A short review with useful decisions
The monthly dental billing reports owners should review
Ask what changed, why it changed and who owns the next action.
A large report packet can hide a simple problem: no one knows which numbers require attention. A useful monthly review connects collections and outstanding balances with the claims, payments and decisions behind them. Start with consistent definitions, then drill into exceptions.
01 / Keep the packet focused
Six views that belong in the discussion
| Report or view | Owner’s question | Useful follow-through |
|---|---|---|
| Production and collections | Did collected cash change because of current work, older balances or timing? | Compare several periods with the same definitions; isolate unusual transactions. |
| Insurance aging | Which balances are waiting on a payer, the office or a billing action? | Review material or urgent items with last action and next step. |
| Unsent and rejected claims | What has not entered normal processing? | Assign the correction, record the deadline and confirm acceptance. |
| Patient balances and plans | Which balances need explanation, a plan review or dispute resolution? | Verify accuracy before another statement or call. |
| Adjustments and write-offs | Why did balances decrease without a payment? | Separate contractual adjustments from other reductions and review authorization. |
| Unposted payments and credits | Does money received match what appears in the ledger? | Reconcile deposits and remittances; investigate unapplied amounts. |
The ADA’s practice KPI guidance includes accounts receivable and insurance aging among useful measures. Select the measures that reveal your practice’s current risks; adding every available metric can make the important ones harder to see.
02 / Define the numerator and denominator
Keep the collection ratio honest
This ratio does not establish that 5% of that month’s treatment is lost. Collections may include older work, while some recent claims may still be processing.
Ask how the system defines adjusted production and handles refunds, discounts and write-offs. Keep the definition stable when comparing months. Use a longer trend to reduce the effect of ordinary timing differences, and review service-period cohorts when you need to know what was collected for a specific group of claims.
For a deeper explanation, read how collections and backlog recovery differ.
03 / Add context to the balance
Read the age and the reason together
A $20,000 increase in older AR is a prompt to investigate. It is not a complete diagnosis. The accounts may share a payer issue, missing records, an unresolved posting problem or several unrelated causes.
Also check the report settings. Open Dental’s aging documentation, for example, explains how grouping, credit balances and write-off estimates affect the result. Your software may use different logic. Save the filters with the report so next month’s comparison means the same thing.
Age
How long has the balance been outstanding under this report’s definition?
Cause
What specific fact or action is preventing resolution?
Owner
Who will take the next step, and when will it be reviewed?
Track both the dollar value and the count of affected accounts. A small number of large claims can change the dollars sharply while the underlying workload remains manageable.
04 / Turn review into ownership
End with an action record, not another report
Illustrative meeting note
- Finding
- Eight claims are waiting for clinical attachments.
- Action
- Office contact gathers the records; billing team confirms receipt and submits through the required channel.
- Owner and date
- Name both owners and record the agreed completion date.
- Evidence
- Claim notes show submission confirmation and the next follow-up date.
Review last month’s actions before adding new ones. If an item remains open, state why and what needs to change. A repeated “follow up” note without a new action does not demonstrate progress.
Keep urgent work out of the monthly waiting room. Rejections, approaching deadlines, security incidents and time-sensitive payer requests need an operating routine between owner meetings.
When evaluating an outside team, agree this report structure during onboarding. If you suspect avoidable revenue loss, use the billing-gap review to distinguish confirmed losses from amounts still collectible.
Practical questions
Details worth clarifying
Should I review every patient account?
No. Start with summary trends and selected exceptions, then drill into the accounts needed to understand a material issue. Keep detailed patient information within approved systems.
Can I compare reports from different software systems?
Only after aligning definitions, dates, filters and treatment of credits, adjustments and payment plans. Similar report titles do not guarantee comparable totals.
Get practical help
Get reports that explain the work
Agree reporting that shows open issues, completed actions and decisions your practice needs to make.