As the owner and operator of your dental practice, you know the importance of proper insurance coding. Making a mistake could disrupt the patient’s access to receive services, your ability to get paid, or both. Many practice owners rely on outside professionals to provide coding services, but what if you had this available under your roof? In this article, you will find out how to certify your front office team members as dental coders, thanks to a new opportunity in continuing education.
Become a coding expert online
The American Association of Dental Office Management (AADOM) is now offering a training course to ensure participants have a full grasp of CDT codes and how to use them. The materials in this course emanate from the ADA, which produces the CDT and fields thousands of coding questions each year.
Materials for the course include the CDT 2022 codes and the Coding Companion Kit. Both of these are available both in print and as e-books or as an app available for computers, iOS, and Android. The course represents another avenue by which the AADOM seeks to pursue its core mission—to educate, connect, and empower dental office managers and practice leaders across North America.
Those who go through the course should develop or enhance the following skills:
- Comprehend the key terms used in dental coding
- Possess the ability to complete the ADA Dental Claim Form with confidence
- Use the CDT manual and companion kit to detect the correct codes in a real-world setting
- Possess an understanding of the 12 service categories and structure of the codes
Dental coding requires a specific set of skills
Medical billing and dental insurance billing are less similar than you might think. For one thing, dental coding employs an entirely different set of data stemming from a text called Current Dental Terminology (CDT). The American Dental Association publishes and maintains this document. The CDT contains all codes needed for dental claims; each claim is related to a specific, unique dental diagnosis.
A qualified dental coder should know how to code and send insurance claims, understand which codes and claim forms to use, and communicate properly with insurance providers. Much of the information on dental claim forms is similar to that of medical claims: patient demographic, identifying information of the patient, insurer information, dates of service, and procedure codes.
That said, dental claim forms require a significant amount of additional information that is not necessary on a medical claim form, such as:
- The precise treatment area inside of the oral cavity
- The tooth system
- The number or letter of the tooth or teeth being treated
- The tooth surface
- A description of the procedure
- Information about any missing teeth
Did you know more than 50% of dental insurance claims are sent through the mail?
Is your practice one of them? You could invest in a practice management program, which can scan required documents in association with the claim, such as periodontal charts and radiographs. However, these programs can be expensive, adding to your total overhead. You can also choose to outsource your coding needs, but many dentists are reluctant to do so. That’s why having an in-house coder can be such a tremendous asset to any dental practice. It will help your team members as well, as those who complete the new course will become certified in dental coding.
Dental Coding Consultation
The team at Bryant Consultants possesses decades of combined experience in the dental industry, and we put that knowledge to work to help hard-working dentists like you achieve their goals. We currently offer a free one-hour consultation to help practice owners just like you. Schedule yours today by calling (877) 768-4799. And to keep up with the latest news and updates, be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
