August 2026
The money goes in a circle
We follow one day at a dental group’s billing desk, from the overnight insurance check to the last statement. Every later job leans on the plan the front desk put on file. So the check came first.
Dental revenue cycle and front desk
Horizon Dental Care
DSO-owned dental group
Every night, Marzy checks upcoming patients against their insurance. Claims follow-up is in build.
The revenue cycle
The patient walks out the same day, and the office waits weeks to get paid for the visit, in pieces.
A dental visit gets paid through five jobs, and the first one starts the night before the patient arrives. We started there.
Insurance verification
Live
Before the visit, someone has to check whether the plan is active, which plan pays first, what it covers and what’s left of the year’s maximum.
Claims follow-up
In build
After the visit, the claim goes to the payer. Someone has to find out what happened to it: paid, paid short, denied or waiting on a letter.
Payment posting
Next
The billing desk posts the payer’s remittance line by line to the patient’s ledger. Then it writes off the gap between the office’s fee and the contracted fee.
Denials and appeals
Next
When a claim comes back short or denied, someone has to find the reason and the fix, then build an appeal with the X-rays and notes it needs. A person sends it.
Patient balances
Next
Once insurance has paid, the office works out what the patient owes and sends a statement that shows how it got the number.
Live
[07.2026]
Insurance verification
Every night, Marzy works through the upcoming schedule on the payers’ own portals, one patient at a time. It asks whether the plan is active, what it covers and what’s left of the year’s maximum. It writes the answers on the patient’s record and leaves a blank, not a guess, wherever the payer said nothing.
Follow one checkWhat the front desk sees.
The schedule
Every visit, marked.
Each appointment carries its coverage state: active, not checked yet, or needs attention. The day’s count of each sits beside the calendar.
The record
Who checked, and when.
The record puts the patient’s plan and member ID beside the visit the check covered. It also shows who verified it, on which portal and on which day.
The breakdown
Benefits, written out.
The breakdown lists maximums, deductibles and what’s left of each, plus the procedure details the payer returned. A value the payer didn’t supply stays unknown.
The list
Only what needs a person.
The list holds the patients the check couldn’t settle, each with its reason, such as a missing member ID. The desk starts there, not with the whole schedule.
In build
[09.2026]
Claims follow-up
We’re building this now, and Mulholland works the claims. Marzy will find each claim the offices sent on the payer’s portal and read where it stands. Every open claim will show its amount, its line items and its history: who worked it, what they learned, and the next step. A person on our team decides that step.
Read the revenue-cycle postFebruary 2026
The agent is the easy part
Where it stands.
DSO-owned dental group
Live
Insurance verification is live. Claims follow-up is in build: when it runs without us watching, it moves to Live and this page changes. Payment posting, denials and patient balances come next.
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