S2 EPISODE 4: Accountability Starts with You — Supporting Each Other in Eligibility

In this episode of Inside Dentistry Support, the host addresses the intense and often chaotic nature of verifying dental insurance, highlighting how a single missed detail can disrupt an entire dental office's operations. The discussion focuses on the importance of team accountability within a virtual environment, emphasizing proactive communication and support. Listeners are encouraged to actively engage with their teams, follow up on tasks, and maintain strict schedules to ensure no verification errors slip through the cracks. The episode underscores that team accountability is less about hierarchy and more about showing genuine care and support for one another to maintain trust and efficiency.

Transcript

   📍 Hey, team, and welcome back to Inside Dentistry Support. You're listening to season two, episode four, and today we're talking about team accountability and what that looks like for our eligibility support team. Let's be honest, verifying dental insurance is one of the most detailed, critical, and time sensitive jobs throughout our organization.

And when even one piece is missed, the entire day for a dental office falls apart. The office start messaging, the team is stressed. Everything is honestly chaos. It's the most stress you've ever been under, and it almost feels like it's never gonna end, or that every day we're in this anticipation that something crazy is about to happen and we're gonna have to be on guard for it.

And today I wanna talk a little bit about how you as a virtual team member who verifies insurance, can help hold your team accountable in the right way with the right heart and make sure that everything gets done so that we're not always anticipating the really hard stuff. So let's talk about how we can do that together.

We work in a virtual environment, and virtual doesn't mean silent. It means that our communication cannot be passive. It has to be intentional. It are not working side by side in a physical office setting. So you have to learn to speak up, you have to ask questions, you have to tag your team. You have to follow up if something seems off.

Silence is not support. Communication is support. I want you to remember that every day you are to start the day with the right mentality. When your shift starts, it's not just about logging in, it's about showing up for your team and for your office. Checking in on Microsoft teams and being present. Take a moment, think for a second.

What does that mean to you? If you were to think about one team member who always checks in, there's one person that just came to your mind, why do you think they're always that way? Why do you think they always check in? What do they do differently? How can you mirror what they do? And if you don't see someone checking in with you all the time, what would that look like to you?

How could you start the trend? You wanna tag your office and see if anything looks off in the schedule. That's something you should start with every single day. It's not about, oh, I'm gonna start a war, or, oh, I'm gonna step on someone's toes, or, oh, the office is gonna immediately complain. No, you are getting ahead of the game.

You are checking in before anything were to be a problem. Review what verifications need to be done right now. Maybe they already sent in a help desk ticket. It. Don't wait for someone else to notice something is missing. Like the office noticing you didn't finish something or a team member noticing that you didn't finish something or you noticing that someone else didn't do something.

We're getting ahead of the game. If you see a teammate struggling, your first go-to response should be, Hey, do you need help getting that verification done? Or, Hey, can I help you with that? Or. Hey, is there something that you need me to do to help move this along? You're not overstepping. You are being dependable.

And wouldn't you love to have a dependable team member? I want you to learn to stay on schedule and check your timelines frequently. We should always know what your office's advanced verification schedule looks like. Is it 24 hours, 48 hours, 72 hours? Is it seven days in advance? What patients need, same day rechecks.

Certain insurances do require that. Do your office currently have unique rules for Medicaid or state plans? Do they have unique rules for PPO plans or DHMO or HMO plans? If anything looks like it's falling behind or not verified yet, your job is to say something. You don't need a title to notice. You don't need permission to check in, and you don't just need to get a paycheck to log in every day.

It actually requires something totally different. You need to have care, and here at Dentistry Support, we all care. If you ever notice that there are team members on your team that would never wanna be a team lead or a director, that's a problem because that means someone doesn't care. You see those titles, they just mean that someone gets paid more money, but everybody is doing the same thing.

We're all verifying benefits. We're all keeping each other accountable. That title only means you get more money. That's it. I don't want you to use the tracking sheets we have and watch the office channels like a hawk. These are tools for you. The verification sheet is where we log our work. If it's not updated, it doesn't exist.

If someone else isn't filling it out, ask kindly, clearly and consistently why they're not. They should be. There's no reason things shouldn't be updated. There's no reason we shouldn't be on time. Keep your eye on the office channels. If someone's requesting a rush, is the team behind? Is someone not responding?

All hands on deck at all times, all times. Don't wait for leadership to step in. You are the culture here at Dentistry Support. Now I'm gonna ask you about our 2:00 PM check-in. How often do you pay attention to it? Do you know what a 2:00 PM check-in is? By 2:00 PM your office's local time, your section of the day should each either be done or there should be a clear plan to finish it by the end of your shift.

If your team hasn't posted anything in the group channel for your office by 2:00 PM about what's going on with that office, that is a red flag. If someone is behind, we don't whisper about it behind the scenes, we fix it together. That might mean offering help or notifying the team lead, asking your teammate if they've seen a message from the office.

Don't let quiet become a crisis. You should be communicating with your team at 2:00 PM every single day on what's going on for today and all future schedules. If you don't see a post about it from anyone in your team, a director, a leader, or a coworker, you are responsible to put that on there. You are responsible to check in and make sure everything is going to get done by the end of the day at 2:00 PM we're over 75% of the way done with the day.

How are you making sure everything's getting done? Every single office is counting on us, and I need you to talk like this is your client. If we don't verify a plan correctly or on time, the patient experience suffers. The front desk loses trust. With dentistry support, the doctor is frustrated with the team and we risk the relationship.

So you must treat this office like it's yours and treat your teammate like their success is your responsibility too. Holding your team accountable doesn't mean being aggressive. It means being present, asking questions, helping others remember what matters. This isn't micromanaging. This is dentistry support, and the culture here is crystal clear.

We follow through, but we communicate. We don't wait for things to go wrong and we make sure they go right. Let's hold each other to that. Let's build trust, protect our clients and work like we are one team because we are. You've  📍 got this and we've got each other.