A/R up 36% over the last 5 years . . . How are you managing yours?

Accounts receivable in on the rise. This means the dental practice is allowing patients to make payments more often, insurance companies are taking longer to pay and the patients are walking out the door without paying their co-pay for the day of service. According to Sikka software statistics, accounts receivable in the dental practice is up 36% over the last five years. That is a lot of money, people!
Managing your accounts receivable requires not only good verbal skills but also a systematic approach to your management routine. It’s important to create a system for managing the insurance money owed and the money owed from the patient so nothing gets missed. In today’s post, I want to give you some recommendations on the reports to use.

• The Collection Manager is the best tool for managing your A/R. If you are still using the Aging Report for A/R management, I would highly recommend transitioning to the Collection Manager because of its functionality with all the other tools you need when managing money. You have everything you need at your fingertips to document phone conversations, make payment agreements, manage payment agreements, track billing statements, check the ledger and send out a customized collection letter if you need to.
• In my opinion, billing statements should be a courtesy to the patient not used as a A/R management tool. In the webinars we do in Novonee and when I am working with a client, I teach to run billing statements 2x per week in improve cash flow, spread out patient questions and eliminate it as a monthly task. Billing statements should not be part of your month end routine.
• The only report you have to manage unpaid insurance claims is the Insurance Aging Report. Unfortunately, this report is a printed report unlike the interactive Collection Manager. When you are checking on the claims status, you can use the eCentral Insurance Manager to check the status electronically before you pick up the phone. Making your documentation and checking the claim status all inside of the claim on the patient ledger will keep your notes in one place.
  My goal is to help and inspire dental teams to create efficient and productive systems to bring more profitability to every dental practice. Your entire day revolves around your software and Dentrix has all the tools you need to effectively manage your accounts receivable.