Insurance. Just the word can make a room of orthodontists collectively exhale.
On a recent episode of the Hey Docs! Podcast, Jill sat down with Megan Wyrick of The Wyrick Outlook to unpack one of the most misunderstood and mismanaged areas in orthodontics: insurance systems.
Here’s the headline. Insurance should support your practice. It should never control it.
One of the biggest misconceptions we see, especially with start-ups, is the belief that joining as many insurance networks as possible equals growth.
More networks equals more patients. Right?
Not necessarily.
Megan made it clear that participating blindly in networks often means reduced fees, restrictive contracts, and less control over case acceptance. When practices default to “yes” without understanding the long-term implications, they unintentionally shrink their margins and their flexibility.
Your practice is a business.
Insurance is a tool.
Tools do not make strategic decisions.
Insurance errors rarely feel dramatic in the moment.
A missed verification.
A delayed claim submission.
An assumption about benefits.
But those small oversights add up quickly.
Write-offs.
Uncollectible balances.
Cash flow strain.
Megan emphasized the importance of layered verification processes and strict adherence to filing timelines. Precision here is not overkill. It is protection.
At JA&A, we see this often. Practices do not have an insurance problem. They have a systems problem.
And systems are fixable.
Gone are the days when one team member quietly handled all the financial responsibilities behind the scenes.
Today’s high-functioning practices build redundancy and accountability into their insurance workflows.
Cross-training team members on:
While still maintaining one point of ownership for oversight.
This model protects the practice from chaos when someone is out, transitions occur, or growth accelerates. Insurance processes should be durable, not dependent on one individual.
Delayed billing.
Incorrect claims.
Confusing benefit explanations.
These are not just operational issues. They are experience issues.
Patients do not separate your clinical expertise from your financial communication. When insurance is mishandled, it erodes trust, even if treatment is exceptional.
Timely billing and clear benefit explanations protect:
And in today’s review-driven world, that matters more than ever.
Strong practices do not hope insurance works out.
They build systems that:
Insurance management is not about being reactive. It is about building predictable financial infrastructure.
That is what protects profitability.
When doctors and teams fully understand insurance realities, something powerful happens.
They stop sounding like insurance representatives.
They start sounding like experts.
Being able to clearly articulate benefits, limitations, and financial expectations builds authority in the consult room and eliminates unnecessary friction.
Knowledge equals confidence.
Confidence equals control.
Megan Wyrick and The Wyrick Outlook are doing important work in bringing clarity and structure to orthodontic insurance systems.
If insurance feels overwhelming, messy, or reactive in your practice, that is not a personality flaw. It is a process opportunity.
And those are solvable.
Listen to the full episode of Hey Docs! to hear the complete conversation and start building insurance systems that support your growth instead of slowing it down.