Updated 10/3/2019

It happens. You are entering insurance information in Dentrix for a new patient, and as you scroll through the list of carrier names one catches your eye and you think, “We haven’t accepted that insurance in forever.”

To keep your Dentrix database uncluttered, you may want to delete carriers from which you no longer accept insurance. Dentrix only allows you to delete insurance plans when they don’t have subscribers attached, and only when all claims for the plan have been received. To find out whether an insurance carrier meets those two criteria, you should first run the Insurance Carrier List to find patients attached to the plan, and then the Insurance Aging Report to find out if there are any outstanding claims attached that would prevent you from deleting the plan.

It’s worth noting that Dentrix uses the word “purge” as an equivalent to “delete” with regards to removing an insurance plan.

To purge an insurance plan:

1. Run the Insurance Carrier List:
   • From the Office Manager, click Reports > Reference> Insurance Carrier List.
   • Select the desired insurance group range. Uncheck Standard List, and check Include Subscribers. Click OK.
   • In the Batch Processor, view or print the Dental Insurance Carriers and Subscribers list and use it to clear insurance from patients attached to the plan.
2. Clear insurance plans attached to patients:
   • From the Family File, select a patient from the Insurance Carrier List.
   • Double-click the Insurance block to open the Insurance Information dialog box.
   • Click the Clear Primary (or Clear Secondary) button, and click OK.
   • Repeat these steps for all patients on the Insurance Carrier List.
3. Run the Insurance Aging Report:
   • From the Office Manager, click Reports > Ledger > Insurance Aging Report.
   • Search for outstanding insurance claims by entering a range of carriers—the one(s) you are wanting to delete—from the Select Insurance Carrier group box, and click OK.
   • View or print the report to see if there are any claims outstanding for the carrier. If there are outstanding claims, you must wait until the claims have been paid to purge the insurance carrier.
4. Delete insurance carriers using the Purge Dental Insurance Plans utility:
   • From the Office Manager, click Maintenance > Reference > Insurance Maintenance.
   • Click the Purge button to open the Purge Dental Insurance Plans dialog box.
     Note: Insurance plans do not appear in the Purge Dental Insurance Plans dialog box if there are patients attached to the plan or if there are outstanding claims attached to the plan.
     
   • Do one of the following:
     • To delete a single carrier, select the carrier and click Delete.
     • To delete all the listed carriers, click Delete All.
   • A warning message appears asking you to confirm the deletion of the selected plan(s). Click OK.
   • Click Close to return to the Insurance Maintenance dialog box.

For more information see the Deleting Insurance Carriers topic in Dentrix Help or the Maintaining Insurance Plan in Dentrix: 6 Things You Should Be Doing article in Dentrix Magazine.