As dental offices move toward an electronic medical health record the question of what to do with the explanation of benefits (EOBs) received from the insurance carrier is becoming an issue. Many practices are scanning these documents and importing them into the patients' electronic medical record. This practice in most states is unnecessary because the EOB is not considered a part of the patient medical record. There is a more efficient means of saving and storing these documents.
According to the American Dental Association, dental providers should contact their state dental board to determine if the EOB is considered a part of the medical record. In most states the EOB is not considered part of the medical health record; there is no reason to waste time, energy, and disk space scanning and importing these documents into the patients' electronic medical record, nor is it recommended because as time progresses the function of the software itself can become very slow.
The challenge is the smaller dental insurance companies continue to provide paper checks and EOBs while the larger companies have transitioned to electronic transfer of funds and EOBs. Now the office is dealing with two types of EOBS that can cause chaos unless the office knows where the EOB was filed.
The best way to store EOBs is outside of the patient chart unless it is deemed a part of the medical record thereby requiring it to be included in the medical record. They should be filed according to the date of service month and year. Some people might choose to further organize them within the month file according to the actual day of treatment for easier retrieval in the future. Remember that most EOBs, once posted to the patient account, are never referred to again so organizing them according to the actual day is not really necessary.
Decide how the EOBs will be stored. Since some arrive in electronic format and others arrive in hard copy, it is recommended that they all be stored in the same format in the same location. Offices that choose to store them electronically should scan all hard copy EOBs for storage electronically. Offices that choose to store them as hard copies must print all electronic EOBs for storage in hard copy files.
To store EOBs in hard copy format in a filing cabinet, create file folders for each month of the year. For instance, January 2010, February 2010, March 2010, etc. Store the monthly file folder s in a centrally located filing cabinet or drawer so everyone that might process an EOB can file it immediately in the appropriate folder.
To store an EOB in a paperless format, create a folder on the desktop of one computer, preferably the main computer used to process insurance payments, and call it "Insurance EOBs 2010" then create individual file folders for each month of the year as indicated above. As electronic EOBs are received, download or scan and then save them into the appropriate file folder.
Remember when saving them electronically each document must be named for easy retrieval in the future. A simple name contains the last name, first name, and date of service (Smith, John 01202010). Each document must be named whether it is downloaded or scanned into the file in order to quickly locate it in the future.
At the end of each year, move the old EOBs to a permanent storage location until such a time when they may be destroyed. Electronic files can be saved to a disk and then removed from the computer. Hard copy files can be boxed and stored with the storage company.
As you transition to a paperless office, select a starting date and proceed to convert the hard copies to digital copies or scans from that date forward. It is unnecessary to convert files before the start date and the cost of converting them is a very poor use of income.
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