What Your Patients Need to Know About the Stages of Sleep

As a dentist who offers sleep apnea therapy, you understand how difficult it can be for a patient who is unable to breathe and get a good night’s rest. You also know the complexities that come with trying to provide treatment while dealing with an individual’s medical insurance company. If you want to focus more on working alongside your patients to help them better understand the stages of sleep and ways to achieve optimal rest, learn how a medical billing company can aid you in the process.

What Are the Stages of Sleep?

If a patient complains that they struggle with sleep apnea, they will have difficulty achieving a full night’s rest. The various stages of sleep are necessary to ensure optimal functioning each day; however, if a blockage exists in your patient’s airway, the symptoms associated with apnea episodes will only worsen if left untreated.

When talking to your patients, it’s important that you inform them of the various sleep stages. Why? Because your ability to serve as an educator will provide them with the information needed to seek treatment. Otherwise, a continual lack of sleep will only lead to worsening conditions for the brain, body, and overall health. These stages include:

• Light Sleep – Although slightly alert, the body and brain begin to produce sleep spindles to avoid the potential for interruption.
• Deep Sleep – Waking becomes harder, and the body works to repair muscles and tissues while producing proteins to help improve the immune system.
• REM Sleep – The eyes move quickly while breathing becomes shallower. A person’s heart rate and blood pressure will increase, and new information learned throughout the day will be stored in the brain’s memory.

How Medical Insurance Can Assist in Sleep Apnea Treatment

After discussing the importance of receiving sleep apnea treatment with your patients, they will likely want to know if it’s covered by medical insurance. While your dental team can certainly take on the burdensome task of contacting the carrier, filling out the paperwork, filing the claim, and going through the endless steps to achieve verification and reimbursement, why not let billing professionals take care of it? With a company like Brady Billing, we can streamline the process so you and your team can take better care of those who need sleep apnea treatment.

If offering oral appliance therapy, there is a good chance that an individual’s insurance carrier will designate this type of device as “durable medical equipment,” which means it is essential. However, as a sleep dentist, you will need to provide a thorough report of the person’s need for the oral appliance, as this will serve as evidence that your patient requires such treatment to avoid serious health complications. Our team will then take care of processing the paperwork and making sure it goes through the right channels to receive approval and eventually, the maximum reimbursement for you and your patient.

With the help of a trusted medical billing company, you and your team can spend more time caring for those who are entrusting you with their oral and overall health.

About Brady Billing
Looking to outsource your medical billing? At Brady Billing, we specialize in dental offices that provide sleep medicine services and offer billing services for dentist offices throughout the country. By offering a range of billing services, we can assist in answering your questions and providing a complimentary consultation to discuss available services. To find out how we can help you, visit our website or call (844) 424-5548.