How to Improve Your Dental Practice Collections Rate

From verifying insurance benefits before the patient is even seated to collecting payments at the time of service and following through on insurance claims and outstanding patient balances, every step plays a critical role in a dental practice's financial success. When each component of the revenue cycle is managed consistently, practices can improve collections, reduce write-offs, and maintain healthier cash flow. Let’s explore five practical strategies for how to improve dental collections and create a more predictable revenue cycle using Henry Schein One’s Dentrix Ascend. 

Start Before the Visit: Accurate Eligibility Checks and Cost Estimates 

As recently as five years ago, I would dread seeing the volume of patients on the schedule. This wasn‘t caused by who was coming to the office, or the production we were going to be making, but simply the number of insurances I would have to review for the day.  

At the time, I was the only administrative team member responsible for regular insurance verification. Before every recare appointment and every major procedure, I made sure each patient's benefits were current. On any given day, I would have to open multiple payor sites to verify coverage, check if the plan had updated or changed, verify amounts and/or frequencies used, and update our practice management software (PMS). If the payor didn’t have a site that provided the information, a phone call had to be made to verbally obtain the information, all while juggling long hold times with interruptions from team members and patients during the call.  In addition to this, ensuring that I was entering the information correctly into the PMS was also crucial.  

In total, I was spending two to four hours per day just on verifying dental insurance. I knew my time, and my team’s time, was more valuable than that, and Henry Schein One recognized the struggle dental offices all over the country were facing with this exact same scenario. 

Now the process is remarkably simple with Ascend’s Eligibility Pro. Insurance verification for an entire schedule can be completed in a matter of minutes. Entering a new insurance for a patient can be completed in less than five minutes, rather than almost twenty minutes it previously took. Gathering information from the patient, one needs to know the policyholder (and patient) name and date of birth, the carrier’s name, and the identification number or policyholder social security number. Prompting the system to generate a response should then return a complete breakdown with group numbers, coverage table breakdown, exceptions, frequencies, and limitations, which will then be written back into Ascend, eliminating mistakes.  

Eligibility Pro continues to work after the initial verification is completed by continuing to check patient insurance monthly to ensure the most up to date information is in the system, meaning practices can prepare more accurate treatment plans for their patients. There is no longer a worry if the plan’s renewal month was missed or if the plan was terminated.  Eligibility Pro catches all of that ahead of time and displays easy to read icons with verification status so the team can address any issues with the patient as soon as possible. 

Today's dental insurance landscape is far more complex than it was just a few years ago. Knowing only a patient's annual maximum, deductible, and coverage percentages is no longer enough. Employers and insurance carriers continue to introduce increasingly customized plans designed to control costs, making coverage far less predictable. Assuming a procedure will be covered simply because it's performed in a dental office can result in unexpected patient balances and difficult financial conversations. While verifying and filing dental insurance is a courtesy in most cases, being able to confidently present an accurate treatment plan estimate is crucial to an office’s reputation and financial health.  

While no one can memorize the nuances of thousands of insurance plans, Eligibility Pro captures the limitations and exclusions provided by the payor. For example, if an implant crown is covered but the implant abutment is excluded, that information is automatically documented and reflected in the patient's treatment estimate. Teams can present treatment confidently without worrying that important plan details have been overlooked. 

Patient conversations about treatment plan coverage are also simplified with this sophisticated insurance verification system. Eligibility Pro flags each code that has an exception, downgrade, frequency limit, or if it’s not covered. Instead of searching through insurance notes or making assumptions, team members can immediately explain why a procedure is, or isn't, covered. Presenting a treatment plan with confidence and being able to answer these questions is key to building a patient’s trust.  

Outdated or inaccurate benefits create inaccurate treatment plans. This leads to wrong amounts being collected from the patient, delayed or denied claims, and final totals that may not be collected in a timely manner, if at all. Ensuring insurance is accurate from the very beginning of the cycle makes the revenue cycle stronger and more consistent, helping support healthier collection rates. 

Collect At the Point of Service, Not After the Patient Leaves 

"Out of sight, out of mind." Collecting payment at the time of the appointment is essential for keeping patient balances small and manageable. Once patients leave the office, they return to their busy daily lives and may forget the details of their treatment plan, including their expected out-of-pocket responsibility. Delaying collection by billing patients later increases the likelihood that balances will become past due or remain unpaid altogether. Collecting payment at the time of service minimizes this risk, improves the dental collections rate, and helps ensure providers receive payment as close as possible to the final amount owed. 

Offer Flexible Payment Options Without Expanding Write-Offs 

Throughout my years in dentistry, one of the most common questions I've heard from patients is, "How can I pay for this?" Providing patients with flexible payment options is essential to helping them move forward with recommended treatment while reducing the risk of unpaid balances that may ultimately be written off as uncollectible. Whether a practice offers in-house financing or partners with a third-party financing company, giving patients multiple ways to pay makes treatment more accessible and affordable. 

Third-party financing companies such as CareCredit, Cherry, and Sunbit are among the leading options available to dental practices. Each has its own approval criteria and financing terms, allowing practices to offer solutions that meet a variety of patient financial situations. By providing multiple financing options, practices can increase case acceptance, improve collections, and reduce the administrative burden and financial risk associated with managing payment plans in-house. 

Build A Disciplined A/R Follow-Up Cadence (30/60/90 Day Workflow) 

Ascend makes it easy for practices to monitor and manage dental accounts receivable by providing real-time access to aging reports and claim status. Industry benchmarks recommend that aging balances steadily decrease as they move into older aging categories. Ideally, 70% or more of total A/R should fall within the 0–30 day category, approximately 20% within 31–60 days, and no more than 5% each within the 61–90 day and 91+ day categories. Maintaining these benchmarks demonstrates that the practice is consistently following up on outstanding balances and collecting payments in a timely manner. 

Generating patient statement reports at least weekly is an essential part of maintaining healthy patient collections. Regular statements and phone calls serve as reminders to patients and help prevent balances from progressing into older aging categories. 

The Ascend Dashboard also provides valuable insight into insurance claims by identifying claims that are overdue or require immediate attention. In addition to highlighting claims that have exceeded the expected payment timeframe, the dashboard alerts staff to clearinghouse rejected claims. Rejected claims should be addressed promptly because they have been stopped at the clearinghouse level and have not reached the insurance carrier for processing. In many cases, these rejections result from simple errors, such as a transposed member identification number, and can be corrected quickly to avoid unnecessary payment delays. 

Reviewing the Provider A/R report daily enables the team to monitor collection performance, identify trends, and address outstanding balances before they become significantly aged. Consistent monitoring of these key reports supports a proactive revenue cycle management strategy and helps maintain the financial health of the practice. 

Reduce Write-Offs by Fixing Claim Errors Before Submission 

Insurance companies have changed the dental landscape over the last several decades, and keeping up with the rules and regulations has become an even more tedious task than ever before. Before even entering plans into the PMS, the dentist should review the contract with the payor if they decide to be an in-network provider.  

• How are the fees they want the provider to agree to; is there going to be a large percentage of production adjusted off for the insurance network?  

• What are codes the payor states are never covered?  

• Do patients have set rules they have to abide by to receive care?  

• After the insurance company is billed for services and the explanation of benefits is received, what codes or services could be planned more clearly for the patient?  

With Ascend, many of the exceptions and frequencies are obtained by Eligibility Pro and written into the PMS before the patient is even in the office. Ascend will even capture data from the payor that includes the documentation needed to accompany the claim. For example, a patient is seen for two quadrants of scaling and root planing and has used two hours of hygiene chair time. Ideally, an office should hope to see payment within seven days of submitting the claim. Ascend will indicate what supporting documentation must accompany a claim, including narratives, radiographs, periodontal charting, intraoral pictures, or chart notes. The days of assuming what a payor will want with the claim are behind us with  Ascend gathering that information prior to the patient’s treatment even starting.  

Track the Right Metrics: Collections Rate, AR Aging, and Days in AR 

With reporting such as “Provider A/R,” “Aged Receivables,” and the integration with Jarvis Analytics, identifying problem payors has never been easier. Tracking adjustments by provider or by payor ensures the issue is addressed before it becomes too large to manage. We strive to maintain at least a 98% dental collections rate and check this daily in “Provider A/R” reporting within Ascend. 

Tracking the right financial metrics is essential to evaluating the overall health of a dental practice's revenue cycle and identifying opportunities for improvement. Ascend makes the revenue cycle extremely easy to manage. Three of the most important key performance indicators (KPIs) are the dental collections rate, dental practice AR aging, and days in A/R. 

The collections rate measures the percentage of money collected compared to the amount that was expected to be collected after contractual adjustments. A consistently high collections rate demonstrates that the practice is effectively collecting payments from both patients and insurance carriers while minimizing write-offs and bad debt. 

A/R aging categorizes outstanding balances based on the length of time they have remained unpaid, allowing the practice to quickly identify accounts that require follow-up. Healthy aging reports should show that most outstanding balances fall within the 0–30 day category, with progressively smaller percentages in older aging brackets. An increase in balances aged 60, 90, or more than 120 days often indicates breakdowns in billing, insurance follow-up, or patient collections that require immediate attention.  

Days in A/R measures the average number of days it takes the practice to collect payment after services are rendered. Lower days in A/R generally indicate an efficient revenue cycle, while higher averages may signal delays in claim submission, payment posting, or collection efforts. Monitoring these metrics on a consistent basis enables practice leaders to identify trends, establish measurable goals, and implement corrective actions before financial issues become significant.  

Reviewing these KPIs monthly—or even weekly in larger practices—provides valuable insight into the effectiveness of front office procedures, insurance follow-up processes, and patient payment policies. When used together, collections rate, A/R aging, and days in A/R provide a comprehensive picture of the practice's financial performance. Rather than relying solely on total production or revenue, these metrics help ensure that the services provided ultimately translate into collected income, supporting strong cash flow, long-term financial stability, and informed business decisions. For practices evaluating how to improve dental collections, these reports also help teams spot patterns early and adjust workflows before balances become harder to collect. 

Like a game of Jenga, each component of the revenue cycle depends on the strength of the one before it. When processes such as insurance verification, timely claim submission, payment collection, and A/R follow-up are neglected, the financial stability of the practice is compromised. However, when each step is performed consistently, the entire revenue cycle functions efficiently. By helping practices identify issues early, monitor key performance indicators, and maintain accountability through the collection process, Ascend strengthens the financial foundation of the practice, leading to improved cash flow, higher collection rates, and long-term operational success.