Insurance is the patient’s responsibility. It is their insurance after all however, quickly and accurately verifying insurance is an opportunity to provide patients with excellent customer service.  Staying on top of insurance every day is crucial. It is vital that insurance does not backlog. Backlogs cost you time and money and reflect poorly on your practice.  When a patient receives a bill from the practice due to insurance denial it can cause an upset. Sometimes it is a front desk error, however the upset is often partially or fully due to the bill being unexpected because the patient had not been effectively educated on how...

Whenever calling or writing a patient, find out all you can about the person from a prior contact note. For instance, if the treatment chart has a notation saying the patient just had a baby, start the letter or conversation by saying: "Hi, Janet! Congratulations on your new baby! Did you have a boy or a girl?" Then gently go into the reason you're calling. It's always more effective to start a conversation or letter in this fashion. This way the patient gets the feeling that he/she is not just a dollar sign to you and that you really do care...

Your hygiene department can make or break your practice, yet most hygiene departments underproduce.

A lot of production can be "lost" to due to incorrect codes being used i.e. D4910 vs. D1110. Sometimes the hygienist and front desk person do not know how to comfortably explain the difference between D1110 vs. D4910, so they opt for the path of the least resistance because they're afraid they'll upset or lose the patient. For this reason it is vital that your hygienist and front desk be able to comfortably educate patients on the necessity of regular periodontal maintenance visits, and how that is different from a prophy. This is done by using effective case presentation techniques. Start by...