Hello, and welcome to season two of Dentistry Support the Podcast with your host, the kind hearted and infectious Sarah Beth Herman. We're back for a new season and ready to pack a punch. In every episode, we'll be sharing you quick, impactful insights into the challenges our dental community and leaders in all industries face.

Expect a little bit of flair, a few laughs, and you might even recognize a friend or two. Because of you, we are the number one podcast in dentistry and number one in management and business. And we couldn't be more excited to keep bringing you practical wisdom and leadership with a servant's heart, all delivered in just enough time for your commute or morning team huddle.

We're glad you're here. So let's get into it. Please welcome your host, Sarah Beth. 

Hello friends, and welcome back to Dentistry Support the Podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Beth Herman, and this is a special bonus midweek episode, part two of our series on dental billing gaps and accountability. After releasing part one earlier this week, we got so much incredible feedback that I just couldn't make you wait until Monday for the follow up. 

I know most of you are probably gearing up for the holidays, but I also know how important this information is to you, your practices, and your businesses. I didn't want to hold back on getting it to you as soon as possible.  If you haven't listened to part one yet, I highly recommend you check it out. In that episode, we talked about the top seven billing gaps that often cost practices and billing companies time, money, and trust.

But today we're talking, but today we're taking things even further. This episode is all about helping you level up. Not just your processes, but your mindset, your professionalism, and your accountability, and the ability to communicate, pause and rerecord.  This episode is all about helping you level up.

Not just your processes, but your mindset, professionalism, and your ability to communicate with confidence. Whether you are a dental office managing billing in house or a billing company working with multiple dental practices. My goal is to support you where you are and to help you become a strong, trustworthy force in the dental industry. 

You might be thinking, why, Sarah Beth, are you sharing all of this information? Isn't this giving away your trade secrets?  Let me tell you something, I'm not here to gatekeep.  And if you've ever thought that about me, I hope I can change your mind with this episode and all of the episodes that came before this.

I believe truly that there's room for all of us to succeed. And when we collectively raise the standards for dental billing, we all win.  So I want you to grab a notebook, get comfortable, and let's start on leveling up your approach to billing and accountability.  Let's start with.

Why transparency is non negotiable.  Transparency isn't just a buzzword.  It is a fundamental part of creating trust and accountability in your billing processes.

Whether you are running a dental office  or managing a billing company, Transparency is what gives people confidence in the work that you do. Think about it. When an owner, doctor, or a client doesn't know what's happening with their claims, how many are being submitted? What is being denied? Or what is stuck in limbo? 

They are left to guess. And guessing leads to frustration and mistrust.  According to a 2023 report from Revenue Cycle Insights, 75 percent of billing errors could be prevented with better communication and documentation. So let that sink in for a minute. Three out of four mistakes happen because someone didn't have the right information.

Or the process wasn't clearly communicated.  Transparency is also about reducing the need for follow ups. No one wants to feel like their work is being constantly questioned or checked up on.  When you build transparency into your daily operations through clear communication, detailed reporting, and well documented processes, you eliminate the need for those awkward follow ups.

Everyone knows what's happening, why it's happening, and what's coming next. That kind of clarity builds trust, it strengthens relationships, and it makes the entire billing process smoother for everyone involved.  Now, transparency doesn't mean that you'll never make a mistake. It doesn't mean that you'll always do everything perfect in dental billing. 

But it does mean that your clients, your owners, those that you report to, trust you. They trust that you'll come to them no matter what the situation is.

 Let's talk daily check ins for a minute. Whether you are in an office or running that billing company, a quick 10 to 15 minute check in every day can work wonders for alignment and accountability. Here at my company Dentistry Support, we have daily check ins by providing daily recap reporting.

So it's very simple. We've already put together the recap. We send it to our clients first thing in the morning. They know exactly what's going on. Maybe they can't read it right away. But at least they know that we did it and we've sent it in to them.  These check ins that you create, it's not about micromanaging.

It's about giving everyone a clear sense of direction. Use that time or that check in to discuss what claims were submitted yesterday. What is your focus for today? Have there been any roadblocks or are there questions that need to be addressed?  For billing companies, this is a great time to address any client specific updates.

For dental offices, it makes sure that everyone from the front desk to your billing team to your owner doctor is all on the same page. When everyone knows the plan, there's less room for mistakes and more opportunities to succeed.  Now, let's talk weekly reporting. This is where transparency and trust really come into play.

A weekly report doesn't have to be complicated. Even a simple summary of claims submitted, payments received, denials, pending follow ups, claims on their way,  claims that you resubmitted, it all can make a huge difference.  Maybe you're wondering, why is that so important? That seems like a lot of extra work. 

It's important because when you proactively share updates with your owner doctor or those that you have to report to, you're doing the thing we just talked about. You're building trust. You're showing them, hey, here's what I've done. Here's what's happening now. And here's what needs attention. This eliminates the need for them to ask questions or worry about what's slipping through the cracks.

Weekly reporting also gives you an opportunity to spot trends. Are denials happening for the same reasons? Are claims taking longer than usual to process?  All of this can help you refine your process and prevent bigger issues down the line. It's also going to teach you a lot about what's happening in your processes.

Do you need to refine them for whatever reason?  I want to talk about some tools, SOPs, and the professional edge I want you to have.  First let's start with what are SOPs and why do they matter? If you've never been in a boardroom or you've never developed a business before, or maybe you just haven't been in that circle, you might not know what SOPs even mean.

So let's break down SOPs. SOP stands for Standard Operating Procedures, or commonly known as SOPs.  These are step by step instructions that outline how specific tasks should be performed. In some companies, you might hear these worded as best practices or policies, but I think those all have different places and there are specific words we should use for specific things.

SOPs are your standard  sOPs are standard step by step instructions. They are very, very important and , I would almost say that they are essential for consistency. I would almost say they're essential for consistency, especially in billing, where even small errors can have really big consequences.

Here's an example. If someone on your team is responsible for submitting claims, your SOP should include how to verify the claim for accuracy, what documentation needs to be attached. And where to log the submission for tracking.  SOPs are a lifesaver when new team members join. Instead of spending weeks figuring things out, they can hit the ground running with a clear guide.

And for billing companies, having documented processes to share with clients shows professionalism, and it builds trust. Take the time to do it.  I want to take a moment to talk about language and mindset. Whether you are working in a dental office or you've got your own billing company or admin company or third party company for dental practices, the way you communicate matters.

Using professional terms like revenue cycle management, denial resolution, workflow optimization. It's not about sounding fancy. It's about showing that you know your stuff. And let me say this, you don't need to be a big company to operate like one. I  have a friend and she said, you know, my family always grew up without,  I always told my children  that we don't have to have new, but we can have nice.

The same thing goes in small business. You don't have to be a big company and have everything big companies have. But you can still operate like one. You can still have professional processes, professional language, professional systems.  You are showing up with confidence, you're showing up with clarity, and people take notice.

They trust you.  I'm not here to compete with you. I'm here to support you. I want every person in this industry to have the same opportunity to succeed. Whether you're managing a single office or working with ten offices, twenty offices, a hundred offices. There's room for us all to thrive, and each one of us in each of these sections of dental billing or working in dentistry, we were called here for a purpose.

This industry can't operate with just one of us. It takes a village. We all belong.  I want to talk about fostering a culture of accountability.  Creating a culture of accountability starts with clear expectations. Everyone on your team, whether it's a billing company or a dental office, needs to know their role and what their responsibilities are. 

Here's a few steps I take to work with my team.  One, I define roles very clearly. I make sure there's no overlap or confusion about who handles what.  I set measurable goals. For example, We follow up on all claims every 14 days without fail. Our goal is to never have even one single claim aging over 30 days.

And if we do, we follow up on that claim every 7 days, until we hear back and find out what's going on.  We provide feedback all the time. As much as possible. So much so, that some of our clients even ask us  provide less feedback, or only at certain times because it's too much for them. Okay, no problem.

I'd rather you tell me I give you too much information than not enough.  I want to celebrate successes. I offer constructive input when things need improvement. I take the time with my team and the time with my clients. It's important that my team sees me do this so that they do this with our clients. 

Most importantly, accountability has to start at the top. If you're leading a team, show them what accountability looks like. Be transparent. Follow through on commitments. Create an environment where everyone. feels supported If all of this seems like a lot, take a moment and pick one thing that you heard today so far.

Pick one thing and start there, then add a second in a couple of weeks. You don't have to overhaul your entire process, your entire office, your entire business right now. You just need to start somewhere.  Let's talk about a few quick wins that you can implement today.  One, I want you to start auditing your processes.

Take an hour to review your current billing workflow. What is working? What is not working? What do you not like about what's going on in your current processes? Is there something driving you crazy that you think about? At night, when you're trying to fall asleep?  Is there something that your clients are saying over and over and over that you are trying to fix but you just can't see a way through? 

Tell me in the comments of this episode.  Come to my website, DentistrySupport. com. Start a chat. Talk with my team. Is there something driving you crazy? Maybe you're thinking this is just how it always is. Maybe that's not the case. Audit your processes. Take an hour and review them.  Next, I want you to introduce weekly reports.

Maybe daily reports is a little bit much for you right now, but weekly you can work with. Awesome. Start simple. Just a one page summary of claims and payments. You don't need to make it all robust and include everything that you could ever do and an entire week for your client that has billing support with you.

Or you don't have to include every task you do at the front desk to impress your doctor. Start simple. We don't need to overcomplicate things to have a quick win. Just We don't need to overcomplicate things to show that it's valid we exist in this role. You can start off small.  Every small step you make, your clients, your office, your team, they notice it.

They see you. This is your opportunity.  Next, I want you to host a team meeting. I want you to take the time to discuss accountability and brainstorm ways to improve your processes.  If you started at number one auditing your processes and you took that hour to see what was working, what wasn't, the things that were driving you crazy and you wrote it all down, you can take that to the team meeting, discuss it with your team.

I promise you, more people on your team are on the same page and have the same frustrations as you than you think. And having a space where they can freely talk about it literally will move mountains in the productivity of your team. They will trust you more. They will align with you more. It will simply put, be a beautiful come together moment. 

Small steps like these three, they add up. They build momentum and they create a culture of continuous improvement. And if you are not continuously improving, you have more problems in your business and your outlines and your structure and the organization as a whole than we could even cover in one session.

 I want you to know that accountability starts with mindset.  Instead of seeing challenges as roadblocks, I want you to view them as opportunities to improve. 

Ask better questions. Focus on solutions. Inspire your team to do exactly the same thing.  You don't need to have all the answers right now.  If you don't have all the answers, you gotta start, you have to learn to start asking better questions.  Your team needs this from you.  Your team needs to be inspired by seeing that it's okay to ask questions.

Seeing that it's okay to focus on making things better.  My team comes to me all the time with ideas.  I typically say yes first. Because I just want to see if it works out. I want to see if my team knows something that I don't know. And maybe, maybe when I said, yes, it doesn't work out. Maybe when I said, yes, it can't work.

It's, it's just not something we can do, but at least I tried. At least we gave it every effort and my team got to see how it didn't work. Or how it almost worked, but we had to tweak one more thing to make it perfect.  There's a lot of different routes you can always be taking, but sometimes they don't work out right away, but they will work out in the future and they will help your team work together to make it happen. 

Billing in a dental office isn't just a task. This is a profession. I want us all to raise the bar for ourselves and our industry by showing up with professionalism, clarity, confidence.  I want you to learn what that looks like.  What does it look like to have clarity, to have confidence?   It feels scary sometimes, but I promise it works. 

 Alright friends, it's time to finish with our that's good moment.  Today we talked about a lot of things. Tools, strategies, mindset shifts. All things that will help you create the transparency and the accountability that you need in your billing process. This starts with daily check ins and moves on to SOPs. 

And every step in between  that takes you and brings you closer to being the best version of yourself in this industry.  I'll leave you with this. Success doesn't happen by accident. It happens by design.  You have the power to design a billing process and a career that's professional, that's trustworthy,  and that is impactful.

And I'm here to support you every step of the way.  Thank you for joining me for this bonus midweek episode of Dentistry Support the Podcast. I hope you're walking away with so many actionable things that you can take forward and a renewed sense of confidence in your ability to succeed. 

Don't forget to check the show notes for links to our virtual mentoring sessions and our waitlist. If you're ready to take your billing to the next level, let's connect.  There is also a free training blog that is up on our website dentistrysupport. com forward slash free training and you can learn more that you haven't learned in this episode or the previous one of part one. 

Thank you so much for your time today, and I'll catch you on the next episode.  

Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of Dentistry Support the Podcast. If you want to get in on the conversation or have something to share, join us on our Facebook group, The Dental Collaborative. Looking to connect or to be a guest?

Head over to DentistrySupport. com. Or if you'd like to learn more about your host, Sarah Beth, or maybe you're thinking of starting your own podcast or looking for mentorship opportunities, well, just visit SarahBethHerman. com. Bye. If you've got just a sec, remember to rate, subscribe, and leave a review for the podcast.

That helps us keep growing. Thanks for supporting the show, and we hope you'll join us again in the next episode of Dentistry Support the Podcast.