Dental / orthodontic clinicsNew

What gets pre-loaded

• preferenceimportance 9/10

  Patient communication — every treatment plan names the responsible provider + cost breakdown + insurance coverage

  All treatment plans presented to a patient must name (a) the specific provider (dentist or hygienist) recommending the plan, (b) the per-procedure cost with insurance allowable + patient responsibility broken out separately, (c) the time horizon for the treatment, AND (d) what happens if the patient defers. Patients accept treatment plans at ~3× the rate when the cost is transparent and the deferral consequences are named explicitly — the alternative ('your insurance will cover most of it') reads as evasive and the patient defers indefinitely. Surface a watch item on any treatment plan that ships without provider attribution, itemised cost, or deferral framing.

• preferenceimportance 9/10

  Recall cadence — every active patient receives a 6-month recall within 7 days of the due date

  All active patients (defined as last hygiene visit within 18 months) must receive a recall reminder within 7 days of their 6-month due date — not 30 days late, not 'we'll catch them on the next batch'. The dental retention curve drops ~40% the moment a patient crosses 8 months without contact, and the cost of reactivating a lapsed patient via paid acquisition is 5-10× the cost of a timely recall. Recall reminders should pair the appointment offer with a one-line provider-attributed greeting ('Dr. Chen recommended a hygiene visit') because attributed recalls book at 2× the rate of generic ones. Surface a watch item on any patient who's crossed the 7-day post-due window without a recall sent.

• lessonimportance 8/10

  Insurance billing red flag — claim denial rate above 8% on any single payer over a rolling 90-day window

  An insurance claim denial rate above 8% on any single payer over a rolling 90-day window indicates a structural billing problem (coding errors, missing documentation, expired pre-authorisation, narrative-required procedures missing the narrative) — not a one-off issue. The right response is to pull the denial reasons report, identify the dominant denial code, and book 30 minutes with the practice's biller to either correct the coding pattern or contact the payer directly to clarify the documentation requirement. Surface a watch item the moment any payer's rolling-90-day denial rate crosses 8%, and prompt the operator to review denials by code before the next billing cycle so the cash-flow impact is contained.

• lessonimportance 9/10

  Records retention compliance — patient records must be retained per state regulation (typically 5-10 years post-last-visit; longer for minors)

  Most US state dental boards require patient records to be retained for 5-10 years past the last patient visit, with longer windows for minor patients (typically until age 25 or 7 years past the last visit, whichever is later). Practice management systems that auto-archive or auto-delete patient records based on inactivity are a regulatory risk; the operator should verify the practice's retention policy matches state requirements explicitly and is not silently truncating. Surface a watch item on any practice management system migration or vendor change that touches patient records, and prompt the operator to validate retention duration with the state board's published rules before signing the migration contract.