How to Enter an Open Dental Supplemental Payment

You have already marked an insurance claim as "Received" in Open Dental, but a few weeks later, the insurance company sends an additional check for that same claim. If you do not record this open dental supplemental payment correctly, your patient’s account balance will be inaccurate, and your insurance aging reports will fail to reflect the true status of the claim.

Before You Start

Before you begin entering the payment, ensure the following conditions are met:

1. The original claim must already be marked with a status of "Received" in the Account Module.
2. You have the EOB (Explanation of Benefits) or ERA in front of you that details the additional payment amount.
3. You have verified that the original claim is not currently locked or archived in a way that prevents editing.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Follow these steps to accurately record the additional funds:

1. Go to the Account Module and select the patient.
2. Locate the original claim in the account grid. Double-click the claim to open the Edit Claim window.
3. In the Edit Claim window, click the Supplemental button located near the bottom of the window.
4. A new window will appear asking if you want to create a supplemental claim. Click OK.
5. The system will create a new claim entry linked to the original. In the Edit Claim window for this new supplemental claim, ensure the status is set to "Received."
6. Click the By Procedure button to allocate the payment amount to the specific procedures covered by this additional check.
7. Enter the payment amount in the appropriate fields for each procedure.
8. Click OK to save the payment details.
9. Click OK again to close the Edit Claim window. The account balance will now update to reflect the additional payment.

Common Mistakes

• Editing the original claim directly: If you try to change the payment amount on the original "Received" claim instead of using the Supplemental button, you will corrupt the historical record of the first payment. This makes it impossible to reconcile your bank deposits against your practice management reports.
• Forgetting to allocate by procedure: If you do not use the By Procedure button, the payment may be applied as a lump sum. This can cause issues with patient statements, as the system won't know exactly which procedures were paid, potentially leading to incorrect patient responsibility calculations.

Related Scenarios

• If you need to see a list of claims that have been partially paid or have pending supplemental payments, run the .
• If you are dealing with a claim that was denied and needs to be resubmitted, see .
• If you receive a bulk check covering multiple patients, use the feature to distribute the funds correctly.

Track all your outstanding claims at a glance with DentalCanvas — a visual dashboard that shows your insurance aging, pending claims, and collection trends in real time.

This article is provided by opendentalsupport.com, an independent community resource. We are not affiliated with Open Dental Software, Inc.