Integrations: connected through NexHealth
Automated insurance verification for Dentrix
Ardent works alongside Dentrix through the NexHealth Synchronizer. It reads upcoming appointments and each patient’s insurance on file, verifies benefits with the payer, portal first and a phone call for what is left open, then fills your practice’s own breakdown sheet and files the PDF into the patient’s Document Center before the visit.
- Connected through the NexHealth Synchronizer on your Dentrix server. It is not a direct Dentrix integration, and we say so.
- Reads the schedule, patient details and the insurance coverage on file; never writes into Dentrix coverage tables.
- Files the finished sheet as a PDF in the Document Center, and leaves a one-line note on the appointment when something on file needs fixing.
- Runs unattended: schedule polled hourly, a 6:00 AM weekday run up to two weeks ahead (five business days by default), one 7:00 AM email for what it could not verify.
How it works
How does Ardent work with Dentrix?
NexHealth’s Synchronizer reads your Dentrix schedule and the insurance record on each patient. For each visit inside the window, Ardent checks the payer: the provider portal first, or EDI 270/271 or a faxback where that is the payer’s channel, then an AI phone call for required blanks still open. It draws the answers onto your sheet and files the PDF through NexHealth into the patient’s Document Center.
What Ardent reads from Dentrix
- Upcoming appointments: time, provider, operatory, confirmed / cancelled / no-show flags, and the appointment note.
- The patient: name, date of birth, patient ID.
- The insurance coverage on file: carrier and plan, subscriber ID, relationship to the subscriber, effective and expiration dates, group number, employer, and the payer ID Ardent uses to pick the payer’s playbook.
- Chart history where Dentrix exposes it, used to answer the office’s own questions, never a payer’s.
What Ardent writes back to Dentrix
| Artifact | Written? | Where and when |
|---|---|---|
| Chart document (PDF) | Yes | The Document Center, under the document type your office chooses. Named insurance-eligibility-<first>-<last>.pdf; filed once per appointment after a successful check inside the window. |
| Appointment note | Yes | One line, [Ardent Dental] <reason>., added under your own note text only when a check could not run for a reason the office can fix. A rewrite replaces only Ardent’s own previous line. |
| Coverage-table fields | No | Never. Plan entry in Dentrix stays with the office, done from the filled sheet in the chart. |
Swipe to see the whole table →
The PDF holds the completed sheet page or pages, then the payer’s own documents the portal preserved, any received fax, and the portal screenshots Ardent kept, tiled to letter pages. The REP blank reads Ardent on an unattended upload; the date is the day the check finished.
Setup
How the connection works
Dentrix is a server-based PMS, so the NexHealth Synchronizer is installed on your Dentrix server with an admin account; NexHealth’s integrations team can do that remotely. NexHealth then grants Ardent access to your practice’s schedule, patients and insurance records. Ardent itself never signs into Dentrix. NexHealth’s supported-systems table lists Dentrix G6.2 and later.
- Connect. The Synchronizer goes on the Dentrix server. NexHealth’s statement on cost: "Practices don’t pay for the Synchronizer. There’s no setup fee, no subscription." (nexhealth.com; confirm current terms with NexHealth.)
- Baseline. Ardent pulls every future appointment once and checks counts, dates, patient matching, coverage data and payer mapping with your office.
- Choose the sheet and the folder. Your breakdown sheet is measured once; the Document Center document type that should receive the PDF is set on the connection.
- Switch on, one flag at a time. Hourly polling, then the 6:00 AM ahead-of-visit run, then the 7:00 AM digest, then automatic filing, each after a supervised first run. Automatic filing stays off until a test PDF has reached the intended chart and document category.
We do not promise a go-live date. The only published number in this process is NexHealth’s, and it applies to cloud installs, not to Dentrix.
One patient, next week
The sheet, filled.
Filed into Dentrix as a chart document. Sample data, fictional patient. Watch the full sheet fill in on the home page →
Built-in eligibility
Dentrix Eligibility Pro and Ardent
Eligibility Pro is built into Dentrix and, per Dentrix’s own page, writes coverage back to Dentrix’s coverage tables. Ardent does a different job: it fills the breakdown sheet your office already uses, phones the payer for the blanks a portal or 271 does not state, and keeps the source behind every value. The two can coexist, and Ardent never edits what Eligibility Pro or your team writes into Dentrix.
The exceptions
What still needs a person
Anything Ardent could not verify. Every weekday at 7:00 AM your front desk gets one email, with the subject [Ardent Dental] <Office> Insurance Eligibility for <Weekday, Month D>. It lists each appointment Ardent could not verify and why, in plain words: a member ID missing, a plan that ended, a payer Ardent cannot check yet. On Dentrix the same reason also sits in the appointment note.
A required blank the payer would not state stays blank on the sheet, the appointment is flagged "Someone has to call," and it is in that morning’s email. When every appointment verified, the email says so in one line.
Answers
Dentrix insurance verification FAQ
No. Ardent files the completed sheet as a PDF in the patient’s Document Center and, when something on file needs fixing, adds one line to the appointment note. It never edits insurance plans, coverage tables or fee schedules in Dentrix. Plan entry in the software stays with the office.
In the patient’s Document Center, under the document type your office sets on the connection; NexHealth’s default when no type is set is the Miscellaneous folder. The file is named insurance-eligibility-<first>-<last>.pdf, shows REP "Ardent" and the date the check finished, and is filed once per appointment.
Ardent does not sign into Dentrix, so there is no Ardent user in Dentrix. NexHealth’s Synchronizer is installed on the Dentrix server with an admin account, which NexHealth’s team can do remotely, and NexHealth grants Ardent access to your practice’s data. Ardent users are your own staff, limited to email addresses on your practice’s domain.
It does a different job. Eligibility Pro is native to Dentrix and writes to coverage tables. Ardent fills your own breakdown sheet blank by blank, phones the payer for what the portal leaves open, and files the PDF with every value’s source. Keep Eligibility Pro if you use it; Ardent will not touch what it writes.
Your own note text, a blank line, then exactly one line such as [Ardent Dental] Delta Dental of California could not match the patient to the insurance details on file. It is written only for failures the office can fix, and a later rewrite replaces only Ardent’s own line, so what you typed stays untouched. A successful check gets the PDF, not a note.
NexHealth’s supported-systems table lists Dentrix G6.2 and later as a server-based system. If you are on an older version, ask NexHealth first; Ardent can only reach what the Synchronizer can read. Dentrix Ascend and Dentrix Enterprise have their own pages here, because the connection and the note behaviour differ.
The appointment is set to "Needs info" instead of guessed at, the reason goes on the appointment note in Dentrix and into the 7:00 AM email, and the app shows a "Fix & re-run" button. Once the front desk corrects the record, the next check runs from the corrected details.