Dental Office Ageing Reports Are Treasure Maps For The Dental Office
Dental office ageing reports are a bit of an adventure! These rich reports lead you right to your missing money! The dental office doesn’t have to search for where their money is. The patient ageing reports and insurance ageing reports lead you right to it!
Of course, there are some steps involved in finding this missing treasure! The dental front office team, insurance or billing department must print reports and then follow steps to resolve issues.
Become a Treasure Hunter! Use The Dental Office Aging Reports as Your Map!
There are 2 different types of dental office ageing reports to look at each week. Yes, I said each week! You might have thought I would say “each month”, but the real trick is to print these reports each week! The reports you want to print are the insurance ageing reports and the patient ageing reports.
Then, of course, you must know how to read these aging reports. The person reading the map really needs to know what they are looking at and what the signs and landmarks are!
Numbers Do Not Lie!
If you are thinking, maybe you do need some help with your accounts receivable, you probably do. If your outstanding accounts receivable is increasing or if you are not getting through your dental office ageing reports in full each month, it’s time for some help!
Numbers do not lie. Numbers cannot lie. The trick lies in learning to interpret the numbers. When the dental office is looking at their accounts receivable and ageing reports, how can they tell if there is a problem. How much outstanding money is too much?
The answer is really quite simple. In a nutshell, calculate your average monthly production. The total of all accounts receivable in the dental practice should be the same or less than the average monthly production.
Even One Ignored Or Skipped Account in The Dental Office Ageing Report Will Eventually Make Itself Known.
Take The Test!
- Print both your insurance ageing report & your patient ageing report. What is your total accounts receivable?
- Compare these total accounts receivable to your average monthly production. If your accounts receivable is higher than your average monthly production… you need to fix that.
- Are you getting through both the patient ageing and insurance ageing reports in full each month? If not.. or if you would like a more systematic way of working through those reports, my Weekly Management Systems can help.
Dental Office Ageing Reports Require Constant Attention!
Dental office ageing reports don’t fix themselves. Kind of like a bad tooth! When we brush our teeth, we don’t skip a few, we brush & floss them all!
It’s the same with the patient ageing and insurance ageing reports. You don’t want to skip any of those accounts. And we don’t do this on purpose. Usually, it is due to interruption, something else might come up!
The dental front office might start off strong on a quieter day. They might make some phone calls, collect some payments and even correct some claims for re -submission. Then, holy cow!
My Weekly Management Systems
Everything changes in the office! And suddenly there is no more time! The schedule picks up and the phones keep ringing. Before you know it, another month passes, and those ageing reports now have new accounts on them. We never did get all the way through!
That’s how life goes in the dental office. I know!
Think of the management system as the vehicle you will use to carry your treasure away!
Dental Office Ageing Reports & Collection Tools
The next step, once you have the management system in place, is to be sure you have the right tools. The tools you will need are words, letters, and whit! Have you downloaded your own copy of my Weekly Management Systems? You can see now what you need to do each week to get through task?
Remember, you are on an adventure here! An adventure of discovery. An adventure to take back your gold!
Reading Dental Office Ageing Reports
Once you have printed the ageing reports, you will see there are several columns. Current. And – Over 30. Also – Over 60. Finally – Over 90. These reports will be reprinted each week. Only one column will be worked each week of the month. The “current” accounts are the only accounts you will not need to reach out to here.
For example: Let’s say we are at the 2nd Wednesday of the month. The “special assignment” for that particular day of the month in my Weekly Management Systems is to work on the insurance ageing – all claims over 60 days. So. what do we do?
Start by running a new insurance ageing report that morning. Special assignments are always completed early in the day (before lunch).
“When patients don’t pay attention to you, third-party intervention makes all the difference.”
Calling An Insurance Company
Hopefully, your insurance ageing report gives you all the information you need right there on the report to start calling insurance companies. Now, you just start calling down the list.
Call the first insurance company and ask:
- Did they receive the claim?
- If not. verify that you have the right member id# for your patient. Do you have the right insurance claims address? Is your patient covered under this plan?
- Can you resubmit by fax or email & get this claim directly into their hands?
- Do they need any additional information for this claim?
- When can you expect to have the claim paid?
- If you are resubmitting this claim, make a note to check back on this claim next week to be sure the insurance company got it.
*****The big secret to getting through the entire insurance ageing report & patient ageing report each month is to take it one small piece at a time. My Weekly Management System breaks it all down for you and makes that possible! *****
