How to Reduce Days Sales Outstanding in a Dental Practice

Introduction

In dental revenue cycle management, DSO means days sales outstanding: the average number of days between a procedure and the cash for it landing in the bank. (Not a dental service organization, which this page is not about.) You reduce it by removing the waits that build it: benefits not confirmed before treatment, claims not sent the day of service, payments arriving by paper, remittances sitting unposted, claims nobody chases at 30 days, denials that miss their appeal window, and patient balances billed late or wrong. This guide takes each in turn and ends with which steps Teero handles and which stay with the office.

Key Takeaways

• DSO is outstanding receivables divided by average daily charges. Track it monthly and split insurance from patient balances, because the fixes differ.
• The largest single lever for most offices is follow-up timing: a claim worked at 30 days is a phone call; the same claim at 90 days may be a resubmission or a lost appeal deadline.
• Electronic remittance (EFT and ERA) and same-day posting remove the days between "paid" and "posted", which is where cash sits invisible.
• Teero covers verification before the visit and posting, aging, denials, secondary claims and appeals after the claim goes out. Claim submission stays with the office, and no vendor removes the days lost to a late or incomplete claim on your side.

What DSO Measures in a Dental Practice

The formula

Take total accounts receivable at month end and divide it by average daily charges (the month's production divided by the days in the month). If the office produced $150,000 in a month and $75,000 is outstanding at month end, DSO is about 15 days. The number matters less than its direction and its split between insurance waiting to pay and patient balances waiting to be billed.

Why it drifts up

DSO rarely jumps. It creeps as small delays stack: a coordinator out for a week, paper checks in a drawer, denials nobody classified. Each adds days to a subset of claims, so the fix is a routine, not a project.

Before and at Submission

Verify a week ahead

A claim denied for eligibility, a frequency limit or a waiting period costs the full cycle twice. Checking eligibility and pulling a full benefits breakdown before the appointment removes those denials before they exist. Teero's verification service works a week ahead (next week's schedule is verified this week) and re-confirms eligibility, current maximums and remaining benefits before each appointment, writing the result into the patient record in the practice management software and updating the last-verified date. Eligibility checks are free; a full breakdown, covering category percentages, maximums, deductibles, code-level coverage with frequencies and history and waiting periods, is $5, with an $800 monthly minimum and no contract.

Submit clean claims the same day

The claim itself is the office's step. A claim batched on Friday for Monday's treatment has added days before the payer sees it. Send claims electronically every business day, with the attachments and narratives the procedure needs, so the first submission is the only one. Teero does not submit claims; this step, and its share of DSO, stays with the office by design.

After Submission: Where Most Days Are Lost

Enroll in EFT and ERA with every payer that offers it

A paper check adds mail time, a deposit trip and manual posting; EFT with an electronic remittance advice removes all three. Teero enrolls offices in EFT and ERA with every payer that offers it, at no charge, as part of payment posting.

Post every payment the day it arrives

A payment that has landed but is not posted still shows as receivable, so DSO stays high while the cash sits in the account. Post every remittance every business day, matched to the claim and procedure, with the contractual adjustment applied under the office's own write-off rules and the patient portion recorded. Teero posts daily inside Dentrix, Open Dental, Eaglesoft and Curve, and checks underpayments against the fee schedule before anything is written off.

Follow up at 30 days, not 90

Any claim unpaid at 30 days gets a payer contact. Teero follows up with the payer on claims over 30 days (insurance A/R over 31 days) as part of its aging work, so a stuck claim is questioned while it is still a status check and not a resubmission.

Work denials inside the appeal window

Classify every denial the day it arrives: correctable by the office, appealable, or a true write-off. Denials that need the office's decision are flagged by Teero inside the PMS with the denial reason, the payer's explanation, the appeal deadline and Teero's recommendation, and Teero prepares payer-specific appeals.

Send secondary claims as soon as the primary pays

A secondary claim that waits for a weekly batch adds a week to that balance. Teero sends secondary claims when a primary pays and moves the balance to secondary or patient responsibility as part of closing each remittance.

The Patient Side, and What Teero Covers

Patient balances add days when they are calculated late or from an estimate rather than the real payment. Teero's patient billing service calculates the balance when insurance pays, from the actual payment and real benefit details, sends reminders by text and email on a schedule with a link to a payment page, and posts the payment into the PMS. It runs alongside payment posting and aging, not on its own, and is quoted per practice.

Taken together, Teero covers verification, EFT and ERA enrollment, daily posting, 30-day follow-up, denials and appeals, secondary claims and patient billing. Payment posting starts at 2% of payments posted, with volume discounts and an $800 monthly minimum, no contract and no software licence; most offices are live within two weeks, and Teero's page states offices get paid 20 days faster. Teero does not submit claims, so the days between treatment and a clean submission remain the office's to manage.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a good DSO for a dental practice? Teero does not publish a benchmark. Track your own number monthly, split insurance from patient balances, and judge the trend: each step above should move it down.

Which step reduces dental DSO fastest? For most offices, moving follow-up from 90 days to 30 and posting every payment the day it lands, because both act on claims already in the pipeline.

Does Teero submit claims to reduce DSO? No. Teero does not submit claims. It covers verification before the visit and posting, aging, denials, secondary claims and appeals after the claim goes out. Submission stays with the office.

Conclusion

Reducing days sales outstanding is a matter of removing waits: benefits confirmed before the visit, claims sent the day of treatment, payments arriving electronically and posted daily, follow-up at 30 days, denials appealed inside the window, secondaries sent the day the primary pays, and patients billed from the real payment. Teero handles every step on that list except claim submission, which stays with the office. Scope and pricing are on Teero's payment posting and insurance aging page.