Weekly Tip: Insurance Verification Issues with Tessina Bullock

[music] >> Welcome to the navigating dental insurance podcast, where we don't take from insurance [music] companies. Here are your hosts, Mr. Jordan Comstock and Mr. Ben Tuinei. >> Welcome to another episode of the navigating dental insurance podcast and now the new and brand new shiny insurance untangled podcast. Uh this is a weekly podcast provided to you that will come directly to your inbox. Uh these episodes here, the quick insurance tip episodes are designed to be 5 to 10 minutes and these will be coming out weekly

in addition to the longer episodes, the 30 to 40 minute episodes. Uh and so the insurance tips will have insurance experts uh that will be on here to share a quick tip about what's going on in the industry, a tip about how how to deal with insurance and whatever it may be that might be helpful for dental practices across the country. Today, we have uh Tessena with us. Tessena, you're sort of a repeat offender on on our podcast and we appreciate you being with us and

being willing to share your information. Thanks for being with us today. >> Yeah, you bet. I'm excited to be back. >> Absolutely. So now with a new audience, uh I know that the our old podcast people know you. For the new audience with the insurance untangled podcast, you mind giving a a brief background about who you are and how you got started in dentistry? >> Sure. Yes. Um so yeah, I'm Tessena Bullock and I've been in dentistry since like 2008. Um I just wanted to be

a dental assistant. That's all I wanted to do. I didn't want to do be in charge of a whole lot. >> [laughter] >> That didn't go the way I had planned. Um but I started out in dental assisting and then quickly moved up front. Um my father was in the CIA and uh military and we traveled and he taught me a lot about life and people and business. And so they wound up being like, "No, we need you up front." And I moved up front and

I got into insurance and everybody kept saying, "You can't do that. You can't do that." And I was like, "Why?" And then I'm like, "Says who?" >> [laughter] >> Um and the insurance companies were were big bullies and pretty much just got to do whatever they want and they kept The insurance kept saying, "You don't get to do that or you're not allowed to do that." And their rights. And so being trained by my father, I'm like, "Well, we have rights too then and we have

our own laws." So I really started pushing back on that and diving into it really quickly and it expanded a lot faster than I had even anticipated. Um I took on a big insurance company and the insurance commissioner did fine them, told them to knock off their their antics or whatever you want to call it. Um and I joined study clubs trying to get more information again finding out that I knew more in some cases than they did and they had been doing it a lot

longer than I had, but I was asking the right questions to the right people. And so I started sharing that knowledge and we grew then I met you Ben and we started saying, "Let's do more." And so it's been a wild ride. It's been a lot of fun. Now I've worked with over 400 dentists across Utah alone as well as many more outside of Utah and we've been fighting it back against the insurance companies and helping everybody know how to take the power back and where

to start with that so that they know their laws and their rights instead of the insurance company saying, "You don't get to do that." >> [laughter] >> That's awesome. We have a lot of really great stories in dentistry and your background and so um you know, we'll have you as a regular contributor on the podcast with these weekly episodes from time to time. You know, for today's topic, um, we're going to keep it simple, right? So, today's theme is insurance verification. And so, one of the

questions I have, Tassinari, with regards to this world of insurance verification is, you know, what are what are some of the common things that our people are missing with their insurance breakdowns? >> Yes. So, a lot of the training and coaching that I do, I go into the offices and one of the first things we do is evaluate their insurance breakdown form. That's where it starts, um, to know how to help our patients, we got to know what their coverage is. If you don't have a

good form or you're not asking the right questions, you're not as prepared as you think you are. So, a common one that I find, and it seems so simple, but it's when we ask about downgrades. Everybody asks about downgrades, but not everybody's asking which teeth are downgraded. So, they don't downgrade on all back teeth. Sometimes it's molars only, sometimes it's just the bicuspids, and sometimes it's both. So, we have to be asking those questions, and a lot of the times the software's not set up for

that, so you have to do a manual override, but you wouldn't know to do that if you weren't asking that question. And then making sure that you ask what the exclusions are for specific procedures, because they'll say it's covered, yes, and they won't be forthcoming with the information about the exclusions. So, if you're not asking specifically what the exclusions are for certain specific codes, you'll miss that part, [snorts] and you'll tell your patient that service is covered, and in truth it's not. >> Yeah, giving them

the wrong expectations, which does tend to damage relationships all around. >> [laughter] >> Yes. >> It's like, that was a bait and switch. >> Yes. >> So, is everyone taking the time to get everything they need from from an insurance verification standpoint, or are people just too busy and just ignore it? >> Right. So, that is a common problem we run into. So, even if you do have a really good breakdown form, we find that most offices aren't filling it out completely and thoroughly. Just because

you guys don't have the time. We don't have the time, right? You're trying to answer the phone for the other patient. You have two patients trying to check out. Uh you've been on hold for an hour. Now, the time that you thought you had is changed because an hour has passed. So, a lot of times you have this full form that you'd like to get filled out. But when it comes down to that wire, you just don't have the time. So, you get the basic of

the information or offices are just getting the basics of what they need to survive. >> Right. >> You know, and I call it survival mode all the time. A lot of offices are just in survival mode. Um but so they just get that basic amount of information and then they say, "I'll call back later when I have more time to get the rest." Sometimes they do, but sometimes they don't because time's not a thing that we have a lot of in the dental office. So, um

that's a struggle that we're up against is making sure you know how and when and to have the time to be able to fill that all out. >> Absolutely. So, what's the risk of not doing insurance verifications? >> Yeah, um the risks are pretty obvious, but they're pretty huge. Um it stems from as little as being $20 off on your estimate to being $1,000 off if that service comes up as not covered. Um another important thing to watch out for, right, is how much of the

patient's benefits have been used, you know. All of those There's so many endless amounts of details and information that if you don't have it and you don't have it accurate, um you're really going to cost the patient um that uncomfortable situation. So, the biggest thing is patients will pay the $1,000 that you were off. They just want to know ahead of time so that they can prepare financially. So, it's not that they weren't okay to pay it or they couldn't figure it out. It's the fact

that you told them it was going to be $1,000 less and now it's more and that adds so much stress and so much burden to their life and it puts a strain like you said on the relationship between the office and the patient. >> Right, absolutely. And I recognize in this day and age a lot of dental practices are struggling to find anybody to come in and fill positions in the practice, right? >> Yeah, definitely. So offices right now are more short-handed than ever. Not just

finding people who will work, who will just show up, right? That's like a lot of offices they're like, "We'll hire you if you just show up, right?" But then the next step of that is actually finding them who are willing to work or capable of the position and we're finding a lot of people who are asking for really high wages that are hard for the offices to offer sometimes as well. >> Yeah. And I know that you have a solution for verifications for those that need

it, right? Can you can you speak a little bit about that? >> Yes, we're so so excited. We're doing outsourcing and basically the insurance verification process. So I've been hand training these agents to make sure they're doing it up to my specifications and qualifications to make sure that we're asking those additional questions. We're making sure the whole form is filled out. We customize it to each office because I know from being in each office how different and unique they all are. So we customize that whole

process and we do it for a much lower price point. Do you want me to say a price point? >> Go ahead, yeah, please. >> So we're only fifteen dollars an hour. So it's just the same as hiring somebody who can come into the office and do it but they're not asking for a crazy crazy high wage. They don't have to stop and help the other patients or answer the other phones or deal with the other reports. Their just main focus is doing that one very

crucial monotonous task of getting it all of that insurance information and making sure it's accurate and it's entered in your system accurately as well. They will enter it for you also. So, the whole job is done. You can rest assured and give your patient the good estimates. >> That's awesome. Wow, 15 an hour. And I know that you mentioned that your prices are going to go up soon as the demand increases and and that you're you were willing to uh grandfather this pricing for 3 years

for people that enroll this year or at least this summer. Uh so, where do people find out more and learn more if they want to if they're interested in that? >> Yeah, we actually have a website. There's dental.com. It has all of our contact information as well plus a little bit more information. Uh if they're interested, just head over to the website and they can contact us. >> That's awesome. So, that's Verus Dental, V as in Victor, E R U S dental.com. Of course, that will

be posted in the show notes for those of you that might be driving or otherwise preoccupied. Tessena, thank you so much and we look forward to the next episode. We're going to have a series of these insurance tips and start to go into some of the more needy-greedy issues behind [music] insurance. Uh especially what I'm interested in in having Tessena talk about is her story about fighting a big insurance plan or a set of insurance plans >> [music] >> and getting the uh getting the government

people to advocate on behalf of the patient and the practice. So, maybe that'll be our very next episode. But for for now, Tessena, thank you so much for your your knowledge and for your time. >> [music] >> Check her out, people that are listening. Go to verusdental.com. Tessena is the president of Verus Dental an insurance verification solution for those that need that help. Thank you everybody for listening today. Until next time, have a good [music] one. >> [music] [music] >> Mhm.