January 2002: Dental Provisions #18

Confused by a voucher adjustment?
If you are a participating dentist and we identify an overpayment that results in your owing money to Regence BlueShield, we will automatically subtract a refund from the payments we send you.

Whenever an adjustment is made to a previously processed claim, you will see an entry on a subsequent payment voucher that reverses the paid claim. That information will be identical to the original voucher payment, including the claim number, except for the minus (-) signs next to the dollar amounts.

You'll see another entry below the reversal showing the amount that should have been paid on the claim. If the combination of both entries results in a negative amount, this amount will be subtracted from the total paid on the voucher.

In order to keep correct office records, the adjustment must be posted (or debited) to the patient account that created the deduction. All other payments on the voucher must be posted (or credited) to the appropriate patient's account. Under no circumstances should paid accounts be modified to compensate for out-of-balance deposits.

If your practice management system does not provide a mechanism for balancing insurance adjustments against deposits, you may wish to write a check back to the office out of your general account for the amount of the adjustment. If you do so, identify the check as a "Regence BlueShield refund," and then deposit it with your Regence BlueShield voucher check so the deposit and postings will balance.

Dental offices report that this method requires no more steps than writing a refund check to Regence BlueShield. However, we suggest you check with your accountant and/or software support representative for their recommendation as there may be tax ramifications due to the need for adjustments to offset fee income.

Back to Dental Provisions #18