New web calculator shows dentists can earn big savings through electronic claims submission

California's largest dental plan unveiled today a new web-based calculator that shows dentists how much they can save when using electronic claims submission (ECS) for their insured patients.

The new online calculator, located at www.deltadentalca.org, demonstrates that depending on various factors, an average California dentist can save more than $3,400 annually, or as many as 25 days in staff time using ECS to process claims bound for Delta Dental Plan of California or any other dental carrier.

Delta officials report that 34 percent of the estimated 60,000 dental claims the company receives daily arrive electronically -- a figure they want to increase by getting more California dentists to automate their claims submission.

"ECS means less paperwork, better cash flow, more streamlined office procedures and lower processing costs, which ultimately benefits dentists, subscribers and the Delta clients who sponsor dental benefit plans," said Marilynn Belek, DMD, Delta's senior vice president of Professional Services. "The web calculator offers compelling evidence that it pays to make optimal use of ECS technology."

ECS involves computer-generated claims integrated with practice-management software that can run on basic, relatively inexpensive office computer systems. Dental offices transmit their completed claims via modem to an electronic clearinghouse, where they are screened, batched into a single data stream, then transmitted to insurance and benefit companies such as Delta Dental for review and payment. Claims requiring more information are rapidly returned by the clearinghouse with a notation or flag that helps dental offices quickly correct the error and retransmit the claim -- a process that can take days with paper-based claims.

Delta's new web calculator, linked to the dentist section of the company's corporate web site, asks users to fill in only six relatively simple fields to see just how much time and money ECS can save the particular practice. Dentists need only enter their average patient volume, the percent covered by insurance, the number of days in a week and weeks in a year they see patients, and the number of staff they employ to bill for treatment. They also need to provide the average annual salary of those staff.

After submitting the data, which is neither monitored nor captured by Delta staff, the calculator quickly performs an analysis that compares all costs associated with paper versus electronic claims, including the expense of postage, forms and envelopes, the amount of time required to generate paper versus electronic claims and the transmission fees paid to an electronic clearinghouse.

Based on a dental office that sees 20 patients a day, 80 percent of which are covered by insurance, the calculator shows savings of $3,456 of annual savings with ECS over paper claims, according to Dr. Belek. "Obviously, that is a figure that can go up or down significantly depending on an office's insured patient volume."

Delta Dental president and CEO Gary D. Radine says a major strategy for the company and its affiliates around the country is to harness the power of the Internet, ECS and other technologies so that savings can be passed along to customers and subscribers.

"We are not only expanding ECS, but developing web claims submission and deploying a number of other new work management and customer-oriented technologies to improve every aspect of our service and data control," said Radine. "Of course, to reap the full advantage of some of these technologies, we must convince those who work with us as business partners to accept and integrate these tools into their own office practices."

Delta Dental Plan of California is the state's largest dental plan with nearly 15 million members. The company offers a full line of group dental benefit programs including traditional, PPO and HMO dental programs (through affiliate PMI Dental Health Plan).

Last year, Delta Dental Plan of California announced the formation of a holding company with Delta Dental of Pennsylvania, creating one of the nation's largest dental benefits delivery systems under unified management with 17.2 million members nationwide. The holding company members are also part of the Delta Dental Plans Association, a national association whose member plans collectively cover 39 million people nationwide.