connections. Check out each choice to see which one works best for your practice.
- Not Budgeting For Dental Billing Services
Dental offices often need help making ends meet if they require the help of a billing service. Count the costs and determine if the benefits of collecting outstanding balances and taking a load off your front office team outweighs the cost of the service. Billing services for dentists take care of insurance claims, follow up on claims that were denied or unpaid, and bill and collect from patients.
- Not Being Proactive
Your practice could have profitability problems if in-house billing takes a large amount of time. If not done correctly, claims could be denied unnecessarily because of missing information. Begin the process of finding a billing company sooner rather than later.
- Not Following Up
By staying on top of billing problems and quickly and correctly processing claims, your practice may reduce the chance that claims will be rejected or those reimbursements will be late, improving its financial health. Your billing company can solve most issues, but you will likely need to respond to follow up requests for larger issues.
- Not Being Patient
When dealing with billing issues, not being patient can lead to frustration and make it hard to solve problems systematically. In addition, the billing process can be complicated and take a lot of time, and it may take a while to fix or overturn denials.
- Not Having A Backup Plan
If your leading billing service does not meet your expectations, you can still run your practice with a backup plan. A backup vendor may help. A backup plan can also give you peace of mind that your accounts receivable will remain healthy and your collections will still come on time..
- Not Having A Good Relationship With Your Dental Billing Service
Hiring a dental billing company means real people are working on your accounts. Having a level of respect and trust for your dedicated billing team will encourage them to do everything possible to keep you satisfied with their services. It’s important to keep the lines of communication open with your billing company.
Questions on how Versa Solutions can help your individual dental practice or DSO? Contact us today for a demo on our services.
