
I believe that one of the most helpful features of dental practice management software systems is the ability to manage insurance information. Insurance can be very complicated, but your practice software can make it less complicated by helping you organize the insurance plans of your patients.
Unfortunately, in many practices the insurance aspect of the software ends up being in complete disarray. Often every time a patient is entered into the software a new insurance plan is created. This creates a few issues.
- More Time Consuming. There are a lot of details that need to be entered for each dental insurance policy, so retyping it every time can be time consuming and inefficient.
- Information Overload. It creates a very large, unorganized database within your practice software, which makes it hard to find the information you are looking for.
- Potential for Error. It increases the potential for data entry error. This can lead to unhappy patients, if they are provided the wrong information on what services their dental insurance covers.
When insurance information is entered correctly, you only need to input the details of a dental insurance plan once, then that plan will be applied to all of your patients under that group. When entering a new patient insurance plan, first start by searching the group number to see if it already exists in the system. If it is already there you can connect that patient with the existing plan. This will not only save time, but it will also help streamline the information.
Your practice software can be one of the best tools you have available to keep your office running in a smooth and efficient manner. Make sure your team is taking the time upfront to understand how to best utilize the software to get the best end result.