Blog - SB Dental Solutions

Cost-Saving Tips for Greener Dental Practices

5/5/2024

Making dentistry more environmentally friendly can be as easy as choosing one brand of disposable cups over another. Patients appreciate efforts to protect the environment, and less waste often results in saving money. In fact, eco-friendly practices can even increase overall profit for a dental office. At SB Dental Solutions Dental Billing Company, we would like to assist our clients in running efficient, effective, and ethical practices, and as such, the following sustainable choices could offer a great start:

Give Out Bamboo Brushes
Americans discard about one billion plastic toothbrushes worldwide per year. While plastic toothbrushes offer an inexpensive, waterproof, antimicrobial tool for home dental hygiene, plastic pollution also poses a serious threat to the environment. Once discarded, plastic doesn’t biodegrade over time but continues to clog up our landfills, cities, and waterways. A low-cost alternative to plastic, bamboo toothbrushes are tooth-healthy and eco-friendly. Bamboo offers a sturdy, affordable, sustainable material that’s already found in green products from toilet tissue to t-shirts – and now biodegradable toothbrushes.

Reduce Single-Use Plastics
Purchase reusable, stainless-steel prophy heads, which can be sterilized and reused, instead of disposable ones. Paying more upfront for high-quality reusable supplies instead of regularly replacing cheap single-use attachments, eventually pays for itself. Similarly, always use stainless-steel surgical and endodontic suction tips rather than plastic. Dentists may also switch to recycled and/or recyclable paper products including patient bibs, surgical masks, and disposable cups.

Prevent Pollution
Install secondary filters within your pump and drainage systems to stop heavy metal particles from entering wastewater. These filters reduce about 68% of toxic runoff and can even be used to recover and recycle dental amalgam. In addition to reducing waste and pollution, using recaptured material also decreases the costs, saving dental offices a good deal of money over time.

For additional cost-effective dental billing and practice tips, call SB Dental Solutions Dental Billing Company today.

Beat Burnout with Better Dental Billing

4/16/2024

Successful Practices Empower their Employees
From hygienists to receptionists, a dental practice only works when every staff member feels empowered to succeed. Sadly, when it comes to dental billing, many otherwise effective dental teams fall behind. Companies that manage dental billing the old-fashioned way, with in-house employees juggling everything from credentialing to accounts receivable, quickly suffer from inefficiency and staff burnout. When team members feel overwhelmed, errors start showing up, and dentists lose revenue due to avoidable dental claims denials, lapsed filing periods, and missing or incorrect information.

Dental Billing Burnout
Burnout is a state of chronic emotional and physical exhaustion due to work-related stressors. Studies indicate that dental professionals and auxiliaries suffer from astronomically high rates of burnout compared to similar workplaces.

According to one study from the Oral and Dental Research Institute, some of the main contributors to burnout in the dental industry are:

1. A heavy workload
2. A lack of support
3. A lack of resources

By nature, dentistry requires a fast-paced, heavy workload. Moreover, most dental practices rely on revenue from many different dental insurance companies and patient payers. Because of the complexity of dental billing, each new dental patient exponentially increases the staff's total workload. That leaves booming dental offices only two options: fall behind and risk burnout or take some of the extra work off the team's shoulders.

Set Your Staff Free
Fortunately, SB Dental Solution Dental Billing can free teams from the burden of dental billing while improving their accuracy and efficiency. Our clients spend less time and energy fighting dental insurance companies, so they can spend more time on what really matters: caring for their patients. Empower your staff to serve more patients with less stress. After all, a thriving dental practice depends on a thriving team.

Earning with Endodontics: Increase Profit by Assessing Risk

3/27/2024

As dedicated endodontic billing specialists, we at SB Dental Solutions Dental Billing Company are devoted to improving the success of our endodontist clients. In endodontic practices, wasted chair time means a lot of lost income. That’s why it’s so important to do some cost-benefit analysis before planning endodontic procedures. Endodontists can use chair time more efficiently if they avoid starting a procedure that won’t ultimately work. Moreover, risk assessment helps endodontists avoid putting patients through potentially painful, costly, and time-intensive treatments, only to end up extracting the tooth.
Planning and completing effective endodontic work turns a profit and protects patient wellbeing, whereas retreating or referring a patient after failed endodontic intervention just wastes everyone’s time. Even lucrative cases sometimes end up losing profit due to inefficiently budgeted chair time.
Before planning time-intensive endodontic procedures, determine if the patient would be better off with a simpler intervention. To start out, endodontists should consider the following variables to evaluate the risks vs rewards of a given endodontic procedure:

The Condition of the Specific Tooth -

Maybe the tooth is super calcified, the decay is too close to the nerve, or there’s a crown on the tooth. Any of these, or other conditions, could change a general dentist’s ability to successfully perform endodontic treatment and may even necessitate an alternate treatment method from Endodontic Specialists.

The Behavior of the Patient -

A patient who cannot sit still, who won’t open their mouth for the needed period of time, or who has a lot of anxiety may require sedation or a quicker, less invasive treatment to prevent the need for multiple, unsuccessful visits. Attempting more elaborate, higher paid procedures, may actually cost more in the long run, if a patient’s behavior makes treatment impossible to complete.

Radiograph Quality -

A basic review of radiographs can prevent a lot of wasted chair time. Endodontists frequently work from x-rays taken by referring dentists, but unfortunately, digital radiographs can lose quality during the transfer process. In those cases, consider retaking unclear radiographs to ensure effective treatment planning.

When endodontists optimize their chair time, the profitability of their practice skyrockets. Additionally, SB Dental Solutions can help our clients discover other potential revenue improvements through our business consultation services. Click here to learn more about increasing profitability with Better Endodontic Dental Billing.

Stay Informed: The Changing Face of Endodontic Billing

3/3/2024

Is your practice keeping up with the times when it comes to endodontic dental billing? Endodontic billing presents a completely unique set of challenges compared to general dentistry. Understanding insurance plans, medical and dental codes and endodontic claims submission is vital to running a successful endodontic practice. But since codes, benefits, and claims requirements change annually, staying apprised of current conditions can feel like another full-time job in itself.

“If We Only Knew!” Information Increases Revenue
For example, endodontic therapy used to be identified and billed according to the number of involved canals. Now, however, insurance claims reimburse based only on the treated tooth. Numbers of canals are not specified within the descriptors of an anterior, bicuspid, or molar. This major shift occurred not too long ago, and it threw many unsuspecting providers for a loop.
Keeping up with changes in endodontic billing prevents claims denials and ensures that endodontists can receive the correct compensation for their work.

Another common way that endodontists lose potential revenue is by not billing medical codes. Many dental offices hesitate to bill medical codes because, as dentists, they are not as familiar with the rules of medical insurance or which medical codes can be billed to dental insurance. A well-informed billing advocate can close this gap and ensure fair reimbursement for services rendered.

An Endodontic Billing Advocate
That’s where SB Dental Solution Dental Billing Company comes in. We keep current on all endodontic billing requirements as they change and work with our clients to help them understand changes. Additionally, we keep our clients informed and ensure that dentists receive the best possible compensation from dental insurance companies by regularly renegotiating their fee schedules, a critical aspect of any endodontic practice that often gets missed by overloaded office staff. We handle all this and more so that our clients can rest easy without worrying about the changes and complexities of endodontic dental billing.

What does it Mean to Specialize in Endodontic Billing?

2/1/2024

Endodontic billing presents a unique set of challenges compared to general dentistry. But Spending too much time sorting out billing issues reduces the amount of time available to focus on delivering excellent patient care. That’s why SB Dental Solutions Dental Billing company offers specialized billing services geared toward the unique world of Endodontic Specialists. Our focused endodontic billing services offer a host of benefits for endodontic offices, such as:

Cutting the Busywork
Endodontists can reduce paperwork and procedure by turning them over to us. We handle all electronic claim attachments, denied claims, EOBs, and account receivable aging. We also update insurance records, renegotiate insurance fees, and renew your dental insurance credentialing automatically. Endodontic professionals can breathe easy, knowing their billing needs are being expertly managed by reliable specialists.

Staying Informed
Understanding insurance plans, medical and dental codes, and endodontic claims submission is very important to running a successful endodontic practice. But since codes, benefits, and claims requirements change annually, staying apprised can desire another full-time job by itself. But never fear, SB Dental Solution Dental Billing Company can help. We keep current on all endodontic billing requirements as they modify and work with our clients to help them understand changes. maintaining with changes in endodontic billing prevents claims denials and ensures that endodontists can receive the right compensation for his or her work.

Understanding and Experience
We have been meeting the precise needs of Endodontists and their staff for years. Our experienced staff members have the expertise needed to streamline the Endodontic Billing process with proven practices that get results. we offer straightforward patient portion information, hands-off management of dental insurance contracts, accessible EOB digitizing, and simple payment options.

Less Time, More Money
In-house endodontic billing requires a major time investment with minimal payoff. allow us to require the burden of insurance & patient billing. we are able to help increase insurance payouts, reduce claims denials, and eliminate past 90-day outstanding balances, so you'll relax and find back to what’s really important – providing excellent endodontic care.

New Year, New Fees: Audit Your Dental Fee Schedule the Easy Way

1/4/2024

When is the last time your practice took a good long look at its fee schedule? Updating dental fee schedules regularly (every 1 or 2 years) can improve your returns from dental billing by ensuring that your dental fees always:

Keep up with inflation.
Stay competitive with other dental practices in your area.
And get the most out of dental claim reimbursements.

Unfortunately, busy dental offices often put off updating their fees. Considering the large number of procedure codes and insurance companies to deal with, reassessing the practice’s fee schedule on top of running normal day-to-day operations often feels like an impossible task. On the other hand, operating with an outdated dental fee schedule is like flushing potential revenue down the toilet. Thankfully, we at SB Dental Solutions Dental Billing Company can help simplify the process of an annual fee schedule audit.

Let Dental Billing Experts Do the Hard Part for You!

SB Dental Solutions takes many of the most laborious parts of an annual fee schedule review off of our clients’ plates. We handle negotiations with dental insurance companies, which frees dental practices from spending hours on the phone tracking down a current fee schedule from each contracted insurance provider. Once we have successfully renegotiated the fee schedule, we enter all changes electronically. Next, we update patient portion estimates according to current insurance fees. And finally, we offer patient consultation, which can help patients understand changing fees and avoid frustration over dental billing questions.

So What’s Your Part as the Dental Provider?

Straightforward Patient Communication

Clear and honest communication promotes consumer trust, especially for dental patients. Dentists can prevent a lot of patient frustration by informing patients of fee schedule changes and what (if any) differences they may see in their upcoming costs. Openly communicate fee schedule changes to help patients feel confident in the accuracy of their dental bills during the annual fee schedule review process -- and always!

Reexamine How You Code Procedures

Dental treatments often involve multiple overlapping tasks, and that complexity leads to equally complicated billing questions. That is why reevaluating your dental coding practices is a vital part of the annual fee schedule review. Dentists must periodically:

Examine each procedure for accurate, error-free claims submission.
Stay informed of any changes to ICD-10 procedure codes.
And retrain staff on current billing practices, as needed.

Give Your Office a Great Start to the New Year
By regularly adjusting their fee schedules, our clients stay ahead of the pack with stress-free revenue cycles, optimal insurance claim reimbursement, and current competitive procedure costs. Call our 24-hour help team today to find out how we can help get your new year off to a great start.

Better Dental Billing – 4 More Ways We Can Improve Your Dental Practice

12/5/2023

The expert staff at SB Dental Solutions Dental Billing Company always helps our clients achieve a level of productivity and success they could not reach before. We pride ourselves on offering many dental billing benefits, including some of the ones listed below.

1. More Accurate Billing

Dental billing is often confusing and might undermine the productivity of a practice if staff members need to spend precious time and energy redoing their work to correct mistakes. Unfortunately, dental professionals can quickly find themselves out of their depth when trying to navigate multiple dental insurance companies and hundreds upon hundreds of dental codes. What’s more, the area of dental billing just gets more and more complicated each year. From submitting claims to patient portion estimates, each complex aspect of the dental billing process gets more accurate and efficient with specialized dental billing professionals on the job.

2. No More Burnout

Burnout presents a true challenge for flourishing dental practices. When team members feel overwhelmed by complicated billing procedures, errors increase, and practices lose revenue. Furthermore, burnout may cause massive staff turnover, making a capable team difficult to hold on to. Fortunately, SB Dental Solution Dental Billing Company can relieve teams from the burden of dental billing in addition to improving their billing accuracy and efficiency. Our clients spend less time and effort fighting dental insurance companies, so they can focus on what really matters: caring for patients.

3. Less Gridlock

Dental offices frequently encounter bottlenecked cashflow because of inefficient billing practices, causing the business to struggle. Thankfully, applying committed billing administration procedures with a specially trained team like ours results in a speedier, smoother billing process than with in-house billing. We achieve this by increasing claim accuracy, executing timely denial escalation, improving patient portion estimates, and streamlining the reimbursement process. Outsourcing enables practices to carefully handle their assets and nip potential problems in the bud, giving practices more control over their financial success.

4. Easily Introduce Medical Insurance Billing
Some dentists assume that medical insurance hardly ever covers dental care, but in fact, they frequently consider many dental, surgical, and endodontic, procedures. In fact, health insurance plans now include more dentistry than ever, so now could be the time to begin sending dental claims through medical insurance. Though the unfamiliar world of Medical Insurance intimidates many dental practices, SB Dental Billing Solutions can easily help implement this lucrative, patient-friendly billing practice, with little-to-no additional work for the dentist and staff.

Want to improve your office with better dental billing? Give us a call to find out how.

Modern Dental Technology: How Laser Therapy Changes Endodontic Dental Billing

11/27/2023

Laser Dental Treatment: The Future of Endodontic Treatment?

A wide variety of dental and surgical lasers have hit the markets in recent years, increasing their availability and affordability. Laser-assisted endodontics can help with even the trickiest endodontic cases and techniques. What’s more, both patients and providers report better results from laser therapy than from traditional treatments. But figuring out how insurances reimburse laser procedures is one of the primary difficulties in adding laser dentistry to an endodontic practice. However, with the right help, specialists can benefit from laser technology without disturbing their endodontic billing process.

Some Benefits of Laser Dentistry Positive patient experiences with less vibration and pressure. Lasers cauterize soft tissue, producing less blood than a scalpel. Fewer or no shots to administer. Less painful than traditional Endodontic treatment, with some patients reporting no pain. Reduced post-op swelling and bleeding at the treatment site. Faster healing and recovery. Ideal for patients with high anxiety about dental treatment.

Considering all of these advantages and more, many endodontists have switched to laser dentistry to make treatment easier on their patients. However, some endodontists hold back because of the unknowns of endodontic billing for laser-assisted procedures.

How to Bill Laser Dentistry Fortunately, those looking to add laser treatment usually need not worry about learning tons of new codes or navigating major endodontic billing differences. Typically, offices can bill procedures as they normally would without a laser, and they need not indicate the laser on insurance forms. Like a drill or scalpel, a laser is a tool used to perform or assist in performing a procedure, rather than the procedure itself, meaning dental codes stay the same from one tool to the next.

While endodontic/dental treatment codes generally stay the same, hygiene codes often do vary between traditional therapies and laser-assisted preventive care. As such, general dentists can increase their revenue by sending laser specific claims to dental insurance companies. In addition, each state’s pricing and insurance rules differ, so dental offices must follow the unique regulations and laws in the state where they practice.

Simplify Laser Endodontic Billing Endodontists and billing staff don’t need to navigate this transition alone. If your office is trying to integrate laser treatment, SB Dental Billing Solutions can help ensure correct endodontic dental billing right from the start.

End-of-the-Year Dental Billing Headaches and How to Avoid Them

11/12/2023

The end of the year presents dentists and patients with many difficulties in navigating the confusing world of dental billing. From employers switching dental insurance companies to patients exhausting their dental benefits, the unique insurance hiccups that happen this time of year often result in unhappy patients, denied claims, and overextended staff. Thankfully, some of the most common year-end dental billing headaches can be mitigated by pay attention to a few specifics:

    1. Open Enrollment and Updated Benefits Many companies hold open enrollment in November and December, so this time of year often leads to surprise plan terminations and dental claim denials. Meanwhile, many existing plans modify the coming year’s benefits. Dentists can streamline the dental billing process by alerting their patients to open enrollment season and collecting next year’s dental insurance information ahead of time. By maintaining updated information, we keep the billing process working smoothly through the open enrollment season and the New Year. Similarly, getting ahead of the game helps us accurately verify coverage, which further prevents denials and unpaid patient portions.

  2. Tracking Insurance Maximums Patients generally don’t know the annual max on their insurance plan, but dental insurance companies track this number like a bloodhound. Unfortunately, that often results in denied dental claims, especially on work completed toward the end of the year, when patients begin to reach their annual max. However, our clients have an advantage because our dental billing service helps track insurance payouts. Once practices know that their patient has met their max, they can schedule future appointments after January 1st, allowing the max to reset and fully reimburse the dentist for their work.

  3. Informed Patients Stay Satisfied. Satisfied Patients Pay Fairly. The complexity of dental insurance baffles most people. When patients feel blindsided by unexpected out-of-pocket costs, they sometimes stop trusting their dentist, avoid payment, or even seek a different provider. At no time is this more apparent than at the turn of a new year when maximums and deductibles reset, plan benefits change, and new dental insurance companies come into play.

Providing comprehensive treatment plans can help bridge the provider-patient information gap, but treatment planning alone is not enough. Patients may need help understanding concepts like copays, deductibles, maximums, and coverage levels. Offer simple, jargon-free information to prevent delayed payment and keep patients satisfied.

Dental Billing Solutions Made Easy As dental practices educate their patients, we at SB Dental Billing Solutions support them with current insurance fee schedules and on-demand consultation. Together with our clients, we tackle the beast of year-end dental insurance issues effortlessly.

What is the Best Way to Reduce Dental Appointment No-Shows?

10/24/2023

No-shows can be incredibly frustrating for dental practices. Sometimes, last-minute cancellations are genuine mistakes, or have legitimate reasons. Regardless of why someone misses an appointment, the result is the same: Lost Money and Time. To minimize this issue, we’ll share our strategic steps to reducing dental appointment no-shows:

If you want patients to value your time, value theirs as well.
It's essential to show patients that you value their time. Work on reducing wait times and ensure prompt appointments. When patients feel their time is respected, they are more likely to keep their appointments and be considerate of your schedule. This builds trust and improves the overall patient experience while maximizing practice efficiency.

Offer Incentives Giving incentives to patients who consistently show up on time is an effective strategy for reducing no-shows and fostering a positive patient-provider relationship.
These incentives can come in various forms like goodie bags or gift cards. No one would say no to a 5$ Starbucks gift card just for showing up on time to the dentist. However, sometimes the most powerful incentives are non-material in nature. A heartfelt thank-you from the dentist for a patient's punctuality can go a long way in building trust and a strong foundation

Have an effective confirmation process

One of the most tedious aspects of running a dental practice is the constant need to make multiple appointment reminder calls to a patient. The patient might be in a business meeting, out with family, or just not have the habit of checking their phone. Our studies have shown that 80% of confirmation calls went to home answering machines unchecked. That’s why we recommend a robust automated appointment confirmation service. Confirming appointments in advance through emails and texts significantly reduces the likelihood of patients missing their scheduled visits. Incorporating automatic confirmation also gives your patients the power to handle booking changes, which cuts down on time wasted playing “phone tag”. Luckily for any of our current and future clients, SB Dental Solution is launching our own appointment confirmation service. With it, you can count on improved punctuality, reduced cancellations, and a more efficient dental practice.

Check out our Services page or contact us for more information.