S3 Episode 3: What Billing Excellence looks like at Dentistry Support

 In this episode, Sarah Beth Herman dives into the vital role the dental billing and AR support team plays at Inside Dentistry Support. She shares how the first 30 days with a new client are crucial for building trust—and that starts with really getting to know their billing systems and expectations. Sarah walks us through the core of the process: submitting clean claims, posting payments correctly, and staying on top of any outstanding claims. She also talks about the helpful tools they use, like the office Wiki, and why real-time, clear communication across the team is so important. Throughout the episode, Sarah highlights the value of accountability and high standards, all with one goal in mind—earning and keeping each client’s trust. 

Transcript

  Hey, team, Sarah Beth Herman here. This episode is dedicated to one of the most high stakes departments in dentistry support our dental billing or AR support team. Let's talk about when we bring on a new client and what it really looks like to build trust through our dental billing.   This episode is titled What Billing Excellence looks like at Dentistry Support.

It's called that for a reason.  if you've worked in dental billing, you already know. Nobody remembers the 50 clean claims you sent. They remember the one claim that wasn't followed up on.

They remember the one payment you didn't post right, or the one patient statement you sent incorrectly. That's exactly why everything we do in the first 30 days with a new client  matters. They're watching every move we make, and unfortunately, they are just looking for one opportunity to say, we messed up when we onboard a new dental office.

Your job is to get the full picture, not just the billing software logins.   That means that if you know you're gonna be assigned to a practice and they're in onboarding, you should be doing everything you can to be fully immersed in that process. Asking questions, checking in with our operations directors, checking in with our leadership team.

What prior claim activity should you know about? How does the office want us to post payments? Do they have special rules for adjustments? What does their claim backlog look like? I. What expectations should we be setting at the very beginning for how long it will take us to work their claims aging over 30 days?

  What are their researching patterns and denials or incorrect payments you should be identifying whether they've been doing adjustments, zero payments,  and cleanups properly. We aren't coming in blind. That's the most important thing. We are coming in with our eyes wide open, ready to serve and ready to clean up an office  support them the way they imagined we would.

  And that means even looking at conversations we had  during the sales process before they became a client . From day one, we are responsible for every step in the dental claim lifecycle. Sending clean claims, meaning no missing attachments, correct insurance correct codes.

The first impression matters here, posting dental insurance payments. This isn't a copy paste task. It's understanding EOBs, reading the lines, and applying the payment to the right provider, the right claim, the right data service. Researching outstanding claims. When something goes unpaid, we don't guess.

We verify. We call, we log, we note in the system and communicate to the office. Clearly resubmissions and appeals. If a claim is denied, we get in front of it. We don't wait until someone asks. We don't just throw the denied claim on a list and say, Hey, office, what do you want us to do? We throw it on the list so the office knows what we're doing.

Use your working insurance ar worksheets, do the right thing.   Let's talk metrics because accountability is how we win,  every single dental office should have all of their claims worked at least once every 10 days. They should have no claims aging past 30 days without a note or a follow-up  that shows that we'll be closed within the next 15 days.

We should always provide our daily recaps and meet our minimum hourly requirements for working claims, posting payments and sending claims. Check your wiki. The Wiki for your office will tell you the metrics you need to meet and the tasks you need to do for any given office. if you are assigned an office  that has claims aging with no movement, it's not the software's fault, it's not the office's fault, it's ours.

We own the outcomes, and that is the expectation of every billing  and AR professional here at Dentistry Support. So what does great payment posting look like?   Well, first it starts with you understanding an EOB or an explanation of benefits. You don't just plug in numbers, you cross-reference the procedure codes.

You check if downgrades were applied. You see if the provider level fees align. You note the deductible and out of pocket   you apply payments in the correct columns. Insurance adjustment, patient balance, and here's where our wiki becomes a tool and not a backup plan. There should be a video in the Wiki for each office showing exactly how you post a payment  for that specific office or that specific software.

If you don't see one, you don't guess, you ask for it, you go to your leader and you say, Hey. We need this recorded today, and within 24 hours we fix it. We engage our admin team to get that video uploaded and we make it happen. Every teammate that touches that account after you will thank you for having that documentation in place ' cause they won't have to ask questions to the office,  that the office will be frustrated.

We didn't already know the role of our PPR, our payment posting request. We cannot post payments properly without a clear PPR. The payment posting request must be submitted with every single batch,  and this is done through our help desk. This is all linked  in the office's external chat with us and needs to include the office name, the batch amount, and any special notes that the office wants us to have.

They completely fill this out and they fill out our ledger. This isn't just a suggestion. It is required  and it protects accuracy, payroll, integrity, and most importantly, it protects our reputation  so that the office can see what we are doing,  how we are doing it, and that we are fulfilling every single need they have.

  Communication is what holds this entire department together. You need to make sure that you are using teams all the time.   Send real time updates on what we're working on. Ask quick questions about offices or EOBs,   follow up on items with our admin team or our leaders. We do daily recaps, so there is a written trail of everything that happened with an office that day.

The recaps are not just to show work, they are to verify work to show your leadership to the team. Hey, this is what I did. Here's what's pending.   This is how we keep our clients safe.  It's how we stay organized as a remote team. Every time we onboard a client, it's our chance to show them that billing doesn't have to be stressful.

It doesn't have to be confusing, it doesn't have to be reactive. We lead with structure, clarity, and excellence. And if we do this well during onboarding, if we show up as professionals,  not just workers, they will never want to go back to how it was before. Today I want you to look at your offices, look at the claims, look at your reports, look at your recaps.

Check your Wiki. Make sure your offices are submitting those PPR requests. Be the person who makes the team stronger by what you own, not just what you do. We are a billing department that sets the bar higher. Let's keep it that way.  I'll talk to you soon. Team.