Editor's note: This is a continuation of a yearlong series that is designed to help dentists and team members understand their practice management software better. Today, we are providing you with a tip from Tracey Thompson, a product trainer at Curve Dental. Later this month, we will post questions and answers from experts in Dentrix and Eaglesoft.
Q: How do I know if I should continue being "in contract" with an insurance carrier?
Tracey Thompson.A: That's a great question! When you are in contract with insurance carriers, it can give you the ability to gain patients who have to see an in-network provider. On the flip side, if you are in contract, it also means you are contracted to adjust off a certain amount of money for each procedure. Adjusting off too much money can be detrimental to your collections amount.
Here are some simple ways to find the number of patients with an in-contract insurance plan, as well as the amount of money you are adjusting off.
Create a custom report
Custom reports are an amazing feature within Curve. Creating a custom report allows you to choose exactly what you would like to see on the report and is an amazing tool to create specific office reports.
Create a custom production report for patients with in-contract plans
This report will show you your production for each insurance company and the patients attached to those plans. You can then create a filter to look for a specific carrier's amount of production as well as a filter by billing date to focus on a certain time frame. Compare this with your adjustment summary report to see the amount of production versus adjustments, so you can decide if you should remain in contract with those carriers.
Customizing adjustment types
In "Administration," you have the ability to create custom adjustment types. Creating a specific adjustment type for each in-contract insurance company will allow you to run an adjustment summary report to see the exact amount of money you are adjusting due to being an in-contract provider.
Adjustment summary report
This report will show you how much you are adjusting off per insurance company. Simply choose a date range, a provider of service, and a specific adjustment type or all adjustment types, then run the report. This is a very easy way to see if it is best for you to stay in contract or not.
Tracey Thompson has spent more than 20 years in the dental industry, including 10 years as a dental assistant and office manager before becoming a product trainer at Curve Dental in 2010. She teaches best practices to dental offices across North America using Curve Hero. Learn more about Curve Hero at www.curvedental.com.
The comments and observations expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the opinions of DrBicuspid.com, nor should they be construed as an endorsement or admonishment of any particular idea, vendor, or organization.
