Dental practices always take care of the oral health of their patients but the financial health of those practices highly depends on the revenue cycle management. Dental coding plays a vital role in the overall RCM process as it ensures faster claim approvals, timely payments and fewer denials.

Unfortunately, coding mistakes can cause serious financial losses, stress, and unhappy patients. In fact, the American Medical Association (AMA) estimates that coding errors cost the U.S. healthcare industry about $36 billion every year. A study on pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov found that Florida alone could lose nearly $114 million annually due to undercoding of outpatient visits.

The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) also reports that most family physicians lose at least $10,000 a year from undercoding, with some groups losing as much as $185,000 in a single year. This is why professional dental billing services matter.

Let’s understand what dental coding is and the key benefits of an accurate coding process,

Know what dental coding is:

Dental coding is a procedure that allows you to turn all the given dental services into standard codes that insurance companies decipher. Dental codes show all the diagnoses, procedures and treatments you perform. The coding system used in the dental industry is also known as the Current Dental Terminology, which is always maintained and updated by the American Dental Association (ADA). Each CDT code that you assign is a combination of letters and numbers that define a specific preventive, restorative, orthodontic, or surgical procedure. Your claim may not match the services provided by you if the coding is not correct, thus leading to claim denial. You always need the right coding system to ensure an excellent claims submission rate.

Now, you should know about the crucial benefits of dental coding services:

The key benefits of accurate dental coding:

Accurate dental coding helps your practice in many ways. It speeds up claim approval because the codes match the treatment provided, which means fewer payment delays. It also reduces denials since wrong coding is one of the biggest reasons claims get rejected. With correct coding, you manage revenue better and get paid for all the services you provide. An accurate coding process always keeps your practice compliant with payer regulations and minimizes the chances of encountering unwanted audits from payer sides. Finally, correct coding makes operations smoother, saving your team time and effort spent on fixing denials or chasing unpaid bills.

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Streamline your practice with expert dental billing services. Improve claim accuracy, speed up reimbursements, and focus more on improving patient care.

The truth is that managing the coding part in a dental billing service has never been an easy job. Even experienced dental offices often face problems with coding. Some of the common areas where mistakes happen include:

Common areas of coding inaccuracy:

Dental coding mistakes can cause big problems for your practice. Using outdated CDT codes often leads to rejected claims since these codes are updated every year. Another common issue is mixing up procedure codes, like coding a filling as a crown, which creates payment delays. Missing documentation also causes denials because insurers need proper notes to support the codes. Dental practices often face claim denials because of issues like unbundling or over-coding , leading them to end up with revenue loss. Coordination of benefits can also be tricky, and coding mistakes here cause problems when patients have more than one insurance plan.

However, you can still ensure a perfect coding for dental procedures by following the tips mentioned below-

Accurate coding tips for dental procedures:

1. Stay on top of coding rules: It is always important to stay updated with the latest CDT codes and educate your staff on new changes every year to avoid coding mistakes.
2. Document each procedure: Your team should document each procedure with charts, x-rays, and notes that support the codes used.
3. Regular training arrangement: You should always schedule regular training sessions to make your staff members understand complex rules, while internal audits allow you to catch and fix common mistakes.
4. Purchase an efficient billing tool: You can also invest in an advanced billing tool that comes with built-in coding updates to reduce the chance of manual errors.

Outsourcing dental billing: Finally, you can choose to outsource dental billing to a professional third-party RCM company, as they have trained staff who can handle coding and claims efficiently. Outsourcing offers several excellent advantages as mentioned below.

The vital reasons why you should outsource dental billing:

A lot of dental practices still manage their billing part in-house and this is what makes things really overwhelming. Outsourcing dental billing services brings several benefits.

1) Utmost billing expertise:

Billing experts know the latest coding rules and payer guidelines, which reduces errors and denials. It also saves costs since you don’t have to hire or train extra staff.

2) Improved patient care:

Your team can always pay their full attention to patient care instead of being stressed by billing nuances when a professional company handles your billing part. An experienced outsourcing RCM company knows what it takes to process your claims faster so that you can enjoy quicker payments and improved cash flow.

3) Ability to scale up efficiently:

An experienced billing partner also scales themselves up efficiently as your business grows, so that you won’t have to bother about hiring new staff.

4) Compliance adherence:

A medical billing company always follows strict compliance standards, keeping your practice safe from penalties and potential audits.

Choosing the right partner for dental billing services is crucial. SunKnowledge is a trusted name in the healthcare revenue cycle management space. They have years of experience handling medical and dental billing.

Here’s how SunKnowledge helps dental practices with accurate dental coding:

Choosing the right partner for dental billing services is crucial, and we at SunKnowledge make it simple for you. We ensure 99.9% coding accuracy, assign a dedicated account manager, and provide buffer resources to support your practice at every step. Our experts know how to implement the best denial management strategies, helping you reduce rejections and maximize revenue.

We are the only RCM company that works for both payers and providers, which gives us a unique edge in handling complex billing needs. We offer complete end-to-end RCM solutions as well as a la carte services like prior authorization, coding, claim scrubbing, AR, payment posting, and even virtual assistance.

With our trained dental billing experts, error-free claim submission, real-time eligibility checks, and regular CDT coding updates; we make sure your claims are accurate and compliant.

We also take care of AR and denial management to protect your revenue and our flexible pricing makes outsourcing cost-effective for both small and large practices. You can always get a trusted partner who improves cash flow, reduces workload, and ensures your billing process runs smoothly from start to finish by choosing as your next-door dental billing company.

So, what are you waiting for? Give a strong boost to your overall revenue foundation and take control of your billing game by hiring us at just $7/hour.