What’s New
in Dentrix Ascend
At Henry Schein One, we constantly strive to improve
your dental practice management. Here are a few new
features in this update.
Production Release 386
Enhanced Primary and Secondary Insurances Switching
Use drag and drop to easily change the order of patients’ insurance plans for coordination of benefits. Receive alerts, if needed, to change credit adjustments on unsent claims before changing the order.
Refresh Claim Status
When two or more days have passed without notification, a new Refresh Status button lets you check for updates on a submitted claim.
Set Predetermination Requirements Part 2
Increase your efficiency with the newer feature for tagging procedures that need predeterminations and receiving automatic reminders in treatment plans. Do this by selecting a previously edited insurance plan and using it as your template for another plan. Plus, as needed, add financial parameters for predeterminations based on the cost of the procedures.
Production Release 385
Switch Primary and Secondary Insurances
Easily modify the order of patients’ insurance plans to replace expired plans or update coordination of benefits with active plans. Receive immediate notification of impact on outstanding claims so you can select a future date for changes to take effect if needed.
Unresolved Claims Management
Simplify claims follow-ups by increasing or decreasing the number of days for follow-ups with a carrier or patient. With a single click, move a claim to the Dismissed Claim list (and back) for easier claims management.
Enhanced Patient Insurance Badge
Hover over a patient’s green shield badge to see the patient’s insurance plans without changing views.
Set Predetermination Requirements
Tag procedures that need predeterminations for a given carrier and receive an automatic reminder when the procedure appears in a treatment plan. Icons on tagged procedures serve as visual reminders. Save even more time by loading a research-based list of codes with predeterminations to start your edits.
Clinical Note Requirements
Turn off (or on) the requirement to provide clinical notes for specific procedures. Changes automatically apply to everyone in your organization.
Production Release 383-384
Provider A/R Totals Report with New Filters
Use new filters in the Provider A/R Totals Report to fine tune the results you need for paying providers. For financial data, set your desired filters for procedures, charge adjustments, and credit adjustments. For providers, select as many specific providers as needed (not just one or all).
Attaching Clinical Notes to Claims
Skip the step of converting clinical notes to JPEGs. Simply choose your clinical note narrative in Ascend. The note is converted and attached for you, with patient name, DOB, creation date, and essential practice contact information in the header. As needed, preview the note before attaching to confirm you picked the correct one. Label each note as appropriate: Narrative, Report, or Diagnosis.
Claim Attachments Size Information
To help you keep attachments under 15 Mb (the maximum size for the clearinghouse), you now can see the claim size with attachments prior to submitting. Remove any optional attachments, as needed, to help your claim move smoothly through the clearinghouse.
Rejected Claims on Unresolved Claims
Identify and address rejected claims faster than ever. From the Overview page, click the new Rejected number under the Unresolved Claims widget. Or, if you prefer using the Unresolved Claims Report, toggle the top-right setting to see only rejected claims. Either way, you get directly to the list of rejected claims so you can resolve and resubmit them to keep cash flowing.
Carrier-Specific Overdue Claims Periods
Rather than rely on the default of 14 days, you can now modify the number of days each carrier normally takes to return your claims. You then will receive “overdue” reminders for individual carriers based on your customizations.
Printed Claims Alert
For carriers that were added manually (all with Payor ID 06126), you now see a Print Claims reminder when viewing them under the list of Insurance Carriers. The clearinghouse will print and mail claims to these carriers for you. However, they do not send any electronic attachments.
Changing Providers in Treatment Plans
When updating providers in a treatment plan, save steps by first clicking one or more procedures. Then use the new “Change Provider To” drop down button to change all selected procedures at once to a new provider. (No need to open and change providers one procedure one at a time.) Click again to update projected amounts if the fee schedule for the new provider is different.
Clinical Notes Secondary Signer
To simplify signing clinical notes as the second signer, the Home dashboard alerts you to the number to be signed—under the Clinical Note Tasks widget. Simply click the number that appears under the Unsigned column to automatically open and electronically sign the notes.
Patient Social Security Numbers
To meet the needs of patient financing and insurance verification, you can now add social security numbers to their records. Only team members with the new Access Social Security permissions can view the information, and any review, update, or deletion is noted with the team member’s name in the Audit Log. In addition, SSNs are encrypted and not available in any reports.
CDT 2022 Update
Get 2022 off to a great start with the newest CDT codes. Enjoy fewer claim rejections and speedier reimbursements with the updates, featuring 24 new codes, including COVID vaccinations.
Production Release 382
“Print and Mail for Me” Patient Statements
Is your office printing, stuffing, and mailing patient statements at times when they could be helping in other ways, or perhaps doing it after hours on their own time? Now you have a fast, affordable alternative. Have your printed statements sent for you using the new Print and Mail for Me option. Available in all Ascend locations where you process statements, this service lets those with user permissions approve out-sourcing of high-quality, professional statements. Before sending, you always review costs that will be added to your next billing cycle for the service.
Editing Procedures from the Treatment Planner and Unattached Procedures
Save extra, past steps for updating procedure codes. Now you can simply click and modify codes while viewing them in the Treatment Planner or Unattached Procedures page.
Save Images with Tooth Number and Date
Meet the requirements for insurance companies who require image date and tooth numbers on diagnostic images. When saving images that include a template mount, one click adds the required information as a top banner before you save the images.
Contracted Fee Measure in Power Reporting and Posted Procedures
Knowing the contracted fee can help get you the correct amount for a procedure. Knowing that is easier now with the addition of a Contracted Fee field for custom reports built with the Analysis Schedule and Interactive Schedule report builders. In addition, viewing contracted fees is no longer dependent on creating a claim.
Production Release 381
Discount Plan Expiration Notices
Do you offer patients an in-house discount program—especially for those who are uninsured? By assigning an expiration date to the plan, you can be alerted, and notify patients, when that plan is about to expire (or has expired). Reminders appear on the patients’ Treatment Planner, Progress Notes, and Ledger pages—plus when scheduling an appointment.
Power Reporting with Current Status and Tooth Ranges
To help you take advantage of recent Power Reporting improvements, a new “Current Status” field has been added for custom report you may have built in the past. Building on recent procedure code enhancements, you can now see teeth included in a range for reports that include Proc Treatment Area.
Production Release 380
Procedure Codes for a Range
Make it easier to document progress and submit claims by creating codes for procedures that cover a specific range of teeth. In Progress Notes and on Claims, the range will appear for all teeth along with the procedure code.
Tracking Predetermination
Do you need to track your predeterminations from the treatment-planning phase to procedure completion? The new Analysis Procedure Report Builder in Power Reporting provides predetermination-specific fields you can use to build your custom report for personal or organization use.
ePrescriptions for Multiple Organizations and Minors
For providers who ePrescribe at more than one organization, you can now easily add your credentials at all organizations to save time on your prescriptions. Also, for pediatric patients, ePrescribe now collects needed height and weight information, automatically requiring it for those under age 18.
Production Release 379
Statement Submissions Report
Stay on top of your patent statements in three formats: emailed, printed in the office, or sent using Print and Mail for Me. Choose a date range and location see quantities and values of statements for each format. Then, drill down to see details for each type and print as needed.
Billing Statement Enhancements
If you prefer to first send electronic statements to all patients, the refreshed Billing Statement dialog box helps you send those immediately to patients with valid email or text information using. A new pop-up then gives you the names of those without a valid email address or text number, so you can easily send printed statements to those patients. This is all managed with the Billing Statement dialog box. Lastly, the Patient Connection page shows you the outcome of your billing statement activities—whether successful, in progress, or failed.
Charting Symbol Priorities
New priorities for showing completed and existing procedures, conditions, and treatment planned procedures make it easier to track progress on the Patient Chart.
Moving Planned Procedures on the Calendar
When you move all procedures from a scheduled appointment, save potential frustration for you and your patients thanks to an empty appointment that remains on the Calendar and tells where the procedures were moved. When moving treatment planned procedures and recare, the system confirms the move and tells the impact on existing appointments.
Changing Providers in the Recare Panel
If the assigned provider changes during an appointment, you can easily update that while in the Chair or Checkout status of the Routing Panel. A pop-up confirms the change of assignment to avoid potential errors.
Updated Estimated Net Production Calculation and Show Deletions in the Day Sheet
As needed, add charge adjustments and unapplied credit adjustments to the Day Sheet to get the results you want. See tooth and surface information for deleted procedures for better clarity.
Denti-Cal Reporting Enhancements
Reconcile Denti-Cal claims faster with automatic download of the past 30 days and improved search capabilities to find responses. Annotate claim details as needed and copy to the patient’s Document Manager to record the information. If you don’t find the response you need, easily toggle back and forth with the Unresolved Claims page for forensic help.
Ledger Enhancements
Set the Ledger to automatically jump to the patient’s most recent transaction upon open to save time. By choosing to view the Ledger by transaction date, the system now automatically sorts in the order you most recently used (oldest to newest, newest to oldest).
Production Release 377
Better Tracking of Insurance Estimates and Outstanding Balances
Have a better handle on patient balances with the latest Ledger updates. Easily track changes to anticipated patient and insurance portions as payments come in, coverages change, and numerous other updates—all while keeping track of prior expected payments. “Transfer of Responsibility” records provide best accuracy for accounts receivable and better data for explaining balances to patients.
Scheduling Related Patients
Book family members (and other related patients) at the same time with greater efficiency. After scheduling a patient, easily select related members from a drop-down list and book them for the same day.
Predetermination Tracking Power Reports
Stay on top of predeterminations with two new Power Reports. Easily track predetermination requests not yet sent, and monitor the returned information for those already sent. Quickly identify procedures that are cleared to go, plus know where additional follow-up is needed to get clearance.
Production Release 375
Appointment Times in Reminders
Help your patients arrive on time. Now appointment reminder text messages include the exact time the appointment will start.
Online Booking Updates
Avoid accidental double-booking. Sometimes patients take too long to finish their online scheduling, allowing someone else to request their preferred time. If so, the Online Booking feature lets them know that their selected time is no longer available. They can then start over to book a different time.
Ledger Enhancements for Backdated Transactions and Transaction History
Get better oversight of backdated transactions in closed periods. A new pop-up for backdating in closed periods requires credentials validation, adds the transaction to the Audit Log, and notifies users if someone using their credentials unsuccessfully attempts to backdate a payment, credit adjustment, or charge adjustment. To simplify the review of transaction histories, you can now deselect deleted items and transfers of responsibility, so they don’t show when reviewing transactions.
Predetermination Tracking Power Reports
Stay on top of predeterminations with two new Power Reports. Easily track predetermination requests not yet sent, and monitor the returned information for those already sent. Quickly identify procedures that are cleared to go, plus know where additional follow-up is needed to get clearance.
Coordination of Time Entries in Calendar and Tx Planner
No need to update the same appointment length in two places. Change an appointment length in the Treatment Planner and the length is automatically updated in the Calendar—and vice versa, Calendar changes update in the Treatment Planner.
Production Release 371-373
Time Clock
Looking for an online tool to track attendance easily? The Time Clock feature allows users to “punch in” and “punch out” at one or more locations. Admins have control over editing and managing the timestamps and hours worked as needed. Meanwhile users and admins can report and export the data for personal time-tracking and for transfer to payroll systems.
Proxy Prescription Preparation
For busy clinicians, delegating the preparation of electronic prescriptions can be a huge time-saver. Simply designate in user settings which team members are authorized, and they can set up everything according to doctors’ orders—leaving the busy clinician only to “approve and send” to electronically submit the prescriptions and post them in Progress Notes. Better service to your patients comes without a big burden for providers.
Automated Attachment Reminders
Don’t delay another claim due to missing attachments. Effective with this update, Dentrix Ascend alerts you anytime industry guidelines call for documentation with a submitted claim—base on the procedure code. For secondary claims, alerts remind you of the need to add EOBs.
Calendar Enhancements for Provider and Appointment Production
When production numbers for individual providers change during the day, click the alert to easily update your view to see the most current appointment values and provider totals.
Text Message Enhancements
Common electronic message conventions now alert user about the number of unread messages in the Inbox or an individual text message thread. Users can toggle message between Read and Unread.
Production Release 367-369
Transaction Revision History
Have you wished you could modify past transactions without changing a closed financial period? Now you can, by making the changes in the current ledger, while retaining a snapshot of the original transaction. For accurate tracking see any changes that were made to procedure code, provider, payment, tooth number, and more. Choose the view you need by expanding and collapsing the Ledger to see revisions. Keep a clean audit trail by requiring reasons for corrections and deletions.
Report Updates
See the new transaction history information at work in popular standard, built-in reports: Deposit Slip Report, Payment Analysis Report, Provider A/R Totals Report, Day Sheet, and Payment Plan Status Report. View the historically accurate data for any date in the past, as well as correct current data.
Calendar Enhancements for Location Production
When production numbers for your location change during the day, click the alert to easily update your view to see the most current totals.
Production Totals Chart Enhancements
Understand your production totals better than ever with new chart options to view daily, weekly, and monthly totals—with the option to filter by providers. Weekly and daily views let you toggle between chart and table.
Bulk Insurance Payment Enhancements
Process your bulk insurance payments faster with improvements for selecting the carriers by name or payor ID, and better search and navigation capabilities to zero in on patients to be processed.
Questionnaire Enhancements – Including Pedo Data Capture
Wishing you had additional details on patient forms? Depending on answers, Demographics, Dental History, and Medical History questionnaires now collect additional information. Capture information on the person completing the form—if the form is completed by someone other than the patient. Get guarantor details if the patient is not the guarantor. If the patient is a minor, a series of questions specific to minors follows. Get the doctor’s name and phone number for patients under care of a physician, and reasons for past hospitalization.
Import New Users from File
Save time entering new users. Prepare the needed information in the provided .CSV template and let Ascend set them up for you. For providers, import their NPI, DEA, TIN, and State ID numbers along with their other information.
New CDT 2021 Image-Only Codes
For times when an image will be taken in one office and analyzed in another, select from nine new CDT codes. New checkboxes let you note these “image only” procedures—either as the sending or receiving practice.
Tag Images with Tooth Numbers
Easily assign tooth numbers to images while viewing image history on the images tab.
Learning Resources for New Users
New to Dentrix Ascend? Start here. The new Dentrix Ascend Overview video provide a quick look at areas of Dentrix Ascend. Then stick around to view a variety of resources hosted in a new area specifically for beginners.