The COVID-19 pandemic probably has affected your dental practice. You may have closed your doors to non-essential treatments at this time. Maybe you’re not seeing any patients at all. Regardless, you may be concerned about your revenue stream and how to ensure your employees continue getting paid. Our dental practice consultants want to remind you there are still some things that can be accomplished during this time of social distancing. These tasks easily fall by the wayside while busy seeing patients on a daily basis; closing out non-delivered cases.
Most dentists have non-delivered cases
This refers to any treatment or procedure that is started but not completed, usually due to patient non-compliance. For whatever reason, the patient never returns for the next step in the process—whether it is receiving a crown, a bite guard, an orthodontic aligner, or even braces. You invested time, effort, and materials into that service only to have the patient fail to hold up their end of the deal by returning to complete treatment.
You can, and should, seek out at least partial reimbursement for these cases. How do you do this?
Here are some tips from Bryant Consultants:
- Wait at least three months from the scheduled date of the appointment to pursue reimbursement. During this time, you want to encourage the patient to return to have the procedure completed or continued.
- Keep a record of all attempts to contact the patient and complete treatment, making sure to note any failures by the patient to schedule appointments.
- If you were not in the habit of documenting compliance in clinical records, now would be a fine time to start. It should include the number of canceled or failed appointments, with the date of each.
- This information also should be presented to the paying party at the time you seek payment.
Be sure to include the following:
- How many attempts your practice made to contact the patient and schedule them to complete the procedure
- The days and times of canceled or failed appointments, along with an estimate of the associated chair time
- A copy of the clinical notes, chronicling what was done in each of their prior visits
- If any restorations were done, including a record of what the lab fabricated and what steps were involved in the process, as well as a copy of the bill from the lab
From there, reach out for consideration of reimbursement. If your patient has dental insurance, you can contact the provider. Many insurance carriers will provide at least partial reimbursement if presented with a comprehensive record that shows your practice did its due diligence to complete the treatment in question. This reimbursement may consist of lab expenses or possibly the full amount due for services to be rendered.
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the stability and livelihood of so many. As a result, if you have a patient who was non-compliant but does not have dental insurance, you may want to wait on contacting any individuals directly about these matters while coronavirus social distancing is taking place. Your patient and their family may be worrying about their financial situation or have lost their entire source of income. Contacting them at this time could do irreparable damage to your relationship with the client, as well as leading to negative word of mouth if the individual decides to express their displeasure via social media.
These are challenging times, but Bryant Consultants is here to help your dental practice get through the COVID-19 pandemic and be ready to hit the ground running when normal business resumes. Keep visiting our site for continuing updates on advice, tips, and news related to COVID-19. You also can call us at (877) 768-4799 to schedule a remote consultation. To make sure you receive the latest updates, please follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
