For most medical professionals, the prospect of dealing with insurance companies is pretty much a nightmare. When claims are denied, it can be a real pain. In general, the entire process just isn’t very fun in that way.
Because of that, it’s led to a lot of practices not accepting the insurance companies that give them the most trouble. Unfortunately, this can cause us as dentists to lose patients – obviously, that’s not ideal. How can we avoid that problem, though?
Well, one option is to search for a billing company to help you navigate these difficult waters. As you can read about in this article, both patients and the doctors themselves often have trouble working with insurance companies. Today, we’ll be covering a way to avoid having to deal with that.
What is a Billing Company?
Put simply, a billing company is a third-party organization that helps a business deal with their billing matters. Typically, that involves charging customers, but in the case of dentistry, it can be both the patients and their insurance companies. That’s what makes them so useful, really.
Essentially, their goal is to get the business side of a dentist office operating as smoothly as possible. That way, the doctors are able to perform their duties in turn without having to stress out about that portion of it all.
How Does it Work?
Now that we’ve got a better idea of what these companies are, now it’s time to look at how the overall process works. Naturally, the first step is to find one that fits your needs. This will vary depending on the size of your current practice, amongst other factors.
For instance, if you’re looking to build your business, then you might want to look for billing solutions that offer that sort of service. Not all of them do, after all. However, it is something that you can sort of “filter” for when you’re doing your research!
Now, to get that sort of growth started, you’ll want to make sure that you’re able to cultivate a true partnership with whatever billing organization that you opt to work with. That’s why a lot of dentists opt to go for smaller ones rather than huge corporations – it means you’ll be more personalized customer service and care.
As you consider who to work with, think about what you want them to be able to bring to the table. Maybe you’d like access to online billing options, or you’d like to be able to change an insurance contract that you’ve got – those are the things you’d look for in an organization then. Thankfully, most of the time those details are listed on their websites.
Are they Worth it?
The final question that we’ll be considering today is whether or not opting for a company like this is really worth the money. After all, it’s certainly an investment – but what for? Well, really, it’s an investment in your own business and the future of it. You can read more about that here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/adj.12534.
This is especially true if you’re going for one that offers ways to help your business grow and mature along the way. As a dentist, you probably don’t want to have to stress about all of those things – you’d rather just worry about your patients and being able to treat them properly. So, in that way, it’s hard to say that getting this sort of external help isn’t worth it.
All of that said, you’ll have to be the one to make this decision at the end of the day. If you’re uncertain, that’s okay. You can always do more research on it and see if it’s something that’s right for you and your dental practice.
From the smallest to the largest of offices, though, most of them do end up going with a billing company at some point. It’s just much easier than trying to directly communicate with the insurance companies themselves. Given that so many of them also bring other services to the table, including things like management training and can even help with marketing and the like, there are a lot of pretty compelling reasons to consider one.