According to the American Cancer Society’s recent study , oral cancer continues to be on the rise. This being my 35th year in dentistry and many years being a clinical team member, I have seen many instances of oral cancer, more than I like to count. I have also had friends who did not survive oral cancer and those that have, for which I am very thankful. April is Oral Cancer Awareness month. Early detection saves lives! I thought it would be the perfect time to discuss CDT codes related to early detection of oral cancer. This article will address code D0431 and editorial revisions to the descriptors of D0120 and D0150 for CDT 2021.
A new patient just called your office and asked if you accepted their HMO. Your staff doesn’t know the answer to the question. There are a lot of specific abbreviations and acronyms in dental insurance terminology. It’s common to get tripped up on it. Understanding these terms is important for anyone in the insurance or billing industry, or anyone that deals with insurance on a regular basis. We get it, this can feel like homework… You already went to dental school and worked hard, and learning dental insurance basics can feel monotonous. In this article, we’re going to make it really simple for you to understand one of the most basic components of what dental insurance is: HMO versus PPO. While HMO is generically used, most dental plans are referred to as DHMO or DMO, with the D indicating it is a dental plan, not a medical plan.
When you come across two long words that start and end the same way, you might think, “They’re probably similar.” In the dental world, however, the terms predetermination and preauthorization should not be used interchangeably. Knowing when to use each term will save you time and money.
Performing insurance verification is both time-sensitive and time-intensive. It’s also costly. On top of that, it’s hard to find someone who actually likes to do monotonous work. When it boils down to it, you need someone performing accurate insurance verification on your behalf for the least amount of dollars possible.
National Provider Identification numbers, better known as NPI numbers, can be confusing to say the least. Many dental offices suffer from not knowing exactly what these numbers truly mean and how they need to be reported on a 2019 ADA claim form. This can result in claim delays and lost revenue. We are here to help. Fortunately, our team at Dental ClaimSupport is well versed in NPI numbers and accurate claim submission. Every doctor has to obtain an NPI number to practice dentistry. However, the billing entity or dental practice where the dentist works can have its own NPI number too. Confusing, right?
You may already be performing COVID-19 tests in your practice or maybe you are thinking about implementing testing. If so, you might be wondering if there are codes to document this procedure. The good news is yes there is! This article will review the current suite of CDT codes available to document COVID-19 tests. The Code Maintenance Committee (CMC) is tasked with ensuring dentists have CDT codes to accurately document what you do. CMC met for a called meeting in the Spring of 2020 at the start of the pandemic for discussion of potential future CDT codes needed to describe antigen and antibody testing in the dental setting.
For reasons unbeknownst to us, while dentists are in school, working hard through their rigorous classes, they take minimal, if any, courses on how to run a business. Yes, the main priority for them is tending to people’s oral health, but owning a dental practice equates to owning a business. To have a successful dental practice, you have to know how to generate and collect revenue! You’re forced to figure out all of these skills on your own, with no one warning you how much work goes into owning a business. We at Dental Claim Support know a lot about what is going to help your practice make money. We have been helping dentists all over the United States increase their collections percentage since 2012. Our team of remote billers will all start by telling you this: In order to have a successful dental practice, you need to have a high collections percentage.
Maybe you’re a dentist just starting out or joining a dental practice as an associate. Maybe you’re an insurance coordinator in charge of claim submission and collections. Either way, NPI numbers can be a source of confusion in a dental office. What you might not know is NPI numbers can cause claim rejections or payment delays, causing your business to lose money. At Dental Claim Support, we work with many kinds of dental offices around the United States, all shapes and sizes. In our experience working with so many dental offices, we’ve seen NPI numbers be the reason for payment delays in the billing process. This can especially happen with start-up offices or offices adding providers. In this article, you will learn what an NPI number is, the various types of NPI numbers, and how NPI numbers can affect your claim payments. By reading this article, you will be better educated on the importance of NPIs and what they mean to the overall success of your practice. What is an NPI number and why must I have one? A National Provider Identifier (NPI) is a unique,10-digit identification number for individual healthcare providers and organizations such as dental practices. NPI numbers are assigned by the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare (CMS) and are used to identify an individual healthcare provider (NPI 1) and billing entities or dental practices (NPI 2)
2020 had a huge impact on all of us. It feels like everything has changed, for better or for worse. Many of the dentist offices we work with had to restructure their staff, let people go or move people to other positions.
CDT code D1355 is a new code for CDT 2021, which became effective, January 1, 2021. Let’s take a look at what procedure this new code represents. D1355 caries preventive medicament application – per tooth
