In today’s fast-paced dental industry, managing practice operations efficiently is paramount. From the intricacies of insurance billing to the nuances of patient interactions, dental practices face a myriad of challenges daily. In this post, we highlight the success story of dental practitioner Dr. Jeff Osborne, who integrated Resolv Dental’s solutions to enhance patient satisfaction, optimize billing, and ensure the financial stability of his dental practices in the Houston, Texas area. After years working as a Resolv Dental client, he believed in the solutions so much he became Resolv’s Chief Dental Officer. Throughout his success story you will find practical tips any dental practitioner or office manager can apply to streamline their dental operations for a more efficient, patient-centric practice.
A Common Dental Practice Challenge: Burdensome Billing
After starting his own series of practices, Dr. Osborne was burdened by many of the practice management challenges that dental professionals face today. This included insurance complexities, burdensome billing and collections tasks, and a sense of staff overwhelm at insurance and billing questions and claim follow-ups. His team was bogged down, spending countless hours waiting on the phone dealing with claims denials, non-covered services and procedures, reimbursement delays, and appeals. Dr. Osborne sought a solution to bring both peace of mind and operational efficiency to his practices. He wanted his team to spend less time worrying about billing, and more time focused on caring for and building relationships with patients.
A Welcome Solution
For practices struggling to balance it all—there is an easier way. After 5 years of handling all aspects of his practice from billing to patient care, Dr. Osborne found himself at a crossroads: hire more hygienists or hire more front desk employees?
He spoke to his front desk administrator and heard her pain points. She flagged that she was spending too much time doing repetitive, mundane administrative tasks rather than tasks that would help grow the practice. As an administrator, she needed support with billing and collections tasks. That’s when Dr. Osborne found Resolv Dental. He started by hiring them to support his front desk with basic tasks. This was so successful that he eventually fully outsourced all billing, collections, and claims follow-up work to Resolv.
Outsourced Billing Support and Technology
Resolv’s team took billing follow-up off his team’s plate and dedicated an entire team to handling claims, ensuring they were paid in a timely manner. Resolv consistently followed up on unpaid claims, and appealed denied claims. This significantly reduced the time Dr. Osborne’s staff spent working on billing.
“Instead of my team calling an 800 number and listening to elevator music for 10, 20, 30 minutes to an hour, Resolv handles all of our insurance follow-up, and all of the non-covered services and procedures, and insurance billing.” said Dr. Osborne. “Resolv does the heavy lifting, working directly with payers to alleviate challenges, so our office is better able to focus on the care of our patients.”
Dr. Osborne equated working with Resolv to adding an additional team member without the overhead costs and time off onsite team members require. This is especially useful as short staffing has affected dental practices across the country after the pandemic. The American Dental Association’s Health Policy Institute (HPI) indicates that 79% of practices recruiting for hygienists and dental assistants are finding it “extremely challenging.” However, one of the best ways to attract and retain staff is to empower them to focus on patient-facing tasks, reducing the administrative burden that can affect clinician and front-desk staff mental health.
A Transparent Portal
In addition to providing Dr. Osborne’s practices with a dedicated team to manage all claims and billing concerns, Resolv also set them up with a portal system called Open Dental. With this, Dr. Osborne could track production, see collections, monitor patient accounts, and view outstanding claims.
“I’m not tech savvy, but this system was easy to use. I was able to log in and clearly check on practice operations without bugging my team members,” he said.
Having Resolv’s billing service team and software meant that Dr. Osborne had one central hub for claims management and practice performance review, eliminating the need to outsource to multiple vendors.
Cash Advances and Interest-Free Payment Plans
In addition to billing services, Resolv also offered a framework for no interest payment plans that enabled patients to say “yes” to treatment when new treatments like clear aligners and cosmetic veneers were presented. Resolv’s cash advance funding is based on dental practice production. In this model, Resolv can advance up to 50% of billed services while a practice is waiting for insurance claims to be reconciled— and in the meantime, patient payments continue to flow in. This no-interest service ensures financial stability for the practice, giving them the flexibility to offer patient payment plans without delaying the influx of revenue.
Resolv’s cash advance program empowered Dr. Osborne’s practice to offer 90-day interest-free payment plans to patients. This was helpful because rather than having to go to a third-party for financing and waiting for credit approval, he was able to confidently offer a financing option to patients on the spot, reducing the likelihood that his patients would say no to recommended treatment.
“I talk to my patients a lot about clear aligners since we are an airway-centric orthodontia-focused practice. It is nice to be able to present a suggested treatment and explain what we can do to help them with payments. It helps a lot with case acceptance,” said Dr. Osborne.
Positive Results of Outsourcing RCM with Resolv Dental
Partnering with Resolv Dental to handle dental billing had numerous benefits across Dr. Osborne’s practice. It had ripple effects on staff satisfaction, practice efficiency, practice financials, and most importantly, patient care. These were a few of the primary benefits:
Faster Claims Resolution
Having a dedicated team working full-time on claims management meant Dr. Osborne’s claims were clean and submitted in a timely manner. As such, a higher percentage of claims were paid faster than if Dr. Osborne’s in-house team had claims management to contend with on top of their daily workload.
“Resolv Dental’s claim management team is so fast to identify claims issues. So, the turnaround for payment is as quick as possible. And it frees up time for my front desk staff to do other tasks,” said Dr. Osborne.
Less Staff Burnout and Turnover
By augmenting his staff with Resolv Dental’s support services and automating mundane tasks with Resolv Dental’s dental billing technology, Dr. Osborne was able to expand the capacity of his team to focus on patient-facing tasks, which improved their mental health and led to less staff burnout and turnover.
“My staff no longer had to worry about billing patients. Resolv Dental’s team and technology automated our billing and worked around our schedules so that our revenue cycle machine kept running, even when our office was closed on Fridays.” said Dr. Osborne.
Increased Capacity to Focus on Patient Care
Once Dr. Osborne’s staff didn’t have to worry about insurance, they had the capacity to be more patient focused. In practice, that meant more time and energy to connect with patients and be involved with their treatment planning.
“Unfortunately, the commoditization of dentistry has turned a lot of patients into numbers, and having a special connection with patients sets our practice apart. Patients feel that connection and that is what they want,” said Dr. Osborne.
More Patients Saying “Yes” to Treatment
Dr. Osborne found that with Resolv Dental’s support services, interest-free payment plans funded by Resolv Dental’s cash advance program, and his staff more focused on patient connection, they were able to increase case acceptance. Within the first year, they saw a 20% increase in their case acceptance rate.
“Being able to increase production and get treatments scheduled increased the overall production for my practice,” said Dr. Osborne. “For example, before Resolv we were doing maybe 12 to 15 orthodontia treatments a year, now we are doing between 80 and 100.”
Bottom Line: Resolv Dental Solutions Power Dental Operational Excellence
On the whole, Resolv Dental helped Dr. Osborne’s practices become more profitable and improved patient care. Resolv Dental serves as a true partner to Dr. Osborne and his team, helping to optimize billing, enhance patient satisfaction, and ensure financial stability. Today, Resolv’s dental practice RCM services are an integral part of his practice operations.
“My office manager (at the first practice where I integrated Resolv Dental) has been with me for 11-12 years,” said Dr. Osborne. “When we first joined, she was a little hesitant. I can honestly tell you today if I told her we were going to leave Resolv Dental, she would not allow me to do it.”
The content in this post is based on a recent webinar, Your Blueprint for Operational Excellence, catch the replay here.
Empower your Dental Practice with Resolv Dental
For more than 60 years Resolv Dental (formerly First Pacific Corporation) has helped dental practice providers increase efficiency and achieve financial growth. Our dental practice partners maximize profitability, enhance patient care, and alleviate administrative headaches. Learn more about our expert RCM services for dentists and book your free consultation to learn how Resolv Dental can support your practice today.
About Dr. Osborne
Jeff Osborne, D.D.S. Chief Dental Officer, Resolv Dental
Dr. Jeffrey Osborne owns 4 dental offices located throughout the DFW area in Frisco, Keller, Hurst, and Fort Worth. In addition to his role with Resolv Dental, Dr. Osborne serves as the Director of Sleep Dental Medicine and Orthodontics for Smile Source, a group dedicated to preserving the elite business of independent dental care. Dr. Osborne has served organized dentistry in multiple capacities throughout his career. Previously, he served as a Dental Director for Cigna Dental and was the Texas Dental Director for United Concordia Dental Insurance for many years. While at United Concordia, he oversaw the administration of the dental portion of the Texas Children’s Health Insurance Program (TChip). Dr. Osborne also served on the Board of Directors of the Greater Houston Dental Society and served as the Vice-President for two years. He earned his Doctor of Dental Surgery from the University of Texas Dental Branch at Houston in 1989. He also holds an MDA in Healthcare Administration from the University of Houston-Clear Lake.