How to Process ERA in Open Dental

When you receive an Electronic Remittance Advice (ERA), manually entering the data can lead to mismatched balances and frustrated patients. If you do not correctly open dental process ERA payments, your claim statuses will remain "Sent" instead of "Received," causing your aging reports to look inaccurate and making it difficult to track what insurance actually owes the practice.

Before You Start

Before you can process an ERA, ensure your office is set up for electronic attachments and payments. You must have your clearinghouse configured within the Manage Module under Setup > Family/Insurance > Clearinghouses. Additionally, ensure the insurance plan is correctly attached to the patient in the Family Module, and that the claim has been sent and is currently in "Sent" status. If you are using a clearinghouse that supports auto-posting, verify that your ERA import settings are enabled in the Manage Module under Setup > Insurance > ERA Setup.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Follow these steps to accurately record an insurance payment via ERA:

1. Navigate to the Manage Module: Click on the "Manage" tab, then select "Insurance" and click on "ERA" to open the ERA window.
2. Import the ERA: If your clearinghouse has delivered the file, click the "Import" button. This will pull the electronic data into the list.
3. Select the Claim: Locate the specific ERA in the list and double-click it to open the "ERA Details" window.
4. Match to Claim: Open Dental will attempt to automatically match the ERA to an existing claim. If it does not match automatically, click the "Attach to Claim" button and search for the patient or claim number.
5. Review and Post: Once attached, review the payment amounts against the procedures. Click the "By Procedure" button to ensure the payment is applied to the correct line items.
6. Finalize: Click the "Finalize" button in the ERA window. This will automatically update the claim status to "Received" and post the payment to the patient's account in the Account Module.

Common Mistakes

The most frequent error occurs when staff click "Receive Payment" without verifying the procedure breakdown. If you click "Receive Payment" without selecting the procedures first, the payment will be applied to the entire claim balance, not individual procedures, which makes it impossible to track write-offs or patient responsibility accurately. Another common mistake is failing to check the "Supplemental" button when a secondary payment arrives; this can result in the original payment being overwritten rather than added to the account.

Related Scenarios

If you need to handle claims that were partially paid or denied, you may need to adjust the claim status manually.

If you find that your insurance payments are not matching your bank deposits, you should review your daily payment reports.

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.