Originally published November 6, 2020. Updated February 1, 2024.

You just checked the mail and found that you have a giant stack of EOBs to enter. Not only is the phone ringing constantly, but you have patients being brought to your desk to check out. The busy life of a dental office front desk! This post will highlight some of our tips and tricks to help streamline the insurance payment process so you can get back to doing everything else.

Show Patient Responsibility in the Edit Claim/Payment windows

Enable ‘Show Patient Responsibility column in the Edit Claim/Payment windows’ in Preferences to see the Pat Resp column when entering EOBs. This will automatically calculate the patient portion based on the Ins Pay and Write-off amounts entered in the same line item.

When to use the This Claim Only Button

Within the Edit Claim window, after you’ve posted your payment (by procedure or as total), you are given two options to Finalize Payment.

This Claim Only is used for posting a payment from insurance, for a single claim.

The insurance paid amount automatically populates into the Enter Payment window. Add or edit payment details as needed and click OK to continue.

When finalizing the payment, only the current claim is attached to the payment. 

When to use the Batch Button

The second option for finalizing a payment from the Account Module is to finalize the payment as a batch. The Batch button can be used to finalize a single payment attached to multiple claims after the payment has been entered.

After receiving all claims on the EOB, on the final claim click the Batch button from the Edit Claim window. Verify the Amount matches the total payment amount for the insurance check/EOB. If this doesn’t match, this means there may be other unfinalized insurance payments. See our manual for steps on how to correct this.

All unfinalized claims will be listed, as long as staff are finalizing claims as they are received, this means it should just be the claims you just entered. If there are any other claims, select them and click Detach.

TECH TIP: This option is best used for small bulk insurance payments and when your practice finalizes insurance payments immediately after receiving them. If your practice has multiple staff members entering insurance payments at the same time or you do not finalize payments immediately, use the Batch Ins from the Manage Module instead.

Manage Module – Batch Ins

Another option for posting Batch Insurance payments (EOBs) is using the Batch Ins button within the Manage Module. With this method, you can search for claims, receive them, and attach them to the payment all from the EOB window. There is no need to go to the Account Module for each individual patient on the EOB. Payments can also be partially finalized, allowing staff to start entering a large EOB and pick it back up later without disrupting other users from entering different EOBs.

To create a Batch Ins check, navigate to the Manage Module, and click Batch Ins.

From the Batch Insurance Payments window, click Add. Enter the payment Amount and any additional payment details. Enter the Carrier Name (this will be used to narrow down the claims in the next window).

Any sent claims or received claims with unfinalized payment, matching the carrier you’ve entered are listed in the All Outstanding Claims grid at the bottom of the window. Update filters as needed, including carrier, to find claims to attach to the EOB.

Double-click an outstanding claim to enter or edit payment amounts. The Edit Claim window will open to receive the claim. After clicking OK. The claim is automatically attached to the EOB. If the claim is already marked as received, just highlight it and click Attach.

Continue attaching or receiving until all necessary claims are attached to the EOB. Individual claims are finalized as they are attached to the payment. The payment is marked as Partial until the Amount and Total Payments match. Once these match, your process should be complete!

TECH TIP: Did a patient interrupt you while entering this payment? That’s okay! You can close out of the EOB window and go back into it later. Simply click Batch Ins again from the Manage Module, and you’ll see your payment listed in the Batch Insurance Payments window with an X in the Partial column. Double-click it to pick up where you left off.

Blue Book

Do you have a lot of out-of-network insurance plans? Use our Blue Book feature to track insurance fees for out-of-networks plans to help you provide patients with more accurate treatment estimates.

Check out our blog post Feature Highlight: Blue Book for more information.

Tracking Supplemental Payments

If you’ve ever dealt with supplemental insurance payments or insurance refunds, you know keeping the patient portion straight can be a little tricky if payments are yet finalized. Use the Pending Payments feature to enter Pending Supplemental Payments when you’re awaiting additional payment from insurance or if insurance overpaid, but you’re not ready to issue the refund check. Pending Supplementals will be reflected as Insurance Estimates just as a regular outstanding insurance estimate.

To enter Pending Payments, double-click a claim and select one of the options from the Pending Payments section of the Edit Claim window.

• Use Ins Overpaid to enter insurance overpayments, so the patient accounts don’t reflect a credit while you’re waiting to issue a refund check.
• Use Ins Underpaid to enter anticipated supplemental payments from insurance, so initial claim underpayments are not reflected as patient responsibility on the account.

Enter the over- or under-payment amount for the applicable procedures and click OK to save the Pending Supplemental Payment(s).

The Pending Supplemental amount is reflected in the account as a line item and the Ins Est is updated accordingly. Once you’re ready to finalize the payment, double-click a PndSup line item on the claim and click To Supplemental to move the payments to supplemental, then finalize as normal.

Additional Resources on Insurance Payments

Is your claim missing data? Did you send the wrong code? Did insurance only send a partial payment? We cover that and more on our Blog Post: FAQs Answered: Insurance Claims.

New to Open Dental and Insurance? See our Insurance Playlist on YouTube!

If you have questions about posting payments or anything else in Open Dental, our support technicians are here to help.

Information in this post reflects features available in Open Dental Version 23.1. For the most up-to-date information, please visit our manual.