Open Dental stays your chart and your system of record. This connects through Open Dental's published REST API, served by the eConnector that runs on your own server. There is no direct database access, no software we install in your office, no data migration, and no conversion of your existing records.
Each night the integration reads upcoming appointments from Open Dental, then follows each patient's primary plan through PatPlan, InsSub, InsPlan and Carrier, so verification follows the schedule you actually have instead of a list someone keeps by hand. It also reads Open Dental's Insurance Verification List and skips any patient whose eligibility date in Open Dental is inside the freshness window (a week by default), so the same patient isn't checked twice.
Each patient's coverage is checked electronically against the payer through our clearinghouse connection. When Open Dental names a subscriber, a dependent is checked under that subscriber. If the payer can't answer electronically, the system requests the benefits by fax, and if the payer still can't be reached electronically and we have its phone number, the AI calls the payer. Anything left after that is flagged for your team instead of being guessed at.
With appointment-note writeback turned on, a benefits summary is written into the appointment's Note in Open Dental, so it's in the appointment the front desk opens, and on the schedule card too if your appointment view includes the Note. It is updated in place, so a re-check replaces the old block instead of stacking another one under it. After a clear active or inactive answer, the patient's Eligibility Last Verified date is stamped on their primary plan, which is the date Open Dental's Insurance Verification List uses to decide whether that patient's eligibility still needs checking.
When someone on your team verifies a patient from the dashboard, the result can be written into the patient's insurance in Open Dental: carrier, insurance plan, subscriber and the patient's plan, with the member ID, group number, group name and coverage dates. We read the chart first. If that member ID is already on the chart, nothing new is added and the plan is marked verified. We only add a plan when the chart matches the verified patient on at least two of first name, last name and birthdate, the patient is the policyholder, and the chart has no insurance on file. Dependents and second plans are left for the front desk to add.
Setup takes about five minutes in the dashboard. We generate a customer API key for your office through Open Dental's developer program. In Open Dental you confirm the eConnector is running (eServices > eConnector Service shows Working), check Enabled under Setup > Advanced Setup > API, and paste the key in with Add Key. Then you click Connect, and we test the key before anything else runs. Automatic pre-appointment verification and appointment-note writeback are settings you turn on in the dashboard, along with your billing provider's NPI, which the payer check requires, and tax ID. The eConnector runs on your own server, many offices already have it running, and that server needs to stay on overnight for the nightly checks. Open Dental's per-location API fee is billed to us, not to you, and you can disable the key from inside Open Dental at any time. Insurance Verification is a $199.99/month add-on, month to month, with a 14-day trial. A BAA is signed before any patient data moves, and PHI is encrypted at the field level at rest on our side.
No. Open Dental stays your practice management system and your system of record. This connects to it over the published API and writes results into it. Anything already written, the appointment notes, eligibility dates and any plans added to a chart, lives in Open Dental's own records and stays there if you stop using the integration.
In the appointment and on the patient's plan. With appointment-note writeback on, the benefits summary is in the appointment's Note. You see it in the Edit Appointment window, and on the schedule itself if your appointment view shows the Note field. After a clear active or inactive answer, the patient's Eligibility Last Verified date on their primary plan is updated, which shows in the Last Verified column of the Insurance Verification List. If the appointment no longer exists in Open Dental by the time the result comes in, for example because the office cancelled and deleted it, the result stays in your Intake.Dental dashboard and nothing is written to the chart. Ask any verification vendor this question, because the answer decides whether your team works in Open Dental or in a separate portal on the morning of the visit.
Yes, from a verification your team runs in the dashboard, for a patient who has no insurance on file. The plan is added as carrier, insurance plan, subscriber and patient plan, with the member ID, group number, group name and coverage dates. Your existing carrier is reused, and so is an existing plan with the same carrier and group number, so you don't get duplicate employer plans. We check the chart first: it must match the verified patient on two of first name, last name and birthdate, and the patient must be the policyholder. If the same member ID is already on the chart, nothing new is added and the plan is marked verified. Dependents covered under someone else's plan, and second plans, are not added; your front desk adds those. A newly created plan has no benefit grid yet, so your team fills that in.
No. We don't call Open Dental's own real-time eligibility or the clearinghouse you may have set up inside it. Checks run through our own clearinghouse connection, with fax and phone fallbacks behind it, and the results are written back into Open Dental. You don't need eligibility turned on in Open Dental for this to work.
Not while that check is fresh. Each nightly run reads the Insurance Verification List first, and a patient verified within the freshness window (a week by default, adjustable) is skipped, so a plan your front desk checked by hand yesterday isn't checked again. After that window the patient can be checked again. After a clear active or inactive result, we stamp the patient's Eligibility Last Verified date on their primary plan, which clears the patient-eligibility (Pat) row on the list. We don't touch the plan's Benefits Last Verified date, so benefit (Ins) rows on the list are still yours to work. Reading the list needs Open Dental 23.2.23 or newer. Open Dental's API has accepted the eligibility date since version 21.1, and the short note that goes with it needs 24.1.17 or newer. If your version can't do one of these, that step is skipped quietly and the patient is still verified.
No. Nothing is written to the plan's benefit grid, the coverage percentages and frequencies you see on the insurance plan window. Verified benefits go into the appointment note as text, plus the eligibility date. It works the other way round: we read your plan benefit grid from Open Dental each week and use it to estimate coverage by procedure code.
When Open Dental lists a subscriber on the plan, a dependent is checked under that subscriber. Only the primary plan is checked; secondary coverage is not verified. Some payers return the annual maximum and deductible but not what's left. In that case we work out what's left from the insurance Open Dental shows as paid or pending on the patient's primary plan since the benefit year started. Treatment billed at another office is counted only if your team entered it in Open Dental as insurance history. A figure the payer did report is never overwritten.
The system works down a fallback chain. It requests the benefits by fax, and if the payer can't be reached electronically and we have its phone number, the AI calls the payer during business hours. A patient who still can't be verified is flagged for your team rather than marked active by guesswork. The calling and fax requests happen on our side; what lands in Open Dental is the same appointment note and date.
No. Verification doesn't create or send claims, and nothing here writes a claim into Open Dental. Claims are a separate add-on, Claims Intelligence, where claims are drafted for your team to review before anything is sent. For Open Dental, claim drafting is built but has not yet run at an Open Dental office, so ask us where it stands before you count on it.
You can keep it, and turning this on doesn't require switching anything off. Eligibility verification by itself doesn't replace any eServices feature. If you later add our reminders, texting or online scheduling, there may be overlap with eServices. Work that out with your Open Dental rep and your own numbers.
Verification reads appointments, patients and plans. Nightly verification doesn't change your insurance plans or benefit grids. It writes only the appointment note (when appointment-note writeback is on) and the eligibility date. A verification your team runs by hand can also add a plan to a chart that has no insurance on file, under the rules above. Ask any vendor you add what it needs you to turn off, and check the answer with your Open Dental rep.
The same API key also supports intake forms: with Digital Forms, the completed intake form is filed as a PDF in the Imaging module (Medical History folder, or Patient Information, then Miscellaneous), with the insurance card photos inside that PDF, and a new chart is created when no existing chart matches. It also covers the AI receptionist (booked into Open Dental at the length of the slot the caller chose), AI clinical notes attached to the visit's completed procedure, voice perio charting, and x-rays. You can turn on eligibility verification alone and add the rest later, or not at all.
If you already run Open Dental, this isn't a question of moving to another PMS. Upcoming patients are checked overnight before their visits. With appointment-note writeback on, the benefits summary is on the appointment before the patient arrives, and Eligibility Last Verified is updated in Open Dental when the payer gives a clear answer. A verification your team runs can add the plan to a chart with no insurance on file. Your chart, your data and your workflow stay where they are.
Open Dental is a trademark of Open Dental Software, Inc. Intake.Dental is an independent product and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Open Dental Software, Inc.
Once automatic pre-appointment verification is turned on, patients on the coming week's schedule are checked electronically overnight, ahead of their visits. A patient checked recently is not checked again until that result goes stale. Only the primary plan is checked. When appointment-note writeback is on, the benefits summary goes into the appointment's Note in Open Dental. You see it in the Edit Appointment window, and on the schedule itself if your appointment view shows the Note field. After a clear active or inactive answer, the patient's Eligibility Last Verified date is stamped on their primary plan. When your team verifies a patient from the dashboard and that patient has no insurance on file in Open Dental, the verified plan is added to their chart, as long as the chart matches the patient and the patient is the policyholder. Open Dental stays your practice management system and your system of record.
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