Carrier, product, network source, leased/shared relationship, effective agreement, amendment, notice, and opt-out status
Independent scale · Payer power—legally
Start with contract intelligence and administrative control—not collective fee demands.
Some large organizations may have stronger payer leverage or administration in some markets. An independent practice can reduce information and cash leakage now by mapping its own payable paths. Joint contracting requires a separately governed, appropriately integrated structure and specialized antitrust and health-law review.
What an independent can do now
Know which contract actually priced the claim.
Code, geography, effective date, exact product/network, executed schedule, representative EOB, and change history
Eligibility, benefit, authorization, documentation, adjudication, patient balance, recoupment, appeal, deposit, and reconciliation
Credentialing delay, verification work, denial/rework time, portal friction, recoupments, notices, and payment timing
Practice-specific access, quality, capacity, fee, administrative, and contract evidence with qualified review
The legal line
Shared administration is not permission for competitors to coordinate prices.
DOJ withdrew three older healthcare antitrust policy statements in February 2023. The FTC withdrew the corresponding 1996 and 2011 statements in July 2023, saying they no longer reflected market realities and that conduct would be evaluated case by case.
DenQAI therefore does not publish old safe-harbor formulas as current permission. A future network would need specialized counsel, genuine integration where required, a defined messenger or contracting model, permitted data flows, member training, monitoring, audit, and enforceable limits.
DenQAI will not facilitate
Independent viability does not excuse unlawful coordination.
No agreement among competing dentists on current or future fees, discounts, or pricing intentions.
No coordinated refusal to deal with a payer, network, vendor, employer, or other counterparty.
No allocation of patients, geography, services, staff, or opportunities among competitors.
No identifiable current or future competitive plans disguised as benchmarking or education.
Work products
Build individual payer control before collective ambition.
Payer, credentialing & cash continuityEight-step critical path, coded relationships, patient-access exposure, reserve need, payment events, and local project file.Open →Offline payer decision workbookAuthorized contract and fee-portability review stays in an Excel file on the user's device.Excel ↓Payer & network relationship mapCarrier, product, network source, schedule, notices, EOB validation, data, and next action.CSV ↓Fee-schedule comparatorOffice, current, and offered allowed amounts with volume, cost, and chair-time context.CSV ↓
Next capability
What should independents share before they ever share contracting risk?
Credentialing, revenue cycle, security, compliance, recruiting, benefits, training, analytics, and continuity can be evaluated service by service.
Open Shared Services