Future of Dental Practices- how can a Billing partner help Overcome Potential Challenges?

Currently, dental practices in the US are going through a period of transformation. Nature of oral disease and financing of dental care is fluctuating, with emerging trends all set to affect the future of dentists.

• Population in the country is getting old and diverse, leading to differences in payment ability, care-seeking behaviour and disease pattern
• In order to meet increased dental care demand, a large number of dentists are being trained; however, practice choice for new dentists is changing due to debt load and change in demographics
• There has been a shift in dental service payment from commercial dental insurance to personal out-of-pocket and public coverage payments
• More selective networks are being used by commercial dental plans, pressuring providers to reduce costs. Increased accountability is being required from providers through data and performance measures
• There has been an increase in pressure on expanded dental teams to offer restorative as well as preventive services
• Due to practice patterns of new dentists and dental plan pressures on small provider networks, large, multi-site dental practice trend will continue
• Emphasis will increase on outcomes and cost-effectiveness. Expansion of Medicaid and reforms will encourage dental care alternative models

More efficiency required:

Dental practices will have to be become more efficient due to increase in demand for value in dental care spending. With the changes in population and technology, daily operations of dental practices will get affected, causing disruption in cash flow.

Providers will have to streamline dental billing, hire or train coders and billers, invest in latest dental technologies to stay in business. Overhead costs continue to increase for dental practices combined with high costs of advanced technology. High level of efficiency will be required to ensure that pressure from reforms or lack of time, money and resources don’t affect the financial health of dental practices.

How can a dental billing partner help?

Generally, dental reimbursement rates are poor compared to medical reimbursement rates. Profitability can be maintained only when dental billing is streamlined and the following areas are under control:

• Payment posting
• Patient reminders and scheduling
• Medical coding audits
• Patient enrolment
• Insurance verification
• Financial management reporting
• Accounts receivable management
• Insurance authorizations

These areas can be a lot to handle if dental practices lack skilled resources and sufficient time. In such cases, outsourcing is the best option to survive in this business.

Billing partners like Medicalbillersandcoders.com have a skilled team of coders and billers who are well-trained in handling dental billing requirements. MBC works with the aim to help providers, including dentists get rid of daunting tasks such as hiring, training, HIPAA, claim submission, claim denials, RCM and other factors that pose challenges to core medical efficiencies.

Our team ensures accuracy in charge capture, electronic claim filing, intricate procedure coding, multi-tiered appeals, and compliance. We make use of the latest technology to offer timely, accurate results. While our team concentrates on strengthening your revenue cycle and offering help to overcome challenges, you can concentrate on quality patient care.

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Published By - Medical Billers and Coders
Published Date - Jun-04-2014 Back