Four Key Reports to Target Accounts Receivable

The Dentrix Collections Manager helps you increase your practice revenue by decreasing your accounts receivable (A/R). This interactive module displays your A/R and allows you to filter the data by balance, aging, insurance claim status, and last payment dates. The Collections Manager also displays guarantors who need to be contacted about an outstanding balance, and it links to the More Information dialog box where you can see all of the contact information for a patient. The sooner you address a collection issue, the more likely you are to have a positive resolution. The Collections Manager can be accessed from the toolbar of the Office Manager.

In addition to the Collections Manager, there are four key reports you can run to monitor your A/R: the Provider A/R Totals Report, the Aging Report, and the Insurance Aging Report.

Provider A/R Totals Report
The Provider A/R Totals Report (Office Manager > Reports > Management > Provider A/R Totals) shows how effective your collection efforts are. From this report, you can view total accounts receivable, total production, total collections, and a ratio of collections to production. You should run this report and review it with your staff at least once a month, although some consultants suggest running this report weekly, or even daily.

Aging Report
There are two sources of accounts receivable: Patients and Insurance. An easy way to monitor patient A/R totals is by running the Aging Report (Office Manager > Reports > Ledger > Aging Report). The Aging Report shows which guarantors have outstanding balances, and how long the balances have been outstanding. The report displays the percentage of the total balance within each aging bracket. Dental industry consultants suggest you should not let a balance extend more than 30 days. The sooner you address a collection issue, the more likely it will be resolved positively.

The report also separates the total amount due into Insurance Estimate and Guarantor Portion columns. When collecting from patients, you should concentrate on the largest balances first, as these accounts represent the largest portion of your A/R. You should run this report and review it with your staff at least once a month, although some consultants suggest running this report weekly, or even daily.

Insurance Aging Report
To find your total Insurance A/R, you can run the Insurance Aging Report (Office Manager > Reports > Ledger > Insurance Aging Report). The Insurance Aging Report shows which claims are outstanding by insurance carrier, and the total outstanding balance per claim. The report also shows the outstanding insurance payment portion in aging brackets. Consultants suggest you should not let an insurance claim balance extend past 30 days, and that you actively work to collect balances that are 20 – 30 days past due. If you have balances more than 30 days old, target those balances first.

The report also shows which subscribers have outstanding claims. By knowing which subscribers have outstanding claims, you can identify who you need to contact to reduce your A/R. You should run this report and review it with your staff at least once a month, although some consultants suggest running this report weekly, or even daily.

The Collections section of the Practice Advisor Report
The Dentrix Practice Advisor (Office Manager > Analysis > Practice Advisor) shows your practice’s key performance indicators (KPIs), compares them to industry standard benchmarks, and offers suggestions for improving these statistics. The Practice Advisor includes a section about Collections KPIs.

In the Collections section of the report, you can view your total collections and the variance between your collections and the industry benchmark. The Aged Accounts Receivable section shows the combined dollar amount of all account balances. These totals are broken down into standard aging brackets. This section also shows the combined dollar amount of all account balances that are tied to pending insurance claims. These totals are broken down into standard aging brackets. You should run this report and review it with your staff once a month.

Learn More
For more information about the Dentrix Collections Manager and the reports mentioned here, log in to the Dentrix Resource Center.

Looking for ways to increase your practice profitability? Check out this helpful guide.