If your office is out of network (or heading that way), or if you’re tired of giving patients wildly inaccurate estimates utilizing Coverage Books is not optional. This is foundational. Too many offices are still guessing when it comes to insurance estimates, and then wondering why patients are upset, A/R is ballooning, and the front office feels like they’re constantly “putting out fires.”
How do you stop the madness? Coverage Books!
Here’s what’s really happening in most practices:
• Patients are being quoted estimates that are too low
• Insurance pays less than expected
• The patient gets a bill weeks (or months) later
• They’re confused, frustrated, or flat-out refuse to pay
• Your A/R grows… and grows… and grows
Sound familiar?
This isn’t a patient problem. This is a system problem.
And Coverage Books are designed to fix exactly that. But first … Let’s Fix the Mindset!
Before we get technical, let’s address the mindset. Insurance is not a guarantee. It never was.
Yet over time, dental office have trained patients to believe that the office will “figure it out later” and bill them when insurance pays. That approach no longer works — especially for out-of-network practices. Coverage Books allow you to say with confidence: “Ms Jones, this is our best estimate based on real data from your insurance company, not a guess”. Ahhh, doesn’t that feel better!
Instead of relying only on your full fee or a generic percentage, your PMS tracks actual allowed amounts paid by insurance carriers for specific procedure codes. Over time, it builds a database of real numbers — not assumptions.
That means:
• Better estimates
• Fewer surprises
• Stronger financial conversations
• More collections at time of service
Coverage Books are not just a “nice feature” in Open Dental.
They are a financial protection tool.
If your office is out of network, planning to go out of network, or struggling with patient balances — this needs to be set up correctly and used consistently.
If you’re not sure whether yours are configured properly, or your estimates still feel off, that’s where we come in.
If your office needs help setting up Coverage Books, training your team, or building stronger collection protocols, Dental Concierge Institute can help.
941-888-3395
www.DentalConciergeCoach.com
