When a full breakdown finishes, writeback fills in the verified benefits in OpenDental for you. Here is each area it touches and the screen you'd open to see it.
The nine areas, in the order they're written
Plan settings. On the insurance plan: group name, group number, benefit-year renewal month, and the coordination-of-benefits rule. On the subscriber record: the effective and termination dates.
Deductibles. Benefits list on the plan — individual and family general deductibles, plus $0 rows on the categories the plan exempts from the deductible.
Maximums. Benefits list — the individual annual maximum. Categories with no cap get a $99,999 row, which is how OpenDental records "no limit."
Used amounts. Not a benefit row. This posts an insurance-used and deductible-met adjustment on the patient so the running totals are right.
Orthodontics. Benefits list, ortho category — lifetime maximum, coverage percentage, and age limit.
Coverage categories. Benefits list — the coverage percentage for each category you already have set up (diagnostic, preventive, restorative, and so on), plus a waiting period where the plan has one.
Procedure codes. Benefits list — rows tied to a single code, with the coverage percentage, age limit and frequency for that code. Downgrades and substitutions are written here too, as substitution rules on the plan.
Benefit history. The patient's insurance history screen — the last date of service we confirmed for each code, like the last prophy or bitewings.
Plan note. This last step covers four spots: the plan note on the insurance plan, the appointment note, the appointment eligibility field, and the plan's last-verified date.
A few things worth knowing
We don't create categories. We fill in percentages on the coverage categories your practice already uses. We don't add, rename or remove them.
The eligibility field is created if you don't have one. If your appointments have no insurance eligibility field, writeback adds the field definition so the status has somewhere to go.
Family annual maximum is left alone on purpose. Only the individual maximum is written.
Substitution rules are skipped if the plan has "don't substitute codes" checked in OpenDental. We honor that setting rather than override it.
Benefits belong to the plan, not the patient. Verifying one patient updates the plan record shared by everyone on it.
Writeback never touches patient demographics, the schedule, treatment plans, claims or payments.