Maintain healthy cash flow by streamlining when billing statements are sent to patients using QuickBill Premium options.
Sending billing statements is an important task to perform in your dental practice in order to maintain a healthy cash flow. Patients may not be aware that they have a balance, and if they are aware, they may need a reminder to pay their balance. Here are some tips for when and how you can send billing statements so your office can get paid faster.
I suggest sending billing statements immediately after an insurance plan has paid and the patient has a remaining balance due. Don’t wait until your next regular monthly billing cycle—that will only extend the time it takes to collect the payment. When you generate billing statements, there’s an option you can select to only include guarantors who have not received a statement since a selected date. When sending your regular monthly billing statements, you can select a date two weeks prior to the date you are sending new statements. That way you won’t send a statement to a guarantor that just received one.
While we’re on the subject of billing statement options, I suggest selecting the option to print a due date on the statements. This can create a sense of urgency when the patient reviews their statement. If you aren’t printing a due date, your statement may end up at the bottom of the pile of bills to be paid, delaying the payment to your office.
Another option you can set is to send a copy of the billing statement to the patient’s Document Center. This makes it easier to see exactly what has been sent to the patient and answer any questions because you can quickly open the same statement they received.
If you’re using QuickBill Premium, there are several ways you can send statements to your patients: by mail, by email, and by text message (or any combination of the three). Ask patients what their billing statement preferences are, and set those preference in the Family File. The email and text message options allow patients to pay their balance online if your office uses WorldPay for credit card processing. This is an exciting option because people tend to pay most of their bills online at a time that’s convenient for them, in the evenings or over the weekend. By allowing them to pay your office this way, you will receive your payments more quickly.
When sending statements using QuickBill Premium by mail, email, or text message, you can reference the Electronic Statement Submission History in the Dentrix Office Manager to see when the last statement was sent to guarantors as well as the status of the statement. You can also view this information in the Family File. If a patient calls with questions about their statement, I recommend opening the Electronic Statement Submission History in their Family File so you can quickly and easily see how their statement was sent, when it was sent, and the status of the statement. Having access to this report can help you answer questions about their balance and ultimately collect their payment.
Sending billing statements can help your office to maintain a healthy cash flow. Try using Dentrix QuickBill Premium so patients can pay their bill online and your practice can get paid faster.
Learn More
For additional information, read the following :
- Bill & Collect by Text, Email, or Mail
- Use QuickBill Premium to Send Billing Statements via Mail, Email, Text—or Any Combination of the Three!
- Changing the Default Delivery Method of Statements
- Using the “If Not Billed Since” Option when Generating Billing Statements
- Sending a Copy of Billing Statement to Document Center Automatically
- Electronic Statement Submission History
By Charlotte Skaggs
Certified Dentrix Trainer and The Dentrix Office Manager columnist
Charlotte Skaggs is the founder of Vector Dental Consulting LLC, a practice management firm focused on taking offices to the next level. Charlotte co-owned and managed a successful dental practice with her husband for 17 years. She has a unique approach to consulting based on the perspective of a practice owner. Charlotte has been using Dentrix for over 20 years and is a certified Dentrix trainer. Contact Charlotte at vectordentalconsulting@gmail.com.
