Colleen Huff

Dental Insurance Coach/Speaker-Educate dental professionals how to work with dental insurance and optimize reimbursement for the dental practice. Revenue Cycle processes and proper use of dental codes.

Dental insurance continues to get more complicated, which is why I invited one of my favorite dental insurance experts, Colleen Huff, back to the High Performing Dental Team Podcast. Colleen is known throughout the industry as the Dental Insurance Coach, and she has decades of experience helping practices understand insurance systems and get paid for the dentistry they provide.

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One of the biggest areas of confusion I hear about is ERAs and EFTs. What are they? Do you need both? How do they work with Dentrix? And, most importantly, are they really worth setting up?

The short answer is yes. When they're set up and reconciled correctly, ERAs and EFTs can save your dental team significant administrative time and help you get paid faster.

What Is the Difference Between an ERA and EFT?

Let's make this simple.

EFT stands for Electronic Funds Transfer. Think of it like direct deposit for your dental practice. Instead of the insurance company mailing a paper check, the payment is deposited directly into your practice bank account.

ERA stands for Electronic Remittance Advice. It's essentially the electronic version of an insurance EOB.

With Dentrix, participating insurance ERAs can come directly into your software. This can dramatically reduce the amount of manual payment posting your team has to do.

Colleen shared an example from earlier in her career when posting a Medicaid payment manually could take about three hours. Once the process moved to ERAs, that same task dropped to about 15 minutes.

That is a workflow improvement worth paying attention to!

Should Dental Practices Use Both EFTs and ERAs?

Ideally, yes.

I like to think of the process this way:

1. Enroll in EFTs so the insurance carrier deposits your money electronically.
2. Register for ERAs so the payment information can flow electronically into Dentrix.
3. Reconcile the two to verify that the money you posted actually reached your bank.

That last step is extremely important.

Just because an ERA appears doesn't mean you should automatically assume the money made it into your bank account. Colleen has seen situations where an insurance company showed that funds had transferred, but the deposit never arrived.

Never post insurance money without a checks-and-balances process.

And remember, getting paid efficiently starts even earlier in the patient journey. In Dentrix Insurance Eligibility: The Trickle-Down Effect That Impacts Your Entire Practice, I explain how accurate eligibility information supports cleaner claims, better estimates, faster insurance payments, and healthier accounts receivable.

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Why Dentrix ERAs Can Save Your Team So Much Time

One of my favorite advantages of using ERAs in Dentrix is that we're eliminating unnecessary manual work.

Instead of opening checks, finding EOBs, manually posting every payment, scanning documents, and attaching them to patient records, much of that information can move electronically.

Dentrix can also place the appropriate ERA information into the patient's Document Center.

That means your team can potentially reduce:

• Manual insurance payment posting
• Paper EOB handling
• Scanning and uploading
• Searching multiple payer websites
• Data-entry errors
• Time spent tracking down payment information

This is part of a much bigger opportunity to create a paperless workflow. If your team is still printing insurance aging reports and working from paper, read Stop Printing Reports in Dentrix: Smarter Workflows for a More Efficient Dental Practice. I walk through how Claims Manager and other live Dentrix tools can replace outdated printed reports.

And there is another big benefit: cash flow.

As Colleen explained, some insurance carriers process electronic payments much faster than physical checks. Moving from paper to electronic payments can shorten the time between completing dentistry and having that money in your bank account.

Create a Better EFT Reconciliation System

One recommendation from Colleen that I really liked was using a separate bank account specifically for insurance EFT deposits.

Why?

It can make reconciliation much easier. Your financial coordinator or office manager can compare deposits against ERAs without sorting through payroll, accounts payable, and every other transaction in the practice's primary operating account.

Depending on your banking setup, the appropriate team member may also be given read-only access.

Whether you use a spreadsheet or another tracking system, you need a consistent process for answering:

Did the insurance payment we posted in Dentrix actually hit the bank?

If the answer isn't clear, don't consider that payment reconciled.

Don't Overlook Dentrix Insurance Eligibility Pro

Our conversation also turned to Dentrix Insurance Eligibility Pro, and I loved hearing Colleen's positive experience with it.

Accurate insurance breakdowns matter because they affect your treatment estimates, patient copays, collections, and ultimately the patient's trust in your practice.

When eligibility information can flow into the appropriate Dentrix coverage, payment, and deductible areas, your team spends less time manually entering information.

This becomes especially valuable when you're dealing with complicated benefits and insurance exceptions. In Calculating Insurance Downgrades in Dentrix, I go deeper into coverage tables, payment tables, insurance exceptions, downgrades, and how Eligibility Pro can help your team create more accurate patient estimates.

Technology isn't perfect, and every new tool requires setup and training. But the goal should always be the same: reduce administrative workload without sacrificing accuracy.

Start Building a More Efficient Insurance Workflow

Dental insurance isn't getting simpler. That means our systems have to get better.

If your team is still manually chasing EOBs, posting every insurance payment by hand, scanning documents, or struggling to reconcile EFT deposits, this is a workflow worth revisiting.

Don't try to change everything overnight. Start with one insurance carrier, learn the process, create your SOP, and then build from there.

The goal isn't technology for technology's sake. It's getting your team out of repetitive administrative work so they can spend more time taking care of patients.

Frequently Asked Questions About Dentrix ERAs and EFTs

What is an ERA in Dentrix?

An ERA, or Electronic Remittance Advice, is an electronic version of an insurance EOB. For participating payers, ERA information can be delivered electronically and used within Dentrix to streamline insurance payment posting.

What is an EFT in dental insurance?

An EFT, or Electronic Funds Transfer, allows an insurance company to deposit payment directly into your dental practice's bank account instead of mailing a paper check.

Do I need both EFTs and ERAs?

Using both can create a more efficient workflow. EFT handles the movement of money, while the ERA provides the payment and claim information needed to post and reconcile that payment.

How should my dental office reconcile EFT payments?

Compare every insurance deposit in your bank account against the corresponding ERA or EOB before considering it reconciled. A dedicated tracking system or separate EFT bank account can make this easier.

Can ERAs help a dental practice get paid faster?

ERAs streamline the administrative side of payment processing, while EFTs can reduce the delay associated with mailed checks. Together, they can support faster, more efficient dental insurance collections.

Ready to Optimize Your Dentrix Insurance Systems?

If your team is spending too much time managing insurance payments, chasing information, or manually entering data, there may be a better way.

If you want to maximize your Dentrix software, streamline your insurance workflows, and build systems that save your team time, book a discovery call with me. We can look at where your current processes are creating unnecessary work and identify opportunities to make Dentrix work harder for your practice.