Let Wisdom Do the Heavy Lifting

Before partnering with Wisdom, Elaina Wharton spent her entire morning on billing. Now, Wisdom handles it all, giving the practice administrator an extra 4 hours a day, time she now uses to focus on mentoring and practice growth. She recently had the time she needed to fill vacancies with high-quality candidates instead of rushing through the process, and time to plan out courses for the upcoming year in the practice's Dental Training Center. None of that would have been possible without Wisdom.

In fact, partnering with Wisdom has helped just about every position in the practice. If patients have questions about billing, the front desk can reach out to Wisdom and get an answer right away without holding up the claim, while the treatment coordinator can count on the company to take care of pre-authorizations so patients get scheduled faster. And Wharton doesn’t have to worry about chasing claims or falling behind on posting checks—a benefit also appreciated by Dr. Ali Alijanian, who she's been working in the practice of for nearly 20 years.

“Before, I would be focused on something, and the next thing I know, there’s a huge stack of checks on my desk I wasn’t able to get to,” she said. “Now, we’re able to post checks consistently, which means we’re routinely putting money in the bank. That’s huge for our practice.”

Wisdom has handled all claim submissions and resubmissions at Beverly Wilburn’s perio office for about 4 years, and recently took over accounts receivable as well. An in-house employee managed those tasks previously, but when she left, it became clear Wilburn needed to find another solution. She was overwhelmed, and she didn’t want to deal with billing in-house anymore. With Wisdom, she doesn’t have to.

“I had a person who was working 38 hours a week doing that job and she’s no longer here,” Wilburn said. “They have taken over that entire position. If I had to hold that inhouse, I would be spending 38 hours a week on claims and billing, which isn’t the best use of my time.”

Why Wisdom?

After making the decision to outsource billing, Wharton looked into a few different companies. Wisdom’s first demo won her over, where cofounder Ashley Bond presented to a professional dental network about streamlining processes for office managers. She liked the company’s educational focus, and found they were very responsive to her questions. The fact Wisdom could tailor the service to their oral surgery-focused practice was also a huge plus.

“They were able to work with what we were already using,” she said. “It didn’t disturb what we were doing day to day in our practice. It all tied in together really nicely.”

Wilburn liked the idea of working with a company rather than relying on one individual. She wanted to align with a partner that supported the industry, and Wisdom certainly does that.

“With a company, there are well-rounded employees who all know the systems, so if something changes, there are no disruptions,” Wilburn said. “I also like that Wisdom does a lot for the dental community, like providing education for practices that decide to keep billing in-house.”

Wisdom’s platform also is easy to use, Wharton said, and communication has been stellar. The team likes having one knowledgeable contact who is easy to reach by phone or email and who can expedite claims or follow up when needed, reducing back-and-forth interactions and patient frustration.

“Our Wisdom billing team adds clear notes to patient charts, which streamlines internal communication and lets us update patients faster and more accurately,” she said. “This is a true game changer for how we grow and care for our patients.”

A Change Worth Making

If you’re thinking about outsourcing billing, don’t let fear hold you back, Wharton said. Spending hours a day on billing tasksmade her knowledgeable, but it hindered practice growth. Now, she has more time to focus on mentoring her team, finding and training quality new hires, and helping everyone reach their goals.

“I don’t have to worry about the accounts and sending claims. If insurance needs more data for a claim, I don’t even see that anymore,” Wilburn said. “Now, I have more time to do things that will propel practice growth. It’s definitely worth doing.”