An insightful and informative newsletter from the Art of Practice Management. A dental practice management consulting company that focuses on revenue and collection systems, front desk systems and forms, dental insurance processing, medical/dental cross-coding systems and employment-law compliance.

1. CMS-1500
(02-12)
Instructions
ONLY $25
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A dental practice's business office is just what the name implies
– BUSY! But in addition to being busy, it's also where we
realize that the varied duties of the business office demonstrate
that a dental practice is definitely a business.
The many business staff duties reflect that and, if they are not handled efficiently, it
can definitely result in lost business and financial losses.
One of the most important business office duties for most dental practices is handling
insurance. Insurance is growing more and more complicated and if you also
implement a cross coding program it becomes much more difficult. Insurance, if
handled correctly, is what contributes to keeping the practice financially solvent.
My focus in these newsletters is to offer helpful facts and ideas to make the dental
business office run more efficiently. In this newsletter, I want to share some
information on a great system that can help dental practices deal more easily and
effectively with their insurance systems.
Dr. Charles Blair's Practice Booster is an online system that can be the key to
maximizing reimbursement but at the same time it can be a big help in minimizing risk.
Practice Booster includes the following sources of help:
 Dental Code Advisor – enter a CDT code and the subscriber reads
instructions on what that code is used for, how it should be used, cautionary
remarks about the code, limitations for its use, and tips regarding the code.
 Newsletter – a search button is available where the subscriber enters a topic
and articles from past issues of Insurance Solutions Newsletter will display.
 Resources – a list of some of the most popular articles from Insurance
 Solutions Newsletter is displayed but other resources such as a question and
answer tab, information on PPO/Fee Decisions, narrative tips, and many
forms and checklists are all available.
 Member Forum
 Information on consulting services
 Events – Upcoming seminars
 Practice Booster Store
 A contact us tab
The end results of using Practice Booster are:
 Maximizing legitimate reimbursements
 Protecting your practice and your license
SPECIAL OFFER
Together we will create a practice Masterpiece
Articles
Simplify Insurance Processing
Marianne Harper
Take the guess work
out of claim form
completion
All of the details on
the new formatted
CMS-1500 claim form
Order before
April 15, 2014
ORDER NOW!

2. Download your FREE
Hygiene Department
Analysis
10% OFF SALE!!
Every Product in our
Store
Use Code MARCHMEZ
In your shopping cart
until April 15th at
PerioAndBeyond.com
 Keeping pace with the shift to PPOs
 Streamlining insurance administration
 A stop to leaving money on the table
It makes a lot of sense to have such a strong knowledge base available for your
insurance systems, both dental and medical. Membership includes a paper copy of
each newsletter in addition to support from the call center. To order Practice Booster,
please click on the link below.
Practice Booster Order Form
ATRIDOX: Application technique
Colleen Rutledge, RDH
Atridox (Zila.com) is 10% doxycycline hyclate in a gel form that is placed subgingivally
in infected periodontal pockets 5 mm or greater. It's a great adjunct to non-surgical
periodontal therapy cases and known for its capacity to treat multiple sites. It is an
excellent locally-applied product choice, especially in this economy. With the proper
training, one Atridox can treat 15, 20, even up to 30 pockets!
Hygienists and dentists alike often think placing Atridox is too difficult. Many try it once
and use too much material, making for a very frustrating experience. This is a
common mistake. When I first placed Atridox back in 1999, I also used too much. The
trick is to use very little material – much less than you think!
It's amazing what a little "over-the-shoulder" training can do! Look at the photo below
and see the difference. The first application was in the morning training session. As
you can plainly see, Atridox was placed on the lingual of teeth #7 and 8. You can see
how the Atridox is bulky and thick, and extends about 2 mm above the gingival
margin.
In the afternoon session, with some minor technique adjustments and much less
material, the same hygienist placed Atridox on the lingual of teeth #9, 10, 11.
Amazing! The Atridox is tucked neatly and completely under the gums. By just the
second application, she perfected what took me months of trial and error!
I developed an easy and efficient application technique protocol that makes placing
Atridox easy, fast and fun! If you are interested in a copy of Atridox Placement
Technique Tips, email me at Colleen@PerioAndBeyond.com.
10% OFF SALE on every product in our store until April 15, 2014! Use code
MARCHMEZ in your shopping cart. Please visit www.PerioAndBeyond.com to
shop now!

3. Dental – The 2014 CDT code changes provided dental practices with some new
codes for Cone Beam technology.
 D0393 – Treatment simulation using 3D image volume
 D0394 – Digital subtraction of two or more images or image volumes of the
same modality to demonstrate the changes that have occurred over time
 D0395 – Fusion of two or more 3D image volumes of one or more modalities
If your practice submits claims for cone beam, it is very important that you stay up to
date on these coding changes. Accurate coding is crucial to obtaining optimum
benefits for the patient and this can substantially affect practice profitability. See
below in the January 1, 2014 time line for a link to Coding With Confidence, my
recommendation for obtaining the best answers to your coding questions.
Medical – The newly reformatted medical claim form, CMS-1500 (02/12) is the form
that must be used effective April 1, 2014. There are some major and minor changes to
the form. One of the major changes is that the new form provides spaces for up to 12
diagnosis codes. If your practice submits medical claims on paper, you will need to
purchase these forms. I purchase mine from http://www.justcms1500forms.com. Make
sure to choose the 02/12 version and you can buy as little as 100 forms. If your
practice files medical claims electronically, you will need to make sure that your claim
completion software is configured correctly for this form and that the clearinghouse is
also prepared for the change. Take advantage of my special offer for the instructions
on how to complete this 02/12 claim form.
September 23, 2013 – HIPAA Omnibus Final Rule – The updates to this rule were
published on January 25, 2013. The compliance date was September 23, 2013.
Make sure that your practice is compliant.
January 1, 2014 – The updated cross coding manual is available with the codes for
2014 in addition to instructions on completing the new medical claim form. Please go
to the following link to order your update: 2014 Code Update
January 1, 2013 – Updated CDT codes. If you haven't already purchased your CDT
manual, please do so ASAP. My recommendation is Practice Booster or Coding with
Confidence. To order "Coding with Confidence" and/or Practice Booster, download
the Coding with Confidence Manual Order Form.
April 1, 2014 – All medical claims must be submitted on the 02/12 version of the
CMS-1500 form. If you purchased the 2014 paper update to CrossWalking – A
Guide Through the CrossWalk of Dental to Medical Coding, the instructions are in
the update. If you don't have that update, please click on the link below to order the
instructions.
CMS-1500 (02/12) Instructions
April 4, 2014 – Marianne's Abra-Code-Dabra course in Houston, TX.
For more information and to register
April 15, 2014 – Marianne's ICD-10 for Dental Practices webinar through Audio
Educator. For more information and to register
October 1, 2014 – The beginning date for ICD-10 implementation.
Time Line
Insurance Alert

4. Favorite Quotes:
"Take the attitude of a student, never be too big to ask questions, never know too
much to learn something new."
– Og Mandino
Tips – For our Patients:
Time management is difficult in a busy dental practice. Email becomes a big time
user and maybe waster. If you use Outlook, there are tools within Outlook to help
you manage it in a more time efficient manner. For the next seven newsletters I will
provide one tip. Try each one out to see how much it can help you. Then look for the
next one in each subsequent newsletter.
Tip #1 – How quickly you approach your incoming email can add efficiency to
your work. Try out the following:
 Quickly delete all of the email that is of no importance.
 Create a "To Do List" and move the information from the email that you will
not be able to act upon immediately to the "To Do List".
 Delegate email to other staff who are qualified to handle the matter.
Points of Interest:
Have you ever wondered how the routine of handing out those little bags
of peanuts on airline flights ever got started? The tradition began a long
while back in 1936 when Colonial Airlines became the first carrier to sell
beer and cocktails. They decided that giving out peanuts would make
people thirsty and that would lead them to buying the alcoholic
beverages. Now that was pretty smart and apparently has worked well for
many airline carriers since then.
From Uncle John's Triumphant 20th Anniversary Bathroom Reader, p. 15
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The Art of Practice Management
2217 Fox Horn Road • New Bern, NC 28562 • Phone: 1-252-637-6259
www.artofpracticemanagement.com • a.p.m.1@suddenlink.net
Perio-Therapeutics & Beyond
724 Fitzwatertown Road • Glenside, PA 19038 • Phone: 267-241-5833
www.perioandbeyond.com • colleen@perioandbeyond.com
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About us | Privacy policy | © Copyright 2014 - Marianne Harper
The contents of this publication reflect the opinion of the authors only. This publication is for informational purposes only.
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