Revenue cycle management is an important aspect of running a dental practice or DSO when it comes to efficient payment collection, as well as creating a positive experience for the patient.
Boca Raton, Fla.-based Sage Dental's senior vice president and CFO Mark Brockelman said that having strong RCM from the DSO end allows their partner dentists to focus more on patient care. When a dental office is lacking in the RCM department, it can have a negative effect on the way the patient views the practice.
"We manage everything on the revenue cycle, so our offices can focus on patient care, and if we didn't do that, and if we didn't have an effective way to manage that, what happens is a really poor experience for the patient," Mr. Brockelman told Becker's. "We make sure that the technology that we utilize causes a perfect bill to that patient."
Practices that lack a strong revenue cycle process often lack a centralized technology that can produce accurate estimates for procedures. When that happens, the patient is left with a poor experience, said Mr. Brockelman.
So how can practices and DSOs build a strong structure for patients?
Matt Muscolo, senior vice president and general manager of dental practices at Synchrony, said that it starts with the very first interaction and making sure the patient is in the loop for the entire process.
"When we look at our patient journey, it starts with that first interaction point, making sure that the insurance is verified correctly," Mr. Muscolo told Becker's. "That way, when you're in the office, you know what you're getting covered for, and you know what the patient's responsibility is going to be. We also want to make sure that the patient knows there are financing options."
Mr. Brockelman and Mr. Muscolo agreed that alleviating the patient's stress is important to creating strong RCM, and leveraging technology and finding great partners are two methods to achieve that. All the small improvements add up creating the best experience possible, for the patient, the dentist and the practice.
"I think it's around finding the right partner to help drive those strategies within the DSO, alleviating the financial pressure on both the staff and the patients," said Mr. Muscolo. "Really finding how technology can help get patients into their appointment, into the chair, getting diagnosed, and then averaging that software to streamline those back end operations and those administrative burdens."
At Sage Dental, which supports more than 130 practices, finding scale to RCM operations is a big piece.
"We're utilizing technologies that automate things, making sure we can have those EOBs electronically delivered versus pulling those from the insurance company," said Mr. Brockelman. "Now we've automated almost all the payments that way. So there's various technologies that we've put in place to make sure that this happens and it happens immediately."
A good RCM process usually won't make many headlines. A bad process, however, can prevent patients from returning to a practice, and prevent prospective patients from even going in the first place.