If your patient balances are inaccurate or you are sending statements for accounts that have pending insurance claims, you are likely losing money and frustrating your patients. Learning how to generate patient billing statements correctly ensures that you only ask patients for what they truly owe, preventing unnecessary phone calls and collection disputes.
Before You Start
Before you begin generating statements, ensure your practice is prepared to avoid sending incorrect bills:
- Verify Insurance Payments: Ensure all received insurance payments are posted. If a claim is still "Waiting to Send" or "Sent," the patient's balance may be artificially inflated.
- Check Patient Balances: Go to the Account Module and review the patient's ledger. Ensure all adjustments, write-offs, and payments are applied correctly.
- Review Billing Defaults: Go to Setup > Account > Billing Defaults. Confirm your "Statement Message" and "Finance Charge" settings are configured to your practice's policy.
- Update Patient Information: Ensure the patient’s address and billing preferences (Email vs. Paper) are current in the Family Module.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Follow these steps to generate patient billing statements in Open Dental version 25.2 or 25.3:
- Open the Billing Window: Go to the Manage Module and click the "Billing" button. This opens the Billing window.
- Filter Your Patients: In the "Billing" window, use the filters to select which patients to bill. You can filter by "Billing Type" (e.g., All, Monthly, Insurance Pending) or "Account Balance."
- Set Statement Options: Choose your "Statement Mode." Select "Email" for electronic delivery or "Print" for paper statements. Ensure the "Date" is set to today’s date.
- Exclude Patients with Pending Claims: To avoid billing patients for amounts that insurance might cover, check the box labeled "Exclude if insurance pending." This is a critical step to prevent patient confusion.
- Create the List: Click the "Create List" button. Open Dental will generate a list of all patients who meet your criteria.
- Review the List: Carefully review the list of patients. You can uncheck any individual patient if you decide they should not receive a statement at this time.
- Send Statements: Once you are satisfied with the list, click the "Send" button. If you selected "Print," this will send the statements to your printer. If you selected "Email," the statements will be sent to the patient's email address on file.
Common Mistakes
- Billing Before Insurance Processes: If you do not use the "Exclude if insurance pending" filter, you will send statements to patients for the full procedure amount before the insurance company has paid their portion. This leads to patients calling the office in a panic about their "high" balance.
- Ignoring the "Billing Type": If you do not assign correct Billing Types in the Family Module, you may accidentally send statements to patients who are on a payment plan or who have a "Do Not Bill" status. Always verify the patient's Billing Type before running a large batch.
Related Scenarios
If you need to track down why a patient balance is incorrect, you may need to review your insurance aging.
If you have payments that were entered but not fully applied to procedures, your patient balances will be off.
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.