Properly Applying Discounts & Credits at Your Dental Practice

Billing an insurance company for the cost of dental treatment may sound like one of the basic duties performed at your dental office every day. However, this simple concept can become more difficult if your dental office offers discounts or credits.

The problem that we’re seeing regarding discounts and credits is that the discount is often not applied when billing the insurance company. For example, if you extend a 5% discount to a patient, this rate also applies to the amount you’re billing to the patient’s insurance company. Many dentists will offer the credit to the patient, but are still billing the insurance companies for the full amount of treatment!

Properly Applying for Discounts & Credits

If you offer a $100 courtesy credit to one of your patients, you may think that all you need to do is lower the out-of-pocket cost for the patient by $100. Instead, you need to bill the patient’s insurance company for the cost of treatment, minus $100, because this represents the truly accurate cost of treatment.

If you’re only extending discounts and credits to your dental patients and not to their insurance companies as well, you may be unknowingly violating state laws or participating provider contracts. This could be a costly mistake. In fact, depending on the case, you could be accused of fraudulent billing practices or overbilling insurance companies. These accusations alone could spell disaster for your dental practice.

Running a dental practice can be overwhelming, so please allow us to help ease your stress! Here at Pro Dental Designs, we can help you make sure your dental practice is as profitable and successful as possible!