Inputting Insurance Fee Schedules

[mrmurray7]

Hi, I am in the process of purchasing a practice that utilizes Open Dental and unfortunately I am not familiar with the software at all. My main problem with the practice is that the front desk girl does not collect any payments at time of service because they don't have the insurance fee schedules set up. She is unsure of how to get the fee schedules set up. I know I can pay $3000+ for a day of training but I'm really trying to avoid additional costs so soon in the transition! Does anyone have any suggestions or websites/links I can look at that will walk us through this? I tried looking at the Open Dental website and their tutorials but there wasn't anything specific to my needs. Do you have to manually enter each procedure code and corresponding fee or can you somehow import a document that has all the corresponding codes and fees for that insurance and the software will automatically recognize and input the information? Thank you for your help.

[jordansparks]

Don't pay for our onsite training. Just use our remote training over the internet by calling our support line. Are you talking about PPO or out-of-network insurance? See this page in our manual for the distinction:
http://www.opendental.com/manual/insplantypes.html

[mrmurray7]

I'm talking about PPOs. Do you know about how much an hour the remote training is? Will my receptionist have to manually enter in each code and respective fee for every procedure or is there an easier way? Thank you for your help!

[jordansparks]

If the call just involves one or two specific questions about fee schedules, which may be the case here, then it falls under the category of regular support rather than training, so it's free. Training is $50/hr, and usually covers a wide range of topics over the course of an hour. Make sure to supplement the phone support with reading the manual.

Yes, there is an import tool from a spreadsheet. But do you really already have it in that format? I'm guessing not. Typically, PPO fee schedules are released by the insurance companies as printouts on paper. Is this how you currently have them? How many PPOs are you participating in?

[Tom Zaccaria]

This may sound daunting for a newbie but it isn't.

Input your standard schedule first. Then the first PPO fee schedule by just going right down the line of fees from the paper fee schedule say MetLife to OD.
In setting up additional PPO's you can copy the first one and then just edit where necessary for any additional plans.

No need to stress over this.
drtmz

[mrmurray7]

We are participating in 8 PPOs. I have no problem inputting them myself, just need someone to walk me through the process. I'll give the support a call. Thank you everyone for your help.

[jordansparks]

Do it directly in the Procedures List window, which is set up for 10 key entry. Don't double click on each proc to enter the fee in the sub window.

[Pruce Dental]

Jordan...

Is there a way or feature request to show all the procedure codes in numerical order?...reason I ask is that each time i get a new fee schedule from a PPO and need to update the list of all my procedure codes it is not as easy as going down the list using the 10 key entry because alot of the procedure codes show under the categories "rarely used" or "never used"...I know..I know it is a waste of time entering 500 codes when there are probably 35 common used ones but if I do not update them all I will get in trouble when I use one of them someday with a 5 year old fee...take a PPO list and try updating it and you will see how much extra work it takes since there is not a way to show all codes in numerical order..or am I missing how to do it already?

[jordansparks]

Yes, that's request #160.

[Manny Ramirez]

What does the "10 Key" entry mean ?

[Jay]

What does the "10 Key" entry mean ?

Entry using the keyboard's built-in (or an independent) numeric keypad:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numeric_keypad
This is typically much faster if the person entering the data is a pro at data entry.