Learn how to easily implement Dental Sleep Medicine in your practice.
A consistent lack of quality sleep can have devastating effects on your patients’ health. From bruxism to sleep apnea, a variety of ongoing sleep problems can affect people from all walks of life. imagn and Dentrix have created an integrated solution that will enable you to easily implement dental sleep medicine into your practice by removing the obstacles you may face while navigating the medical field. You can be the hero! Solve your patient’s sleep problems while your dental practice flourishes.
Why Focus on Sleep?
We all know our country is in the middle of a health crisis, and chronic illnesses are at epidemic levels. Your patients may be affected by poor health that impacts their relationships, finances, work, daily decisions, and much more. Why is health spiralling downward while we have such an advanced health care system?
Health is a complicated process, but good sleep provides an important foundation for overall health. A good night’s sleep can make a difference. And as a dentist, you can help your patients improve the quality of their sleep. Good sleep, combined with diet and exercise, can help any of us make huge strides to improve overall health.
Dentists can have a huge impact on our population’s health because of the number of patients they see in their practices. By adding dental sleep medicine, dentists can directly affect health as much as any other health provider. Appliance therapy for the night and day supports the health of the oral cavity, the airway, and the surrounding structures. Fifty percent of the signs and symptoms of sleep disorders express themselves in the mouth–an area where the dentist specializes. Dentists must understand airway health, help patients prevent pain, and reinforce proper habits to promote good sleep and healthy lifestyles. Dentists who provide conservative, preventative, and effective solutions to improve sleep can help their patients decrease the amount of medication taken and surgery needed. Now is the time to learn about how dentistry can prevent decades of health issues from piling up due to poor sleep!
Your Dental Practice and Medicine
imagn works in tandem with Dentrix to provide a seamless solution to simplify implementing dental sleep medicine into your normal patient care tasks. Medical charting and the medical billing process require additional software to keep everything easily accessible. Dentrix and other practice management software does not include all the features needed to manage sleep medicine effectively. The imagn sleep module provides screening questions, creates medical notes, coordinates sleep testing and referral information, and bills medical insurance. imagn sleep also guides the staff and doctor through the process and identifies what comes next for each patient.
Once it is installed, you can access the imagn sleep module from the Dentrix Patient’s Chart. The imagn sleep tab is next to the Clinical Notes tab at the bottom of the Patient Chart. When you click this tab, the imagn sleep panel displays the current status of the process and gives you the tools to complete the necessary steps. With electronic tablet data collection, electronic signature capture, and encrypted email communication, imagn provides the digital tools you need without leaving Dentrix so you can focus on what you do best, comprehensive dental care!
It Starts in Hygiene
The first step starts in hygiene. Just what the hygienists want to hear, right? One more thing for them to cover in their already tight appointment schedule. However, Dentrix and imagn have streamlined the process of screening, and it truly only adds a minute or two. Again, the hygienists never need to leave the Dentrix Patient Chart! Using imagn’s proprietary sleep screening, you can quickly and easily identify the patient’s likelihood of having a sleep disorder. This screening process includes an automated intraoral and extraoral exam and compiles a clinical chart note that is accepted by medical insurance. Best of all, you did not have to write the additional note for insurance.
The only way for a patient to get diagnosed for sleep apnea is to have an overnight test and be diagnosed by a boardcertified sleep specialist. Dentists cannot diagnose sleep apnea. Rules and regulations on sleep testing are state specific, but in all states a dentist can identify potential candidates and recommend sleep testing. In our experience, the most successful offices own home sleep apnea testing devices and send their patient’s home with a comfortable, easy-to-use device that they wear in their own bed. There are also multiple options that include mail order, home delivery, and local sleep labs for other solutions for testing. You can also refer a patient to a local sleep specialist.
imagn streamlines the process by coordinating the testing, integrating with the sleep device company to automate the display of the results, and sending the diagnosis and prescription to the medical insurance. Our software can input the sleep test information directly into imagn without increasing your staff’s workload.
Make Medical Billing Easier
The imagn software also includes an integrated medical billing platform which takes out the biggest stumbling block that offices face with medical billing. You can do it yourself or use the one-click medical billing process, leaving all the worry to a third-party partner. All data exchange is electronic and does not require a fax, email, or even phone calls. The medical billing display gives you a current status of pre-authorizations and claims.
imagn has advantages over other insurance billers because imagn can handle attachments and uses the efficiency in the software, thereby saving time and money. imagn medical billing platform can bill medical insurance for any procedure, not just for dental sleep medicine. Dental offices perform many other procedures that could and should be billed to medical insurance. Use imagn’s medical billing platform with Dentrix to increase revenue and maximize your practice’s potential.
When you are ready to refer a patient to a local provider for a sleep study, the referral wizard will generate faxes, secure emails, or print documents in seconds. Each can be customized as needed. The wizard saves time and provides your team with referral documentation at their fingertips. The software handles the increased communication needed to collaborate with medical partners and removes the communication hassle that can occur among providers, insurance companies, and patients.
Your team is already asked to do a lot. To be successful with dental sleep medicine, you need software that is effective and efficient. You need the information on demand. You need to be able to evaluate how the practice is doing as well as what’s next for your patients and how their health is trending. imagn sleep software automates the process as much as possible and enables you and your staff to tap into the next wave of dentistry without being saddled with extra work.
The future for a thriving dental practice includes being an integral part of a patient’s overall health plan, and that starts with improving their sleep. Helping your patients improve their sleep will improve their oral health as well as their overall health. Dental sleep medicine will strengthen your practice and increase your revenue. imagn and Dentrix can help you manage the process without adding to your or your staff’s workload. Quality sleep gives all of this the best chance to happen. Sleep changes everything.®
Learn More
For more information about imagn, visit https://www.imagnsolutions.com/.
To find other Dentrix Connected partners and solutions, visit https://www.dentrix.com/products/dentrix-connected.
The product(s) and/or service(s) described herein are provided by a third party and the content and descriptions were created by such third party. Henry Schein, Inc. or its affiliates (“HSI”) make no independent assessment of the content and descriptions provided by such third party. HSI is not responsible for, and expressly disclaims all liability for damages of any kind arising out of such third party products or services.
By Dr. Joe Magness, DDS, AADSM, ASBA, CEO, imagn Solutions
Originally published in Dentrix Magazine, Winter 2017
