Choosing the Right Dental Patient Billing Platform: Essential Features Checklist

Selecting the right patient-portion billing platform is an important strategic decision for practices. With patient payments representing a growing portion of practice revenue—often 30-40% of total collections—having an efficient billing system directly impacts your bottom line and patient satisfaction.

It can also endanger your practice financial health if not implemented successfully.

Most dental practices struggle with outdated billing systems. We use the term “systems” and not just “software” here because a billing system incorporates tools, processes, and feedback to perform optimally.

Without all these system elements operating smoothly, practices will see mounting administrative burdens, delayed payments, and frustrated patients. 

So to cover all bases, we’ve compiled this comprehensive checklist of features and requirements that dental practices should aspire to include in their billing process. Note that this checklist focuses specifically on patient billing and receivables collection features to help practice owners, dentists, and office managers make an informed decision for process and software integration.

Let’s start with the essentials:

Core Patient Billing Functionality

‍Payment Processing Capabilities

A modern dental practice needs flexible payment options. Essential features include:

• Credit and debit card processing with competitive transaction rates and acceptance of all common cards. HSA card and digital wallet acceptance should also be offered.
• ACH/bank transfer capabilities for lower-cost recurring payments and payment for larger patient balances‍
• Full-spectrum payment acceptance in-office, online, mobile, and mailed–all modalities of payment should be included with the basic functionality of the billing platform.

‍Invoice and Statement Generation

Your billing platform should automatically generate professional, clear patient statements that include:

• Treatment descriptions in patient-friendly language
• Itemized charges with dates of service
• Insurance payments and adjustments clearly shown with resulting patient portion
• Outstanding balance with payment due dates
• Multiple format options (printed, emailed, or secure patient portal access)
• Clear and simple payment terms without hidden fees or conditions

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Payment Plan Management

Treatment financing is a critical element of high case acceptance rates and consistent collection rates for large patient balances. Look for platforms that offer:

• Flexible payment plan creation with customizable terms
• Automated recurring payment processing with a card failure notification system
• Payment plan modification capabilities for the option of including admin fees, discounts, and other plan features
• Clear tracking of payment plan status and history for each patient balance

Accounts Receivable Management

Automated Collection Workflows

The goal for any dental billing software should be to reduce staff workload while reducing the cost to collect. It should also be able to scale with any operation size. With intelligent collection automation, billing teams can check all boxes for their practice needs. Look for software that offers:

• Customizable collection sequences that escalate appropriately as balances age. Software like Pearly offers fully configurable workflows that deliver the right message to the right patient at the right time.
• Automated reminder scheduling based on account age and balance.
• Filtering logic to avoid contacting patients with ineligible balances. This includes any pending insurance claims.‍
• Collection outcome tracking to measure effectiveness of all billing workflows in a campaign. Reports from the platform should provide campaign-level insights.

Integration and Data Management

Practice Management Software Integration

A billing platform is only as good as its integration capabilities. Seamless data flow prevents errors, saves time, and ensures that no patient balances fall through the cracks:

• PMS Synchronization regular or real-time syncing at the ledger-level to provide high-resolution data that’s the most useful for billing in a transparent manner.
  
• Wide-ranging integration options to accommodate dental organizations with multiple PMS platforms.
• Treatment posting integration for immediate billing on-location‍
• Dual-entry elimination to reduce administrative work through a write-back system that allocates and reconciles transactions in the PMS.

Patient Experience and Communication

Online Payment Portals

Patient convenience drives faster payments:

• Secure and frictionless login - Ensure that your portal is HIPAA- and PCI-compliant while also ironing out sticking points that create friction for patient checkouts. With Pearly, DOB credentials are used instead of traditional password/username accounts
  
• All-device-optimized interfaces - Every patient has a preference for how they want to pay. From tech-savvy digital wallet users to desktop website pay portals. Ensure that the experience is optimized for each respective device, and that the checkout is consistent for all.
  
• Payment history viewing - A full and filterable billing history should be present within the portal. This should also detail procedure history so patients know what they’re paying for. Offering receipt downloads to PDF is an added optimization.‍
• Autopay enrollment - If possible, provide the option to opt-in to having a card on file for autopay. This should be in the same place where payment information is submitted.

Patient Communication Tools

Patients won’t pay their bills unless prompted to do so. Clear, timely communication improves collection rates. And when patients need help understanding their bill, these channels need to be refined to help them get the answers they need. To that end, make sure your billing platform has:

• Automated email reminders - with payment links and links to transparent statements with all the aforementioned features
• Automated SMS text messaging - for immediate attention or prompting for payment portal payment
• Customizable message templates - maintaining your practice's voice and escalating as balances age‍
• Dynamic language sequencing - To ensure that patients don’t receive the same repetitive billing communication, your platform should dynamically randomize or sequence each message workflow.

Reporting and Financial Analytics

Custom Billing Reporting

Reports for dental billing platforms need to be task-purposed and designed for daily users and intermittent users alike. The reports need to also be flexible for unique practice needs:

• Customizable report parameters for specific date ranges and criteria
• Automated report scheduling for regular review and performance tracking
• Export options for Excel analysis or external reporting. Should be filterable
• Dashboard widgets for at-a-glance performance monitoring at the practice level
• Ad-Hoc Reports for specific, yet common practice use-cases

A/R Aging and Analytics

Effective collection starts with clear visibility into outstanding balances:

• Real-time A/R reports with aging and size distribution (30, 60, 90+ days past due and balance size cohorts)
• KPI metric analysis with essential billing statistics tracked with custom exporting options
• Trend analysis showing collection performance over time‍
• For DSO and groups - location-specific performance reports with all locations summarized on a dashboard

Implementation and Support

Setup and Training

Billing software providers should provide comprehensive training to end users and management teams to promote adherence to platform best practices. A smooth implementation process will ultimately encourage rapid ROI and process stabilization for billing teams:

• Comprehensive onboarding process with dedicated support and straightforward handoff process from sales to account management
• IT staff involvement for server integration (if applicable) and security credential checks
• Staff training programs covering all system features with comprehensive re-training and new-staff turnover accommodations
• Access to resource libraries with training materials, best practices, maintenance guides, and benchmarking standards

Ongoing Support

Reliable support maintains system effectiveness:

• Multiple support channels - Support reps available by phone, email, help desk, etc. with short SLA times and convenient hours.
• Technical support availability during business hours
• Regular system updates with new features, security patches, and changelogs
• User community access for peer learning and user support groups

Compliance and Security

HIPAA Compliance

Protect patient financial information:

• End-to-end encryption for all patient data (financial and clinical)
• Access controls with user permission management. Also important to streamline user onboarding education
• Business Associate Agreement with clear compliance responsibilities to relevant parties

Payment Security

Ensure secure financial transactions:

• PCI DSS Level 1 compliance for encrypted credit card processing
• Session Tokenization to protect stored payment information
• Fraud monitoring with real-time transaction screening
• Secure data storage with industry-standard encryption protocols. Ideally cloud-based instead of server-based storage of platform data.

Making Your Decision

When evaluating dental patient billing platforms, prioritize systems that offer seamless integration, robust automation, and excellent patient experience features. The right platform should reduce administrative burden while improving collection outcomes and patient satisfaction.

Use the scoring matrix provided with this checklist, and don't forget to request demos focusing on your practice's specific workflow needs. The investment in a quality patient billing platform typically pays for itself within 3-6 months through improved efficiency and collection rates.

Ready to upgrade your patient billing process? Use this checklist to evaluate potential platforms and choose the solution that will drive your practice's financial success.

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