How to Stop Insurance Denials and Revenue Slips in Your Dental Practice (Even When Everything Else Feels Out of Your Control)
- Sarah Beth Herman
- Nov 6
- 6 min read
By Sarah Beth Herman, CEO of Dentistry Support®
Abstract
In 2025, one of the most common frustrations among dental offices remains managing insurance denials, delayed reimbursements, and cash-flow inconsistencies. For many practices, these challenges feel out of their control — driven by payer changes, system errors, and staffing limitations. Yet what separates successful dental teams from struggling ones is not avoidance but the ability to stay steady, uphold integrity, and lead with resilience when revenue pressure rises. This article explores the most effective ways to combat insurance denials, optimize revenue cycles, and strengthen practice systems, all while cultivating a mindset of stability that mirrors this week’s No Silver Spoons podcast episode: The Power of Staying When It’s Hard.
The Dental Industry’s Pain Point: Denials and Declining Margins
The American Dental Association (ADA, 2025) reports that nearly 61 percent of dental offices cite insurance denials and delayed payments as their top operational stressor. Denials don’t just reduce cash flow — they fracture trust between teams, frustrate patients, and create a perception of instability within the practice. According to a 2025 Curve Dental report, over 40 percent of denied claims result from missing or inaccurate eligibility verification.
When a claim fails, it’s easy for tension to spread. The front desk feels the heat. The billing coordinator becomes reactive. Leadership gets frustrated. But behind every denial is an opportunity — a moment to choose stability over blame. In a profession built on precision and care, the same discipline that ensures perfect margins in a crown must apply to the details of the claim lifecycle.
Why Eligibility Verification Is the Quiet Hero
Eligibility verification is often treated as a box to check. But in truth, it’s the frontline defense against revenue loss. A 2025 study by Dental Economics found that practices with dedicated eligibility protocols and third-party verification support saw up to a 25 percent decrease in claim denials within six months of implementation.
Third-party verification companies, such as Dentistry Support®, exist to create systemic reliability — not just quick answers. Automated eligibility tools confirm plan status, but human oversight ensures accuracy. The winning combination is tech efficiency with people who care enough to confirm the fine print.
Dental teams that “stay the course” by conducting daily eligibility audits, validating frequency limits, and noting non-covered procedures before patients sit in the chair are the ones who protect both the patient experience and the practice’s bottom line.
Leadership Mindset: Staying Calm in Financial Chaos
When insurance systems break down or payers delay reimbursement, leadership panic spreads quickly. Yet, as this week’s No Silver Spoons episode highlights, true leadership shows up when staying calm seems impossible.
Neuroscience supports this. The prefrontal cortex — the part of the brain that governs rational thought — remains active only when emotional regulation is present (Goleman, 2018). In contrast, fear activates the amygdala, leading to reactive decisions. When dental leaders respond from anxiety rather than grounded strategy, staff mirror that emotion, compounding the chaos.
The solution isn’t merely more meetings or tougher oversight — it’s emotional steadiness paired with system clarity. When the billing department sees calm, they emulate calm. When leadership models integrity and patience through denials, they train the team to stay composed under pressure.
System Strategy: Building a Revenue Cycle That Stays Strong
Dentistry’s financial stability depends on consistency. Whether your office uses in-house billing or a third-party company, these systems ensure resilience even when external payers fail:
Front-End Accuracy – Verify eligibility before the patient arrives, not while they wait. Cross-check plan limitations, deductibles, and waiting periods.
Documentation Discipline – Encourage providers to include clear narrative notes and required attachments for every claim.
Claim Submission Timing – File claims within 24 hours of service completion; delayed submissions increase denial risk by 18 percent (MyDentalHQ, 2025).
Denial Review & Root-Cause Analysis – Instead of refiling blindly, track recurring errors by provider, payer, or procedure code.
Transparent Patient Communication – Proactively discuss coverage limitations so that denied services do not become patient frustrations.
Ongoing Training – Monthly refreshers keep billing and eligibility staff up to date on payer changes and CDT code updates.
When practices and their support partners execute these fundamentals with excellence, revenue cycles stabilize — and anxiety lessens.
The Integrity Factor: Staying Even When It Hurts
Every thriving dental office eventually faces moments where leaving might seem easier — whether it’s a staff shortage, toxic payer relationship, or burned-out billing coordinator. But staying, in this context, isn’t about tolerating dysfunction. It’s about remaining anchored in integrity while building new structure.
That’s the spirit behind this week’s podcast: Staying When It’s Hard. The same courage that keeps a leader composed during an insurance crisis is what defines long-term practice success.
Integrity in operations looks like:
Double-checking a claim even when you’re behind schedule.
Calling a patient personally after a denial to explain options.
Owning a billing error and fixing it the same day.
These are not glamorous tasks. They’re the backbone of loyalty, reputation, and trust — the very metrics that determine whether a patient stays with a practice for life.
How Support Partners Help Dental Practices Stay Grounded
Third-party dental billing and eligibility companies are more than vendors; they are extensions of the practice’s mission. The most successful partnerships go beyond transactions — they mirror the practice’s values.
At Dentistry Support®, we teach that every verification completed, every claim followed up, and every patient ledger balanced is an act of service that reflects on the entire office. Support teams who treat their role as “helping hands” rather than “task takers” become essential pillars of patient trust and operational excellence.
Realigning Culture Around Staying Power
Financial growth doesn’t start with better marketing or more appointments. It begins with a culture that values steadiness over speed.
When leaders reinforce these principles, team behavior changes:
Front-desk staff take more initiative to confirm details before appointments.
Billing coordinators communicate proactively with payers.
Patients sense the calm confidence that their care and finances are handled with integrity.
Culture is contagious. A practice rooted in patience and precision becomes one that patients recommend, staff stay with, and payers respect.
Your Free Training Takeaway
This week’s free training is a reminder that leadership and revenue management are not separate lanes. They are parallel lines moving toward the same destination: sustainability.
If your practice is experiencing rising denials, delayed claims, or declining cash flow, the fix is not only procedural — it’s psychological. It’s about staying steady when everything feels unstable.
The right systems can be taught, and the right partners can be hired, but the mindset of staying with integrity must be modeled daily.
Listen and Reflect
On this week’s No Silver Spoons podcast (Week 5 of our current Keep Going Series) episode, I open up about what it truly looks like to stay when it’s hard — and how that decision changed the trajectory of my leadership and life. I encourage you to listen on Monday and ask yourself:
“Where in my practice do I need to stop reacting and start staying steady?”
Your answer might just be the key to reclaiming both your revenue and your peace.
References
American Dental Association. (2025). Dental practice benchmarking and operations survey: Trends in practice management. ADA Publishing. https://www.ada.orgCurve Dental. (2025). How to grow your dental practice in 2025: Revenue cycle management insights. Curve Dental Inc. https://www.curvedental.comDental Economics. (2025). Eligibility verification and claim denial trends: 2025 report. Dental Economics Publishing. https://www.dentaleconomics.comGoleman, D. (2018). Emotional intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ. Bantam Books.MyDentalHQ. (2025). Five strategies to reduce dental insurance claim denials. https://mydentalhq.comTebra. (2023). 26 ideas to grow a dental practice. Tebra Healthcare Publishing. https://www.tebra.com
Disclaimer:
To learn more about Sarah Beth Herman, the author of all free training content you can read her bio here. These materials are intended to provide helpful information to dentists and dental team members. They are in no way a substitute for actual professional advice based on your unique facts and circumstances. This content is not intended or offered, nor should it be taken, as legal or other professional advice. You should always consult with your own professional advisors (e.g. attorney, accountant, or insurance carrier). To the extent, Dentistry Support ®has included links to any third-party website (s), Dentistry Support ® intends no endorsement of their content and implies no affiliation with the organizations that provide their content. Further, Dentistry Support ® makes no representations or warranties about the information provided on those sites. You can view our privacy policy and terms and conditions by clicking those pages in the footer of our website
Thanks for sharing and for this free training.
I love that this article leans into solutions, not stress.
It is true that a leader must have this calm mindset amidst difficulties, thanks for sharing valuable thoughts!
I really love that you shared all these informative details and I couldn't agree more that It’s about staying steady when everything feels unstable.
such a timely article will surely help with office revenue and skillsets when handling insurances