How to Effectively Work a Dental Insurance Aging Report

Managing the overall health of a dental practice goes beyond patient care; it also involves ensuring that your practice gets paid on time. One of the critical tools in this process is the dental insurance aging report. This report helps track outstanding claims and ensures timely reimbursement. In this blog, we'll explore how to effectively work a dental insurance aging report to improve your practice’s cash flow.

Table of Contents

1. What is a Dental Insurance Aging Report?
2. Why is it Important?
3. Steps to Effectively Work a Dental Insurance Aging Report
   • Review the Report Regularly
   • Prioritize the Oldest Claims
   • Follow Up with Insurance Companies
   • Resubmit or Appeal Denied Claims
   • Monitor and Adjust Your Processes
   • Engage Patients When Necessary
4. Conclusion

What is a Dental Insurance Aging Report?

A dental insurance aging report is a financial report that categorizes unpaid insurance claims based on how long they have been outstanding. Typically, these claims are divided into aging brackets such as 0-30 days, 31-60 days, 61-90 days, and over 90 days. The report provides a snapshot of your practice’s financial health, highlighting areas that need attention.

Why is it Important?

Working the aging report is essential because it directly impacts the cash flow of your dental practice. Claims that remain unpaid for extended periods can indicate issues with claim submission, follow-up, or even potential problems with specific insurance companies. Addressing these issues promptly not only ensures that your practice maintains a healthy revenue cycle, but also prevents patients from becoming frustrated with having balances due to insurance claims not paying. 

Steps to Effectively Work a Dental Insurance Aging Report

1. Review the Report Regularly

• Frequency: Establish a routine for reviewing the aging report. Weekly reviews are recommended to catch any issues before they become problematic.
• Focus: Pay special attention to claims in the 31-60 day and 61-90 day brackets, as these are nearing the critical threshold for follow-up.
• Example: A practice that reviews its aging report weekly noticed that claims between 31-60 days were consistently unpaid due to missing attachments. By catching this early, they were able to correct the issue by addressing claims submission protocol before claims reached the 90+ days bracket, avoiding delays in payment.

If you are unsure what procedures need attachments, or what attachments are needed per procedure code, we have you covered with our claims attachments cheat sheet. 

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2. Prioritize the Oldest Claims

• Strategy: Start with the oldest claims first, particularly those in the 90+ days bracket. These are at the highest risk of becoming uncollectible due to timely filing limits or other restrictions.
• Investigation: Research why these claims have not been paid. Common issues include missing or incorrect  information, incorrect coding, or claims that were never received by the insurance company.
• Example: A dental office discovered that several claims in the 90+ days bracket had not been paid to the office due to one plan having assignment of benefits allocated to the patient instead of the office. By uncovering this, they were able to collect the balances due from the patients, and correct the setting in their software to prevent the recurrence of this issue.

Many offices who are out of network with plans struggle with this scenario, and experience insurance paying patients even when assignment of benefits is assigned to the office. Read more about this in our out of network collections guide.

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3. Follow Up with Insurance Companies

• Communication: Reach out to insurance companies to check the status of outstanding claims. Portals don’t tell the whole story much of the time, and phone calls may be necessary. 
• Documentation: Keep detailed records of all communications within the claim notes, including the date, time, and name of the representative you spoke with. This will be useful if you need to escalate the issue, or if other team members are involved. 
• Example: A practice found that all claims were not on file with one particular insurance plan due to a representative giving them the wrong payer ID. By following up and documenting their conversations, they were able to escalate the issue, correct the insurance plan, and get the claims processed quickly, reducing the aging report's outstanding balance significantly.

Payer IDs are often a source of confusion in dental billing, as companies and clearing houses could have more than one option, as shown by Delta Dental of Kansas in the link above.

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4. Resubmit or Appeal Denied Claims

• Action: If a claim was denied, and the reason for the denial was a mistake at office level, promptly take corrective action. This may involve correcting errors on the original submission or providing additional documentation in the form of a resubmission. 
• Appeal: For denied claims that you believe were incorrectly denied, consider submitting an appeal. Be sure to follow the insurance company’s specific appeal process and deadlines.
• Example: A practice had a series of claims denied for a specific procedure due to a CDT code change. After realizing this, they gathered supporting documentation and successfully resubmitted the claims, securing payment for the previously denied claims. 

Are your claims going out clean the first time you submit? If you are not confident in the answer to this question, read up on clean claims submission, and listen to our podcast episode about clean claims.

5. Monitor and Adjust Your Processes

• Analysis: Regularly analyze the aging report to identify patterns or recurring issues. For example, if a particular insurance company consistently delays payments, it might be worth investigating why, if this is standard, and informing your patients or changing your internal protocols. 
• Improvement: Use these insights to refine your claim submission and follow-up processes. This could involve additional training for your billing team or revising your approach to insurance verification.
• Example: A practice noticed that claims submitted on Mondays were often delayed. Upon analyzing this trend, they realized the person verifying and entering insurance information the previous week for Monday patients was making mistakes.  By retraining staff on submission best practices, they reduced delays and improved overall cash flow.

Improper insurance verification can lead to greatly reduced insurance payments. Is your team, and revenue cycle management supported by a robust insurance verification process?

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6. Engage Patients When Necessary

• Communication: If an insurance company refuses to pay a claim despite clean claims submission, and your best efforts and the responsibility shifts to the patient, communicate this clearly and professionally to the patient. Provide them with a detailed explanation of actions taken and offer assistance if they wish to personally appeal with their insurance company.
• Collection: Ensure your practice has a clear and fair policy for collecting patient portions. 
• Example: A patient’s insurance denied coverage for a crown due to a frequency limitation. The practice, who did not place the original failed restoration, explained the situation to the patient and offered a payment plan to cover the balance, helping maintain a positive relationship with the patient while ensuring the practice was compensated.

Many practice team members experience anxiety when it comes to collecting patient portions. If you need help with process and language, review one of our favorite blogs with patient collections tips. 

Conclusion

Working a dental insurance aging report is not just about chasing down payments—it's the final piece of the dental insurance revenue cycle puzzle. By following a systematic approach to reviewing and addressing outstanding claims, you can minimize delays in payment, reduce the number of denied claims, and ultimately improve your practice’s cash flow. Regularly engaging with the aging report also helps identify areas for improvement in your billing process, making it an indispensable tool for the financial health of your dental practice.

Actively working the aging report can be time-consuming and tedious. To be successful, the process requires constant phone calls, attention to detail, consistent follow-up, and thorough documentation - all of which can take valuable time away from patient care. This is why many practices choose to outsource this task to dental billing specialists. Outsourcing the management of the aging report can relieve your practice from this burden, allowing your team to focus more on delivering excellent patient care, while ensuring that your revenue cycle is in expert hands.