Often narratives are required attachments for insurance claims. Learn where in Dentrix you can look for them when you need to attach them with your claims.
Automatic eClaims Attachments in Dentrix can help you to determine what types of attachments each insurance company requires for procedure codes. You can edit these attachments as you learn additional information that is required by the insurance companies your office works with. Dentrix will search for the required attachment and add it automatically, if it is available. If not, you will receive a reminder warning that an attachment is required.
A commonly required attachment for many procedures is a narrative. Usually, dental insurance companies require a narrative in order to process a pre-authorization or claim for certain procedures, along with an X-ray.
There are several places where you can make notes about why treatment is necessary so that your administrative team can easily attach them as a narrative to a claim or pre-authorization.
Procedure Notes
The clinical team could add the reason a procedure needs to be completed into the procedure notes. This is beneficial for a couple of reasons:
With the reason in the procedure notes, you can easily copy the reason from the procedure notes directly into the claim remarks or pre-authorization.
Procedure notes can be shown on the patient’s printed treatment case. For example, if a crown needs to be replaced because the existing crown is over 10 years old and has recurrent decay, that information could be added to the procedure note and then printed on the treatment case. This would then help to remind the patient why they need to have a crown.
Clinical Notes
Typically, the reason procedures are necessary will be noted along with the patient’s clinical notes and findings from their exam performed that day. The administrative team can then add those clinical notes as an attachment directly onto the claim or pre-authorization.
Periodontal Exam Notes
For any periodontal procedure codes (such as scaling and root planning) that need to be sent on a claim or pre-authorization to the insurance company, the hygienist can use the exam information in the Perio Chart to notate details about the patient’s periodontal health. This is a great place to notate risk factors such as smoking, and health factors like dry mouth. Perio charting probe depths and exam information can be sent as attachments with a claim or pre-authorization.
Claim Remarks
If there are common claim remarks that you often write on claims for a particular procedure code, you can create templates in Claim Remarks so that those can easily be attached to claims. For example, an office I worked with found a narrative that successfully gets them paid by insurance when they use nitrous oxide for children. They created a claim remark template so that they don’t have to continuously type the remark each time they file a claim.
As another example, you could create a claim remark template that you use for secondary claims which states that a copy of the primary EOB is attached. That way you don’t have to manually type that out for each claim.
Files from the Document Center
There may be times that you need to write a lengthier narrative to attach to a claim or pre-authorization. Or you may need to write an appeal letter to a claim or pre-authorization that has previously been denied. You can write the letter in any program you normally use for writing letters, and save a copy of the letter to the patient’s Document Center. Then, it can be easily attached to a claim by attaching it from the Document Center, acquiring it from a file on your computer and attaching it to the claim, or even by using the Screen Capture feature to add the narrative.
Narratives are something that insurance companies commonly require in order to consider procedures on claims and pre-authorizations. When you use the Automatic eClaims Attachments feature, Dentrix will search the procedure codes you are creating a claim for and attempt to add a narrative if required. If Dentrix can’t find a narrative, you’ll receive a reminder that a narrative is required for the code you’re submitting. At that point, you can refer to the different places mentioned above to find information and notes you can attach as the narrative, depending on the type of procedure completed and your preference.
Learn More
For additional information, read the following:
- Add Required Attachments to Claims Automatically
- Entering or Editing Procedure Notes
- Attaching Clinical Notes
- Importing and Attaching Perio Chart Exams
- Sending Attachments Electronically
- Creating and Using Claim Remark Templates in Dentrix
- Attaching Documents and eEOBs to Patients Using the Dentrix Document Center
- Using Screen Capture for Claim Attachments
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.
