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#869: How To Outsource Your Billing

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Content provided by Kiera Dent. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Kiera Dent or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.

Rereleasing one of DAT’s most popular episodes!

Kiera is joined by Tiffany at eAssist to talk all things outsourcing. eAssist is a remote dental billing company that offers a variety of services (like dental billing, patient billing, insurance verification). Together, Kiera and Tiffany touch on the following topics:

  • How outsourcing can help increase your front office’s success

  • The best tip for following up on outstanding claims

  • How often billing is touched in a healthy practice

  • How to get buildups paid

  • The rate of appeals

  • And a ton more!

Episode resources:

Learn about eAssist

Email learnmore@eassist.me

Reach out to Kiera

Practice Momentum Group Consulting

Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast

Become Dental A-Team Platinum!

Transcript:

The Dental A Team (00:51.47)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And you guys, I don't know about you, but billing was my absolute arch nemesis in a dental practice. So I'm super excited with our guests today. They run one of the companies we actually recommend and refer all the time, eAssist. If you guys haven't heard about them, they are fantastic. You can outsource your dental billing. And I am always pro doing that. You can call me lazy. You can call me efficient, whatever you want to call me.

Honestly, I'm so jazzed to have Tiffany, Tiffany with E -assist on the podcast today. Tiffany, how are you? I am so good. Thank you so much for having me on here. It's awesome. Yeah, absolutely. We were just chatting about a good old Kansas city. What took you to Kansas city? I should have asked you, but like, let's just air it to the whole team or the whole podcast crew. What took you to Kansas city? I actually was born and raised in liberal Kansas. It's a small town, Southwest Kansas.

and then went to school at K state and then moved here. I lived in Denver for a little bit and then ended up coming back. Do you miss Denver? I worked in Denver for a while. Or are you like, Nope. Cause Kansas city has way better sports. mean, you guys just crushed the, you know, March madness. So kudos to you guys. Happy. I'm sure the whole city was like, that's something I do love about Kansas city. It's like a raving city when it comes to sports, you guys love your sports team. So do you miss Denver? You happy with Kansas city? Like, how does that work?

I love Colorado. It's gorgeous. When I lived there, my kids were little, so I feel like I didn't really get to, I don't know, explore and, you know, really be involved with all the things that I would like to do. But, and, and one of my best friends lives there, so that's kind of sad to be away from her. But I do love, I love me some Kansas City. We've got good people here. Good people, good food, good sports. I mean, you got the whole shebang.

Guys, if you're looking for a good place to go, Kansas City, appears is a great place or Denver, but real topic, Tiffany, kind of walk us through, like if people haven't heard of eAssist, kind of just give us a background on what eAssist is. And then I really want to talk today about how outsourcing billing can help with admin teams because right now we are in the great resignation. Hiring is probably one of the hardest things. And so I think it's a really, really pertinent topic. So tell us a little bit about who eAssist is, what they do, just so people know about what your company

The Dental A Team (03:07.864)

Yeah, so eAssist is a remote dental billing company that offers a variety of different services. So we do dental billing where you'll have a dedicated team for your office that remotes in and submits all of your claims and attachments and whatnot, and then comes in and posts all of your payments. We also have a patient billing, which then handles things from that point on.

where they are sending statements and following up on past due accounts with patients. We also offer insurance verification, which anybody that's It's been so long. I've been waiting for you guys to get to insurance verification. like to hear this, I'm just jazzed because that takes so much time. So thank you. Yes, it's amazing. For some reason, there are unicorns out there who actually enjoy doing insurance verification. And thankfully we have them. It is a weird -

talent to obsess, but I'm glad that they do it. I mean, you can really crank that stuff out if you're like on it and that's what you do. I had a girl that I used to work with and she's like, Kiera, I get paid like for all of my, I've just learned how to do it. She like was so fast at it. And I thought, wow, there you go. Like you can have a free day and get all your insurance is verified. She was so quick. So I'm glad you guys have that now. That's awesome.

Yeah, well, and it's a easier when that's your only task that you're taking care of, you know, and you're not having to answer the phone or schedule new patients and get all that information or checking patients in there out or working up treatment plans and you know, the list goes on. So insurance verification does, it can be a huge time sucker if you will, but it's also literally the number one missed dental billing

And in my opinion, it is one of the most paramount pieces of dental billing because if we don't verify, then patients ask us questions. We're not as confident when we treatment plan, even though everybody knows we do not treatment plan based on insurance. But if they're going to ask me what their insurance is estimated to cover, and I haven't found that information out, I get fumbly. I'm not as confident. Patient's not as confident. And good information in, good information out. You can send cleaner claims, get paid faster.

The Dental A Team (05:22.126)

it's just, yes, I'm such a pro. Like don't, don't skip it. It does. Yeah, it, has, actually the number two reason why patients leave a dental practice is, because they have lost their trust because they've gotten an inaccurate treatment plan. So insurance verification is the way to, really make sure that the, the, the quotes that we're, giving to patients are as close, as close to true as possible. I mean, with insurance, you know, anything can happen,

Yeah. What is the number one reason you've got me like questioning? You number two is due to loss of trust on treatment. What's the number one reason people leave practices? it is because they feel neglected. Interesting. Okay. They don't feel taken care of. Yeah. I talk to people about that all the time. Like what, what can we do today to help our patients, feel safe, seen and heard. Interesting. I like it. I like it a lot. There you guys go like

I feel like that was like Dettol Tidbit 101, Tiffany. Thank you for that. But yes, so I am a huge proponent of eAssist. And the reason why I've just fallen in love with you guys is because you do it really well and you have to keep people hired and staffed and I don't have to deal with it. So I think especially right now, so many offices are just realizing like we don't have manpower out there. mean, I ran up, oh gosh,

I could be totally lying on this number, but it was about this amount. I'm thinking I'm a little erring on the side of less than more, but I think I ran up a bill of over 12 grand last year on Indeed ads, trying to hire people. And I think that's a pretty hefty cost to try to hire people that weren't out there. Now it's starting to kind of shift, but at the same time, people get sick, people have kids, people have work problems, people have car problems, people get COVID, people get COVID exposures, people

The list goes on and on and I just love that e -assist. Like you guys have to deal with that. You guys, I'm sure struggle with it, but me as the client and the practice, I don't have to deal with that turnover when I outsource. So let's kind of talk through this about how outsourcing really can help increase your front office's game and make it easier for them and just have more consistency on the billing side. Sure. mean, you know, it really all, like we said, starts with insurance verification and that takes up so

The Dental A Team (07:41.486)

time. And we really want to do everything that we can to really create that ultimate patient experience, which as I said before, it's making them feel seen and heard. And you can't, they don't feel seen and heard when you're on hold with the insurance company and the patient walks in and you're not standing up to greet them or see how they're doing because you don't want to hang up because you were just on hold for like 30 minutes. And then it's like, there's no

Right? Like you just, it's like, you're weighing the pros and cons. Like what's it worth right now? Because I know that they can't really work up a treatment plan unless I get this done. does the patient even want to go back and be seated if I don't look at them and smile when they walk in the door. So yeah, that's for sure. And then really helping to submit clean claims. So a lot of times,

claims are generated and they're put in the queue. And if you're sending them electronically, know, they go out the, they go out and over to insurance to be adjudicated or whatnot. But people are opening up those claims and looking at all the information to make sure that it's accurate, that the codes that are being submitted are actually the correct codes, that there are radiographs attached, intra -oral photos, narratives,

clinical notes, period charting. There's just so many things that go into that, in making sure that that click, that claim that's going out is clean and it looks good and everything is being sent the very, very first time. Otherwise, you know, it takes time for claims to be processed and that's just longer and longer that there's money that's not going into the bank. So for sure. And I think it's interesting how you talked about this. Cause I remember I was consulting in a practice.

And the gal who was over billing, I said, okay, perfect. Like our AR is really high. Let's look at this. Like why are our accounts receivable so high? And a lot of it was actually insurance. And I said, Hey, we're having like a lot of these insurance claims come back. looks like. And she said, Kiera, it takes way more time to actually check my claims before I send them out. So I just send them out and then I wait for them to come back and then I fix them.

The Dental A Team (10:01.998)

No! That was due. response was the same as mine. I was like, it actually will save you lots of hours, like tons of hours, if you'll make sure your information's clean before it goes out. That way when it comes back in, we have less and less and less.

Dirty claims is what I call them. Like if you have to resubmit, I call that a dirty claim. We like we want clean claims, always clean claims, only clean claims. We want to get paid quickly. I'm like a one and done type girl. do one take podcasts recording 99 % of the time. Like that's how I feel your insurance claim should be. So people who say, oh, that's too much time, Tiffany. I don't want to actually take the time to make sure everything's attached correctly. I'm just going to send it out to get it done. And then whatever comes back, I'll deal with it. And I'm like, oh man.

That just like gives me anxiety. I know it's like making me want to throw up a little bit, but yeah, it's a really big deal to make sure that those are going out as clean claims. Now things can happen, right? Like sometimes things will get kicked back. So another really good thing that ESS does is they make sure that you're following up on those outstanding claims on a regular basis. So I can't tell you how many dental offices that I've gone into and I'm running that outstanding claims report. And it's

massively long. And I'm asking them, when's the last time, you know, that you looked at this? And sometimes they've never run the report to begin with. I didn't even know that it existed. Or they say, oh, I do that once a month. I print the report like at the beginning of the month and then I work through it. So yeah, best practice is to follow up on every single outstanding claim every 14 days. You gotta touch everyone. Yeah. Yes.

So I'm gonna ask because let's just like, let's give offices like above and beyond today. What are your favorite billing reports to run? Like what do you suggest? What's kind of the frequency you suggest? So in case an office is like, no Tiff, I've got this. I'm gonna just call you Tiff because we have a Tiff. I hope that that, like that just got real close right there. But they're just gonna say, you know, I think I can do this in my practice, which I'm all for. If you guys can do this in your practices, rock on.

The Dental A Team (12:10.958)

I just think outsourcing can free up a lot of manpower to do other things. So what's kind of the cadence of reports that you guys recommend people run? How often, like you just said, run your unsent claims report or all your claims. Like look at those, like every 14 days. But what else do you guys run? What's the cadence? What's the frequency? Just so people get an idea of how often their billing should be touched in a healthy practice. Yeah. So you're, you're going to want to run your, uh,

production and collections and look at those numbers. I like to do that every single day. I wanna look and see what has come in and like what production has been done, how much we've actually collected on. And then definitely on a weekly basis, if you have weekly team meetings, I know there's different schools of thought on that and I don't wanna get into the practice. I'm pro weekly, you're good. Okay, good, I love it.

So I would always touch bases to review all the numbers with the team on a weekly basis. I think it's important for the team to know what the numbers are. That's how they cash their paychecks. That's how they get paid. And I think it creates incentive to help them work a little harder and kind of have some buy -in as far as that goes. And then definitely on a monthly basis. So the average dental practice has a collection ratio.

of 91%. So that means they're only collecting 91 % of money that is rightfully theirs to be collecting to begin with. Whereas - just that a quick personal connection. If your paycheck, if I decide to only pay you 91 % of your paycheck, you wouldn't be super happy about that. You'd be like, what the heck? You ripped me off.

Pay me right. People get pissed because they have to pay taxes all the time. I'm like, so that's like rightful money for your practice that's going to help your practice grow and evolve. And it's just because we didn't like look into it. I agree. Like my, I get it. I don't expect people to be perfect. I did just interview a girl and we give scenarios for a consultant. And I said, we asked the question of like, what do you think is a healthy collection percentage? And she wrote back and she said a hundred percent. And yes, it can be done. And I'm like, dang, watch out guys. If she gets hired.

The Dental A Team (14:21.934)

that those offices are going be pushing 100%. I'll give a little bit of grace. do 98%. I don't know what your number is, Tiffany, but. 98%, right? Yeah. I don't expect perfect, right? 90, I mean, we always say, like at ESS, we say we want to help you collect 100 % of what is rightfully owed to you, always.

I will say on average with eAssist our collection ratio is 98%. Awesome. Very cool. Okay. So we want to look at production collection every day. We want to have a weekly meeting and then a monthly meeting as well. So what reports do you run? Because for me, was running like procedures not attached. I was running my unsent claims report every day. I was running my AR report and I say every practice you should

every single patient in that ARR report every single month, like at least like touch every one of those. And I do that on purpose because if you've got 25 pages, I want you to hit every one of those. So you stop sending dirty claims. can get that ARR sheet shorter. But that's my philosophy. Billing has never been my strength. So. Yeah, no, I completely agree with that. 100%. I love all of those reports, especially checking to make sure that treatment that has actually been walked out is actually being sent and submitted to insurance.

And it's not just sitting there and nobody even knows that it exists. So that's super, super important. I mean, I paid for myself on our consulting just by running a procedures not attached to insurance. was like, so I just found you guys like $75 ,000 by procedures that you should have submitted anyway. And they're like, what? is this even I cash or Venmo. Exactly. Exactly. So you're welcome. I'll see you in six months. It's perfect to see you. But OK, procedures not attached claims. What else do you what were you going to say?

Annually, you need to be printing out all of the procedures that you have done throughout the year, as well as all of your fees that are attached. And really what you're checking for is how the codes have changed. What codes have been revised? What codes have been deleted that aren't applicable anymore? Are we still using codes that have been deleted? And is that a reason why a lot of these

The Dental A Team (16:37.404)

claims are being kicked back from insurance, right? We have to make sure that we're talking the same language. So, for example, like there's a code that, you know, you might use in, in December, but then come January, that code is no longer applicable. And so now you're like, you're speaking a completely entirely different language and the insurance company doesn't know what you're saying.

Which I think is something a lot of offices overlook and they don't realize codes change. mean, how many people are doing like perio maintenance and there are now, different perio codes that so many people aren't doing, that could be changed. So, okay. So you recommend doing that at least once a year, making sure we're current. I'm going to ask a question. It's a total derail, but I'm just curious. A lot of people are getting so frustrated that buildups are not being paid with crowns. Do you have any tips on how to get buildups paid?

consistently? Yeah, you to make sure that you're always including a narrative for one and listing how much tooth structure is actually remaining once the tooth is fully prepped and all the decay and everything has been removed. So a general rule of thumb with that is there needs to be more than half of the tooth structure missing in order to get that build up paid out.

The Dental A Team (18:55.04)

Also taking intra oral photos. So I actually, I just did a webinar on this and I was talking about intra oral photos. I am a raving fan of the intra oral photo. So you want to take a photo before to show the extent of the decay. You want to take a photo after the prep and you want to take another photo once the buildup has been completed,

And I say this all the time too, a picture is worth a thousand words, but in dentistry, it's literally worth thousands of dollars, tens of thousands of dollars. And the crazy thing about buildups is that most payers will deny a buildup the first time that you send it out. And the reason for that is only 33 % of denied claims are ever appealed. So No way.

That's a crazy stat that makes my heart hurt. That's just easy billing. That's what I think too. That was direct guys. I have no filter today. Clearly. I know. If that's you, it's okay. Do it different. Now, know, I hope you are part of that 33%. If you aren't like get on the bandwagon and appeal those claims because just because they deny it does not mean that it's denied forever. And that was something I didn't realize as a biller.

when I first started that I could actually go and say like, no, you're wrong. Luckily I had clinical experience and I'm like, what do you mean you're not paying for a buildup? It clearly needs a buildup. Like we're going to resubmit this and I'm going to tell you why it needs to be covered. Like I don't care who the dental board people are. Like I can prove this 100%. So, but gosh, only 33%. That's insane. Okay. It is. Yeah. It's crazy. It's nuts. And so in insurance companies, they know this, right? So they're like, okay, I got in, um, a hundred

claims for buildups. We'll just go ahead and deny them. Only 30 of them are going to come back that we're going to have to pay out on. People just kind of accept it because they

The Dental A Team (20:54.626)

They either don't know how or they don't have the effort or the time or the energy to fight for that reimbursement that is legitimately theirs. There's no, you know, scelo stuff like going on. It's this is my money. Give it to me. Right. I feel like, OK, tell me if you've got clinical experience, you worked in dental practices. I can tell. I feel like ESS billers like the equivalent of a hygienist.

Hygienists are obsessed with getting that little speck of calculus and we're all like, give it up, it's fine, like it's good enough. And yet I feel like like ESS billers are obsessive about getting, even if it's 20 bucks, like we want to get that because that's rightfully our money. And you're not going to sit here and deny claims on us when we know, like it used to light my fire when I would be able to appeal a claim and when...

And they were like, well, okay, we'll pay it now. Like it felt so good. was so rewarding. So I feel like that's a healthy analogy between like true billers who love billing and people. mean, I'm not the person who's like, let me go chase it down every single dollar. Like it's fine. It's 20 bucks. I'm like, you think about those 20 bucks or 25 or 65 or a hundred times. How many of those procedures, like if you want to just feel sick, go run a report from last year of how many buildups you had. And then.

Just do a hundred percent. Cause honestly, you probably only got like 10 % of them covered. So you could drop it down to 90 or even 50 % and just see how much money you lost just on that one code because we didn't go back and appeal it. Exactly. It's, isn't it crazy? And the, the other really awesome part about E -assist is, um, while we have brilliant minds on our team, there is not a single one of us that's perfect.

And when you've only got one person in your office that's doing this, it doesn't matter how awesome they are, if they're not plugged in and like constantly learning or networking or connected, there are things that can be missed. like within eAssist, we have an entire platform where everybody can go on and like post a question about this. And then there's literally, you know, thousand people coming back to answer their question.

The Dental A Team (23:12.642)

that sense of community and really bringing all of the brains and all of the smarts together to really increase your bottom line and get you the money that you're out. Which is awesome. I think it's just a matter of, I feel like so many offices neglect billing because like we're going to actually go after our collections if we're not, we don't have enough money for payroll. Like that's a given. We'll do that. Or if we don't have enough money for supplies, but I just feel like it's

a slow bubbling pot that doesn't have to be taken care of. Checking our claims doesn't have to be done. Resubmitting claims doesn't have to be done. Sending out collection letters doesn't have to be done. It'd be great. I remember in office, this is such a gross story. It like made me so sick. Don't do this. This is not good. But I remember there was an office and they had, I think they had one to 2 million in over 90. And I was like, wow, that's a lot of money in that.

And I asked like how she was going about her process and she said, oh, you know, once I hit over 90, I actually just start like writing it off. And I said, I'm sorry, what? Like you, that's not your money to write off number one and number two, there are a lot of ways to collect that. Let's definitely fix that. And so again, I feel that billing and dentistry is such a, it's not a well -taught model in my opinion. It's not well, it's just

I learned from the person before me and if they knew how to do it and most of time that's learning and I just like there's so many layers to billing, is why I really love what you guys do. I think it's actually a really brilliant thing. I will ask this question and I'm hoping it's like, I'm hoping to dispel some people's beliefs about e -assist because I've heard from some offices like I love e -assist and I've got my own two cents on it. So don't worry. I'll like back you guys on it too. But they say e -assist is really inconsistent because they're not in the office all the

So I wanted to ask a question like, how would you answer that question? Cause I've got my own two cents on it from the practices side, just because it's outsourced. But what would be your, cause I've heard from some people like, well, my biller is not that great or she doesn't know all these things, which is just eAssist. Which isn't eAssist. I'm not saying it can't be like impossible. I'm sure there's like maybe a random scenario, but the systems that we have in place on the backend.

The Dental A Team (25:36.888)

the checks and the balances and the reporting and every single one of these, these Ea sisters have their own goals and they've got so many that they're reporting to on a consistent and irregular basis. So I just don't see how that could happen. I just saw them. That's good. I wanted to dispel some rumors that I've heard. And also I will say from the practices side, I am always saying just because it's an outsource company, it doesn't mean you don't need to check in with

So I recommend offices when you do outsource that you have a relationship. Like I treat my outsource companies as if they're my team. And I'm going to, if Tiffany, you were my biller, I'm going to set up consistent meetings with you where we review our AR, where we look to see where we're at. We look to see our collection percentages. We look to see the statements that were sent out. We look to see why our claims are being denied so we can fix it on the front end. Like just because they're getting denied doesn't mean keep doing it. But I really suggest, and that's something

that I will preach forever because I think outsourcing truthfully is one of the best things that can happen. Like, hello, thank you, COVID. Thank you. All these different things that have happened to us to create amazing outsource companies. think you guys are one of the top tier billing companies out there, but really I feel offices can't neglect the responsibility of ensuring that the E -assister is working on their practice to the goals that you want and that you're communicating those goals as well. Would you agree? Like that's kind of my two cents on outsourcing.

and how offices need to take some accountability on it as well. Absolutely. It's all about having consistent and clear communication. And if you feel like you can't pick up the phone and call your e -assister to ask them a question, then you need to let them know or let your team leader know so that they can get you a different e -assister. Communication is incredibly important. And making sure that you're providing great soap notes.

for documentation purposes, that you're taking the right x -rays, that you're taking those intraoral photos, that you're charting the bleeding on probing. You know, that all of these things are happening because that's what your e -assister needs to be set up for success to get all of the other stuff on the back end taken care of. And if you're not involved as a practice owner, as a doctor, that's a big deal. And I know that you're busy and you've got a lot

The Dental A Team (28:00.694)

stuff on your plate and there's a lot going on and that's okay. But you need to be involved in the process. Otherwise you may not always be happy or get the result that you could have. For sure. And that's why I wanted to bring this up. Like I'd rather dispel what people think. But I think also, as you said that one of the benefits of having an outsource company is they force you to have tight systems. So things like we aren't charting our bleeding, I need this information. So coming from somebody who knows what a practice should look like.

I think that's actually one of the best things I remember when I started outsourcing our podcast. It's now in house, but we had, we went with somebody who was working for another company. And I remember it was like, I instantly created a very quick system because this person knew what we should be having, how it should be done, what the process should be. And we had just hodgepodded it together prior to that. Like it was fine. It was working, but it wasn't succinct and tight. And when you said like, are your hygienists documenting

Ontario charting and are they doing it consistently? So many offices I walk into, they're not doing it consistently. I'm like, guys, we need that to get our claims to be paid. They're not taking intraorals like you were saying for those buildups and then they're complaining that it's being denied. they're like, well, I guess all buildups are just denied. No, that's why I love ESA. That's why I love working with companies who bill.

for hundreds and thousands of practices because you see so many more claims than I see, you know tips and tricks, you've got your whole community of people. So that's where I just feel like if nothing else, I also think it's a great way to ramp up your systemization and get cleaner documentation, cleaner notes, cleaner insurance verification, cleaner billing, so that way it really is a better process all around. So. for sure.

100 % I mean I'm all for outsourcing. Eassist obviously is about outsourcing, but they also believe in the power of education and you know you've got to make the choices that are best for your practice. And if you've got the team in place and you feel like they can handle it, but they just need to to learn or have some education to support them. Eassist also has dental zing, which is an entire online webinar continuing education platform. They're not out there saying.

The Dental A Team (30:14.222)

You must outsource to us like in order to be successful at saying, you know, make the choice that's right for your practice. If you want to outsource, we're here for you. If you want to coach and train your team, like we're here for you. Here's some courses, like let them take these. it's yeah, that's great. Which I think is awesome. So guys, end all be all. Stop doing it the hard way. There's a book called, gosh, what is it? It's not how, but who.

And I really love thinking that because I think so often in practice, like, how are going to figure out our billing? How are we going to figure this out when sometimes those can actually just be answered by who is there a billing company like ESS that you could outsource to and try it. Tiffany, if it, if an office wants to set up with you guys, how long does it usually take from like, call you say, I need help with billing to you guys actually submitting my claims. Like how long is that process? If I'm a practice in dire need, just so I have a timeline.

that's actually a great question. It's been a while since I've been on that side of things. but I know in the past it's been usually seven days. I think the goal is to maybe to cut that back. I'm not actually sure, but it used to be seven days, but that's also really dependent on you getting them all of the information that they need in order to get things set up. So there's, you know, tech installation and all of that, but it can, the turnaround can actually be exponentially quicker than that. it all just kind of depends on systems.

That's awesome. again, very quick turnaround time. I know that doesn't seem like fast, but it is quick. You guys start billing immediately. You start telling them, helping them get their systems in play. I know there's check scanners. So it becomes a, you guys have it really dialed in. So Tiffany, I love this conversation. I love that we went from how to get buildups paid. went from what it even looks like to outsource. We've talked about different types of reports you should be doing, uh, looking at your claims every 14 days that only 33 % of people.

appeal denials, like crazy stuff. So guys, if you are looking and you're saying, Hey, I'm ready to get going and I need help. Tiffany, how do they get set up with ESS? Like, what's the best way to connect with you guys just to find out more information, see if you're a practice, I can qualify. What's the best way? Yeah, absolutely. So first thing is first, always go to our website, dental billing .com. There's a lot

The Dental A Team (32:31.67)

A lot of your questions that you have are going to be answered just by looking at the website, including pricing and what all of that looks like, the variety of services that are offered and which you feel like is the best for your specific practice. And then you can always send out an email to learn more at ESS .me. Awesome. Well, Tiffany, I am so excited, guys, if this is even something you've been considering, I'd strongly encourage you guys to look into it.

Touch base, C, because at the end of the day, let's cut the stress off your front office, outsource it, make sure your billing's coming in consistently. I know I always love when my paychecks are consistent and that money into our company is consistent. It's very stressful when it's not. And not having it dependent on people's time or availability or hiring is a really awesome solution. So Tiffany, thank you so much for your time. Thank you for being a part of eAssist. Super grateful for you and all that you guys do for the dental community. Yeah, my pleasure. Thanks for having

Of course. All right, geuys, check it out. Try it out. Let us know if we can help you in any way. Email me Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

The Dental A Team (33:45.09)

wraps it up for another episode of the Dental A Team Podcast. Thank you so much for listening and we'll talk to you next time.

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Rereleasing one of DAT’s most popular episodes!

Kiera is joined by Tiffany at eAssist to talk all things outsourcing. eAssist is a remote dental billing company that offers a variety of services (like dental billing, patient billing, insurance verification). Together, Kiera and Tiffany touch on the following topics:

  • How outsourcing can help increase your front office’s success

  • The best tip for following up on outstanding claims

  • How often billing is touched in a healthy practice

  • How to get buildups paid

  • The rate of appeals

  • And a ton more!

Episode resources:

Learn about eAssist

Email learnmore@eassist.me

Reach out to Kiera

Practice Momentum Group Consulting

Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast

Become Dental A-Team Platinum!

Transcript:

The Dental A Team (00:51.47)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And you guys, I don't know about you, but billing was my absolute arch nemesis in a dental practice. So I'm super excited with our guests today. They run one of the companies we actually recommend and refer all the time, eAssist. If you guys haven't heard about them, they are fantastic. You can outsource your dental billing. And I am always pro doing that. You can call me lazy. You can call me efficient, whatever you want to call me.

Honestly, I'm so jazzed to have Tiffany, Tiffany with E -assist on the podcast today. Tiffany, how are you? I am so good. Thank you so much for having me on here. It's awesome. Yeah, absolutely. We were just chatting about a good old Kansas city. What took you to Kansas city? I should have asked you, but like, let's just air it to the whole team or the whole podcast crew. What took you to Kansas city? I actually was born and raised in liberal Kansas. It's a small town, Southwest Kansas.

and then went to school at K state and then moved here. I lived in Denver for a little bit and then ended up coming back. Do you miss Denver? I worked in Denver for a while. Or are you like, Nope. Cause Kansas city has way better sports. mean, you guys just crushed the, you know, March madness. So kudos to you guys. Happy. I'm sure the whole city was like, that's something I do love about Kansas city. It's like a raving city when it comes to sports, you guys love your sports team. So do you miss Denver? You happy with Kansas city? Like, how does that work?

I love Colorado. It's gorgeous. When I lived there, my kids were little, so I feel like I didn't really get to, I don't know, explore and, you know, really be involved with all the things that I would like to do. But, and, and one of my best friends lives there, so that's kind of sad to be away from her. But I do love, I love me some Kansas City. We've got good people here. Good people, good food, good sports. I mean, you got the whole shebang.

Guys, if you're looking for a good place to go, Kansas City, appears is a great place or Denver, but real topic, Tiffany, kind of walk us through, like if people haven't heard of eAssist, kind of just give us a background on what eAssist is. And then I really want to talk today about how outsourcing billing can help with admin teams because right now we are in the great resignation. Hiring is probably one of the hardest things. And so I think it's a really, really pertinent topic. So tell us a little bit about who eAssist is, what they do, just so people know about what your company

The Dental A Team (03:07.864)

Yeah, so eAssist is a remote dental billing company that offers a variety of different services. So we do dental billing where you'll have a dedicated team for your office that remotes in and submits all of your claims and attachments and whatnot, and then comes in and posts all of your payments. We also have a patient billing, which then handles things from that point on.

where they are sending statements and following up on past due accounts with patients. We also offer insurance verification, which anybody that's It's been so long. I've been waiting for you guys to get to insurance verification. like to hear this, I'm just jazzed because that takes so much time. So thank you. Yes, it's amazing. For some reason, there are unicorns out there who actually enjoy doing insurance verification. And thankfully we have them. It is a weird -

talent to obsess, but I'm glad that they do it. I mean, you can really crank that stuff out if you're like on it and that's what you do. I had a girl that I used to work with and she's like, Kiera, I get paid like for all of my, I've just learned how to do it. She like was so fast at it. And I thought, wow, there you go. Like you can have a free day and get all your insurance is verified. She was so quick. So I'm glad you guys have that now. That's awesome.

Yeah, well, and it's a easier when that's your only task that you're taking care of, you know, and you're not having to answer the phone or schedule new patients and get all that information or checking patients in there out or working up treatment plans and you know, the list goes on. So insurance verification does, it can be a huge time sucker if you will, but it's also literally the number one missed dental billing

And in my opinion, it is one of the most paramount pieces of dental billing because if we don't verify, then patients ask us questions. We're not as confident when we treatment plan, even though everybody knows we do not treatment plan based on insurance. But if they're going to ask me what their insurance is estimated to cover, and I haven't found that information out, I get fumbly. I'm not as confident. Patient's not as confident. And good information in, good information out. You can send cleaner claims, get paid faster.

The Dental A Team (05:22.126)

it's just, yes, I'm such a pro. Like don't, don't skip it. It does. Yeah, it, has, actually the number two reason why patients leave a dental practice is, because they have lost their trust because they've gotten an inaccurate treatment plan. So insurance verification is the way to, really make sure that the, the, the quotes that we're, giving to patients are as close, as close to true as possible. I mean, with insurance, you know, anything can happen,

Yeah. What is the number one reason you've got me like questioning? You number two is due to loss of trust on treatment. What's the number one reason people leave practices? it is because they feel neglected. Interesting. Okay. They don't feel taken care of. Yeah. I talk to people about that all the time. Like what, what can we do today to help our patients, feel safe, seen and heard. Interesting. I like it. I like it a lot. There you guys go like

I feel like that was like Dettol Tidbit 101, Tiffany. Thank you for that. But yes, so I am a huge proponent of eAssist. And the reason why I've just fallen in love with you guys is because you do it really well and you have to keep people hired and staffed and I don't have to deal with it. So I think especially right now, so many offices are just realizing like we don't have manpower out there. mean, I ran up, oh gosh,

I could be totally lying on this number, but it was about this amount. I'm thinking I'm a little erring on the side of less than more, but I think I ran up a bill of over 12 grand last year on Indeed ads, trying to hire people. And I think that's a pretty hefty cost to try to hire people that weren't out there. Now it's starting to kind of shift, but at the same time, people get sick, people have kids, people have work problems, people have car problems, people get COVID, people get COVID exposures, people

The list goes on and on and I just love that e -assist. Like you guys have to deal with that. You guys, I'm sure struggle with it, but me as the client and the practice, I don't have to deal with that turnover when I outsource. So let's kind of talk through this about how outsourcing really can help increase your front office's game and make it easier for them and just have more consistency on the billing side. Sure. mean, you know, it really all, like we said, starts with insurance verification and that takes up so

The Dental A Team (07:41.486)

time. And we really want to do everything that we can to really create that ultimate patient experience, which as I said before, it's making them feel seen and heard. And you can't, they don't feel seen and heard when you're on hold with the insurance company and the patient walks in and you're not standing up to greet them or see how they're doing because you don't want to hang up because you were just on hold for like 30 minutes. And then it's like, there's no

Right? Like you just, it's like, you're weighing the pros and cons. Like what's it worth right now? Because I know that they can't really work up a treatment plan unless I get this done. does the patient even want to go back and be seated if I don't look at them and smile when they walk in the door. So yeah, that's for sure. And then really helping to submit clean claims. So a lot of times,

claims are generated and they're put in the queue. And if you're sending them electronically, know, they go out the, they go out and over to insurance to be adjudicated or whatnot. But people are opening up those claims and looking at all the information to make sure that it's accurate, that the codes that are being submitted are actually the correct codes, that there are radiographs attached, intra -oral photos, narratives,

clinical notes, period charting. There's just so many things that go into that, in making sure that that click, that claim that's going out is clean and it looks good and everything is being sent the very, very first time. Otherwise, you know, it takes time for claims to be processed and that's just longer and longer that there's money that's not going into the bank. So for sure. And I think it's interesting how you talked about this. Cause I remember I was consulting in a practice.

And the gal who was over billing, I said, okay, perfect. Like our AR is really high. Let's look at this. Like why are our accounts receivable so high? And a lot of it was actually insurance. And I said, Hey, we're having like a lot of these insurance claims come back. looks like. And she said, Kiera, it takes way more time to actually check my claims before I send them out. So I just send them out and then I wait for them to come back and then I fix them.

The Dental A Team (10:01.998)

No! That was due. response was the same as mine. I was like, it actually will save you lots of hours, like tons of hours, if you'll make sure your information's clean before it goes out. That way when it comes back in, we have less and less and less.

Dirty claims is what I call them. Like if you have to resubmit, I call that a dirty claim. We like we want clean claims, always clean claims, only clean claims. We want to get paid quickly. I'm like a one and done type girl. do one take podcasts recording 99 % of the time. Like that's how I feel your insurance claim should be. So people who say, oh, that's too much time, Tiffany. I don't want to actually take the time to make sure everything's attached correctly. I'm just going to send it out to get it done. And then whatever comes back, I'll deal with it. And I'm like, oh man.

That just like gives me anxiety. I know it's like making me want to throw up a little bit, but yeah, it's a really big deal to make sure that those are going out as clean claims. Now things can happen, right? Like sometimes things will get kicked back. So another really good thing that ESS does is they make sure that you're following up on those outstanding claims on a regular basis. So I can't tell you how many dental offices that I've gone into and I'm running that outstanding claims report. And it's

massively long. And I'm asking them, when's the last time, you know, that you looked at this? And sometimes they've never run the report to begin with. I didn't even know that it existed. Or they say, oh, I do that once a month. I print the report like at the beginning of the month and then I work through it. So yeah, best practice is to follow up on every single outstanding claim every 14 days. You gotta touch everyone. Yeah. Yes.

So I'm gonna ask because let's just like, let's give offices like above and beyond today. What are your favorite billing reports to run? Like what do you suggest? What's kind of the frequency you suggest? So in case an office is like, no Tiff, I've got this. I'm gonna just call you Tiff because we have a Tiff. I hope that that, like that just got real close right there. But they're just gonna say, you know, I think I can do this in my practice, which I'm all for. If you guys can do this in your practices, rock on.

The Dental A Team (12:10.958)

I just think outsourcing can free up a lot of manpower to do other things. So what's kind of the cadence of reports that you guys recommend people run? How often, like you just said, run your unsent claims report or all your claims. Like look at those, like every 14 days. But what else do you guys run? What's the cadence? What's the frequency? Just so people get an idea of how often their billing should be touched in a healthy practice. Yeah. So you're, you're going to want to run your, uh,

production and collections and look at those numbers. I like to do that every single day. I wanna look and see what has come in and like what production has been done, how much we've actually collected on. And then definitely on a weekly basis, if you have weekly team meetings, I know there's different schools of thought on that and I don't wanna get into the practice. I'm pro weekly, you're good. Okay, good, I love it.

So I would always touch bases to review all the numbers with the team on a weekly basis. I think it's important for the team to know what the numbers are. That's how they cash their paychecks. That's how they get paid. And I think it creates incentive to help them work a little harder and kind of have some buy -in as far as that goes. And then definitely on a monthly basis. So the average dental practice has a collection ratio.

of 91%. So that means they're only collecting 91 % of money that is rightfully theirs to be collecting to begin with. Whereas - just that a quick personal connection. If your paycheck, if I decide to only pay you 91 % of your paycheck, you wouldn't be super happy about that. You'd be like, what the heck? You ripped me off.

Pay me right. People get pissed because they have to pay taxes all the time. I'm like, so that's like rightful money for your practice that's going to help your practice grow and evolve. And it's just because we didn't like look into it. I agree. Like my, I get it. I don't expect people to be perfect. I did just interview a girl and we give scenarios for a consultant. And I said, we asked the question of like, what do you think is a healthy collection percentage? And she wrote back and she said a hundred percent. And yes, it can be done. And I'm like, dang, watch out guys. If she gets hired.

The Dental A Team (14:21.934)

that those offices are going be pushing 100%. I'll give a little bit of grace. do 98%. I don't know what your number is, Tiffany, but. 98%, right? Yeah. I don't expect perfect, right? 90, I mean, we always say, like at ESS, we say we want to help you collect 100 % of what is rightfully owed to you, always.

I will say on average with eAssist our collection ratio is 98%. Awesome. Very cool. Okay. So we want to look at production collection every day. We want to have a weekly meeting and then a monthly meeting as well. So what reports do you run? Because for me, was running like procedures not attached. I was running my unsent claims report every day. I was running my AR report and I say every practice you should

every single patient in that ARR report every single month, like at least like touch every one of those. And I do that on purpose because if you've got 25 pages, I want you to hit every one of those. So you stop sending dirty claims. can get that ARR sheet shorter. But that's my philosophy. Billing has never been my strength. So. Yeah, no, I completely agree with that. 100%. I love all of those reports, especially checking to make sure that treatment that has actually been walked out is actually being sent and submitted to insurance.

And it's not just sitting there and nobody even knows that it exists. So that's super, super important. I mean, I paid for myself on our consulting just by running a procedures not attached to insurance. was like, so I just found you guys like $75 ,000 by procedures that you should have submitted anyway. And they're like, what? is this even I cash or Venmo. Exactly. Exactly. So you're welcome. I'll see you in six months. It's perfect to see you. But OK, procedures not attached claims. What else do you what were you going to say?

Annually, you need to be printing out all of the procedures that you have done throughout the year, as well as all of your fees that are attached. And really what you're checking for is how the codes have changed. What codes have been revised? What codes have been deleted that aren't applicable anymore? Are we still using codes that have been deleted? And is that a reason why a lot of these

The Dental A Team (16:37.404)

claims are being kicked back from insurance, right? We have to make sure that we're talking the same language. So, for example, like there's a code that, you know, you might use in, in December, but then come January, that code is no longer applicable. And so now you're like, you're speaking a completely entirely different language and the insurance company doesn't know what you're saying.

Which I think is something a lot of offices overlook and they don't realize codes change. mean, how many people are doing like perio maintenance and there are now, different perio codes that so many people aren't doing, that could be changed. So, okay. So you recommend doing that at least once a year, making sure we're current. I'm going to ask a question. It's a total derail, but I'm just curious. A lot of people are getting so frustrated that buildups are not being paid with crowns. Do you have any tips on how to get buildups paid?

consistently? Yeah, you to make sure that you're always including a narrative for one and listing how much tooth structure is actually remaining once the tooth is fully prepped and all the decay and everything has been removed. So a general rule of thumb with that is there needs to be more than half of the tooth structure missing in order to get that build up paid out.

The Dental A Team (18:55.04)

Also taking intra oral photos. So I actually, I just did a webinar on this and I was talking about intra oral photos. I am a raving fan of the intra oral photo. So you want to take a photo before to show the extent of the decay. You want to take a photo after the prep and you want to take another photo once the buildup has been completed,

And I say this all the time too, a picture is worth a thousand words, but in dentistry, it's literally worth thousands of dollars, tens of thousands of dollars. And the crazy thing about buildups is that most payers will deny a buildup the first time that you send it out. And the reason for that is only 33 % of denied claims are ever appealed. So No way.

That's a crazy stat that makes my heart hurt. That's just easy billing. That's what I think too. That was direct guys. I have no filter today. Clearly. I know. If that's you, it's okay. Do it different. Now, know, I hope you are part of that 33%. If you aren't like get on the bandwagon and appeal those claims because just because they deny it does not mean that it's denied forever. And that was something I didn't realize as a biller.

when I first started that I could actually go and say like, no, you're wrong. Luckily I had clinical experience and I'm like, what do you mean you're not paying for a buildup? It clearly needs a buildup. Like we're going to resubmit this and I'm going to tell you why it needs to be covered. Like I don't care who the dental board people are. Like I can prove this 100%. So, but gosh, only 33%. That's insane. Okay. It is. Yeah. It's crazy. It's nuts. And so in insurance companies, they know this, right? So they're like, okay, I got in, um, a hundred

claims for buildups. We'll just go ahead and deny them. Only 30 of them are going to come back that we're going to have to pay out on. People just kind of accept it because they

The Dental A Team (20:54.626)

They either don't know how or they don't have the effort or the time or the energy to fight for that reimbursement that is legitimately theirs. There's no, you know, scelo stuff like going on. It's this is my money. Give it to me. Right. I feel like, OK, tell me if you've got clinical experience, you worked in dental practices. I can tell. I feel like ESS billers like the equivalent of a hygienist.

Hygienists are obsessed with getting that little speck of calculus and we're all like, give it up, it's fine, like it's good enough. And yet I feel like like ESS billers are obsessive about getting, even if it's 20 bucks, like we want to get that because that's rightfully our money. And you're not going to sit here and deny claims on us when we know, like it used to light my fire when I would be able to appeal a claim and when...

And they were like, well, okay, we'll pay it now. Like it felt so good. was so rewarding. So I feel like that's a healthy analogy between like true billers who love billing and people. mean, I'm not the person who's like, let me go chase it down every single dollar. Like it's fine. It's 20 bucks. I'm like, you think about those 20 bucks or 25 or 65 or a hundred times. How many of those procedures, like if you want to just feel sick, go run a report from last year of how many buildups you had. And then.

Just do a hundred percent. Cause honestly, you probably only got like 10 % of them covered. So you could drop it down to 90 or even 50 % and just see how much money you lost just on that one code because we didn't go back and appeal it. Exactly. It's, isn't it crazy? And the, the other really awesome part about E -assist is, um, while we have brilliant minds on our team, there is not a single one of us that's perfect.

And when you've only got one person in your office that's doing this, it doesn't matter how awesome they are, if they're not plugged in and like constantly learning or networking or connected, there are things that can be missed. like within eAssist, we have an entire platform where everybody can go on and like post a question about this. And then there's literally, you know, thousand people coming back to answer their question.

The Dental A Team (23:12.642)

that sense of community and really bringing all of the brains and all of the smarts together to really increase your bottom line and get you the money that you're out. Which is awesome. I think it's just a matter of, I feel like so many offices neglect billing because like we're going to actually go after our collections if we're not, we don't have enough money for payroll. Like that's a given. We'll do that. Or if we don't have enough money for supplies, but I just feel like it's

a slow bubbling pot that doesn't have to be taken care of. Checking our claims doesn't have to be done. Resubmitting claims doesn't have to be done. Sending out collection letters doesn't have to be done. It'd be great. I remember in office, this is such a gross story. It like made me so sick. Don't do this. This is not good. But I remember there was an office and they had, I think they had one to 2 million in over 90. And I was like, wow, that's a lot of money in that.

And I asked like how she was going about her process and she said, oh, you know, once I hit over 90, I actually just start like writing it off. And I said, I'm sorry, what? Like you, that's not your money to write off number one and number two, there are a lot of ways to collect that. Let's definitely fix that. And so again, I feel that billing and dentistry is such a, it's not a well -taught model in my opinion. It's not well, it's just

I learned from the person before me and if they knew how to do it and most of time that's learning and I just like there's so many layers to billing, is why I really love what you guys do. I think it's actually a really brilliant thing. I will ask this question and I'm hoping it's like, I'm hoping to dispel some people's beliefs about e -assist because I've heard from some offices like I love e -assist and I've got my own two cents on it. So don't worry. I'll like back you guys on it too. But they say e -assist is really inconsistent because they're not in the office all the

So I wanted to ask a question like, how would you answer that question? Cause I've got my own two cents on it from the practices side, just because it's outsourced. But what would be your, cause I've heard from some people like, well, my biller is not that great or she doesn't know all these things, which is just eAssist. Which isn't eAssist. I'm not saying it can't be like impossible. I'm sure there's like maybe a random scenario, but the systems that we have in place on the backend.

The Dental A Team (25:36.888)

the checks and the balances and the reporting and every single one of these, these Ea sisters have their own goals and they've got so many that they're reporting to on a consistent and irregular basis. So I just don't see how that could happen. I just saw them. That's good. I wanted to dispel some rumors that I've heard. And also I will say from the practices side, I am always saying just because it's an outsource company, it doesn't mean you don't need to check in with

So I recommend offices when you do outsource that you have a relationship. Like I treat my outsource companies as if they're my team. And I'm going to, if Tiffany, you were my biller, I'm going to set up consistent meetings with you where we review our AR, where we look to see where we're at. We look to see our collection percentages. We look to see the statements that were sent out. We look to see why our claims are being denied so we can fix it on the front end. Like just because they're getting denied doesn't mean keep doing it. But I really suggest, and that's something

that I will preach forever because I think outsourcing truthfully is one of the best things that can happen. Like, hello, thank you, COVID. Thank you. All these different things that have happened to us to create amazing outsource companies. think you guys are one of the top tier billing companies out there, but really I feel offices can't neglect the responsibility of ensuring that the E -assister is working on their practice to the goals that you want and that you're communicating those goals as well. Would you agree? Like that's kind of my two cents on outsourcing.

and how offices need to take some accountability on it as well. Absolutely. It's all about having consistent and clear communication. And if you feel like you can't pick up the phone and call your e -assister to ask them a question, then you need to let them know or let your team leader know so that they can get you a different e -assister. Communication is incredibly important. And making sure that you're providing great soap notes.

for documentation purposes, that you're taking the right x -rays, that you're taking those intraoral photos, that you're charting the bleeding on probing. You know, that all of these things are happening because that's what your e -assister needs to be set up for success to get all of the other stuff on the back end taken care of. And if you're not involved as a practice owner, as a doctor, that's a big deal. And I know that you're busy and you've got a lot

The Dental A Team (28:00.694)

stuff on your plate and there's a lot going on and that's okay. But you need to be involved in the process. Otherwise you may not always be happy or get the result that you could have. For sure. And that's why I wanted to bring this up. Like I'd rather dispel what people think. But I think also, as you said that one of the benefits of having an outsource company is they force you to have tight systems. So things like we aren't charting our bleeding, I need this information. So coming from somebody who knows what a practice should look like.

I think that's actually one of the best things I remember when I started outsourcing our podcast. It's now in house, but we had, we went with somebody who was working for another company. And I remember it was like, I instantly created a very quick system because this person knew what we should be having, how it should be done, what the process should be. And we had just hodgepodded it together prior to that. Like it was fine. It was working, but it wasn't succinct and tight. And when you said like, are your hygienists documenting

Ontario charting and are they doing it consistently? So many offices I walk into, they're not doing it consistently. I'm like, guys, we need that to get our claims to be paid. They're not taking intraorals like you were saying for those buildups and then they're complaining that it's being denied. they're like, well, I guess all buildups are just denied. No, that's why I love ESA. That's why I love working with companies who bill.

for hundreds and thousands of practices because you see so many more claims than I see, you know tips and tricks, you've got your whole community of people. So that's where I just feel like if nothing else, I also think it's a great way to ramp up your systemization and get cleaner documentation, cleaner notes, cleaner insurance verification, cleaner billing, so that way it really is a better process all around. So. for sure.

100 % I mean I'm all for outsourcing. Eassist obviously is about outsourcing, but they also believe in the power of education and you know you've got to make the choices that are best for your practice. And if you've got the team in place and you feel like they can handle it, but they just need to to learn or have some education to support them. Eassist also has dental zing, which is an entire online webinar continuing education platform. They're not out there saying.

The Dental A Team (30:14.222)

You must outsource to us like in order to be successful at saying, you know, make the choice that's right for your practice. If you want to outsource, we're here for you. If you want to coach and train your team, like we're here for you. Here's some courses, like let them take these. it's yeah, that's great. Which I think is awesome. So guys, end all be all. Stop doing it the hard way. There's a book called, gosh, what is it? It's not how, but who.

And I really love thinking that because I think so often in practice, like, how are going to figure out our billing? How are we going to figure this out when sometimes those can actually just be answered by who is there a billing company like ESS that you could outsource to and try it. Tiffany, if it, if an office wants to set up with you guys, how long does it usually take from like, call you say, I need help with billing to you guys actually submitting my claims. Like how long is that process? If I'm a practice in dire need, just so I have a timeline.

that's actually a great question. It's been a while since I've been on that side of things. but I know in the past it's been usually seven days. I think the goal is to maybe to cut that back. I'm not actually sure, but it used to be seven days, but that's also really dependent on you getting them all of the information that they need in order to get things set up. So there's, you know, tech installation and all of that, but it can, the turnaround can actually be exponentially quicker than that. it all just kind of depends on systems.

That's awesome. again, very quick turnaround time. I know that doesn't seem like fast, but it is quick. You guys start billing immediately. You start telling them, helping them get their systems in play. I know there's check scanners. So it becomes a, you guys have it really dialed in. So Tiffany, I love this conversation. I love that we went from how to get buildups paid. went from what it even looks like to outsource. We've talked about different types of reports you should be doing, uh, looking at your claims every 14 days that only 33 % of people.

appeal denials, like crazy stuff. So guys, if you are looking and you're saying, Hey, I'm ready to get going and I need help. Tiffany, how do they get set up with ESS? Like, what's the best way to connect with you guys just to find out more information, see if you're a practice, I can qualify. What's the best way? Yeah, absolutely. So first thing is first, always go to our website, dental billing .com. There's a lot

The Dental A Team (32:31.67)

A lot of your questions that you have are going to be answered just by looking at the website, including pricing and what all of that looks like, the variety of services that are offered and which you feel like is the best for your specific practice. And then you can always send out an email to learn more at ESS .me. Awesome. Well, Tiffany, I am so excited, guys, if this is even something you've been considering, I'd strongly encourage you guys to look into it.

Touch base, C, because at the end of the day, let's cut the stress off your front office, outsource it, make sure your billing's coming in consistently. I know I always love when my paychecks are consistent and that money into our company is consistent. It's very stressful when it's not. And not having it dependent on people's time or availability or hiring is a really awesome solution. So Tiffany, thank you so much for your time. Thank you for being a part of eAssist. Super grateful for you and all that you guys do for the dental community. Yeah, my pleasure. Thanks for having

Of course. All right, geuys, check it out. Try it out. Let us know if we can help you in any way. Email me Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

The Dental A Team (33:45.09)

wraps it up for another episode of the Dental A Team Podcast. Thank you so much for listening and we'll talk to you next time.

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