Dental billing horror stories: Why dentists leave dental billing companies

8 minute read

Outsourcing your dental billing is supposed to reduce stress, not cause more of it. But too often, dental practices choose the wrong billing partner, resulting in stalled cash flow and a frustrated dental team. Here are 5 common billing company failures—and how you can avoid them.

Outsourcing dental billing should simplify your life with faster payments, fewer claim headaches, and more time for your patients. But some dentists come to DCS after discovering that their previous billing provider has caused more problems than they solved.

Poor communication, delayed claims, unskilled follow-up, and missing revenue are just some of the horror stories we’ve heard.

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DCS has been a billing partner to dental businesses since 2012, so we’re in a position to see the results and hear of experiences from many different dentists and dental service organizations (DSOs) about other dental billing companies. So we have a wide and long perspective on what happens when you have a dental billing partner that is unreliable or a bad fit for you.

Before you sign on the dotted line with a dental billing company, here’s what to watch out for and how to choose a reliable partner who will protect your revenue and support your team from day one.

Key takeaways about why dentists leave dental billing companies

Outsourcing should simplify your revenue process, not complicate it.
Communication, transparency, and expertise are essential for a successful vendor-partner experience.
The right partnership keeps the promise to protect your revenue and your team’s time.

1. Poor communication and slow response times

Has this happened to you?

You’ve sent an email. No reply. Left a voicemail. Still waiting… Meanwhile, you have no idea where your claims stand or why collections are behind. You might not even be sure who your direct point of contact should be. Every outreach feels like yelling into a void.

This may be the #1 reason dentists leave billing companies: communication breakdown. Without regular updates or a clear point of contact, your dental team is left in the dark.

The reality of outsourcing your dental billing is that third-party teams work remotely—your biller won’t be in the office with you. So communication is crucial for things like gathering status information for claim submissions or appeals.

When questions go unanswered or claim delays pile up with no explanation, your trust erodes, and so do your cash flow and revenue.

Avoid the horror: Choose a billing partner that prioritizes communication:

Remember our short list of must-haves for when you’re shopping for a dental billing company (or assessing whoever you work with now):

Proactive, consistent updates (not just when you ask)
A dedicated point of contact for questions and support
Regular check-ins with actionable reporting

DCS billers and account managers provide all of those and more. We believe you should never be left wondering what's happening with your money.

2. Incomplete or inconsistent dental insurance claim follow-up

Some billing companies promise they’ll handle all your claims but then leave hundreds of them to age on your reports with little follow-up or documentation to explain why.

When claims sit unpaid, every day is a missed opportunity for reimbursement—and a day closer to timely filing deadlines.

But many billing providers don’t prioritize your oldest reports, especially when those claims are DSC00294-2 complicated or time-consuming to resolve. Instead of digging and doing the work, they will often just write off the claims.

That’s less work for them, but it’s lost revenue for you—cash you will never see for the work you’ve done.

How many of your write-offs were payments that could’ve been collected if your dental insurance biller had the skills, support, and determination to follow through?

Maximizing collections is hard and tedious work. That’s why here at DCS, we pride ourselves on our pool of experts who work aggressively to get every claim paid.

Avoid the horror: Verify their processes on claims work

Ensure your billing partner tracks and works your aging report weekly and touches each claim at least once a month.
Ask what their process is for handling rejections and appeals, and for tracking timely filing limits.
Confirm they provide transparent reporting on follow-up activity.

A good partner doesn’t just file claims, they monitor them until they’re paid. Remember to ask a potential dental billing vendor about their claims management processes during initial sales calls so you can get a feel for how thorough they are before you trust them to manage your revenue cycle.

3. Limited dental billing service scope

This is highly dependent on what your needs are as a dental practice or DSO. Some billing companies only handle claim submission—no appeals or follow-up or even payment posting. This would leave your dental team with responsibility for numerous tasks after a claim is filed because they’ll still be responsible for managing the entire aging report.

When it comes to insurance claims work, you want a billing partner that sees the claim from initial filing through to reimbursement, and if you don’t enjoy posting, they’ll handle that for you, too.

This ensures there aren’t ‘too many cooks in the kitchen,’ and it ultimately relieves your team of worrying about insurance claims once they’re created. They’re freed to focus on your patients while your remote billing team manages the rest.

Avoid the horror: Choose a full-service dental billing provider

The more dental billing tasks the vendor can manage, the better.
If the vendor is submitting the claim, it’s best if they are also responsible for tracking and following up with the claim until it’s paid.
A/R (aging report or accounts receivable) cleanups are a great solution for dental teams who are buried under a billing backlog, but you need a provider willing and equipped to complete large projects.

DCS is staffed and equipped to see your claims through to the end, whether we’re filing claims to support your day-to-day operations or cleaning up your A/R by following up on claims in your dental insurance aging report.

4. Lack of transparency

Some billing companies operate behind a curtain—no updates, no metrics, and no real way to tell if they’re doing what they promised until a claim is posted or goes unpaid.

You might see payments appear or your aging report grow, but when you ask for reports or explanations, the billing vendor can’t (or won’t) show their work.

That’s your revenue at risk, not a partnership.

Avoid the horror: Choose a trustworthy and transparent dental billing partner

Choose a company that shares performance reports regularly and in plain language.
Make sure they offer detailed aging summaries, status updates, and claim-level tracking—all of which are HIPAA compliant to protect your patients’ and your practice’s privacy.

Your dental practice’s billing should never be a “black box.” You deserve secure and easy access with regular updates on progress Before choosing a billing partner, ask about what they’ll share about your billing—and also how they’ll share it. Read through testimonials and Google reviews to learn firsthand what it’s like to work with them.

5. Untrained and inexperienced staff

Dental billing is a niche field that requires hyper-specific skills and knowledge. And yet, there are still dental billing vendors with billers who don’t fully understand CDT codes (Current Dental Terminology codes), dental insurance rules, or specialty billing nuances such as oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMS).

We’ve heard horror stories where claims were denied because a billing vendor used incorrect dental billing codes, omitted essential documentation, or misunderstood the complexities of Coordination of Benefits rules.

That’s bad, and here is where it gets worse: the dental practice found out after it was too late to appeal—timely filing deadlines had passed, so those fees had to be charged to the insured patient or written off in full or in part.

Avoid the horror: Choose an established billing partner that vets their billers:

Look for dental billing companies that:

Specialize in dental billing, not general medical billing
Train their staff in insurance verification, CDT codes, and appeals
Have staff who are trained, experienced, and certified in dental billing
Understand the nuances of specialty billing like oral surgery (OMS), periodontics, or pediatrics

When it’s your revenue and your patients’ goodwill at stake, your dental biller’s level of expertise matters, and so do their dental billing-specific training and experience.

Choose a proven dental billing partner that deserves your trust

To recap, here are the top 5 horror stories that new clients told us about other billing companies:

Poor communication and slow response times
Incomplete or inconsistent dental insurance claim follow-up
Limited dental billing service scope
Lack of transparency
Untrained and inexperienced staff

Here at DCS, over the years, we’ve heard so many horror stories from dentists who came to us after a bad experience with some other dental billing vendor. We’ve helped them rebuild trust in billing partnerships through transparency, expertise, and results.

If you’re not satisfied with your dental biller, we can do the same for you. As we see it, a great dental billing company isn’t just a vendor, it becomes a reliable extension of your in-house team. Your experience with a dental billing company should keep your stress levels low and your revenue levels high—and lead to happy stories instead of horror stories.

If you’ve been burned by your dental billing provider, let’s talk. We’re ready to show you what a real partnership looks like: Book a free 30-minute consultation with DCS today.

Dental revenue resources from Dental Claim Support