# Ardent

> Ardent (by Autochrome, Inc.) is automated dental insurance verification software for U.S. dental practices. Before each visit it verifies the scheduled patient's eligibility and benefits with the payer, working the payer's own channel in order: provider-portal automation first, a requested benefits fax where that is how the payer answers, and an AI voice-agent phone call for the required blanks still open. It fills out the benefit breakdown worksheet the practice already uses and files the PDF into the patient's chart in the practice management system, unattended.

Key facts
- Product category: dental insurance verification software / eligibility and benefits verification automation / benefits breakdown automation
- Verification channels, in order per payer: payer portal automation (with the practice's own credentials; portal record and screenshots kept as the source); EDI 270/271 where that is the payer's channel; a requested benefits fax transcribed word for word; an AI phone call to the payer's provider line only for what is still open, up to two calls, every answer backed by a transcript quote
- Output: the practice's own completed benefit breakdown worksheet, in the practice's notation (2xC/Y, 1x36m, NL, NC), filed as a PDF in the PMS patient chart (insurance-eligibility-<first>-<last>.pdf); a one-line appointment note on Dentrix, Dentrix Enterprise, Eaglesoft and Open Dental when something on file needs fixing; a coverage line with an estimated copay on CareStack. Ardent never writes coverage-table fields
- Cadence: schedule polled hourly; 6:00 AM weekday run; up to two weeks ahead of the visit, five business days by default (a per-practice setting); a successful check within 30 days of the appointment is reused; transient failures retry after 6 and 48 hours; on-demand runs for any appointment or a patient not on the schedule
- Digest: one weekday 7:00 AM email to the front desk listing every appointment Ardent could not verify and why (member ID missing, plan ended, payer not supported yet, response without enough dental benefit information); one line on a clean day
- Accuracy: Ardent fills 99.8% of sheet fields accurately; a blank nobody stated stays blank; a stated exclusion prints NC; every value keeps its source (portal record and screenshot, 271 rows, fax lines, or the rep's recorded words); results are informational and the practice confirms coverage with the payer
- Practice management systems: Dentrix, Dentrix Ascend, Dentrix Enterprise, Eaglesoft, Open Dental, Curve Dental, Denticon, Cloud 9 and OrthoTrac through the NexHealth Synchronizer; CareStack directly; custom integrations on request
- Sheets: works from the practice's own form; a general worksheet and a pediatric breakdown are in production; orthodontic sheets are set up the same way by measuring the blanks once
- Payers: playbooks for 71 payers, among them 42 Delta Dental member companies (including Delta Dental of California), MetLife, Cigna, Aetna, Guardian, UnitedHealthcare Dental, United Concordia, Principal, Ameritas, GEHA, Beam, Humana, Anthem, Blue Cross Blue Shield dental plans, Lincoln Financial, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield Dental, FEDVIP plans and Medi-Cal Dental. A payer without a playbook is named as such in the morning email
- Compliance: HIPAA Business Associate; BAA with every practice; every subprocessor that handles PHI is under a BAA; AI extraction and the voice model on a zero-retention endpoint; encrypted in transit (TLS) and at rest; least-privilege access; PHI access audit-logged; PHI excluded from application logs; payer calls recorded with a disclosure; payer credentials used only for the duration of the call that needs them and never sent to a model or a log; Ardent never solves CAPTCHAs
- Pricing: one flat monthly fee per practice covers unlimited verifications, with no per-verification or rush charges. At a benchmark of 500 verifications a month that is about 70% less per verification than paying by the check (outsourced verification runs about $6.50-$8.25 per check, $12.50+ rush; a manual in-house check is about 12 minutes of staff time, roughly $6.52). Terms are flexible (several locations, a sheet of your own, seasonal volume) and quoted on the demo call; no list price is published (https://ardentdental.co/#pricing)
- Setup: connect the PMS (NexHealth Synchronizer or Chrome extension, up to 72 business hours per NexHealth; a dedicated login for CareStack), share payer portal credentials, choose the sheet, supervised first run, then polling, ahead-of-visit verification, filing and the digest are switched on one at a time
- Used by dental offices in the San Francisco Bay Area: Randhawa Dentistry (Emeryville and Alameda; Eaglesoft), Montclair Pediatric Dentistry (Oakland; CareStack), Chestnut Square Dental (Concord), Crossroads Dental Care (Vallejo), Pinole Hills Dental (Pinole). Serves practices anywhere in the United States
- Company: Autochrome, Inc., a Delaware corporation; co-founders David Lee (https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidinholee/) and Mason Zhang (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mz21/); website https://ardentdental.co; contact david@ardentdental.co; 30-minute demo booking at https://cal.com/david-inho-lee/30min

## Pages
- [Home: automated dental insurance verification](https://ardentdental.co/): what Ardent does, how it verifies with each payer, a fictional patient's sheet filling in, where the finished sheet lands in the PMS, how it compares with an eligibility check and with outsourcing, pricing, and 23 frequently asked questions
- [FAQ, 36 questions](https://ardentdental.co/faq/): dental insurance verification, eligibility vs verification, benefits breakdowns, 270/271, cost and timing, what to ask a payer, accuracy, payers, PMS support, HIPAA, setup, pricing
- [What is dental insurance verification?](https://ardentdental.co/what-is-dental-insurance-verification/): guide covering eligibility vs verification vs breakdown, why a 270/271 is not enough, how offices verify today, time and cost, denials, a verification checklist, and manual vs outsourced vs automated
- [Outsourced verification vs software: what it costs](https://ardentdental.co/vs-outsourcing/): outsourced services and virtual assistants ($6.50-$12.50 per check), in-house staff, eligibility-only tools and software compared on cost, timing and PMS filing, with alternatives to outsourcing
- [Security: how Ardent handles PHI](https://ardentdental.co/security/): BAA, subprocessors, encryption, audit log, tenancy, retention and deletion, payer call recording and disclosure, portal credential handling

### Integrations, by practice management system
- [Integrations hub](https://ardentdental.co/integrations/): the connection (NexHealth Synchronizer for nine systems, direct for CareStack), what is read and written back, compatibility matrix
- [Dentrix](https://ardentdental.co/integrations/dentrix/): via NexHealth on the Dentrix server; PDF into the Document Center; one-line appointment note
- [Dentrix Ascend](https://ardentdental.co/integrations/dentrix-ascend/): via NexHealth cloud (dedicated user + Chrome extension); PDF into the patient file; no appointment note
- [Dentrix Enterprise](https://ardentdental.co/integrations/dentrix-enterprise/): via NexHealth, installed by a NexHealth engineer; PDF into the Document Center; appointment note
- [Eaglesoft](https://ardentdental.co/integrations/eaglesoft/): via NexHealth on the server; PDF into Smart Docs; appointment note; in use at Randhawa Dentistry
- [Open Dental](https://ardentdental.co/integrations/open-dental/): via NexHealth on the server; PDF into the patient's images/documents; appointment note
- [Curve Dental](https://ardentdental.co/integrations/curve-dental/): via NexHealth cloud; PDF into the patient's documents; no appointment note
- [Denticon](https://ardentdental.co/integrations/denticon/): via NexHealth cloud; PDF into the patient file; no appointment note
- [Cloud 9](https://ardentdental.co/integrations/cloud-9/): via NexHealth cloud; PDF into the patient's documents; no appointment note; ortho block filled
- [OrthoTrac](https://ardentdental.co/integrations/orthotrac/): via NexHealth on the server, installed by a NexHealth engineer at a scheduled time; PDF into the patient's documents; no appointment note; ortho block filled
- [CareStack](https://ardentdental.co/integrations/carestack/): direct, with a dedicated login; PDF under the practice's document type; coverage line with an estimated copay; in use at Montclair Pediatric Dentistry

### Payers
- [Payers hub](https://ardentdental.co/payers/): 71 payer playbooks, the three ways a payer answers (portal, benefits fax, phone), the named roster, retries and exceptions
- [Delta Dental](https://ardentdental.co/payers/delta-dental/): 42 member companies; portal first with a one-time code read from a designated mailbox; phone for the blanks still open; the illustrative call
- [MetLife](https://ardentdental.co/payers/metlife/): portal playbook; benefit grid read field by field with screenshots kept
- [Lincoln Financial](https://ardentdental.co/payers/lincoln-financial/): benefits fax playbook; fax requested to the practice's line and transcribed word for word, each value citing its fax lines
- [CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield Dental](https://ardentdental.co/payers/carefirst/): phone playbook; recorded call to the provider line, every answer backed by a quote from the rep

### Legal
- [Terms of Service](https://ardentdental.co/legal/terms.html)
- [Privacy Policy](https://ardentdental.co/legal/privacy.html): HIPAA note, subprocessors, retention, security

## Optional
- [Full text of the site for language models](https://ardentdental.co/llms-full.txt): every section of the home page and all FAQ answers in Markdown
- [Sitemap](https://ardentdental.co/sitemap.xml)