Join Us for the 8th Annual Thanksgiving Day Trot for Hunger

 

Join the D-TECH Team, So Others Might Eat(SOME), Honorary Chair Mayor Adrian Fenty and thousands of caring community members for the 8th Annual Thanksgiving Day Trot for Hunger on Thursday, November 26! A District tradition, the Trot for Hunger is a terrific event for individuals, families, companies, faith communities and other organizations who want to help the hungry and homeless on Thanksgiving morning.  SOME provides dental services to the homeless, uninsured, and under-insured population in NW Washington, DC.

Where? Along the river in West Potomac Park in Washington, DC. The start and finish line are located on Ohio Drive, SW between Independence Avenue, SW and West Basin Drive, SW. Trot for Hunger course information.

When? The Trot for Hunger will feature a timed 5K run and a 5K fun walk with staggered start times:

8:30 am Timed 5K Run

8:40 am 5K Fun Walk (not timed)

How? Registration is $23 per person from July 15 - November 16 and $25 per person from November 17 - November 21. You may register as an individual or form or join a team.

We also encourage you to invite your friends and family members to sponsor your run or walk. In recognition of your support of the homeless and poor, we are pleased to offer Trot for Hunger fundraising prizes for both teams and individuals.

Why? It's fun! Plus, your participation in the Trot for Hunger will help SOME to continue to provide hot, nutritious meals, clothing, medical care and other essentials to the increasing number of homeless and hungry children, women and men who are coming to us for help.

Questions or comments? Please contact Tracy Monson at trotforhunger@some.org or 202.797.8806 ext. 1093.

Thank you for trotting!

Medical/Dental Cross-Coding is Now Available

D-Tech Business Concepts, LLC, (D-TECH) is pleased to announce that as of September 1, 2009, we will be offering our new medical/dental cross-coding services that will allow your office to submit dental procedure claims to a patient’s medical plan. By offering you this new service, D-Tech will make available to your office the ability to:

* Provide patients who are compromised medically by oral conditions the ability to tap into their medical benefits to help pay for their procedures.

* Provide patients who have both medical and dental insurance plans the flexibility to divert the medically necessary procedures to their medical plan allowing them to save their dental plans yearly allowances for their dental procedures.

* Yield increased revenues for your practice while experiencing wide case acceptance.

* Provide patients with a sense that your practice is willing to support their effort to secure medical benefits while also becoming and excellent marketing tool for your practice.

As you consider our new service, please see below a few of the procedures that would qualify:

* Trauma procedures
* Medically necessary oral surgical, laser, and periodontal procedures (and this should only continue to grow with continuing research into the oral systemic link)
* Medically necessary implant, endodontic, and prosthodontic procedures
* TMD procedures
* Sleep apnea appliances
* Oral cancer screening
* Any medically necessary exams and X-rays that are associated with the above procedures
* Worker's Compensation cases
* Frenectomy procedures
* Bone grafts
* CT scans
* Panoramic and cephalometric x-rays
* Consultations and exams

If you would like to discuss this service, or engage D-TECH for a comprehensive consultation, please do not hesitate to contact us at your earliest convenience. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Maryland law requires insurers to pay doctors for EHR adoption

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley signed a new law today, making it financially beneficial for physicians to implement electronic medical records into their practices. The new law requires private insurers to offer financial incentives if physician offices switch from their paper record keeping systems to digitized medical records.

Maryland officials have said this is the first state law of its kind to advance EHR adoption in this way. Read full story...

Dentrix and Easy Dental Service Packs

Did you know that DENTRIX/Easy Dental offers component updates or Service Packs after each new version is released to provide fixes for errors reported in the most recent DENTRIX/Easy Dental release? D-TECH wants you to know that It is extremely important that you check periodically to ensure that you have located and installed the latest service pack. This will ensure that you are receiving the optimum benefit from your practice management system. Visit the DENTRIX or Easy Dental website or notify your IT professional if you have not yet downloaded the necessary Service Pack(s) for your current DENTRIX/Easy Dental version.

Dentist announces congressional candidacy at leadership conference

Dr. Paul Gosar of Flagstaff, AZ announced his candidacy for the Unites States Congress at the ADA leadership conference. Currently there are two dentist serving in the United States Congress - Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), one of the WLC speakers, and Rep. John Linder (R-Ga.). Read more...

ADA Files Class Actions Against Insurance Carriers

The American Dental Association has written an extremely informative article regarding legal decisions and their impact on the dental community. Please see the following:

"The Division of Legal Affairs actively monitors and engages in legal issues that are important to or may affect ADA members and supervises litigation pertaining to ADA. ADA has filed three class action lawsuits against insurance carriers alleging federal and state law violations for improperly denied, delayed and/or reduced payment to dentists; undercut fees charged by "out-of-network" dentists without the data required to justify the reductions and a racketeering complaint against three of the nation's largest insurers alleging that they conspired to "deny, reduce and delay" lawful payments to dentists under contract to the plans." To view and read the entire article click here:

Medicaid - Non-Covered Procedures

As a provider of services for the Medicaid population, there are a few requirements that you should be aware of regarding non-covered procedures. Please read the excerpt below from the Doral provider manual:

"2.02 Payment for Non-Covered Services Participating Providers shall hold Members, Doral, Plan and Agency harmless for the payment of non-Covered Services except as provided in this paragraph. Provider may bill a Member for Non-Covered Services if the Provider obtains a written waiver from the Member prior to rendering such service that indicates:

• the services to be provided;
• Doral, Plan and Agency will not pay for or be liable for said services; and
• Member will be financially liable for such services."

Please remember to obtain the patient's written waiver and signature before collecting or billing for non-covered procedures. If you need additional information on this requirement or assistance with writing your waiver documents, contact your D-TECH account representative.

Carefirst is accepting electronic claims and attachments!

Carefirst Blue Cross Blue Shield of Maryland is now accepting electronic claims and attachments for dental procedures. Dentrix and Easy Dental users should use the payor ID TLX88. For all dental billing clients of D-TECH, we will ensure that the necessary changes are made in your practice management system.

Onward and upward!

DC Alliance and DC Medicaid Changes

I have great news! D-TECH has been working feverishly with Doral USA, Unison Health Plan, the DCPCA and local public health providers to enhance the benefits for the DC Alliance and DC Medicaid dental programs. Effective April 1, 2009, Unison has increased their fee schedule to participating providers and added five new procedure codes to their Adult Alliance benefit schedule. Based upon feedback from our providers, the following benefits have been added:

¨ D0330 Panoramic film

¨ D4355 Full mouth debridement

¨ D9110 Palliative treatment

¨ D9220 Deep sedation/general anesthesia – first 30 minutes

¨ D9221 Deep sedation/general anesthesia – add 15 minutes

Please note the effective date for D0330 and D9110 under the Adult Alliance program has been back dated to May 1, 2008. All previously denied claims for codes listed above are being reprocessed back to the effective dates.

Unison will also be covering Medicaid Adults(DC Healthy Smiles) effective May 1, 2009. If D-TECH is responsible for your reimbursements, we will make all of the necessary changes in your system to ensure a smooth transition. Please contact your account representative at D-TECH is you have questions about how these changes affect your office.

Onward and Upward!