The crown was presented on a Tuesday in June. The patient said she would call back after checking with her husband. It is October. Her treatment plan still says $1,240, and nobody has called her either.
Every practice has a list like this. The money is not lost. It is sitting in a report most offices run once a year, if that.
Which report shows it in each system?
Open Dental. Reports, Treatment Finder. Set the status to treatment planned, the date range to the last 12 to 18 months, and tick the option to exclude patients with a scheduled appointment. The output includes the planned fee and the patient’s remaining insurance benefit. Separately, Reports, Unscheduled List shows active patients with no future appointment at all.
Dentrix. Office Manager, Reports, Lists, Unscheduled Treatment Plans. Choose provider, treatment plan date range and a minimum amount. The report lists each patient with the planned procedures and total.
Eaglesoft. Reports, then the Unscheduled Treatment Plan report (sometimes called Proposed Treatment), filtered by provider and date. Money Finder also surfaces planned treatment alongside unused benefits.
Run it for 18 months, not 6. Plans older than that are usually stale, but you will find a few that are worth a call.
How do you rank the list?
A raw list of 300 names does not get worked. Rank it so the first 20 calls are the best 20.
| Factor | Why | How to score |
|---|---|---|
| Planned amount | Bigger plans pay for the call | Sort descending |
| Age of the plan | Under 90 days, the patient still remembers the conversation | Newest first within each amount band |
| Insurance remaining | Benefits that expire in December make the call urgent | Flag anything with $500 or more left |
| Urgency in the note | A cracked tooth is a different call from a cosmetic case | Flag per the doctor’s note |
| Contact quality | A mobile number that answered last time | Flag |
A worked example. Three patients: A has a $3,200 implant plan from 14 months ago and no benefits left. B has a $1,240 crown from 4 months ago with $1,100 of benefits expiring 31 December. C has a $420 filling from last week. Call B first (recent, insured, deadline), then C (recent, small, easy yes), then A (large but cold; the call is a re-consult, not a booking).
Total planned across the three: $4,860. That is money found. None of it is recovered until the appointment is on the book, completed and paid. Keep the two words separate in your own tracking or the numbers will flatter you.
What do you say on the call?
Keep it to four lines and let the patient talk.
“Hi, it’s Dana from Dr. Ellery’s office. When you were in, in June, Dr. Ellery recommended a crown on the upper left. I’m looking at the schedule for the next two weeks and wanted to see if we could get that done for you before your insurance resets. Would a morning or an afternoon be easier?”
Rules that make it work:
- Name the tooth or the problem, not “your treatment”.
- Offer two specific times, not “when works for you”.
- If the answer is cost, know the insurance estimate before you dial. The end of year benefits page covers the December version of this call.
- Log the outcome in the plan note: booked, call back on a date, declined and why.
How often should this run?
Weekly, for the newest plans (under 30 days), because that is where acceptance is highest. Monthly for the full list. The treatment coordinator checklist puts it into a routine.
What Calibic adds
Revenue Recovery is LIVE. Calibic reads treatment plans, appointments, benefits and the ledger from Open Dental, Dentrix and Eaglesoft (read-only, it never changes a record), builds the ranked list above automatically, and keeps it current every day. Found and recovered are shown as separate figures: a plan is found when it is planned and not booked, and counted as recovered only when the practice software shows it booked, completed and paid. Texting the patient from Calibic is coming; today the list is worked by your team.
Next step: see the found and recovered view on the Revenue Recovery product page.