Do you dream of a thriving orthodontic practice? Of course, you do! And what’s the secret sauce behind every successful venture? Financial stability. It may not be the most glamorous aspect of your practice, but it’s undeniably crucial. You’re not just creating smiles; you’re building a business.
What if you could tap into decades of expertise in one of the most critical areas of your practice — billing and insurance claims? Meet Amanda DeMoura from Essential Dental Services. With nearly 20 years of experience in dental billing and insurance, Amanda has crafted the best practices for new orthodontic practices like yours.
Understand the Insurance Landscape
You wouldn’t start a journey without a map, would you? Similarly, as you plan your practice, research the major insurance carriers in your area and their orthodontic coverage. Amanda advises a careful evaluation of potential contracts: reimbursement rates, estimated patient volume, and more. It’s not just about setting your own fees; it’s about maximizing opportunities for referrals and new patients from in-network plans.
Empower Your Team
The success of your practice lies in the hands of your team. Hire individuals with orthodontic billing experience, or invest in training. Amanda has even created an orthodontic billing training guide to set you on the right path. Remember, an investment in training today is a promise of accuracy and efficiency tomorrow.
Establish Robust Systems
Structure, consistency, and organization are your allies. Amanda aids her clients with customized spreadsheets to track outstanding claims and accounts receivable. The aim? To prevent any revenue from slipping through the cracks.
Monitor Your Accounts Receivable
Keep a sharp eye on accounts receivable. Aim to keep accounts over 90 days past due below 3% of total AR. Don’t let old AR gather dust — tackle denied or unpaid claims.
Consider the Power of Outsourcing
Outsourcing can be your secret weapon. Amanda’s remote team handles everything from claims submission to AR management for practices nationwide. They bring expertise and bandwidth that a small startup might not have. Plus, you gain the flexibility of having staff available evenings and weekends.
But outsourcing isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Ensure you have someone in-house who can liaise effectively and that you have basic systems in place before considering outsourcing.
Orthodontic billing is the lifeblood of your practice’s financial health. Mastering insurance workflows and AR management from the outset will pave the way for a flourishing patient base and minimal headaches.
Ready to take control of your practice’s financial future? Reach out to Amanda at Essential Dental Services at contact@essentialdentalservices.com or download her orthodontic billing guide today — essentialdentalservices.com/dental-insurance-training-and-digital-downloads. Because when it comes to the success of your orthodontic practice, every detail counts.
The post Empower Your Orthodontic Practice for Financial Success appeared first on HIP Creative.
[00:00:00] Welcome. You're listening to the Grow Ortho podcast presented by HIIT. This
[00:00:05] podcast is dedicated to orthodontist who want to stand strong in their market
[00:00:10] and be leaders in their community. Now, on to today's show. Amanda, thanks so much
[00:00:17] for coming on The Grow Ortho Show today. Thanks for having me, Luke. Definitely.
[00:00:20] So tell us just a little bit about yourself and what you start. My heart just says ortho. And I saw a lot of need for orthodontic billing training. So I launched a orthodontic training guide at the end of last year. But that is essentially me in a nutshell. I've been in the dental space for almost two decades
[00:01:42] a long time. I was a teenager things going on behind the scenes there. I helped clean up their AR and I did that again for local practices and again and then eventually years later kind of taking that to more of a remote long-term client type of structure. When you say it's not for everybody, which I can appreciate because I think really good products
[00:03:03] or services, typically they're not for everybody. It are some offices out there that are a little disorganized and that can be tough. You kind of have to have some systems in place to be ready to outsource. Do you find that a lot of the practices you work with,
[00:04:20] you're communicating with the doctor?
[00:04:23] Or is it always someone underneath the doctor
[00:04:26] in the practice or is it both in some cases? Well, I think the major, you know, when this, when I first started the company, my goal was, I said, I wanted to alleviate the workload of the front office. I always felt like they were doing so many things and really trying to focus on patients in front of them, but also their heads down, their posting insurance checks, all of that
[00:05:42] stuff is so much that goes on behind the scenes at a front office. I left the dental space, which I'm sure you know, you've heard all about that and dealt with that and a lot of them want to work from home. I kind of always joke, like, everybody wants to work for me. That's where all the qualified billers are. Yeah. Yeah. It's the same thing with us. We have remote positions here at hip and we don't have issues finding people.
[00:07:04] Right. how much is outstanding. I think a lot of them did take a look at that during COVID when, you know, practices were closed and they were thinking, okay, we kinda need some money. What's outstanding? What do we got for outstanding claims? What can we try to collect on here? So they took a look then, and I also think that startup practices,
[00:08:20] fresh doctors out of school,
[00:08:22] they're getting pretty darn savvy
[00:08:24] with what needs to go on at the front office can't find good team members and recruiting is more difficult. I would imagine this is a massive pain point and most people don't know what's possible and they need someone like you to really help them. Right. And another thing I think sometimes, depending on the situation, we've had a lot of doctors reach out.
[00:09:40] They're like, my AR is my outstanding claims are at a million dollars.
[00:09:44] I want to collect that million.
[00:09:47] Well. in terms of training guides. So the only one that I have right now, but we are obviously working on more for 2024, is my orthodontic billing guide called Orthodontic Billing Unraveled. And this is a beginner's guide. So this probably isn't for a seasoned veteran who has been doing ortho billing for 20 years by any means,
[00:11:01] but one of the needs I was seeing was two, two.
[00:11:05] General offices starting to offer clear aligners. forms, a lot of, like I said before, things that are making our business go around. We included in there, but it's heavily focused on insurance right in the middle because that's how I wanted it to be. So it is, I've had some offices use it as a training resource for new orthodontic treatment coordinators who maybe brand new to their office because another thing I was sort of finding
[00:12:20] was at ortho offices.
[00:12:24] So the majority of dental offices out there are general offices. general dentistry, oral, pediatric. You work in all those verticals as well. Yep, we have clients across all specialties. And when we're kind of assigning account managers to our different clients, they obviously have to have had a background in that specialty. Do you find that in orthodontics,
[00:13:40] there's a lot of offices that are not in network
[00:13:44] that you still work with?
[00:13:46] Can you do you there any type of insights you guys have there? Do you refer them to someone else or do?
[00:15:00] And I only ask because there's so many people who ask us about this.
[00:15:05] So I'm just curious, your take on this there's a lot of people who live in your area. Let's say there's a big corporate player and they all have a certain insurance company. That's a great way to start looking at growth. If you find yourself in that position. I do think it's something patients certainly look forward to. You know, you're talking about parents and multiple children.
[00:16:22] Orthodontics is an expensive expense.
[00:16:25] They want to go somewhere in network where they can save as much as they can. large of a number. That's a big number. It's going to take a little while. This is not an overnight process, but we got their AR down to, I think, 3%. So that's kind of the over 90 days, 3%. And cleaned up that entire million dollars that took four months, but that's reasonable in the
[00:17:42] grand scheme of things. Like I said, not an overnight office. So one of the things that I sat down and thought of immediately was, okay, what's going to set, what's going to set us apart? This is a bit of a saturated market and we want to stand out. So everyone who is on my team has to have been a practice manager for at least seven years or a revenue cycle manager.
[00:19:00] Yes.
[00:19:01] So they have to have a lot of experience.
[00:19:03] This is not like on the job training.
[00:19:05] Everyone is here in the US.