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| A dental practice management
consulting company that focuses on revenue
and collection systems, front desk systems
and forms, dental insurance processing, medical/dental
cross-coding systems and employment-law compliance. |
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Summer
has arrived!
Summer always seems to be the time for employee
and patient vacations and a general slow down
of business. What better time to take a close
look at your practice and evaluate where you
are now and where you would like to be in
the future. Are you following your practice
vision and goals? Perhaps a staff retreat
that concentrates on practice vision and goals
should be scheduled? Perhaps the practice
needs the help of an impartial and objective
individual such as a practice management consultant
to moderate the meeting and help the dentist
and staff find the answers needed? So, take
advantage of this slower season to take the
steps necessary to increase practice greatness. |
My aim is to provide a short emailed newsletter
that can provide valued information in a quick
read.
This newsletter is for you - to help make
your practice run more efficiently and to
make you happy that you are part of a practice
that grows beyond good and advances to great.
I look forward to hearing from you concerning
what you would like to see presented in this
newsletter. So look for "Dental Pearls"
in your email every quarter. |
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Time Line |
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Medical
Coding
For those up-to-date practices that
are helping both their patients and
the practice by filing medical claims
for many different dental procedures,
keep in mind that the medical diagnosis
codes (ICD-9-CM) will update as of October
1, 2008. As of that date, medical insurance
carriers will not accept codes that
have been deleted. In addition, it will
be important to know and understand
the revisions that have been made to
the diagnosis codes. For my medical
coding customers, we will be notifying
you in September about how to order
the updates for your manuals. For those
who are not customers, you will need
to obtain the new ICD-9-CM manual.
Patient Financing
- The ADA Newsletter of June 10,
2008 provided some great news about
CareCredit. It stated the following:
“CareCredit recently asked
dentists just like you from across
the country what we could do to
make our patient financing program
even more attractive and help them
get started. Overwhelmingly, the
dentists we spoke with requested
we eliminate the monthly minimum
use fee. And we did. We're pleased
to announce that as of January 1,
2008, CareCredit eliminated the
monthly minimum use fee. And, as
we continue to celebrate our 20th
Anniversary, it's still only $20*
to get started.”
- This notice by the ADA came in
part because of some negative publicity
in the July issue of “Consumer
Reports”. An article in that
issue deals with credit card financing
for health and dental care. The
ADA newsletter stated “The
Consumer Reports article focused
on several examples of patients
who may not have understood or were
unable to fulfill the terms of their
financing agreement and then experienced
a dramatic increase in their interest
rates (in some cases up to 27.99
percent). But GE Money notes that
nearly 80 percent of CareCredit
customers do pay within the promotional
period - meaning they gained access
to low interest loans, allowing
them to finance dental procedures
that otherwise may have been delayed
or put off entirely.” I, as
well as the ADA, strongly suggest
that dental practices need to stress
to patients that they need to carefully
review the terms of CareCredit’s
offerings before committing to them.
CareCredit and other dental financing
companies offer a valued service
that enables patients to manage
the cost of their dental care and,
at the same time, provide prompt
payment of services to the practice.
Just help your patients understand
the terms so that it stays a win-win
situation.
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My Favorite
Quotes: |
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"Coming
together is a beginning. Keeping together
is progress. Working together is success."
Henry Ford
In my opinion, Mr. Ford had a strong
message that can be applied to dental
practices. Working together in our practices
is not always easy and is often a lot
of work. A dynamic practice is composed
of team members who work together, not
so much for individual benefits and
glory, but for the success of the practice
as a whole. |
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Dental-Medical
CrossWalking News |
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Electronic
Filing
Filing dental-medical cross coded claims
has been a challenge for many dental
practices. Filing medical claims is
more complicated than filing our dental
claims. As an example, we have to research
the diagnosis codes (ICD-9-CM) to choose
the best diagnosis or diagnoses for
the procedure(s). This is how we prove
the medical necessity of each procedure.
There are additional codes over and
above the procedure codes that we must
be familiar with, too. One additional
challenge has been the actual filing
of the claim. Many of the dental practice
management software programs offer a
medical insurance component. However,
we have been unable to file those claims
electronically, so snail mail was our
only option. I have been informed that
Dentrix software now offers electronic
filing of the medical cross coded claims.
If you use Dentrix and file dental-medical
cross coded claims, check with Dentrix
to set this up for your practice.
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Tips |
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For
our patients
Healthful
ideas to pass on to our patients:
- Benefits of green tea –
The April 2008 issue of “Modern
Hygienist” (page 38), published
by Advanstar Dental Media publication,
reported on the many dental benefits
of green tea. Green tea contains
polyphenols that are potent antioxidants.
On top of that, green tea also contains
a natural source of fluoride. One
cup of brewed green tea provides
about .05 mg of fluoride. Green
tea also has an antibacterial effect
on microorganisms that are usually
associated with dental caries. Lastly,
green tea has lots of catechins
that help to keep bacteria from
adhering to teeth and also helps
eliminate bad breath.
Insurance
Filing
Real
Time Services
- Would you like to be able to press
a button to determine patient eligibility
and benefits or to check the status
of a claim instead of making a lengthy
phone call to obtain that information?
Real time services, that can handle
these jobs, is now a reality with
some software vendors. There is
a fee to use this service but there
is also a cost to the time that
it takes to make those phone calls.
Help your practice become more efficient
by checking into this great service
with your software vendor.
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Dental Humor
for the quarter: |
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If
you have enjoyed “Dental Pearls Newsletter”,
please share it with other practices that
could benefit from it. |
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The
Art of Practice Management
2217
Fox Horn Road • New
Bern, NC 28562 • Phone: 1-252-637-6259
www.artofpracticemanagement.com
• a.p.m.1@suddenlink.net |
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