Fend Off Reimbursement, Coding Woes

The AAO Can Help You Resolve Issues with Third-Party Payers

If you are encountering problems with third-party payers or have coding and practice-management questions, call on the AAO’s Dental Benefits Advisory Service Hotline for assistance. The Dental Benefits Advisory Service Hotline is sponsored by the Council on Orthodontic Health Care (COHC) and is administered by staff members that have more than 20 years of experience in dealing with insurance payers, clinical aspects of orthodontic practice and office management.

Hotline staff will discuss the issue with your office to determine the nature and extent of the problem. If the matter is easily resolved, hotline staff will offer strategies to handle the situation. If your issue is more complex or has become a chronic problem, you may be requested to complete an AAO Member Third-Party Payer Complaint Form. If the issue is critical, hotline staff will contact the payer for immediate relief.

AAO’s Council on Orthodontic Health Care has identified that the majority of calls received by the Hotline are related to dental coding issues. As a service to AAO members, the council developed the AAO At-A-Glance Guide (AAG) to CDT-2007 Version Orthodontic Codes. This sheet has extracted the most routinely used codes in an orthodontic practice from the complete CDT Manual, and the AAG is a quick reference tool for your coding staff. 

Callers often need help locating codes for submitting dental procedures to medical insurance payers. The Hotline staff has access to and can provide you with the ICD-9 and CPT codes that are required for medical claims filing.

Hotline staff must stay abreast of dental industry trends and are able to offer information on current topics of interest, such as the recently mandated National Provider Identifier (NPI) initiative, and technological issues, such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) or electronic claims filing. 

Contact the Hotline
For help with payer issues, contact Ann Sebaugh at 800-424-2841, ext. 582, or send an e-mail to asebaugh@aaortho.org.