For your patients that may mean better care and coverage, but it also means understanding new benefits. For your staff, it could mean time spent verifying new insurance plans and benefits for existing clients. This doesn’t have to be the time consuming and daunting task that causes your staff to hunker down indefinitely. With automated insurance verification, you can help alleviate some of the dental insurance verification challenges presented by insurance providers and plan changes.
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One of the first questions you likely ask patients as they schedule a new appointment is whether there have been any changes to the patient’s dental insurance. Those changes are important as they change what treatments and procedures are covered, co-pays, and more.
Of course, it’s great when a patient is aware that there has been a change due to:
However, in a few of those instances, patients may not be aware of changes. For example, an employer may have stayed with an insurance carrier but changed plans and that can also impact benefits. This can make insurance verification difficult and confusing, especially if the changes impact co-pays or coverage and the patient doesn’t know until the day of the appointment.
As a dental practice, handling dental insurance changes can be time consuming. Often, it requires gathering new data from the patient and coordinating with the insurer. This is more time your staff is tied up on the phone verifying coverage and updating information.
Additionally, if there are major changes, it may impact existing treatment plans or scheduled procedures.
As for your patients, whether the insurance change comes as a surprise or not, coverage and co-pay changes may be shocking, especially if it’s something their insurance covered in the past. Similarly, if there’s a sudden increase in co-pays, it may limit their ability to complete scheduled procedures.
And this is where it gets cyclical. These changes can then adversely impact your revenue and cash flow, especially if those changes aren’t realized until days before the appointment.
Often, changes to dental insurance involve changes to the types of care provided and the amount of coverage: preventive, basic, major restorative, and orthodontics. In addition to the type of coverage, changes also often include the amount that is covered.
For example, many plans cover 100% of preventative care, 80% of basic care, and 50% of major restorative care. Often, orthodontics are not covered or only covered in a superficial way unless there is a medical issue compounding the need for orthodontic work.
In short, common changes typically encompass the type of care, such as not covering major restorative work, or the amount such as severely limiting what is covered and when. For example, patients who need multiple major procedures may have to space those out over multiple years to ensure dental insurance covers it in part, if at all.
One of the best tools to help your staff and your patients navigate dental insurance benefit changes is automated insurance verification software. While the obvious benefit is the amount of time it saves your staff from phoning insurance providers to get updated information, the benefits go well beyond that, especially when it comes to changes in dental insurance providers or plans.
In addition to those benefits, automated dental insurance verification can also help:
If you’re ready to help your patients make the most of their benefits while improving the accuracy, efficiency, and revenue generation of your dental practice, book a demo with the iCoreConnect team. We’re ready to talk about how we can help your staff and patients effectively navigate the insurance landscape.