Setting up your Engagement Online Scheduling settings in a dental practice is crucial for the smooth operation of the practice and for providing the best possible care for patients.
We recommend starting your Online Scheduling journey by watching our webinar! We'll show you how to leverage Engagement Online Scheduling in Dental Intelligence to increase the number of visits in your practice.
Access Engagement Online Scheduling General Settings
Important notes:
If you are unable to access this feature or make changes, you have not been granted permission in your user profile. Contact an admin team member in your practice to enable access or work with them to complete the steps outlined in the instructions below. Click here to learn how to update user permissions.
In order to take advantage of the most current updates to Online Scheduling, you must be on the most recent version of the Engagement Bridge. Click here to learn how to update your bridge.
Access Settings in your online scheduling tab
Select the General Settings tab
Online Scheduling Provider/Operatory Availability
Any time you make any changes to provider and/or operatory availability in your practice management software (ie, Dentrix, Open Dental, Eaglesoft) or service types, you must perform a sync within Engagement to reflect these changes and accurately update Engagement Online Scheduling.
To sync availability, click on Online Scheduling > Settings. Then from the General Settings tab, click the Sync Availability button.
Insurance Authenticator
Additionally, having an insurance authenticator in place is important because it helps to ensure that patients are aware of whether their insurance is in-network or out-of-network with the practice. This helps to avoid confusion and surprise bills for patients, and can also help to streamline the billing and insurance claims process for the practice.
Here, you will list the insurance companies you are in network with.
You can also list insurance carriers that you do not accept by adding them to the Out-of-Network list. Patients will not be able to schedule an appointment with any of the out-of-network carriers selected. Be sure to select the “Let patients know if they are Out-of-Network/In-Network” checkbox.
Note: If the 'Ask patients for insurance information when scheduling' is deselected in General Settings, any insurance-related options will be disabled within all custom scheduling links.
Patient Insurance Network Status
Enabling patients to view their insurance network status online can be a helpful feature that can improve the patient experience and help them understand the cost of their care before they book an appointment. You can check this box to let patients know if they are in or out of network before scheduling.
Important notes:
If a patient is out of network, they will still be able to schedule an appointment online unless they've selected an insurance carrier you've listed as out-of-network.
To prevent incorrect information from being added to a patient's chart, we do not write back insurance details that the patient enters when scheduling online. This is to prevent incorrectly entered Group ID/Member ID details from flagging patients as ineligible, etc.
Google Tag Manager
Gain better insights on exactly which links are driving patient leads! Enable the Google Tag Manager integration options in Online Scheduling General Settings and enter your GTM Tag to add GA4 Measurement IDs automatically on all of your custom scheduling links and/or online appointment requests. Learn more about GTM here.
Next, set up the different appointment types, also known as practice-level services. Setting these up will allow for accurate booking and management, a better understanding of the time required for specific treatment, and help manage the patients' appointment reminders and follow ups. Learn more here.