The Dentrix Blog

Helping You Do More with Your Dentrix System

It’s Monday at 5:00pm and it’s been a long day at the office. We often have a lot of mail on Mondays since the office is closed on the weekend and there are a lot of checks to post. We’ve posted all the checks, closed out the day, run a deposit slip and…oh no! We don’t balance. Many times, it’s a small amount, (I’ve been off by a penny!) but it must be corrected. It can be very irritating.

Did you know Dentrix has a feature in the Ledger to help you post batch insurance payments? This can help you to avoid the annoying situation I just described. You enter the total amount of the check, then post to individual patient’s claims. The best part is Dentrix will not let you continue unless the amount you allocated adds up to the total amount of the check.

Open the Dentrix Ledger. You do not have to be in a specific patient’s ledger to use this feature.

First, select File > Enter Batch Ins. Payment. Dentrix will default to today’s date (a). Then enter the total amount of the check, the payment type, check number and bank branch (b). Select the Insurance Carrier Name and choose the group plan (c). You will see a list of patients under that group with outstanding claims (d).

Select the desired claim to post (e) and then itemize the amount paid for each procedure (f). You have the option to update the payment table, enter necessary adjustments, and enter any deductible used (g). The claim status note is available if you need to make any notes regarding the claim (h).

I like to use the claim status note to indicate why a procedure wasn’t paid. For example, if fluoride wasn’t paid due to an age limitation. This is a quick and easy reference if a patient receives a statement and has a question on why a certain procedure wasn’t paid by their insurance. It’s much quicker than looking for the explanation of benefits.

Once that claim payment is complete, select Post Claim (i). Now you can move on to your next claim. Once you have posted the payment for all claims associated with the check, choose Next EOB (j). If the posted amount and the total check amount don’t match and you don’t balance, Dentrix will give you a warning that the amounts don’t match.

You can review and correct any errors while you still have the EOB in front of you.

The batch insurance payment feature in Dentrix is a time saver and a stress saver. There’re always a million things to do at the end of the day and Dentrix making sure you balance before you run the deposit slip at the end of the day can help make your life a little easier.


By Charlotte Skaggs
Certified Dentrix Trainer and The Dentrix Office Manager columnist

Charlotte Skaggs is the founder of Vector Dental Consulting LLC, a practice management firm focused on taking offices to the next level. Charlotte co-owned and managed a successful dental practice with her husband for 17 years. She has a unique approach to consulting based on the perspective of a practice owner. Charlotte has been using Dentrix for over 20 years and is a certified Dentrix trainer. Contact Charlotte at [email protected].