A dental insurance breakdown form is an essential collection of information that you should obtain when you take a new patient. This form includes a comprehensive list of procedures and services that the patient's dental insurance will or will not pay for, including the amount of coverage for each service. Dental Intelligence's online dental forms offer a secure, paperless method of collecting insurance information. Discover how these forms streamline communication between your practice, your patient, and their insurance company.
What Information Does a Dental Insurance Breakdown Form Include?
Dental insurance breakdown forms contain a lot of details about the patient, what their dental insurance will pay for, and when it pays for services. An average breakdown form includes:
- Basic information that identifies the patient, insurance company, and plan to which they are connected.
- Whether an insurance company uses a fee schedule or usual, customary, or reasonable (UCR) amounts to inform its price.
- Any deductibles and the services they cover.
- When a plan renews. While many plans renew at the beginning of a calendar year, some do not.
- How long a patient must wait before their insurance covers a service, also called a waiting period.
- Annual maximum amount. Did a patient come to you from a different dental practice? How much of their annual amount did they use there?
- Missing tooth clauses. How does the plan cover missing teeth? Some companies cover restoration only when the extraction happened while a patient was under their policy.
You can customize your form to fit the needs of your practice by including other pertinent information from new patients or existing patients with changes in their policy.
How Does a Breakdown Form Benefit Your Dental Practice and Patients?
The benefit of a completed dental insurance breakdown form that requests all the right information is two-fold.
- Save time: Both your practice and the patient will enjoy saved time and streamlined communication in the long run.
- Help patients choose dental services: A breakdown form helps the patient understand how their insurance plan works with your dental practice. When patients can make informed decisions about what care their insurance covers, your dental practice is less likely to end up with an unpaid bill for their dental care.
- Better patient communication: Your dental practice also builds a reputation as a knowledgeable, efficient dental care provider that puts its patients' needs first.
How Can a Breakdown Form Streamline Communication with Insurance Companies?
Many dental insurance policies have specific requirements for each service or procedure. You must carefully scrutinize even the most routine services so the patient doesn't get a surprise bill.
For example, most dental care providers prefer to do x-rays annually. However, some policies only cover the cost of an x-ray every other year. Others will cover it from the 12-month mark to the exact day. You want to make sure your patient's needs align with those specifics and that they understand the resulting bill breakdown.
Another important example is among the most routine services: cleanings. The policy may require that the cleanings occur every six months to the exact day, or it won't cover it.
A dental insurance breakdown form helps with all the tiny details by streamlining them in one place. Your staff can easily access the form without making numerous calls to different insurance companies. These forms also improve the process of data entry by making all pertinent information readily available in one place.
You can more easily communicate with your patient and help them make decisions based on their budget, needed services, and when their dental insurance will cover it. This shows patients that you are informed, knowledgeable, and prepared to help them make an informed decision.
Keep Your Dental Practice Organized and Informed with Dental Intelligence
Building strong communication and a professional reputation should be the focus of your work. When you use Dental Intelligence's digital solutions, you empower your team to make your patients the center of your dental practice while our management system handles the minutiae of managing patient intake forms and dental insurance breakdown forms.
Our paperless system ensures any patient's details are readily available at the click of a button, all while keeping patient intake secure and simple. It's a win for everyone involved, including your team. Get in touch with us to learn more about how Dental Intelligence can shape the future of your practice.
