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 carrier sends an additional check for the same claim. If you simply try to add this money to the original payment entry, your reports will become inaccurate and your patient balances may shift incorrectly. Recording an open dental supplemental payment properly ensures your production and collection reports remain balanced and your audit trail stays clean.

Before You Start

Before you begin, ensure you have the following in place:

• The original claim must already be marked with a status of "Received."
• You must have the EOB or ERA in front of you to verify the specific procedure codes the supplemental payment covers.
• Ensure your user permissions allow you to edit insurance payments. If you do not see the buttons mentioned below, check with your office administrator regarding your security settings.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Follow these steps to accurately record the additional funds:

1. Navigate to the Account Module and select the patient.
2. Locate the original insurance payment in the account grid. Double-click the payment line to open the Edit Insurance Payment window.
3. Click the Supplemental button located in the bottom left area of the window. This will open a new payment window specifically for the additional amount.
4. In the Edit Insurance Payment window that appears, enter the new payment amount in the Amount field.
5. Enter the check number or EFT reference number in the Check # field.
6. Click the By Procedure button to ensure the payment is applied to the correct line items as indicated on your EOB.
7. In the ClaimProcs list, verify that the payment amounts match the EOB for each specific procedure.
8. Click OK to save the payment.
9. Click OK again to close the original payment window.

Common Mistakes

• Editing the original payment amount: Never change the dollar amount on the original, already-received payment. This alters historical data and makes it impossible to reconcile your bank deposits against your Open Dental reports. Always use the Supplemental button.
• Applying to the wrong procedure: If you do not use the By Procedure button, Open Dental may automatically distribute the supplemental funds across all procedures on the claim. If the insurance only paid extra on one specific code, your patient's remaining responsibility for other procedures will be calculated incorrectly.
• Ignoring the "Received" status: If you try to add a payment to a claim that is still marked as "Sent," the system will treat it as the primary payment rather than a supplemental one, which can cause significant errors in your insurance aging reports.

Related Scenarios

• If you need to handle a situation where a secondary insurance carrier pays after the primary, see .
• If you are trying to find claims that have been paid but not yet finalized in your ledger, use the .

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.