103: Insurance Reference Guides and Pre-Auths we all like to ignore, with Melissa Dunham

The truth is, we shouldn't be ignoring these reference guides. Dental Reference Guides are available to every dentist whether you participate with insurance or not. They serve as a guide on what each insurance carriers cover, what they downgrade to, and what their policies are for certain billable procedures. In addition to good coding training, Melissa believes the Dental Reference Guides (referred to as DRG's)as a bible for coverage and should be obtained and ready by insurance coordinators every year. In addition to talking about dental reference guides, Melissa talks about the power of pre-authorizations. Many offices ignore the power of pre-authorizations because their experience in obtaining pre-auth's lead them to believe that pre-auth's will slow down treatment. The truth is, when you get insurance in the habit of sending pre-auth's, the time in getting pre-auth's back go down to 3 to 5 days. Melissa talks about the power of pre-auth's that most dental offices are unaware of. To contact Melissa with questions email her at [email protected]. To contact our hosts please email [email protected].