Finding the information you need on the Insurance Aging Report

Unless you are looking at an individual patient's Ledger, there is no way of knowing whether an insurance claim has been paid, or if there is something delaying the payment. By running the Insurance Claim Aging Report on a regular basis, you can keep an eye on unpaid claims and identify which may need to be followed up on. This report contains a lot of useful information, but can be overwhelming to look at. Below is a sample report that identifies the information you should be looking for:

The Insurance Claim Aging Report consists of the following information:

1. Aged Balances - The claim balance is displayed in aging brackets.
2. Service - The service date (the date of the procedure) is pulled from the Primary (or Secondary) Insurance Claim dialog box which can be accessed by double-clicking a claim in the Ledger. The service date is automatically entered when a claim is posted.
3. Dates associated with the claim - If you have entered dates in the Insurance Claim Status dialog box, the corresponding dates appear on the report (seen in pink in the image):
• Sent - The date the claim was sent. If you send a claim electronically, the Sent date is automatically entered in the Insurance Claim Status dialog box.
• Tracer - The date the tracer was sent (if any)
• On Hold - Indicates the date the claim was placed on hold (if any)
• Re-Sent - The date the claim was re-sent to the insurance carrier (if applicable). If you re-send a claim electronically, the Re-Sent date is automatically entered in the Insurance Claim Status dialog box.
4. ID Number - This is a unique number that Dentrix assigns to the claim. This number is not the same number the insurance carrier assigns to the claim.
5. Claim Status Notes - If you select Print Status Note when setting options for this report, claim status notes entered in the Insurance Claim Status dialog box appear on the report.

Once you better understand how to interpret the information on the report, it becomes more useful to you.

For more information on how to generate this report, see the "Insurance Aging Report" topic in the Dentrix Help, or sign up for the 10 Basic Dentrix Reports Every Office Should Use course offered at the 2015 Business of Dentistry Conference.

Adding and Editing Continuing Care Views

The Dentrix Continuing Care module gives you the ability to see patient continuing care information in a variety of different ways. A key component not only of viewing this information, but being able to use it as an interactive list to contact patients, is creating views which show you specific groups of patients. The Continuing Care Views Setup dialog box allows you to create customized lists of patients, based on filtering criteria.

By default, Dentrix comes with the following continuing care views:

Note: The defaults may have been changed since the installation of Dentrix and as a result, the list of views in your office may not match what is shown here.

In addition to the default continuing care views, you can add and edit continuing care views to create views that meet your specific needs.

To add  a continuing care view:

1. From the Appointment Book, click the Continuing Care button. The Dentrix Continuing Care window appears.
2. Select the Views menu and click Continuing Care Views Setup. The Continuing Care Views Setup dialog box appears.
3. Click New to add a continuing care view. (Or, select an existing continuing care view and then click Edit to edit the view.) The New/Edit Continuing Care View dialog box appears.





4. In the View Name field, enter a name for the view.
5. Set up desired filters:
1. Type - To view all continuing care types, leave <ALL> selected in the Type list. To display a list for only one continuing care type, in the Type list, select the desired type.
• Select With CC to view patients who have an assigned due date for the selected continuing care due type.
• Select Without CC to view patients who have not been assigned the selected type.
2. Status - To view patients with a certain continuing care status in their Status field, select a desired status. Leave <ALL> selected to include all statuses.
3. Sched Appt? - You can filter the list according to whether a patient has continuing care scheduled.
• To view patients due for continuing care, both with and without a scheduled appointment, leave <ALL> selected in the Sched. Appt? field.
• To view only patients with an attached appointment, select Only WITH.
• To view only patients without an attached appointment, select Only WITHOUT.
4. Due Date - To view patients by a filtered due date, choose Use Due Date Range or Use Due Date Span.
• To generate a list for a specific range, select Use Due Date Range. Enter the date range you want to see.
• To generate a list for a generic time span (such as one month), select Use Due Date Span and set the span in the Before and After fields.
5. Billing Type - To filter the list by patient billing type, under Billing Type, click the From field search button to select the beginning billing type for the range. Click the To field search button to select the ending billing type for the range.
6. Prior Treatment Date - You can filter the list by the patient's continuing care prior treatment date. Under Prior Treatment Date Span, enter a date span in relation to today's (or the set) date. The date you set here looks at the date the patient was last seen for the continuing care reason.
7. Last Treatment Date - To filter the list by a last visit date span, enter a date span in relation to today's (or the set) date in the Last Visit Date Span field. The date you set here looks at the date the patient was last seen for any reason.
8. Provider - To filter the list by a provider, range of providers, or all providers, under Provider, click the From field search button to select the beginning provider for the range. Click the To field search button to select the ending provider for the range. 
6. The Sort Order field allows you to define how the list organizes its information. To change the sort order, highlight the option you want to re-order and use the Page Up or Page Down button on your keyboard to move the highlighted option up or down in the list.
   Note: The Sort Order field looks at the sequence of options in the field to organize the view in tiers. The view groups patients together according to the first option listed. Then within that group, the view will sort the group according to the second option listed, and so on.
7. Click OK to save the view

Once you have created a view, use the information it displays to contact patients about their overdue continuing care and schedule appointments.

For more information about using the Continuing Care module in Dentrix, attend one of the following courses offered at this year's Business of Dentistry Conference: 

• Dentrix Continuing Care Basics - learn the importance of an effective continuing care program and how to set up and manage continuing care for individual patients
• Dentrix Continuing Care Clean-Up - learn how to effectively track your patient recall efforts to be more productive
• Dentrix Continuing Care from the Hygiene Chair - learn how to involve the chairside team in basic recall functions

Understanding the Continuing Care Module

It's important to keep your hygiene schedule full. Regular cleanings and oral cancer screenings promote a healthy mouth for patients, and much of the doctor's production is diagnosed during hygiene visits. Because of this, it is important to know which of your patients are due (or overdue) for these routine hygiene visits.

The Continuing Care module provides a way to monitor your patients' due dates for individual recall reasons, such as when they are due for a prophy or bitewings. The Continuing Care module displays a list of the information you need to contact a patient concerning their continuing care including due dates, whether they have an appointment scheduled, and the last time they were seen for their continuing care reason.

To access the Continuing Care module, from the Appointment Book, click the Continuing Care button.

Dentrix loads the module based on the Continuing Care View (filter settings) used the last time the module was opened. Patient information that matches the filters is displayed in the module window:

1. The Due Date Span indicates the date range showing in the current view. (In the example above, the list is showing patients with continuing care due between September 10 and December 11.)
2. The View Name displays to remind you which set of pre-defined view filters you have selected.
3. The Date column indicates the patient's continuing care due date.
4. The Type column indicates the continuing care type they are due for.
5. The Appt? column indicates the date (if any) of  a scheduled appointment for the continuing care type. A plus "+" sign in this column indicates that the patient has a scheduled appointment for something other than the indicated continuing care type.
6. The Status column indicates the last contact the office had with the patient.
7. The Prior Treat. column indicates the date the patient was last seen for the continuing care reason.
8. The Name column lists the patient's name. An asterisk "*" next to a name indicates the head-of-household for a family.
9. The Age column indicates the patient's age.
10. The Prov. column indicates the patient's assigned continuing care provider.
11. The Phone column indicates the patient's home phone number.

Once you understand how to interpret the information on this list, you can begin to use it more effectively to contact patients and schedule them for overdue hygiene appointments.

Be sure to come back next week for a tip about how to create your own Continuing Care View to find specific groups of patients. 

And you can always register and attend one of the three continuing care courses offered at this year's Business of Dentistry Conference: 

• Dentrix Continuing Care Basics - learn the importance of an effective continuing care program and how to set up and manage continuing care for individual patients
• Dentrix Continuing Care Clean-Up - learn how to effectively track your patient recall efforts to be more productive
• Dentrix Continuing Care from the Hygiene Chair - learn how to involve the chairside team in basic recall functions

New Features in the Dentrix G6 Document Center

Dentrix G6 includes new features and enhancements to the Document Center that make it easier for you to store and organize your important documents.

One new feature is the ability to rename Document Types even when those types contain documents that have been signed. 

Note: You cannot delete a document type if there are signed documents attached to that type, but you can rename it.

To rename a document type:

1. From the Document Center, click Setup > Document Types. The Document Types Setup dialog box appears.





2. Select the document type you want to rename.
3. Click Change. A text box will appear around the description of the document type. 
4. Rename the document type and then click Close.
5. Click Yes to the confirmation message that appears.

Another new feature in the Dentrix G6 Document Center is the ability to sort documents in the Unfiled Documents folder either by the date they were scanned or by the time they were scanned/printed to the Document Center. This makes it easier to find documents if you know the time of day or the date you scanned it.

To sort the documents in the Unfiled Documents window:

1. From the Document Center, click the Unfiled Documents button. The Unfiled Documents window appears.





2. Click the Time column header to sort the window by the time the documents were scanned or printed to the Document Center. Click the Date column header to sort the window by the date the documents were scanned or printed to the Document Center.
3. Select a document from the list and edit the Document Information and attach the document to a patient as needed.

Bonus Tip: With Dentrix G6, when you have more than 40 files in the Unfiled Documents folder, you receive a pop-up message when you open the Document Center letting you know you have a number of unfiled documents.

These and other new features in Dentrix G6 are part of the “What’s New in Dentrix G6” course offered at this year’s Business of Dentistry Conference. Visit www.businessofdentistry.com for more information on how to register.

  

Determining the Last Time a Patient Received a Billing Statement

Did you know Dentrix keeps track of the last time you billed a patient and lists that information for you in the Ledger and the Office Journal?

In the Ledger, the Last Statement Date field reflects the last time the selected patient was sent a billing statement. Each time you print a billing statement for a patient or send a statement electronically, the Last Statement Date field is updated.

Note: The Last Statement Date field is NOT updated if you generate a billing statement and send it to the Batch Processor. The date is only updated after you print the statement or send it electronically. This is true both of statements generated from the Office Manager and individual statements generated from the Ledger.

You can also view the last statement date in the Office Journal, which gives you the advantage of seeing the amount billed in addition to the statement date. To view the date the last billing statement was sent, open the Office Journal and select the appropriate patient. Look through the recent Journal entries to find the last billing statement, or from the Office Journal menu select View > Filters > Billing Statements to limit the display only to billing statements. Click the most recent billing statement journal entry to view the statement date and amount billed.

For additional tips and information about patient billing, sign up for the "The Ins and Outs of Dentrix Billing Statements" course offered at this year's Business of Dentistry Conference. Learn how to customize billing statements to fit the needs of your practice, tips to help streamline and enhance your billing processes, and much more.