There are times that it seems like dental insurance plans are becoming more complicated and difficult to keep up with for your patients. With different maximums for procedure categories, rollover maximums, downgrades for procedures, frequency limitations, and age limitations to keep up with, it can become overwhelming. While most dental offices accept payment from insurance companies as a courtesy to patients without accepting responsibility for what the insurance does or doesn’t pay, dental practices also try to provide patients with the most accurate estimates and information. This is a service to your patients. If dental insurance plans become difficult for your office team to understand, can you imagine what it must be like for your patients?
A trend that seems to be becoming more popular with insurance plans is to have separate maximums and deductibles for certain procedure categories. In the past it’s been common to have a separate maximum and deductible for orthodontics, but it’s now becoming popular with other procedure categories such as implants.
You can track these separate maximums and deductibles in Dentrix in order to provide your patients with accurate estimates for these types of services. You have the ability to create custom maximums and deductibles in the Dental Insurance Benefits and Coverage dialog box. In the current version of Dentrix, you are able to view those custom maximums at a glance in the Family File.
By being able to easily view these custom maximums, you can quickly see if there are separate maximums for certain procedures. Then, when you treatment plan procedures in those categories for the patient, you’ll know they apply to a different maximum, and you can be sure the treatment plan you present to the patient reflects that information.
Providing accurate treatment plan estimates, including different maximums for procedure categories becomes especially important when a patient may be waiting to proceed with necessary treatment until the next calendar year because they are close to meeting their annual maximum. If a patient needs a root canal, crown, and an implant to be placed, for example, they may postpone the implant placement and use their insurance benefits for the root canal and crown. However, due to a separate implant maximum, they could do all the treatment in the same calendar year. Not only does this result in the patient being able to complete more of the treatment that they need in a timely manner but can also result in increased production for your practice.
With dental insurance plans becoming more complex, you need a way to track annual maximums for different procedure categories, such as orthodontics or implants. You can create custom maximums in Dentrix and view them easily at a glance in order to provide your patients with more accurate estimates.
Learn More
For additional information, read the following:
- Adding Deductible Types
- Adding Maximum Types
- Using Dental Plan Maximums in the Treatment Planner
- Make Treatment Estimates Less Overwhelming for Patients
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 [email protected].
