The end of the calendar year is an ideal time to evaluate different aspects of your dental practice such as production goals for the upcoming year, which insurance plans you want to continue to be contracted with, and which procedures you want to request a fee increase for the plans you are in network with. There are Dentrix reports to help you evaluate these key performance indicators and assist you in planning for a successful start for the new year.
Practice Goals Analysis
The Practice Goals Analysis Report will show you each provider’s actual production compared to their production goal. You can view this information daily, weekly, monthly, or on a yearly basis. Use this report to evaluate the provider’s performance. Did they meet or exceed their goals? Should you consider increasing their production goal for the coming year? For providers who did not meet their production goal, you will want to evaluate why. Was their goal unrealistic? Or was there a reason the provider was unable to meet their goal? For example, were there scheduling challenges or a staffing shortage that contributed to the provider producing less than expected? You will want to take these things into account when setting the provider’s production goals for next year.
Dental Insurance Payment Summary
The Dental Insurance Payment Summary Report compares the amount billed to insurance to the amount actually paid by those insurance plans. With this report you’ll also be able to see which insurance plans take the longest period of time to pay. Evaluating this report gives you the opportunity to determine which insurance plans pay the least amount and pay the slowest, and therefore may be plans your office wants to discontinue your in-network contract with. Once you’ve studied the report and made your decision about which insurance plans to continue to accept, you can write a letter to those insurance companies letting them know you want to terminate your contract.
Procedure Summary
The Procedure Summary is a helpful report in Dentrix to show you which procedure codes your office billed most often during a selected date range as well as which procedure codes generated the most revenue for your practice. You can use this report to find the top ten procedure codes your office uses, and then request a fee increase from the insurance companies your office is contracted with for those specific codes. There are occasions when an insurance company may not be willing to negotiate the entire fee schedule for your office but may consider increasing the fees for a certain number of codes. Using the Procedure Summary, you can find your office’s most popular codes; if you are able to negotiate fee increases for those codes, it would have a large impact on your practice’s revenue. The Procedure Summary has the option to include charts, which makes it easy to graphically see the top ten procedure codes used in your practice.
The end of the calendar year is a great time to consider what your practice may want to change next year to improve your bottom line. Setting attainable provider goals for the upcoming year, discovering which plans pay the least and the slowest, and finding which procedure codes need a fee increase can help start the new year on the right foot.
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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.
