Cone Beam Technology

Curious what other practices are doing for mandibular CT scans? What are you charging? What is your reimbursement like? Do you have outside referrals utilizie your technology? Are you billing medical or dental? Are there cases whereby you have to bill out medical rather than dental? Special narratives used?

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Teresa Duncan on September 24, 2008 at 1:13pm

Hi Lisa - I've heard a range of $200 all the way up to $800. What is most common is billing one fee for both the acquisition and the rendering (2 separate procedure codes: D0360 for the acquisition and D0362 for 2D rendering and D0363 for 3D rendering). No reimbursement from dental - mostly medical. I haven't had to use a narrative but I suspect this will change as insurance companies are realizing that utilization of imaging procedures are rising exponentially (not just from dental offices but from all health providers). I hope this helps!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Lisa K Echols on September 24, 2008 at 2:18pm

Thank you Teresa, that did help. I just read an article by Greg Holden off one of Tom Limoli's web site links and this really helped. Very good information. Fortunately, I think I convinced my Dr to hold off on the purchase for the time being as we are able to send our patients to a radiologist that will do them for a mere $149. We will then have it sent back to our office, upload to a software program, and then we will bill out a D0362: This code is for manipulating the data to construct or fabricate a 2D or 3D image. Without good data to tell me whether this scan would be cost effective for our practice, I wasn't in favor of the purchase. Now we are told that several companies are out there jumpin on the "band wagon" and building these things at a much more reasonable fee. So....time will tell. I also had concerns of whether it would cause our associate dentist to go backwards in profit rather than forwards at this time.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Mary Jane RDH BS on December 31, 2009 at 12:39pm

We let the new surgeons in town do ours. They are a great group and VERY reasonable. Considering how little radiation is used, it benefits the patients; we split the bill and keep it as low as we can for our people.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Lisa K Echols on September 2, 2012 at 7:03am

Wow! I wrote this in 2008 apparently. Lots has changed since then. I am grateful to be in a dental practice that believes in utilizing technology for all their patients. A 3D Cone Beam has literally saved my life. Our practice purchased the iCat at the end of 2011 and I was one of the initial staff members they practiced on. From those findings, I was sent to an ENT who thought he was removing a polyp. Instead, he removed a portion of an olefactory neuroblastoma (cancer in the sinus cavity). I since had a second surgery followed by 6 weeks of radiation. Have not yet returned for a final pet scan to determine my outcome after radiation, but feeling very blessed. Our office now uses the iCat as our pano and screenings for implants, ortho, TMJ, Sleep Apnea and many other useful diagnoses. Medical billing has become a much larger part of our practice now and are getting varied results. My next movement to assist our patients is utilizing their medical insurances for perio patients who are pregnant or have other health issues (i.e. diabetes). What's become so rewarding with the use of our iCat is not just these diagnoses but many more and what a benefit to many of our patients who maybe will come to the dentist, but not their medical physician. If you aren't using an iCat or similar equipment, please look consider it!