A few tips & tricks from your Open Dental experts

1. Seeing comm entries for the entire family in the patient’s Account module?
If you want only the patient’s comm entries to show in their account module view, go to Setup-Account, and uncheck the box for “Show Family Comm Entries by Default” in the Account Module Preferences. In newer versions, this option is located in the Misc Account

2. Want to print progress notes for only a certain day or date range?
In the patient’s chart module, click on the Show tab, and in the middle where it says “All Dates” click on the button […] to enter the Progress Notes Date Range. When you click OK, the view will be filtered to show data in the date range you specified, and Custom View will display. To return to your usual view, select a view option in Chart Views.

3. What is the X in the Treatment Plan’s Sub column?
When there is a downgrade to a charted treatment and a substitution code is being considered to calculate the insurance benefit, there will be an X in the Sub column to indicate this. A typical example is a posterior composite (i.e. D2392 downgraded to D2150). To see what code it’s being downgraded to, go to Lists-Procedure Codes and bring up the charted code (like D2392), then check the Ins. Subst Code box to see what code is being used.
TECH TIP: Make sure there is a fee entered for the substitution code. If there is no fee, the originally charted code will be used to estimate insurance coverage, which may overstate the benefit.
Extra TECH TIP: Downgrade codes can be specified by insurance plan in versions 17.2 and newer. For more on how to do this, check out our downgrades manual page, and see the section on Downgrades for an Insurance Plan.

And in case you missed them, here are a few recent posts you might like: 

• “Oh, the Many Online Resources” (published 10/25/17)
• “Oh, the Many Support Resources” (published 11/1/17)
• “eServices: Capitalize on These Tools to Grow Your Practice!” (published 11/9/17)
• “Appointment Search: Find a Specific Opening in Your Schedule”  (published 11/15/17)
• “Automation for Better Patient AND Practice Health” (published 11/22/17)