When dealing with insurance claims, you’ve probably come across the acronyms EOB and eEOB. These have been used in past versions of Dentrix; however, starting with Dentrix G7.6, eEOB has been replaced with ERA.
EOB, of course, stands for Explanation of Benefits—a document sent to your practice that explains how a reimbursement was made on behalf of a patient’s insurance claim. In the past, all EOBs were paper documents sent by mail. From each EOB, you had to enter the payment, deductible, check number, and so forth, into Dentrix. eEOB stands for Electronic Explanation of Benefits, and it’s nothing more than a digital version of an EOB.
ERA stands for Electronic Remittance Advice, and it’s essentially an eEOB (a Dentrix term) with a different name. ERA is the insurance industry’s preferred acronym. Accordingly, starting with version G7.6, Dentrix has replaced the term eEOB with ERA. Now, when an ERA is received via the Internet, the payment, deductible, reference number, and so forth, are automatically entered into Dentrix for you. Then, you only need to verify that the payment was received in your bank account and click the Post Claim button.
Most changes from eEOB to ERA have occurred in the Batch Insurance Payment Entry dialog box, as follows:
The Register for Electronic ERAs button
To receive and post ERAs in the Batch Insurance Payment Entry dialog box, you must first register with eServices for Dentrix and have Dentrix eClaims installed. You can start the registration process by opening the Batch Insurance Payment dialog box and clicking Register for ERAs. For more information, click here, and for complete instructions on registering, call 1-800-734-5561 (option 2).
Fields and buttons in the Batch Insurance Payment Entry dialog box
Under Batch Entry Type there is now an ERA option that shows the number of unprocessed claims. To move on to the next claim, use the Next ERA button. You can search for claims from a specific carrier in the Select ERA search field, and then click to View ERA in Doc Center as well.
When you click the Select ERA search button, the Select ERA dialog box displays the following:
- The Skip/Process Selected ERA and Displayed ERA Claims button
- The View ERA in Document Center button
- The ERA Claims list
As you work with Dentrix and see the acronym ERA, know that it does the same job that eEOB used to do—making entering insurance payment information quicker and more accurate!
Additional Information
Read the following topics in Dentrix Help and note that most, if not all, references to eEOB have been replaced with ERA: