#cloud dental solution

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Improving dental practice productivity

Have you ever wondered how a 2 minute saving in your treatment time affects your practice? A 2-minute saving is at least a 10% reduction in the time of a visit. This means that you get one additional patient in production for every ten patients. This is a 10% increase in revenue with no capital cost and no other overheads or expenditure. A 10% increase in revenue is thus converted to a minimum of 15% increase in profits. Improving dental practice productivity is crucial in the long run for a dental practice.

Most practices strive to make both ends meet, and an extra 15% can give them an edge to expand and step out of the vicious cycle of lousy cash-flow and stagnant growth they fall into.

Clinical Efficiency: Clinical efficiency is the core metric of any dental practice. Revenues of the practice are directly proportionate to the number of patients met. Given that practices work with specific working hours every month on their labor, it becomes crucial to manage each patient in the fastest possible time without compromising on clinical efficacy or treatment quality. Even employees feel less over-extended with streamlined operations, even with an increased patient load.

Achieving optimal efficiency for your practice

How can you ensure your practice is currently running at optimal efficiency? The critical area to look at is the processes and workflows your organization follows and how easy it is to stick to them.

An integrated practice management system goes a long way in ensuring productivity and efficiency by:

Reducing delays in paperwork and information transfer

Enabling faster on-demand access to information

Improving patient stickiness and reducing missed appointments

Improving scheduling efficiency through better queue management and rescheduling capabilities

Considerably reducing time for medical records and related paperwork

Faster eligibility checks and claims management

Better cash flow due to increased revenue and reduced clearing time.

So, the first step is to find a scalable system that can improve on all these areas, while allowing you enough customization so as not to change your current operations drastically.

CareStack offers a cloud-based, easily scalable platform that enables you to expand your system to any scale without the need for any specific hardware. CareStack has been made based on the needs of practices with varying needs and offers easy adaptability to most operating models in the industry.

Features to look for in your practice management system:

Front office management

Efficient scheduling

Rescheduling Queues

Waiting lists

Patient communications

Clinical management

Charting and integrated treatment planner

Template-driven care notes

Advanced perio charting

Imaging integration

e-Prescription

Patient engagement

EHR integration

Patient portals

Conclusion

Clinical efficiency can be improved by integrating clinical management seamlessly with other practice management functions and is best executed with the support of an integrated scalable and adaptable practice management system. Improving dental practice productivity should be a no comprise requirement for your dental practice.

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Business analytics for dental practices

We have re-imagined business over the past two decades. What used to be human-centric has now become data-driven. You will notice this difference when you walk into any bank. But, why has this change happened in every industry across the world? Data-driven decisions and analytics have produced results in increasing the efficiency of almost every industry it touched. Thus business analytics for dental practices comes into the picture.

Are Dental Practices an exception?

Dental practices are no exception, but the industry has been facing problems so far due to the lack of standardized systems and technology that are integrated enough to capture data from every point in the operating cycle. Most legacy systems are software installations at each workstation that work independently of each other.

Parameters like check-in to check-out times, claims-to-payment time, collection efficiency, and revenue from marketing campaigns help you improve gaps in practice efficiency, but analyzing this data becomes difficult with independent systems at each department. This is why practices who want these details need to make use of 3rd party analytics and data consolidation platforms.

There is vast room for improvement in the way data is handled in dental practices.

How can new generation practice management systems help?

New practice management systems are cloud-based and work with every device, whether it is a pc, tablet, or mobile device with the same functionality and convenience. This increases the number of points in your practice where the practice management system is implemented, exponentially increasing the amount of data collected and the inferences that can be drawn from them.

Always choose a cloud-based practice management system that caters to all functions of your practice and has integrated customizable analytics, with features such as:

Data mining and extraction

Data is available at every point of your practice. It has always been there. However, it has never been utilized because of a lack of a system to collect, organize, and report this information. Newer cloud-based practice management systems running at every terminal in your office make this process simple. Regular tracking of data points and necessary feedback naturally brings efficiency.

Custom reporting

Not all information is relevant to everyone. Displaying the right information to the right person at the right time goes a long way in achieving meaningful results. Custom reporting allows users to decide the parameters for generating custom reports that cover all the different and complex aspects of the practice. Such statements can also be automatically generated on a weekly or daily basis.

Personalized dashboards

It is not only crucial that the right information is available to you and your team, but also equally important to ensure the information is presented simply that every member of your team can understand and track. With modern practice management systems, you can create personalized data-rich visual dashboards to keep users focused on their goals and metrics.

KPIs and drill-downs

So, what do you do when some metric you are following is not performing as expected? The first step, just like with a dental patient, is to understand the problem and its etiology. Drilling down into the components of these metrics allows you to understand the root cause of the problem and know where to look to find a solution. Practice management systems with advanced analytics capabilities allow users to drill down to multiple levels of granularity to enable them to understand their KPIs better.

Trends

If you follow the number of patients visiting your practice daily, it shows you how you are performing now. But, how will you know what to expect going ahead? To predict the potential gains and losses in the future, it is necessary to track how these metrics are changing over time. You should identify trends and patterns influencing patient behavior at multiple locations over a period and fine-tune practice workflows accordingly.

Goal setting and tracking

Finally, every operation in your practice is run by people and not numbers. Human beings need motivation and aim to work tirelessly. Create goals and accurately measure employee and provider performance against the set goals to improve actual performance and convert your number based predictions into real results.

Key insights

For strategic decisions on where to invest extra cash you have in hand, you may want to look at how improving one function will affect the bottom line or patient satisfaction. These high-level decisions require insight into how each metric is co-related and how they work together. Use advanced analytics integrated practice management systems to gain insight by understanding the correlation between the data related to financials, patient demographics, scheduling, and treatments.

Conclusion

Business Intelligence and data analytics are known to provide a boost to any business. The dental industry is no different. Research has indicated that business analytics for dental practices can increase their revenue significantly.

For more details visit - https://carestack.com/

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Improving revenue cycle management

Improving revenue cycle management is crucial to the financial well-being of a dental practice. If it seems like your practice takes longer than the needed time to receive payments, you are betting your profits on future collections. While this looks comfortable over time (as you receive payment every month), you are not in the best spot. If revenue takes a month longer to reach you, fixing that gives you immediate cash equivalent to the entire revenue of a month. Imagine how you can use the extra cash in hand to invest in future profits. Cash collected late or not collected at all has a huge opportunity cost, one that commonly goes unnoticed.

How can practice management systems help you reduce your collection time?

Irrespective of whether a practice is accepting insurance, keeping accounts receivable (A/R) low is fundamental to running any profitable business. The use of modern practice management systems can fix critical gaps in implementing an effective revenue cycle management strategy.

Eligibility checks to reduce late & rejected payments

It is better to stem a problem at the source. If your production time schedules with priority to patients who are more likely to pay on time, you would not be facing a revenue cycle issue, to begin with. The key here is to ensure that you can do this eligibility check fast and before the patient checks-in. A modern dental practice management system manages this process with simple one-click solutions.

Error-free claims submission with just a single click

The collected information can be compiled into an error-free claim, that is ready to be sent for processing. Automated workflows ensure due process and leave little margin for error. This saves valuable time and effort while processing claims, leading to a predictable revenue cycle. When executed well, this can eliminate the need for clearinghouses.

Make informed choices in treatment planning

Being able to choose the right plan for a patient, based on his insurance and payment capability, helps reduce confusion while billing. Furthermore, the choices made available for the patient will improve patient experience and ensure that the patient made the best available choice.

Automated ERA postings for faster and better accounting

ERA postings have always been a source of constant headaches for dental practices. The latest practice management systems enable you to completely automate this, making your accounting and collections more streamlined. Problems and discrepancies are detected early, and corrective measures can be taken pre-emptively.

Payment reminders to ensure faster collection

As a practice owner, you would have seen your collections increase when you actively follow up on receivables. Many times all it takes is a timely reminder to get a payment. These are the low hanging fruits in collection. Such follow-ups should be consistent and timely to be able to work. Automation features in modern practice management solutions ensure your collection effort is running consistently and efficiently.

Automation and process streamlining

Most of the financial processes currently utilized have a lot of redundancies that do not need active human participation. These systems once converted into automated workflows makes processing not just faster but also cheaper and more accurate. Therefore choose a practice management system that is serious about automation and continuously improves its capability in this space.

Conclusion

Billing, coding, and collections are sophisticated, yet crucial pieces for maximizing cash-flow and profitability. Therefore choose a system that ensures the optimal functioning of your revenue cycle with the least possible effort. Hence look for eligibility checks, treatment planner, billing, claims processing, ERA postings as necessary features when choosing your practice management system. Choose a system that allows and is keen to expand on its automation abilities and is built for improving revenue cycle management. Automation of such tasks is the future.

For mire details visit - https://carestack.com/

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7 steps to supercharge your dental insurance management

Insurance management and filing claims are some of the most tedious and monotonous workflows in dental practices, if not done right. Since it is a task that decides when a patient’s payment is completed and in extension the revenue cycle, it goes without saying that the workflow must be smooth, bug-free and efficient. Workflows may vary with how your dental practice is set up, but here we will look at a couple of ways in which you can improve how insurances and claims are managed and thus boost effective practice performance.

1. Collecting patient details and verifying eligibility before the patient comes in.

Getting things done beforehand is always an efficiency booster. It gives you more time to dedicate to other important things and peace of mind that you are ready for the task at hand. When setting an appointment with the patient, make sure to collect as much information about the person using forms or questionnaires. The insurance data, thus collected can be verified by contacting the insurance carrier. This will ensure that when the patient comes in for the treatment, you will be ready to split the costs and move on to filing claims without a hitch, undoubtedly reducing the time spent on paperwork and increase time spent on patient care at the dental practice.

2. Confirming the details with the patient on arrival.

Assuming that, all the dental insurance data collection and verification were done beforehand, it will be very helpful to re-confirm the details with the patient just before the treatment. This is to eliminate the chances of any errors or changes that took place since the previous contact with the patient. It is better to find out and rectify changes during the treatment than, at the time of payment.

3. Submitting the claims without errors or omissions.

There is nothing more satisfying than getting things done right on the first try itself. Done wrong, the claim filing process can prove to be very monotonous. Getting a claim properly filed without any issues the first time is a win! Here are some things which may go about unnoticed.

Omission of important procedure codes and license numbers.

Usage of deleted or expired procedure codes.

Typos in names, addresses, NPI, SSD etc.

Also, keep a note of codes and practices which are identified as fraudulent. An example is code bundling, where a multitude of codes are used to describe the treatment when just one is enough. For example, A dentist performs a one-surface occlusal amalgam. He sends in a claim for 09210-Local Anesthesia; 09430-Office Visit; 02140-Amalgam-One Surface; and 03120-Pulp Cap-Indirect, when Code 02140 Amalgam-One Surface is enough.

4. Developing a good rapport with the insurance provider.

If your practice contacts the carrier directly via email or calls, it is essential that there should be a good rapport between the carrier representative and your practice. Good communication means better reception of claims and in effect less waiting or complications. Consider referring patients without insurance to carriers who are closely connected with your dental practice.

5. Weekly follow-ups and claim revisions.

Claims do take time to be processed and it will help immensely to follow-up on pending claims on a regular basis, preferably on a weekly basis. This is yet another method to boost rapport with the carrier. Also, tracking claims those are rejected will give you some insight on how to prevent future rejections.

6. Staying up-to-date on industry standards.

Updated is always better than outdated. Staying up-to-date with changes in codes, procedures, claim details, carrier plans, etc. is crucial, for both time management and avoiding complications. Consider adding a session to discuss changes along with your weekly or bi-weekly team meetings. This helps keep everyone working on the same page.

7. Using a proper dental practice management system.

So, by now we can understand that there are a lot of places where things can get messy. The best way to overcome all these issues is by using a practice management system which has all these features in-built. It will demand all details for the claim to be submitted, thus avoiding omissions and typos. It is always updated on the latest changes in the industry and will almost always run off the latest industry standards. Why go through the hassle of doing all of these by hand when it can be automated and simplified. This saves a lot of time for you and your staff.

For more details visit - https://carestack.com/

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The role of data in dental practices

The past decade has seen a surge in the amount of data collected in our practices from day-to-day operations. There is so much data collected on different software and sheets that practices themselves have lost track of it. Data collection is useless if it is not used to arrive at inferences to direct the progress of the practice.

Data is even dangerous if used without proper understanding. For eg: If you do not understand how two factors are interlinked, you may end up trying the wrong solution and may even worsen the problem. However, between busy practice schedules, this becomes a difficult task.

Another problem practices face is that the data they have is highly fragmented. It is spread over various systems that consolidating and processing it requires us to make use of expensive 3rd party vendors, giving an additional layer of risk in data security.

Are modern practice management systems the turnkey solution to all your data problems?

Modern practice management systems utilize a single database on a cloud-based platform and have modules to help you in every function at every point in your practice, from organizing workflows to communicating with 3rd party service providers. Every bit of the process is mapped to patient records and so, everything is aligned, consolidated and easily accessible.

Some of the best practice management systems come with built-in analytics module. Being built-in, it not only saves valuable time, money and effort, it also makes it an extremely powerful tool as every bit of data comes in the context of an even bigger data set. The analytics modules usually have built-in logic based on common workflows of practices in your country. This enables easy change to a data driven growth oriented practice, as data is not only available, it is also easily accessible and utilized in decision making.

What are the features to look for while choosing a practice management system that can help you grow?

Mandatory:

Cloud based solution

Data Safety must be your number one concern and ease of accessibility should the second. A cloud-based solution offers both to its best extent without sacrificing either. The data is stored centrally in the cloud and can be accessed via the internet on any device.

Fully integrated with all operations of your practice, from front-desk to collection

Having an all in one solution means eliminating the hassle of extra communication between departments. Changes and additions by a department are reflected automatically and can be viewed by everyone with access.

Scalable infrastructure

You practice will definitely expand and with growth, your infrastructure should have the capacity to scale up as required. Making sure your infrastructure us future-proof will go a long way.

Necessary:

Built-in analytics

It goes without saying, most of us rather see a graph or chart than a 3-page report. Analytics yields all your practice results in a beautiful manner and can drive you to make game-changing decisions.

Customizable dashboards

Having the power to customize your dashboard is an added perk, as your management team needs not see graphs related to treatments.

Reporting

Having a reporting function makes the process of reporting as easy as two clicks. You can make reports of just about anything of your practice at the click of a button.

Optional:

Automation features

No one likes doing the same thing repeatedly for long periods of time. Automating things that are repetitive in nature with software frees up time for you and your team to address things of importance while ensuring minimal errors.

Intelligent design

Having a great system is definitely different from having an OK one. Investing a bit more into a well designed, future-proof and safe system means, you can put more faith into it.

Patient engagement

Providing the best service at your dental practice is one thing, but maintaining that relationship outside it can increase the chances of that patient returning many folds over. With proper and regular patient engagement, you can see your patient base increase rapidly.

For more details visit - https://carestack.com/

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Practice management for group practices

Ever since the economic slowdown in 2008, group practices have seen a steady rise throughout the United States. This trend occurs when practices strive for efficiency in a competitive landscape. However, during this transformation, even when accounts have collaborated, and marketing efforts have coordinated, most group practices still work on systems inherited from their stakeholders. This means a set of non-compatible solutions have to be organized, and measures are taken for practice management for group practices.

There is a reason why an individual outlet of Walmart functions more efficiently than a consortium of local businesses — they run a uniform system across their locations, that is built for efficiency at scale.

How does a system that is built for scale help a dental group practice? 1) Customer Experience A coordinated system shows visible improvement in customer experience. Patients become less frustrated when they know what to expect from all your locations. This means they will try to stick to your brand, even if they relocate or if a provider changes. We all know what to expect in any Starbucks. We walk into an outlet with full confidence in knowing what to expect. It makes our decision to walk into a Starbucks easy.

2) Better use of human resources Another significant improvement is in human resource management. There is a steady and well-tracked utilization of human resources from both dental providers and support staff. This is the most considerable header for costs at any dental practice.

3) Increased Production A well-coordinated system and a single database ensure faster processing of patients pre and post-treatment. This increases production and directly increases your revenue.

4) Better Cash-flow A central billing office and dental claims management center will allow revenue to come in faster and cash-flow cycles to be shortened. This increases available cash, which can then be used to expand further. Group practices need to expand at their fastest possible pace in the current market, and establishing a system built for scale goes a long way in helping you get there.

What are the key features any group practice should look for? It is difficult to narrow down to a specific set of features that group practices should look for, as requirements vary based on the organization. Requirements mostly fall into three main functions – centralizing control, streamlining operations, and automating tasks. Some of the features to look for under each of these areas are listed below:

Centralize Control:

Monitor and manage all operations across sites through a central console. A few examples of functions that can be centralized are:

Marketing and campaigns

Appointment Scheduling

Billing & Financial Reporting

Document management

Compliance

Access control and data security

Administration and business management

Analytics and Business Intelligence

Claim scrubbing and denial management

Streamline Operations:

Standardize administrative, clinical, and financial workflows across locations. The following are some of the solutions to usually mismanaged areas to ensure better streamlining and integration into the system:

Slot finder, wait-list and ASAP list management

Charting and treatment planning – with easy templates

Care notes with clinical decision support

Template-based communication for patient engagement

Custom forms for capturing patient conditions or allergies

Business rule manager for standardizing operational workflows

Automate Tasks:

Perform tasks automatically based on pre-set triggers and conditions. Automation is the next level of streamlining, where you eliminate the need for manual intervention in repetitive processes and thus free up your employee time. Features to keep an eye out for include:

Rule-based workflow management

Campaign management

Conclusion Group practices must adopt a system that is built for scale. A cloud-based scalable practice management solution that features workflow automation and streamlining, along with integrated marketing and back-office functions, will be the ideal fit for the practice management for group practices.

For more details visit - https://carestack.com/

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How to improve patient retention in dentistry?

Initial days of starting a practice are exciting. There are new patients who are happy to discover your practice and who you are happy to connect with. Over time, the new patient numbers start falling. One of the reasons for this is that when you start a practice, there is naturally some marketing associated with it, at least by way of people noticing your practice. Once that group of people gets exhausted, most practices fail to maintain numbers to acquire new patients. It becomes necessary to actively market your practice to keep new patients coming in.

Running a practice in today’s competitive landscape requires a full-fledged marketing function with good patient engagement. Patients today are expecting more and more to be satisfied.

So, how can you acquire new patients? Marketing: Enough emphasis can not be given to marketing. It is one crucial element that should be continuous. Simple marketing methods like branded merchandise, contact cards, and online forums can draw patients to your practice. However, this alone is never sufficient to grow your practice. For a growing practice, you should always aim to fill your production capacity and expand.

Marketing campaigns that integrate various channels from direct mailers to SMS can expand recall among patients in your area, thus improving referrals. Practice management systems with integrated marketing functions can help you align such campaigns, run them and even consolidate and follow-up responses easily.

Better patient engagement: It’s not enough that a patient books a slot, you should actively follow up till he visits and his treatments are completed. And then, you should try to sign them up for regular hygiene check-ups at your practice.

Such engagement gives confidence to your patient and he feels connected to your practice. Most patients are happy to be reminded of their appointments. They will consider it a service rather than your marketing. But, apart from reducing no-shows, it also builds patient satisfaction.

Online engagement: It takes a few minutes, but responding to queries on social media regularly can connect you directly with your patient base. However, most practices miss out on regularly staying in touch and actively promoting their social media presence.

It is a good idea to take the help of practice management systems that let you integrate with your social profile and allow you to respond to all your patients regularly. Make sure your practice management system supports 2-way communication with various channels your patients can engage you on.

Get a profile on business platforms: This is where consumers determine whether a business is worth their time or not. And they’re basing their choices increasingly on reviews. In fact, 70% of consumers say they trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation.

Become the Knowledge leader in your community: Actively engage in social media and drive the talk around everything related to dentistry and dental hygiene. Read more about better social media engagement in our next blog post.

Better patient experience: A large majority of patients claim that they would pay more for a better experience. Focus on customer experience, not just keeping their costs low.

Use more SMS: SMS has a much higher response rate. Try and collect mobile number databases from your patients so that you can communicate with them regularly.

For more details visit- https://carestack.com/