Flagging Overdue Dental Accounts at 30 Days
Flagging overdue dental accounts is so helpful! Especially if you catch overdue accounts at 30 days. And you can easily do this!
Just follow along with my Weekly Management Systems. And you’ve got it! Because I monitor all overdue patient balances at 30 days. And even the outstanding insurance claims at 30 days!
Flagging Overdue Dental Accounts Well
All outstanding balances over 30 days get a flag! But not until after a phone call is made. And that includes both patient balances and outstanding insurance claims over 30 days. (We just want to be sure to remove the flag once the account is paid). Just be sure to reach out to patients and insurance companies first.
Always ask a patient for payment while on the phone. Many times we first reach a patient’s voicemail. And there’s no way to ask for payment at that time. The best we can do then is to ask our patient to call the office. But if we do reach our patient, we ask for payment that day. If no payment is made on the day of the call, flag the account. This way we know the patient has an overdue balance for future reference.
What About Insurance Pending Accounts?
Even with overdue insurance claims, we flag an account. This is again set after calling the insurance company. It might be that the insurance company denied the claim. If that’s the case, call the patient first. Try to reach the patient immediately and get the balance resolved. If you need to resubmit to a different insurance, it’s no longer over 30. I guess technically it is. But we are not going to flag it or count it as over 30 for purposes of a flag.
Flagging Overdue Dental Accounts Alerts Everyone on the Team
Hopefully, when we leave a message for our patients, we receive a return call! And the sooner the better… right? But it’s so easy to forget who we called and why! Especially in our every day hustle and bustle. So, when our patient calls, we want a quick reminder when we pull up their account. A flag on your patient’s account will do just that! Alert you as to why you made the call in the first place!
We avoid schedule mishaps with a flag too! As we truly want to avoid a patient on the schedule with an overdue balance! So it’s also a great idea to make notes on an appointment that a patient has an overdue balance. This way you can discuss any overdue patient balances at the time of confirmation. Or you might even want to reschedule your patient. Of course, it all depends on the situation.
Pop -Ups and What to Say
Pop-up flags are the best! Use something that will jump out at you. But even these pop-up flags can be ignored. Once we get used to something, we can easily not see it anymore. So be sure that you don’t over use flags in the office. Pick where you will use them as a team and how. We also want to be discuss where we want our flags to open for us. Do we want them on the patient’s chart, the schedule, when we make an appointment, etc..
Dental Practice Operations Manual
