Dental Staffing, HR, and Team Building
Staffing gaps damage your practice through two mechanisms: empty chairs that stop production and billing breakdowns that delay payment for the work you actually complete. The billing crisis creates the more severe long-term impact. When your billing specialist goes out or gets overwhelmed covering other duties, claim denial rates climb, follow-up work falls behind, and revenue gets stuck in appeals rather than funding operations. Locum tenens staffing protects your billing revenue by maintaining the consistent coverage that keeps claims processing correctly and payments flowing on schedule.
Dec 6, 2025
The Real Cost of Empty Chairs
Staffing shortages drain dental practice revenue through multiple channels that extend well beyond unfilled appointment slots. The impact shows up in insurance claim processing, patient retention, and operational capacity.
According to the American Dental Association's Health Policy Institute, staffing shortages have reduced dental practice capacity by 10 percent across practices struggling with workforce gaps. A practice generating $1 million annually loses $100,000 in potential revenue before accounting for downstream consequences.
The impact of a single vacant position is even more devastating. Research from the Dental Assisting National Board documents that a dental practice with an open dental assistant position for a full year could lose nearly $110,000 in revenue. Your existing team members take on tasks outside their roles, productivity drops, and errors increase.
Administrative staffing shortages cost U.S. dental practices approximately $3.1 billion annually in missed chair-time and scheduling problems. While empty chairs create obvious revenue problems, the most severe financial damage develops in your billing department.
The Billing Crisis Nobody Talks About
Staffing gaps create their most damaging financial impact through compromised revenue cycle management. Your billing specialist goes out or gets overwhelmed covering other duties, and claim denials multiply rapidly. The data reveals a stark performance gap that directly correlates with staffing adequacy.
Staffing gaps create their most damaging financial impact through compromised revenue cycle management. Your billing specialist goes out or gets overwhelmed covering other duties, and claim denials multiply rapidly. Research published in PubMed analyzing claims from a large dental insurance provider found an overall denial frequency of 8.2%. Well-staffed practices with dedicated coding and claim management can achieve significantly lower denial rates, while understaffed practices experience higher denial frequencies that directly impact revenue.
The financial impact accumulates rapidly. Each denied claim costs an average of $117 in rework, according to Change Healthcare's industry analysis. A practice processing 1,000 claims monthly at the 15% industry average denial rate manages 150 denied claims per month. That's $17,550 monthly in rework costs alone—over $210,000 annually just to resubmit claims that should have been processed correctly the first time.
The revenue at risk is equally concerning. According to the National Association of Dental Plans, the average undiscounted price per treatment is $176. The CareQuest Institute's Productivity Benchmark Guide establishes that dental practices average 2.5 CDT coded services per visit, yielding an average claim value of approximately $440 per claim. Those 150 monthly denials represent $66,000 in revenue stuck in limbo each month—nearly $800,000 annually cycling through denial and appeal rather than funding operations.
How Proper Staffing Cuts Denial Rates
The connection between staffing consistency and billing performance operates through several mechanisms that temporary staffing directly addresses. Dental insurance credentialing requires specific expertise and attention to detail. When administrative staff members juggle multiple roles due to vacancies, claim submission quality deteriorates significantly.
Here's what happens during staffing shortages:
Coding errors increase when team members rush through unfamiliar tasks
Documentation gaps multiply as staff skip quality checks
Follow-up activities get delayed or skipped entirely
Quality control processes break down under pressure
The consequences accumulate quickly. The Healthcare Financial Management Association establishes that billing specialists should follow up on 50-63 accounts daily to maintain healthy revenue cycle performance. A two-week absence means 500-630 accounts don't receive necessary attention.
Qualified locum tenens staff maintain billing continuity during absences and coverage gaps. Once properly credentialed with current knowledge of coding requirements, insurance verification protocols, and claim submission standards, temporary staff preserve the performance levels that keep your revenue cycle healthy.
Navigating Credentialing Requirements
Temporary dental staff can't simply show up and start generating billable services. Insurance credentialing requirements and compliance standards create planning considerations that determine whether locum tenens staffing protects or threatens your revenue.
According to NCQA standards, temporary providers must now undergo the same credentialing process as permanent staff. Insurance network credentialing typically requires 60-120 days minimum for completion. This extended timeline means practices must plan temporary staffing arrangements months in advance to maintain revenue protection and proper in-network billing status.
Locum tenens dentists need three credentials before they can bill insurance: a valid state dental license for the applicable state, current DEA license, and in-network credentialing with insurance plans. The in-network credentialing requirement carries particular importance—without proper credentialing, your claims get denied or processed at out-of-network rates, directly affecting how much patients pay out-of-pocket and whether claims process smoothly.
Additional federal and state enrollment applies for practices that accept Medicare or Medicaid patients. According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, dental practices require proper enrollment through PECOS (Provider Enrollment, Chain and Ownership System) for Medicare billing, with similar state-managed requirements for Medicaid.
Managing the Timeline
The credentialing requirements demand proactive strategies that balance immediate staffing needs with billing compliance. For planned absences like vacations, sabbaticals, or maternity leave, initiate credentialing processes well before anticipated need. This confirms temporary providers are fully credentialed and ready to bill insurance when your permanent staff member departs.
Unexpected emergencies require different approaches. You face a choice: operate with capacity constraints while credentialing processes complete, or use temporary staff for non-billable support roles that free your credentialed providers to focus on patient care. A temporary administrative assistant who handles phones, scheduling, and insurance verification allows your existing team to maintain production without requiring credentialing. This approach protects capacity while compliance requirements process.
Some states offer additional flexibility. The Florida Board of Dentistry provides separate pathways for temporary certificates with specific requirements and expedited timelines. Check your state dental board for similar programs.
Partnering with platforms that handle credentialing requirements delivers value by maintaining pre-credentialed provider networks, managing state licensing requirements, and verifying insurance network participation before placement.
The Financial Case for Temporary Staffing
The cost of temporary staffing becomes insignificant compared to documented revenue losses from unfilled positions and billing problems. Any staffing solution that fills a vacant position for less than the documented annual losses demonstrates positive ROI before accounting for secondary benefits like maintained denial rates and patient retention.
According to NextLevel Practice, industry best practices suggest keeping staff salaries between 20-24% of collections. Temporary staffing that prevents documented capacity reductions while maintaining this ratio provides clear positive return. According to Becker's Dental, the average hourly gross billings for solo dentists in private practice reached $572 per practice hour in 2023. Unfilled days due to staffing shortages represent significant lost production that far exceeds temporary staffing costs.
The 2024 Dental Economics survey reports that combined overhead increased 10-12% during 2022-2024, with staffing costs as the primary driver. Practices maintaining flat production experienced a 10-12% profit reduction. According to ADA Health Policy Institute polling conducted at the end of 2024, approximately 3 in 5 dentists worry about recruiting and retaining staff. Practices that develop proactive temporary staffing strategies gain competitive advantage in maintaining capacity during an industry-wide workforce shortage.
Implementation Considerations
Successful locum tenens implementation for billing protection requires attention to operational integration beyond simple scheduling coverage. Brief temporary staff thoroughly on your practice management software, insurance verification protocols, and claim submission standards. Billing handoffs require particular attention—confirm claim status updates, denial information, and patient payment arrangements transfer smoothly between permanent and temporary staff.
Verify that temporary providers understand your documentation standards and coding practices for clinical roles. Inadequate documentation creates claim denials just as surely as incorrect coding, threatening the revenue protection that temporary staffing should provide.
Monitor key performance indicators during and after temporary staff placement. Track denial rates, accounts receivable aging, and claim processing speed. These metrics confirm your locum tenens strategy protects revenue as intended.
Build relationships with dental staffing platforms before emergencies occur. Pre-qualifying temporary providers and establishing credentialing processes during non-crisis periods creates faster response when urgent needs arise.
Stop Billing Breakdowns Before They Start
Staffing gaps create a billing crisis that most practices don't recognize until denial rates climb and cash flow stalls. When your hygienist calls out or your front desk gets overwhelmed, billing accuracy suffers. Claims pile up. Follow-up work falls behind. Revenue gets delayed.
The credentialing requirements create the real barrier. Insurance network credentialing requires 60-120 days minimum for completion. Temporary providers need the same compliance standards as permanent staff. Most practices can't navigate this timeline, leaving them vulnerable when staffing gaps strike.
Teero eliminates the credentialing burden while protecting your practice operations. Our pre-credentialed dental hygienists arrive ready to maintain your patient care schedule and keep your revenue flowing. We handle the insurance credentialing process and verify state licensing requirements before placement. Your practice maintains consistent operations without managing temporary provider compliance.
Ready to protect your revenue from staffing disruptions? Get started with Teero and keep your practice running smoothly.