1. You can now select Credit Card as a payment method for insurance payments. When you are applying an insurance payment to a claim, there is now a credit card option in the drop-down menu for payment type. Now, even though I recommend to all my offices to opt-out of credit card payments from insurance companies because you end up paying a 2.5 – 4% merchant fee which ultimately reduces your collections, Dentrix needed to add this feature to keep up with the ever-changing dental insurance landscape. I applaud them with this new feature. It will definitely help the practice balance the day sheet and keep the accounting straight.  Thank you Brad!
2. There is a new Payment Agreement Manager and it is located on the Ledger not the Office Manager. For the dental practice that takes a lot of payments and wants a report to only show the payment agreements in the practice, this could be helpful. If your practice is going to allow for payments, you need a way to track them. My favorite report continues to be the Collection Manager Report for managing all accounts receivable, including Payment Agreements, so I will be on the lookout for feedback on how this new report is working in the office.
3. The Payment Agreement Setup has also been updated so check that out as well. In my practice, we did about 25-30% of our practice production in ortho so we had many patients on Payment Agreements for their monthly ortho payment. This worked well. I created a special instruction sheet specifically on the ortho setup in Dentrix and if you would like a copy of it, please email me directly.

I remember when I attended my very first Business of Dentistry conference in 2006.  It was the first year I was a certified Dentrix trainer and I was super excited because my doctor agreed to tag along with me because it happened to be held at his favorite ski resort (so he could bail out if he got bored).  I remember Dr. Gordon Christensen was the keynote speaker that year and my doctor was so impressed with the entire event he never made it to the slopes (at least during class time).

Since 2006 I have never missed a Business of Dentistry Conference  (I would have serious FOMO) and this year will be no different.  This year I am teaching six courses over two days and I am super excited to be such a big part of this amazing event.

How’s the cash flow in your practice? It could be better? Collections and cash flow is a multi-faceted

1. No one gets on your schedule without a financial arrangement. Your patients need to know what to budget for before they walk in for their appointment. I realize there are many consulting firms that advocate not to talk to patients about money. However, I feel you are putting your practice and your relationship with your patient at risk if you don’t. You must have the money conversation and allow your patients to make an educated decision on how they will pay for it. 
2. Your entire team needs to know what that financial arrangement is. I have seen the clinical team dismiss a patient thinking they were free to go when only to find out that the patient had a co-pay for today’s visit. Then the front office is all in a tizzy because they did not collect from the patient. There are many ways you can communicate with your team about the patient’s co-pay for today’s visit. You can put it in the note box of the appointment, write it on the route slip or discuss it in the morning huddle. However you decide to relay the information, it must be done because the entire team is responsible for the collections in the practice.
3. Anyone in the practice should be able to collect money. If your front office is shorthanded for the day or maybe the financial coordinator is on the phone with another patient, anyone on the team should have the skills to collect money. Create a protocol sheet for how to collect cash, credit cards and outside financing payments (i.e. Care Credit). If a patient owes money today, he or she should not walk out the door. It is costing you a ton of money.
4. Send billing statements two or three times a week. This changed my life when I was working in a practice and it will yours too. I devoted an entire article to this topic and you can read all the details by CLICKING HERE.
5. Use the Collection Manager to track your accounts receivable. In the past when I was doing Insight Seminars for Henry Schein and I would get to the section on the Collection Manager Report, I would ask the audience who was using it to manage their accounts receivable. Maybe a third of the hands would go up. I am still amazed at how many people do not use this report and are still using the Aging Report for accounts receivable management. You can read an entire article on this report by CLICKING HERE.

One of the most amazing things happened last week and I have been trying to control my excitement for a while. The number one option in patient financing and the number one option for dental practice management computer systems have finally come together. Yes, CareCredit and Dentrix have tied the knot. It’s official.

• Citi Health Card integration with Dentrix will be discontinued on February 21, 2017 and replaced with a new web page that directs customers to the CareCredit provider portal. The URL to the provider portal is www.carecredit.com/pro.
• If an HSPS practice with a Citi Health Card already accepts CareCredit, no work is required.
• Citi Health Card practices can go to carecreditlearning.com and use the unique username and password on their new CareCredit card to complete the training and begin accepting CareCredit. This will ensure there is no interruption in their ability to offer promotional financing options.

• This report only shows positive accounts receivable so if you are trying to compare it to an Aging Report or the Practice Analysis snapshot, you will not get the same numbers. The Aging Report can be filtered to show all balances, positive balances or credits, and, if you have a lot of credit balances, these two reports could show very different bottom line numbers.
• The Collection Manager can be filtered down a lot to give you a very specific report or a very broad report and, depending on how you are matching it up to another A/R report, if you don’t select the same parameters, you will get different numbers.

• This snapshot is affected by month end so, depending on if you are up to date with month end, will determine how accurate this number is and if it will match up to any other A/R report.
• This Analysis snapshot cannot be filtered by billing type … so if you have balances in billing types like “Sent to Collection,” this will affect this number.
• This report is only run by Entry Date (you cannot change this). If you are running any of the other A/R reports by Procedure Date, then you will get different numbers.

• Did you select the same providers?
• Did you select the same billing types?
• Did you choose Entry Date or Procedure Date?
• What aging category did you select?
• Are you selecting the same date range or ending date?
• Were there any other boxes that were checked that might have filtered out a particular patient from one report over another? In the first paragraph, I had an office questioning why a particular patient did not show up on the Collection Manager Report. It was because she had checked “If not billed since” on the filters so this particular patient had been excluded.

• ·        Provider
• Split by Provider will separate out the patient payment to pay off each producing provider. Your insurance claims already do this … so why not split the personal payments as well?
• To Patients Primary Provider will apply the entire personal payment to the patient’s primary provider (PROV1 on family file) regardless of who the producing provider is. This decision will give too much collections to one provider and, if you run a Provider A/R report, the payments and accounts receivable will be lopsided.
• ·        Patient
•  Family account will post the entire payment to the guarantor. The result of doing this will be an accurate family balance, but incorrect patient balances.
• Current patient will post the personal payment only to the patient ledger you are logged onto currently.
• Split by Family Members is a new feature with G6. It allows you to take one payment and distribute it out to multiple family members with one step. The result of doing this will be more accurate patient balances because it looks across the entire family account for patients with a balance. PLEASE NOTE: if you have archived a patient with a balance and you are using this new feature, it will pull that patient out of archive to apply a payment.
• ·Split Method
• Percentage Payments will equally distribute the patient payment between any providers who has a balance.
• FIFO (first in first out) will pay off the oldest provider balance first.
• Guarantor Estimate is always my first choice. What this allocation method will do is look at any current treatment with an insurance claim pending and allocate the patient payment depending on the insurance estimate. After it has allocated the payment to the estimated patient portion of the claim, it will revert to FIFO.
• Equal payments is very similar to the percentage payments method but will just split the payment into equal payments instead of a percentage.

I recently created an online course called “Show me the Money,” which ties in perfectly to today’s article. As you may have figured out, my online course is all about accounts receivable. Managing your accounts receivable takes into account many factors, including the new patient phone call, treatment planning, follow up, and collection letters. One thing you can do to manage your accounts receivable is to create the appropriate payment plan when needed. There are two different types of payment plans in Dentrix that can help you with the management of your accounts receivable.

1. If you have read my articles about patient collections, you know that I use the Collection Manager Report for managing accounts receivable. This report allows you to enter columns of information that will show you Payment Agreement Balance, Payment Agreement Amount Due, and # of missed payments. Having this information at your fingertips can be extremely helpful on this report because you don’t have to do any research about the account balance. You can see that the patient is on a payment plan and if he or she is current with payments. Read More . . . on the Collection Manager Report.
2. When you create a Payment Agreement, it will light up the Payment Agreement Summary section on the Ledger so anyone who opens the ledger will see that the account is on a payment plan as well as the status of the payments. If there are missed payments, this will show up in red in the Past Due section. This will be extremely helpful if the financial coordinator is on vacation and relying on other team members to collect money at the time of service or field phone calls.
3. When you send billing statements, if you have entered in the Payment Agreement, it will accurately reflect the amount due from the family. The billing statement will show the total account balance and, in the PLEASE PAY THIS AMOUNT box, it will show the agreed payment amount. Also, if the patient has missed a payment, the billing statement will show a past due amount at the top of the statement to draw attention to this missed payment. If you are not using this feature, you might be writing on the statement … and that takes more time out of your schedule.

1. In a similar manner as discussed above, you can filter your Collection Manager Report to search for patients with a FDPP so you can focus on those accounts and see if any of these accounts have missed a payment.
2. When you create a FDPP, it will remove the balance out of your accounts receivable and bill it out at increments you decide on. For example, if a patient is going to schedule a $5,000 12-month ortho treatment and put $1,500 down, then you can set up the payment plan to “hide” the $3,500 and bill out $291.66 each month automatically. Additionally, you can set it up so it will automatically create an insurance claim to go out to the insurance company as well.
3. Finally, you can print out a coupon book if the patient would like a reminder for their payments.

It’s that time of year. It’s time to get your doctor and your team registered for the Business of Dentistry Conference. As you have heard me talk about before, I have never missed a conference and I am going to give you 5 reasons you and your team should not miss it either. This year's conference is being held Oct 7th - 10th in sunny Florida.

 

1. You will be repeating the words “I didn’t know Dentrix could do that! I can’t believe how we are under-utilizing our practice management software.” Even if you have been using Dentrix for over 10 years, I can guarantee you will learn things that you didn’t know existed. Last year, I taught the advanced Billing and Collections class and my class was filled with doctors excited to learn how the software could help their practices meet production goals. It was eye-opening.
2. There is something to learn for every member of your team. Especially the dentist!  This year the Business of Dentistry is offering more clinical technique and technology courses than ever before.   The Dentrix courses have a skill level from entry level to advanced so the attendees can choose the level that best fits their knowledge of the software. This conference attracts some of the most sought-after consultants and they tailor their presentations to fit into the Dentrix agenda so you not only get amazing practice management educational material but you also get tips on how to implement it into your practice management software.  Check out the course listing by CLICKING HERE.
3. Don’t miss the Learning Lab. This is my favorite part of the Business of Dentistry Conference. This is where you get to bring your questions and sit down with a knowledgeable support tech and get one-on-one help. If you are having issues with Dentrix, eServices, Easy Dental, or Enterprise, bring it to the Learning Lab. Here’s a tip: Take screen shots and print them out so you can show the team your issue (make sure you black out any patient information).
4. Learn about third-party software that integrates with your Dentrix software. The vendors pour out into the hallways just waiting to tell you how their product, along with your Dentrix software, can help your practice more profitable, secure, or productive. Since Dentrix G5 opened up the Marketplace, there are many third-party companies that enhance your software in so many ways. I will have a booth at this year's conference so come by say Hi and check out what I have to offer you and your team. 
5. Finally . . . have some fun and enjoy spending time with your team! This year’s conference is being held at the amazing Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center in sunny Kissimmee, Florida.  Henry Schein always brings the fun to this conference. I can remember bowling parties and dance parties that were off the charts. I can’t wait to see what this year has to offer.

This is your year to become the best you can be in your career.  Challenge yourself to become a Dentrix master.  Join me on the Wall of Fame as I post up your accomplishments on my blog all throughout 2015.   CLICK HERE to start your success.

Watch my video to hear all the details . . .