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Course Description:

Treatment planning and management of dental hygiene/periodontal procedures can be as complicated as knowing how to report those procedures to insurance carriers in order to receive reimbursement.  Billing appropriately and receiving the benefits your patients are due can be frustrating to the clinical staff who must determine and report appropriate treatment as well as the business staff who must deal with third party payer contract limitations.

Course Objectives:         

As a result of attending this course, the participant should be able to:

• Discuss Periodontal/Dental Hygiene Treatment Planning and Management.  A description of how to appropriately classify (AAP classifications), case type (insurance carrier requirements I-V), treatment plan (based on the Comprehensive Periodontal Therapy: A Statement by the American Academy of Periodontology released July 2011) and manage periodontal diseases in your practice. 
• Describe how to accurately report Dental Hygiene/Periodontal Procedures while understanding the definitions assigned by the American Dental Association.  Scheduling and billing combinations of procedures will be presented which are ethical and legal as well as how insurance carriers are benefiting these combinations.
• Explain what dental “insurance” is and what it is not.  Practices are seeing patients benefits shrink, especially within the preventive and basic categories.  Is your practice prepared to explain these “cost containment” and “plan limitation” features to your patients?
• Discuss documentation requirements related to radiographic narratives and periodontal chartings.  This will include a discussion of the ADA Guidelines for Prescribing Dental Radiographs (referred to in the recent article on brain tumors and dental radiographs).  Examples of Informed Consent and Refusal of Informed Consent will be provided.
• Discuss implications of “creative billing” of dental procedures.  Through a sense of confusion and wanting to please patients, many dental offices unwittingly perform insurance fraud (sometimes prompted by the insurance carriers!) on a daily basis.  Unfortunately, ignorance or “she told me to change the code and resubmit” are not a defense in front of a Grand Jury.

 Kathy S. Forbes, RDH, BS

Kathy has been a dental hygienist, educator, speaker, author, consultant, seminar and study club leader for  over 30 years.  She speaks frequently about the correct classification, documentation, treatment planning, procedure code selection and long term case management for patients with periodontal disease.  She is known for her abilities to communicate both preventive and restorative treatment options to patients in a way which encourages case acceptance.        

She is owner of Professional Dental Seminars, Inc., a continuing education provider to dental offices in Washington, Oregon and Montana.  She has spoken before numerous Dental Hygienists’ Assns, U of Washington and Oregon Health Sciences University CDE as well as dental, dental hygiene and dental management study clubs.  Kathy is a contributing author for the Insurance Solutions Newsletter, a national publication for Dr. Charles Blair and Associates, where she addresses issues related to dental hygiene procedures and proper billing practices.

For the past 4 years she has taught the first year Periodontics curriculum and first year clinic in the Dental Hygiene Program at Pierce College in Tacoma, WA as well as the Teaching Practicum Series for the Eastern Washington University’s Degree Completion program (at Pierce College) for licensed dental hygienists seeking their Bachelor’s Degree.    

Throughout her career Kathy has been actively involved with her professional association serving as President of the Washington State Dental Hygienists’ Association (1979) and ADHA Delegate (1980-81) and Alternate Delegate (1978-1979).   She most recently (2010) was awarded the Martha Fales Lifetime Achievement Award from the Washington State Dental Hygienists’ Assn. 

She has provided dental hygiene services to children in Pierce County, Washington for over 10 years with the dental van of Medical Teams International.  In addition, she provided these same services to children in Oaxaca, Mexico; El Vocon, Honduras and Dehradun, India.  In addition, she provided dental services to cats and dogs for over 10 years at the Puyallup Valley Veterinary Clinic in Puyallup, WA.

Kathy and her husband recently moved to southern California where she is enjoying the sunny weather and meeting new people.