Imagine that a patient comes in for a cleaning and exam today, and during the exam the doctor diagnoses the need for a root canal and crown on a posterior tooth. The patient has insurance benefits remaining that will cover a portion of the cost of the crown, but those benefits will reset at the beginning of the new year.
Your office fees will also change at the beginning of the year to reflect current industry prices. When you create the treatment case for the patient’s root canal and crown procedure, you want to indicate that the estimated prices you are quoting them are good until the end of the year. How do you do that in Dentrix?
It’s as easy as setting a treatment plan expiration date. You can give your patients a window of time after the case is proposed to accept the case with the proposed fees. Setting an expiration date for a treatment case can be done on a case-by-case basis, and can also be set as a default for new treatment cases you create in the future.
To set an individual treatment plan expiration date:
- In the Treatment Planner, select the desired treatment plan case.
- Click the Supporting Information button in the Navigation panel.
- In the Estimate Expires drop-down box, select the date when the estimate for the case will expire.
You can also set a default expiration date for all new cases relative to the current date, or at set intervals during the year.
To set a default estimate expiration date:
- In the Treatment Planner, click the Settings button in the Navigation panel.
- In the Default Settings for New Cases group box, expand the Estimate Expires drop-down list and select the desired option.
For additional information, see the Adding Supporting Information to a Case and Customizing Case Settings topics in the Dentrix Help.
