Assigning User Password Rights in Dentrix

Setting up and using Dentrix passwords properly in your office is very important. And one of my favorite features dealing with passwords, is the ability to assign password rights to different team members based on their job classification. 

First, set up a password administrator (usually the owner doctor and/or an office manager), that has rights to access Practice Password Setup in Dentrix. This allows the administrator to assign the tasks in Dentrix each role in the practice has access to.

Once you’ve assigned a password administrator, I recommend that you determine the tasks in Dentrix each role in your practice should be allowed to perform. For example, dental assistants should have password rights to do perform tasks like adding treatment plans and clinical notes.

In the Office Manager > Maintenance > Practice Setup > User Password Setup, assign password user rights first for one assistant, and then copy those rights to the other assistants in the practice. 

Then determine which tasks a hygienist can perform. Setup the password user rights for the first hygienist, then copy those rights to the others. Repeat this same process for your front desk staff. The office manager should usually have more access to the software, for example with the ability to run reports and post adjustments, but this should be based on what the owner doctor is comfortable with.

You can use this Overview of Password User Rights to help you determine which tasks members of your team should (or should not) be assigned.

One of the reasons I think it is important to assign password rights by job classification is because it reduces errors. For example, you may not want to give a hygienist the ability to do an insurance write-off because she may not have the insurance knowledge necessary to do that accurately. Similarly, you may not want someone at the front desk to generate a prescription because she does not have as much knowledge about the patient’s health history. 

Another reason to use passwords is protect your practice. Unfortunately, embezzlement does happen in dental offices. It can happen by employees manipulating patient payments and accounts or by manipulating their clock in and out times to appear they worked more hours than they did. Limiting the employees that can perform these types of tasks can reduce the risk to your practice. 

Dentrix passwords are great if your office uses them properly. Here are three of things to remember about using passwords effectively:

1. Don't allow employees to share a computer logged in under the same user ID.
2. If you got to lunch or leave for the day, be sure your computer is logged out of Dentrix.
3. Don't share your password login information with others.

If used properly, Dentrix passwords can help to protect patient information, reduce errors, and protect your practice by limiting the number of staff given permission to perform certain tasks.

For additional information about passwords:

• New Password Features in Dentrix G7
• Allowing Individual Users to Reset Their Own Passwords
• Complex Password Requirements
• Expiring User Passwords

Please email me with any questions at vectordentalconsulting@gmail.com.


Charlotte Skaggs, Certified Dentrix Trainer

Charlotte Skaggs is the founder of Vector Dental Consulting LLC, a practice management firm focused on taking offices to the next level. Charlotte co-owned and managed a successful dental practice with her husband for 17 years. She has a unique approach to consulting based on the perspective of a practice owner. Charlotte has been using Dentrix for almost 20 years and is a certified Dentrix trainer. Contact Charlotte at vectordentalconsulting@gmail.com.

Properly Assigning and Using Insurance Fee Schedules in Dentrix

If your office participates and is in-network with insurance companies, here are some tips for how to assign and use fee schedules for those plans in Dentrix.

First, enter the fee schedules for the insurance companies your office participates with. This can be done in the Office Manager (Maintenance > Practice Setup > Fee Schedule Setup). When setting up a new fee schedule, I like to copy my office’s fee schedule first, and then change the fees for the codes the insurance company has provided me. The reason for doing it this way is that there are usually some procedure codes the insurance companies don’t provide a fee for on their fee schedule. By copying the office fee schedule first, I can ensure that all codes will have a fee attached.

When you enter a new insurance plan in Dentrix, attach the corresponding fee schedule. Once the fee schedule has been set up in the Office Manager, it will be available to attach to an insurance plan.

The benefit of attaching fee schedules to insurance plans is so you will charge the patient the contracted fee that corresponds with their insurance company. This helps to accurately estimate both patient and insurance portions of charges. 

However, it is also important that the insurance company sees your office fees. This is important for two reasons. Firstly, insurance companies determine their usual and customary fees by taking an average of the fees for offices in your zip code. Secondly, if you are billing the insurance company your full fee, you will be able to see on the EOB if they have increased the contracted amount. I have seen an EOB allowing $1 more for a prophy than what had been previously entered on the fee schedule. If your office does ten prophys a day, that is an additional $10 per day in production! 

You can have the best of both worlds with Dentrix. You can charge the contracted fee to the patient’s Ledger AND bill the full office fee to the insurance by using claim format DX2012F. You can choose the claim format to use within the insurance plan.

By properly assigning and using fee schedules and claim formats in Dentrix, you can more accurately bill and collect from the patient and ensure the highest possible reimbursement amounts from insurance companies.

For additional information, the article titled Simply PPO Insurance Estimation Using Fee Schedules in the Dentrix Magazine online archives.

If you have questions, please email me at vectordentalconsulting@gmail.com.


Charlotte Skaggs, Certified Dentrix Trainer

Charlotte Skaggs is the founder of Vector Dental Consulting LLC, a practice management firm focused on taking offices to the next level. Charlotte co-owned and managed a successful dental practice with her husband for 17 years. She has a unique approach to consulting based on the perspective of a practice owner. Charlotte has been using Dentrix for almost 20 years and is a certified Dentrix trainer. Contact Charlotte at vectordentalconsulting@gmail.com.

New Features in Dentrix G7.1 Health History Worth Shouting About

Last week I talked about the integration of CareCredit within the patent Ledger in Dentrix G7.1. This week let’s talk about another exciting new feature in G7.1, the improvements to the patient Health History module.

Dentrix has made vast improvements to the patient Health History over the past few releases. In older versions of Dentrix there was a limit of sixty-four medical alerts. In Dentrix G7, the limit of sixty-four was removed, and you now have the ability to separate medical conditions and allergies into their own categories. You can also inactivate medical conditions and allergies that no longer apply to the patient, keeping a record that the patient previously had a medical issue.

Now, Dentrix G7.1 has made the patient Health History even better with the following capabilities:

1. Add and store an emergency contact, physician, and/or a preferred pharmacy contact information for each patient within Health History.
2. View prescriptions given by your office without leaving the Health History module.
3. View and print Questionnaires from within the Health History module.
4. Record medications (as reported by the patient) that have been prescribed by other doctors.
5. Health History pop-ups which can replace patent alerts for specific medical conditions, allergies and medications. You determine which areas of Dentrix you want to display the Health History pop-ups and which medical conditions, allergies and medications you want the pop-ups to display for. 

The two new features I’m most excited about are the last two in this list. #4 - Being able to document patient-reported medications is a great feature because in previous versions of Dentrix there was not a specific place to list patient reported medications. #5 - Health History pop-ups are a great feature to alert your team to patients with conditions that can cause contraindications with their dental work, such as requiring pre-medication or taking a blood thinner. Additionally, the pop-up feature can also be a big time-saver because it eliminates double data-entry when your staff is entering both patient alert notes and medical condition alerts.

With these improvements to the Health History module, you now can log a comprehensive health history for each patient. There is now one location where you can record medical conditions & allergies, document patient reported medications, access prescriptions you have given the patient, and store emergency contact, physician contact and preferred pharmacy information.

Using the new Health History module to its fullest extent can help your office eliminate the need to refer to a written health history because now you have a specific place in Dentrix for all this information. If you haven’t updated to the latest version of Dentrix, first be sure to check the hardware system requirements and make sure you have a current back up. Once you have updated, I think you will be extremely happy with the latest changes and how they can improve your office workflow. E-mail me with any questions at vectordentalconsulting@gmail.com.


Charlotte Skaggs, Certified Dentrix Trainer

Charlotte Skaggs is the founder of Vector Dental Consulting LLC, a practice management firm focused on taking offices to the next level. Charlotte co-owned and managed a successful dental practice with her husband for 17 years. She has a unique approach to consulting based on the perspective of a practice owner. Charlotte has been using Dentrix for almost 20 years and is a certified Dentrix trainer. Contact Charlotte at vectordentalconsulting@gmail.com.

CareCredit Integration with Dentrix G7.1

One of the exciting new features in Dentrix G7.1 is the integration of CareCredit within the patient Ledger. CareCredit provides financing that gives patients the ability to pay monthly for their dental treatment, making it more affordable, which in turn can help increase case acceptance. 

CareCredit offers 6, 12, 18, or 24-month promotional financing for purchases of $200 or more and your practice receives the funds in two business days.  In the past you had to process applications, payments, refunds, and lookup available account balances outside of Dentrix, using the CareCredit website. Now you can do all those things without ever leaving the Dentrix Ledger, which is a huge time saver.

Your first step would be to go to CareCredit.com and register. Once you have registered (or if you have registered previously) in Dentrix go to Office Manager > Maintenance > Practice Setup > Practice Resource Setup, and click Edit in the Practice Information group box.

Then click the CareCredit button, enter your Merchant ID Number in the field provided, and click OK.

Then, you’ll need to set up an adjustment type and set up a payment type in the Office Manager that you’ll use for CareCredit transactions. In the Dentrix Office Manager, go to Maintenance > Practice Setup > Definitions, and select Adjustment Types from the Definition Type drop-down list. Add a credit definition for CareCredit, for example: CareCredit Refund (+).  Then select Payment Types from the Definition Type drop-down list, and add a payment definition for Care Credit, for example: CareCredit Payment.

Once you have set up your CareCredit adjustment and payments types, in the Ledger, go to the File menu and select CareCredit Setup. Assign the payment type and adjustment type you created for CareCredit.

Now you’re ready to process applications, look up accounts, and process payments and refunds all from the Ledger!

To process an application, select a patient in the Ledger, then select the CareCredit icon.

The CareCredit website will open and you can transfer essential information automatically from Dentrix to CareCredit.

Once the application has been processed, select the CareCredit icon in the patient’s Ledger to lookup their account and available credit.

To process a CareCredit payment or refund, choose Enter Payment or Enter Adjustment in the selected patient’s Ledger. When you choose the CareCredit payment type or adjustment type that you previously assigned in the Ledger CareCredit Setup, the CareCredit website will appear. You can enter the information required to process the payment or refund and submit the transaction.

For additional information on how you can get started with this new CareCredit integration, visit www.dentrix.com/carecredit.

This is just one of the exciting new features in G7.1. Join me next week when I will talk about the improvements to the Patient Health History module which gives the ability to record a truly comprehensive Health History in each patient’s Family File. If you have any questions, please email me at vectordentalconsulting@gmail.com.

*Effective July 1, 2020: A new California state law will impact the current CareCredit application processes and materials used by Providers in California.

Once the law takes effect on July 1, 2020, Providers in California will not be able to submit applications for the CareCredit credit card on behalf of patients or clients using CareCredit's website (Provider Center), integrated practice management software or CareCredit terminal. 

CareCredit offers several solutions that provide a positive application experience for Providers in California. Encourage individuals to apply† in any of these ways:

• By visiting carecredit.com/apply on their PC, smartphone or tablet (or downloading the CareCredit mobile app).
• By calling 800-365-8295 to apply by phone**

Patients or clients can continue to use the CareCredit credit card to pay Providers in California, and they can process transactions as they normally would.

If you have any questions, please call CareCredit at 800-859-9975.

**Must be 21 or older to apply by phone. Provide individuals applying for the CareCredit credit card by phone with a copy of the cardholder agreement account terms.

†Must be a U.S. resident to apply.

Charlotte Skaggs, Certified Dentrix Trainer

Charlotte Skaggs is the founder of Vector Dental Consulting LLC, a practice management firm focused on taking offices to the next level. Charlotte co-owned and managed a successful dental practice with her husband for 17 years. She has a unique approach to consulting based on the perspective of a practice owner. Charlotte has been using Dentrix for almost 20 years and is a certified Dentrix trainer. Contact Charlotte at vectordentalconsulting@gmail.com.