89: Introducing the Dental Insurance Extravaganza with Christine Taxin

[music] Welcome to the Navigating Dental Insurance Podcast where we don't take from insurance [music] companies. Here are your hosts, Mr. Jordan Comtock and Mr. Ben Tui. Welcome to another exciting episode of the Navigating Dental Insurance Podcast. This is the Say No to PO series. My name is Ben Tui. I'm the solo host for today. Jordan Comach is unavailable. Um [music] the purpose of this webinar, excuse me, this uh episode is I have Christine Taxin on the line with me and we're both doing along with several

other um speakers uh we've been invited to participate in a dental and medical insurance extravaganza uh this fall in Las Vegas. So Christine, thanks for being on the show today. >> Thank you. I'm so excited. >> Yeah, we're excited too. Jordan and I are thrilled to be a part of your extravaganza. And I I'll tell you that uh the the topic of insurance, whether it's dental uh billing or medical billing, is is on the rise in terms of um doctors and front office team members uh

wanting to find the latest and greatest continuing education around these topics. So, thanks for putting this together. [laughter] >> Well, you're welcome. you know, we we both work with hundreds of doctors and we and we get the same questions all the time >> with changes that happen. >> So, I'm excited to put the experts for each area of billing in one place allow the teams and doctors to get almost all the information they need in one place. So, it's exciting. Yeah, this is very smart and

wise and I hope this continues because the insurance you just can't get enough good [clears throat] insurance knowledge. Um, you know, you take one course and then you take another course that's along the same lines of insurance and you start to realize, wow, there's just there's just so much to learn in the world of insurance. And so I'm looking at your speaker list here. You have yourself um I don't I I I'm not sure if this is still current, but we have Terresa Duncan, uh Jan

Palmer, and Lou Schuman, Dr. Schuman. >> Um >> you have uh >> Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. >> Go ahead. No, no, go ahead. >> No, you have Cynthia um what's her last name? Um right? Uh Clark Nigron, right? >> That's going to be there as well. Is there anybody else that we should mention? Yeah, Ju, we just added Judith Schwab. She is from the state boards. So, she's going to give a good insight to doctors about how insurance is run by the government and the

banking system, but each state has their own set of laws. And so she's going to give a perspective to all the attendees on, you know, how to contact their state boards and find out their state rules. Um, one of the big rules that's going around right now is the uh transparency rule where doctors are supposed to be transparent with their fees, but yet insurance companies aren't. >> Right. So, there's a big thing going on in Washington right now about that. And doctors need to hear what's

going on because when when I call my teams or put a newsletter out, they say, "Why do I have to do that?" Well, I don't make the rules. You don't make the rules. They make the rules. So, we're just passing them on so that doctors don't lose payments and don't get cut back on fees and things without knowing what's going on. >> Yeah. >> So, we want to really help them in that aspect. >> So, it's very exciting. >> That is really awesome. Um, last year

I put put out uh an article in dental economics about how to police against illegal and unethical insurance practices and I was really surprised at the uh response that I got. Um, I received responses from from people from front front office managers to doctors that had additional things to add to that article. So they're saying, "Hey, this is another technique that we've used in terms of contacting the dental board, insurance commissioner, or other regulatory bodies." And what I've learned is that there's so much so many

laws, there's so much protection for the providers. Often times we look at insurance companies as the ones that kind of direct the ship in terms of payment and whenever there's a denial, many offices make the mistake of thinking that they just have to honor it. Um but I'm excited to hear this particular talk on um insurance, you know, just the regulatory aspect of how insurance is governed. So the other topics on here, I like your topic. Your topic is becoming increasingly more popular, is successful medical

billing. I am part of several Facebook um uh dental groups. I'm sure you're part of as well. And just a couple of weeks ago, uh, one doctor was posting, um, uh, for one patient a $50,000 reimbursement from an insurance, a medical insurance company. >> It's just amazing to me that that uh that there's that amount of money that's available on on one bone graft. The reimbursement was over $6,000. Um, perlated work. they were getting compensated uh um at a rate of three times that of what

dental insurance carriers cover. Um and and I think that this is the blue ocean of of dentistry. One of the the the the key opportunities in in dental practices is learning how to successfully code or bill medical, which is what you're going to talk about in uh uh during your lecture. >> So yeah, so you're uh with the medical coding. So, I know that you have Theresa Duncan coming to talk about dental coding. Um, can you give us a few um a preview of what you're

going to be talking about uh at this meeting in Vegas? >> Yeah. What I what I'm personally going to cover is the fact that there are dental codes that are no longer covered under dental or have never been covered under dental and doctors are frustrated and they they stop billing it. they stop even offering some of it. And that to me is lack of the information. It's not lack of smarts, it's lack of information. And that's what I want to pass on. So for instance, bone

grafting is no longer covered under dental plans. >> Yeah. >> So anybody that's doing bone grafting should learn how to do it under medical billing. And when you look at where sleep apnea is right now in our country, that's all medical really. And one of the other big topics that we're I'm going to be speaking about is children sleep apnea or growth the growth of the oral cavity which causes many issues that can be covered not as orthoing under dental but in medical because it's causing

medical issues in that child's health and well-being. So, we we need to learn all these things and and how do we do it? How do we even set it up? So, the most important thing that I think I'm going to uh be able to help them with are some of the rules that go along with setting up medical billing. Uh dental is different. You build dental. You don't have to be in network. You can just bill it. With medical, it's not about being in network. It's

about allowing the insurance company to know who you are and um and that is credentiing. So irregardless of being in network or out of network, you do have to credential with a lot of the medical policies because they want to make sure they know who you are and what you do and that it's legal, your license is updated, your malpractice. And a lot of doctors don't understand that it's different than dental. Very different. And the other big thing I hope they get from just this podcast

is you need a business and PI number. >> Yeah. >> And it strikes me on how many offices don't have one. >> And when I say you cannot bill medical without it, they ask me why. And the the reason is medical's always paid under an NPI business. They work in hospitals. That's an NPI. They have offices. They're more groups than anything. So their rule is you have to have a business NPI. >> Yeah. Absolutely. >> So there's a lot of things that prevent them from getting

paid that have nothing to do with the service. It's about the setup, >> right? And so I want to pass that information on. >> Yeah, absolutely. I think those are key items. I think the one that you mentioned about just the initial credentiing with the insurance carrier, which sounds like to me not necessarily an in-et network contract, but the insurance carriers want to know uh who you are and whether it's it's appropriate to pay claims to your office. I think that's one of the biggest struggles

that I hear among dental practices is when they make an attempt to bill medical insurance. The response that they get from the insurance carrier is that your taxonomy doesn't fit the criteria for them to pay a claim to to to for the services that were submitted. And many offices kind of get stuck in that and they just give up, you know, on the medical billing. And then you hear stories of other offices that uh many of which go to your classes and they brag on Facebook

about how much more money they're making on the dental uh on the medical billing side of things. and and and it's a it's some amazing to me that on a single claim a doctor can get paid $50,000 for one patient, you know, and figuring that out and and that's he even said that I' he said you guys be surprised that's a that's not even the highest that he's seen. He he's regularly seeing other doctors get get paid a lot more than that. But I mean, imagine

your your world of of coding in terms of your income uh just increasing. You know, you're already doing the work, but I think many offices are leaving so much money on the table and patients paying so much money out of pocket when a lot of this could be covered by medical. And I am so excited to learn what you you you have to share there because I think many practices uh especially all that are listening to this, they need to be here. if they can't be

here, they need to find a way to another one of your meetings that talked more about the medical coding. >> Um, >> well, you know, th this meeting is going to allow them to make good decisions in the future, whether it's working with you in and your expertise and and we have a lot in common. you know, I I want to work with people that, you know, can add to the doctor's practices. And so, one of the things that I always tell them is contact Ben

and his group because you need to look at your fee schedule. >> Yeah. >> And and raise them to the highest level because you can't have two fee schedules. So, you need to have a higher fee schedule. And if they're in dental in network with dental there are some things I tell don't build dental it's not going to cover it anyway >> right >> so know those codes and raise them to the higher fee that's how doctors are making that additional money so there's a lot

of rules and people involved in helping them make the right decisions and I I just think that this is going to be one of the most exciting two days in my in my experience cuz I'm looking to sit in on everything, >> you know, on everybody's courses >> because you can't be an expert in everything just like the doctors can't be an expert in everything. So, imagine having that much brain power in one place. I mean, that's amazing. >> I agree. I agree. And I think

you're on to something here because the insurance education you you go to different conventions and the last one that I spoke at was at the Pacific Northwest up in uh the state of Washington >> and when I looked at the speaker list there were only a small handful of those talking about insurance. Um but those classes were the most packed. Um I was fortunate to be given two rooms. they you know they they had to combine two big rooms and I think we in in our

side of the building we had the largest attendance of uh attendees, you know, I I don't know how I lucked out but they gave me six hours to present uh on f on on the Friday and the the feedback that I heard from the participants is that why don't these conferences just do like a whole section. Okay, this is the this is this day we're going to have insurance classes in this room and it's just going to be a lineup of insurance uh speakers that that

can speak on insurance from medical billing to dental coding to negotiations to to all the things that you need to understand about how to be more effective when it comes to dealing with insurance in general. So, I envision this this conference um the one that you're building, it's it's going to catch on and it's going to be a multi-state thing, multi-year thing. Uh because it seems like there's a high demand for people wanting to learn more about this. Now, tell us about the uh attendees. Uh

do you have to be a doctor to attend this meeting? >> No, no, no, no. I I mean we have a lot of registered case uh people already and what I'm seeing is teams coming with their doctor. So I mean I'll get a call or the the team will get a call and it's a doctor or his team signing up three and four people because they understand that there's a lot to learn. And this is so smart for the doctors. They can uh be a they

will be able to learn more if they assign each group different criteria to make sure that they're really learning and then have time to come and sit with experts like you after you speak and really, you know, get to dig deeper and find out more and and that's what I'm seeing which is so smart on the doctor's part and Right now we are running uh an early bird discount at $200 discount for the first person and and more for the second. And so we're seeing a

lot of teams sign up. So I hope everybody hears this because the biggest thing I want to come out of this is to have a form of credentiing available for team members who are doing the billing for doctors. >> Yeah. >> Because there aren't many doctors doing this. Their teams are doing it. And what's the reward in the end for the team member, >> right? There's no certificate. There's no and this accreditation stuff that you see online isn't really giving them anything. It's a certificate from

that company. But I want to go further than that. Then I want to go where they're being credentialed like medical coders through the organization itself. And so it's a it's a course that's collegebased and really gives them the need and the understanding that this isn't a one-time course. This is an always evolving learning place. And it's the biggest reason why I put the school platform on so that people could have somebody helping them when a new thing comes up and they don't have to say, "I'm

not going to do this anymore. I'm not going to build for it anymore. >> Yeah. >> So, like bal cancer, the biggest thing in our industry, there's one person that dies every day, every hour of every day, that's 24 people a day that die of oral cancer. And dental doesn't reimburse that, but medical does. >> Right? >> So, one of my goals is to show every medical office how do you how do you do that? Because they are medical providers. They are not a mechanic. They

are a provider for a part of our body that's connected to the rest of us. And if you get cancer anywhere, you could die. >> So what makes people think you can't die with oral cancer? They are. But yet they'll say no to an oral cancer screening because their insurance doesn't cover it. Guess what? Medical can and will. >> Yeah. >> And it it's amazing. Amazing. >> Absolutely. >> So, we really have a lot of learning to do and we should be giving them >> the

CE credits just like a doctor gets CE credit. >> Yeah, I agree. >> And I do give the CE credits will be at this meeting. And of course, every doctor attending is going to get those CE credits and they're going to get a lot of CE credits for the year. But what about the team? So, I started a hall of fame. Yeah. >> And anybody that I train that gets an insurance claim goes on that hall of fame. I want people to see that this is

happening across the country and they are getting recognition and they will get certificate and they will know that I'm fighting for them to be able to get this credential like through the ADA or the PACE or someone that has that authority that could give it out. Yeah, >> I have states working on it. >> When it comes to online reviews, there are the usual suspects. The person who yells at you through their keyboard. The guy who gives you one star because he got a parking ticket

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licensing thing, but it's more of the value. You know, you're you're building value that is not only experience, but something on paper that can add tremendous value to a person for for getting these certificates. But even on the dental side, you know, when when what you're doing in terms of opening that door of allowing more doctors to uh bill medical and really be the true part of the entire medical process, billing process, um it really does elevate the standard and elevate uh the value of the

dentist. you know, you know, growing up, my my uncle's a dentist, so he's 84 years old, and uh I was um I I was with him 3 weeks ago in American Samoa. He is 84 years old. Um they they called him back to come and work back at the clinic in American Samoa because he's he's one of the be best clinicians on that island. But oftent times on that small island, people look at the dentist and they think, "Oh, it's just a dentist." You know, they

they make the mistake of saying it's not a real doctor. But you know, my uncle, he's he's a real doctor. A dentist is a real doctor. >> And when you really think about what goes on clinically in dentistry, I mean, that is such a that that is a huge gateway. The oral, you know, the the the the oral health is a huge gateway to optimum health, you know, in general. It could also be a huge gateway for people to get all kinds of diseases, you know,

don't really realize when you have when you have gum disease and other things going on in your mouth, >> it leads to so many other things down the road. And people just fail to make that connection. And that's something that my uncle taught us as a kid is that, you know, your oral health is is vital. It is a very important part of your your your body. Um and and oftentimes when we view visiting the dentist, um we we we forget that it is all tied

into medicine. And so when you look at the you look at dentists and periodonists and other specialists that are part of dentistry, I believe that when you add the component of medical billing now, you're opening up a world of opportunity for the patients to get healthier because you know this world where um unfortunately many are are are stuck with the insurance driven mentality where they you know either teach their patients to make treatment do treatment accept treatment based upon insurance coverage. you know, that's so hard

to escape and so hard to get offices to think outside of the box, you know, outside of that, in my opinion, a poisonous box of insurance mentality. But when you open the door of medical billing, you provide so many more options for patients to get more coverage and and and elevate themselves to a healthier state. So, I love what you're doing because I think that all the stuff that I see uh in the promotional material for this meeting, it speaks to that. So for those that

want to enroll or register for this meeting, can they do that online? >> Yes, they can go to www. dent dentalmed billilling.com and it's right there on the first page and all you have to do is click and purchase and there is still again a $200 discount uh as an early bird. And if there's groups involved, like a lot of the bigger groups, if they want, they can contact us directly. If they're going to send multiples over five, we will offer an additional discount. >> Awesome.

So that's >> because we know that this is that important. So it's not about us making the money here. It's about them making their money. These are the people that need to be trained the most and yet we don't train them on this topic. I I I just want to pass on to the audience that I get calls and emails every single day from patients asking me to build their plans because their doctor doesn't know how. And these are people that have had cancer that have

St. John syndrome that are diabetic and need absolutely dental care. I mean, think about you have chemotherapy. What does what happens to your body? Your body is destroyed from chemotherapy to keep you alive. There's always a benefit and a consequence with all things. And so they need our oral health care before, during, and after. And I'm telling you that I get calls every day from these patients now. They need implants, bone grafting, and they they can't find a doctor that will do bu medical billing. So

what we're going to add to this website and our doctors that have taken these courses with us all of us not just for medical dental because you could bill even dental for fluoride for varnish for uh over like an appliance and give them mi paste for their treatment and it prevents loss of teeth. It remmineral keeps remmineralizing their teeth and on top of it we can get it covered because it's being used for an illness. >> Yeah. >> So that they don't have that uh much

destroyed. So, we are going to actually start to put doctors up that have gotten the training on the site so that when I do get these emails from patients, I could direct them to a place that understands how to bill dental and medical for all of the services they need properly. >> I love that. And that's going to just be benefit because I don't I cry because I can't do their billing because every doctor has to do their NPI number >> right >> so unless we

are working with them specifically I can't do the billing for the patient and it really breaks my heart because I know and you know that there are benefits out there. >> Yeah. >> So let's help them. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. >> My goal help them. >> You know, medical insurance isn't cheap. Neither is dental insurance, but I like >> No, nothing is >> Yeah. I like the idea of maximizing it. Like my in our family, we we have a high deductible plan. Like most people that are

self-employed, high deductible plan, so you have to spend $10,000 plus dollars just to reach your deductible. Fortunately, they have these these individual deductibles where it's roughly half of the entire family deductible. And for our family, the only person that has meant that this year is my wife. You know, we've been really truly trying to maximize it and find every opportunity opportunity that we can can do to use our medical insurance as much as we can. And this whole window of knowing that there's a lot that's

that can be covered uh under medical insurance is very encouraging for people like me that I don't I choose not to purchase dental insurance because I choose to pay the providers a different rate. let them let them determine how much they need to build to me that's you know a fee that is commensurate with the with the value of services that they're offering and frankly we get I I feel like we get a better service that way uh when we choose a provider based upon being

a fee for service pro uh uh uh patient but but being a medical patient or medical uh having medical insurance and having access to that it it just opens up a world of opportunity both for the doctors and for the patients. So, uh, I I just hope that everybody's listening to this seriously considers attending this meeting. This is October 4th and 5th, Las Vegas. We're going to post the website on the show notes >> uh for you to to go to dentalmedbilling.com uh and register. Take

take the time to learn this stuff. And I I promise everybody that I know that has either attended Christine's class or or engaged in medical billing one way or another, uh it just opens up so many doors for you to improve profitability, improve efficiencies on case presentation and case acceptance as well as many other things. But that's that's just one thing that's going to be talked about. You know, during this meeting, there's so many different topics and you'll see them on dentalbilling.com. uh in terms of

the the lineup of speakers that are are prepared to to educate you on all things insurance. Uh Christine, any closing comments for our listeners? Um, I just want to uh we just posted on the dental medical billing website uh that the name of every program that will be there and who that the people are so that everybody can see what's the event details and um who's going to be there and what are the options for your learning. It's not just who's on the flyer. It It's

so much more. It It's really so much more. It's going to be I don't know. I I I'm I'm hoping for people to say in the end, "Wow, I could help so many more." Yeah. because of this. >> And we'll all uh we'll all be granted the ability to continue to help and continue to want to grow because we are helping patients. We're helping us, but we're helping patients. >> Absolutely. >> And that we can't buy that. >> Absolutely. >> You can't buy it. Amen. So,

I'm excited and I hope everybody comes to join us because the speaker lineup is people from the ADA that are going to speak about how they could help doctors, the state. Jan Palmer, she's going to talk about everything that you need to know about Medicare. Uh Teresa is going to talk about dental. You're going to talk about negotiating those fees. And I mean it's just how could you ask for more in one place? >> I agree. >> You know. Yeah. So I'm excited. Very very excited.

>> Me too. And and I I truly hope that this continues just beyond this year. I hope that we have multiple meetings like this because I I really believe that that you could you could attend this meeting in October, but also could attend the exact same event in January and learn just as much as you learned, if not more, than you learned in October. You know, these mastermind meetings on the same topics. It's it's just constant learning because there's constant change in the industry. >> So,

Christine, thank you for putting this together. We're really excited. Jordan and I are going to be attending. We're really excited to be there and we hope to bring uh >> And I'm excited for you to be there. >> Absolutely. [laughter] >> Yeah. And and you know, even the companies that we chose to come had something to do with billing, treatment planning, and making everything about their practices better. So, it's just going to be an amazing meeting and and this is going to be an ongoing meeting

for sure. >> Yeah, >> for sure. Because people are excited and I hope that more people are excited by hearing this podcast. And again, if you have groups that you want to enroll, call us. We'll [music] help you >> and we'll make sure that they get a good spot. >> Absolutely. >> And even more training than they could have thought of. >> So, thanks very much. [laughter] >> Well, thank you so much. >> Well, we appreciate you being on our show today to talk about this.

I was really excited to get this to to air out and uh for our listeners to share this. Also, please share this with your friends and colleagues that we know everybody can benefit from insurance education and we hope to see many of you there. Um, again, we'll post this information in the show notes and we just want to extend a great thanks to Christine and your husband for organizing this and we look forward to seeing you this fall. >> Well, thank you and I can't wait.

And if anybody has questions and they would like to call, they could call me directly then at 914450 2906 and we will make sure that they get whatever answers they need [music] in help in making a decision if that's what they need. Okay. >> Absolutely. And I'll post that number in the show notes with the website and your email address. And uh we really appreciate your your willingness to to reach have listeners reach out to directly and uh of course always always great to have you

on the show and uh again we just we just look really look forward to meeting with you this fall and we really hope many of our listeners can make it out there. So we'll see you then Christine. >> Okay. Thanks Ben. >> Thank you. >> Bye. Bye >> bye. [music] >> [music] [music]