Blog Posts

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.

The Most Common Questions Endodontic Patients Ask About Root Canals

10/15/2023

Endodontists perform many root canals every day, so most practitioners understand them inside and out. For patients, however, root canals often seem daunting and unfamiliar. Providing thorough and clear explanations can help patients feel comfortable enough to schedule their needed endodontic treatment, which not only improves their dental health, but also leads to a more lucrative endodontic practice. Increase profitability and efficacy by addressing endodontic patients’ five most common questions:

How do I know if I need a root canal?

Many symptoms may point to the need for endodontic intervention. Teeth requiring root canals typically have had severe decay, infection, or traumatic injury, which may cause noticeable issues. Symptoms to watch for include a severe toothache, especially when chewing or applying pressure to the affected tooth; sensitivity to hot or cold; a persistent pustule on the gums near the tooth; discoloration of the tooth; and/or swelling or tenderness in the surrounding gum tissue. Patients experiencing any of these symptoms should seek help from a qualified endodontist as soon as possible, and the endodontist will confirm whether the tooth requires a root canal. Will a root canal hurt? Root canals do not have to cause pain! Instead, modern procedures typically ease any discomfort created by infection or damage to the nerves inside the tooth pulp. Endodontists can also help relieve post-operative pain thanks to their special training in pain management.

What can I expect during a root canal?

Here is a summary of the procedure: First, an endodontist takes radiographs to help guide them through the internal tooth structure. Then, they numb the site and place a dental dam over the tooth to prevent spreading bacteria. Next, the endodontist drills an access hole in the chewing surface of the tooth. The internal structures of the tooth are then thoroughly cleaned, shaped, and filled in. Once the pulp chamber and roots have been filled, the dentist covers the opening with a temporary filling. After a few weeks, the patient will return for the final step – receiving a crown to permanently close the area. How long does recovery take? Recovery time varies slightly from case to case. Generally, patients experience mild tenderness for a few days, usually limited to the treatment area. Endodontists address this with over the counter or prescription pain relievers. Such discomfort should not last more than a week. Patients who experience severe pain, significant swelling, or loss of a temporary filling, must contact their endodontist as soon as possible.

Why not just pull my tooth instead of a root canal?

While some advanced cases require tooth extraction rather than a root canal, keeping original teeth reduces bone loss, and can prevent the need for costly implants or dentures. Tooth loss is also associated with higher rates of malnutrition, especially among elderly populations. Therefore, saving teeth with endodontic treatment can benefit a patient’s overall health and longevity. With that in mind, endodontists avoid extracting teeth whenever possible.

3 Lucrative Procedures All Endodontists Can Offer to Increase Profit

9/21/2023

At SB Dental Solutions Dental Billing Company, we aim to boost the bottom-line for our many clients. We focus on assisting Endodontic Practices to reach their full income potential using optimal endodontic dental billing strategies. Despite playing a vital role in a patient’s healthcare team, Endodontists sometimes get boxed into the same few basic treatments. But offering new procedures can be easy and profitable, even for the most niche of dental specialists. Take the following endodontic treatment enhancements for example:

Internal Bleaching
Whitening therapies that work on the outside of the enamel, like toothpastes, rinses, and gels, only treat the surface of the teeth. But Endodontists know that discoloration can go much deeper. A tooth with infected or dead pulp will often look dingier than its neighboring healthy teeth. Teeth that darken following injury or disease don't respond to traditional whitening treatments, but Endodontists can easily solve the problem by adding internal bleaching as an optional addition to Root Canal Therapy. Since the tooth’s root has already been exposed for necessary endodontic treatment, why not help improve its appearance at the same time?

Laser Dentistry
Numerous different dental and surgical lasers have come out recently, increasing their availability and affordability. What’s more, both patients and providers report better results from laser therapy than from traditional treatments. Lasers cauterize soft tissue, producing less blood than a scalpel and improving recovery time. And with Fewer or no shots to administer, Endodontists can economize while helping anxious patients feel more comfortable. That’s why patients often seek out providers who offer laser dentistry, making this technology as profitable as it is advanced.

Oral Sedation
Offering sedation dentistry may seem impractical, considering the added complication and expense required to bring in a qualified anesthesiologist. Many endodontists try to get by without offering sedation at all, relying instead on laughing gas to help calm their anxious patients. However, many patients (especially children and the developmentally delayed) require additional assistance during complex dental procedures. How can Endodontists cater to this demographic with the least cost and hassle? With just a little continuing education, any endodontist can perform semi-conscious oral sedation in-office. Using medications like Demerol or Versed, dentists can relax anxious patients far more effectively than they can with nitrous oxide alone. Best of all, patients can be monitored in-office by existing staff, without requiring additional practitioners.

How Our Dental Billing Service Solves 3 Common Dental Office Disasters

6/28/2023

Dental billing is often frustrating and can determine the productivity of a dental practice if staff members spend precious time and energy redoing their work to correct mistakes. No wonder problems crop up, since most dental offices are staffed with dental professionals, not billing and finance specialists, and dental billing keeps getting more complicated. That’s why many dental practices are turning to outsourced teams of specialists, like SB Dental Solutions, to handle their billing and coding responsibilities. Along with simplifying the dental billing process for both dentists and patients, outsourcing also solves other common problems faced by most dental offices.

1. Inaccurate Patient Portion Estimates, Fixed! When patients receive their initial treatment estimates, they expect their resulting bills to match. Unfortunately, offices often underestimate the patient’s final portion, causing frustration, anxiety, and frequently, an unpaid dental bill. Inaccurate estimates result from many intersecting variables, including incorrect insurance breakdowns, errors during the filing process, and more. When a trusted, team of dental billing specialists provides both cost estimates and final bills, there’s a much lower risk of inconsistencies. Knowledgeable billing specialists can devote all the time necessary to decipher and confirm each detail and deliver accurate cost estimates.

2. Confusing Customer Questions, Clarified! Patients calling into their dental office with billing questions might not consistently get reliable answers. Unpredictable customer service costs dentists valuable time and money and might even drive patients to seek another dental provider. But with our billing solution, patients benefit from qualified billing experts who can accurately break down their bills. Patients appreciate receiving consistent, correct, and clear answers straight from knowledgeable billing professionals.

3. Gridlock & Slow Cashflow, Cleared Up! Outsourcing increases accuracy and lowers the cost of labor compared to in-house billing, which frees up capital for dental practices to use elsewhere. Dentists also save the money that they'd otherwise spend to purchase dental billing software. Additionally, dentists frequently encounter bottlenecked cashflow because of inefficient billing practices, causing the business to struggle. On the other hand, using dedicated billing management through a specially trained team results in a faster, smoother billing process than in-house billing.

Outsourcing enables practices to better manage their assets and keep on top of any potential problems along the way. More Time for What Matters: The Patient Spending too much time on billing issues reduces the amount of time available to focus on delivering excellent patient care. Our services can help you to better focus your attention where it belongs. Call us to learn more about our dedicated dental billing professionals today.

How Dental Billing Services Make Taxes Simpler

6/11/2023

B Dental Solutions Dental Billing Company offers comprehensive billing services from insurance claims to patient statements. Since we’re all about dental billing, you may not know what a difference we can make to the process of filing your taxes. While we don’t file for you, taxation does play a significant role in dental practice finances, so we seek to support our clientele as much as possible, particularly during the dreaded tax season. We keep thorough and accessible financial records to help simplify tax filing and financial auditing. We also encourage our clients to work with trustworthy, well-informed accountants with whom we are happy to collaborate. Adding SB Dental Billing to your financial team can help to ensure a smooth, cost-effective, and worry-free tax season.

US Tax Changes That Could Affect Dentists
With each new presidential administration, various changes always take place. President Biden has proposed changes to the US tax code, many of which will affect dental offices. Staying informed can help prevent unpleasant surprises come next tax season, and as financial advocates in the world of dental billing, we found the following summary of changes, particularly helpful (original source https://www.dentistryiq.com/):

The top individual income tax rate for taxable incomes above $400,000 will change from 37% to 39.6%.
Congress will pass a 12.4% old age, survivors, and disability insurance (Social Security) payroll tax on income earned above $400,000, to be evenly split between employers and employees.
There will be caps on the tax benefit of itemized deductions to 28% of value for those earning more than $400,000. This means that taxpayers earning above that income threshold with tax rates higher than 28% will face limited itemized deductions.
The Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) will expand from a maximum of $3,000 in qualified expenses to $8,000 ($16,000 for multiple dependents) and the maximum reimbursement rate will increase from 35% to 50%.
The corporate income tax rate will increase from 21% to 28%.

It’s Your Call
Don’t leave your dental office finances up to chance. Stay safe, relaxed, and informed with a trustworthy financial expert in your corner. Call SB Dental Solutions Dental Billing Company today for more information on how we make dental billing a breeze.