Insurance Categories

Insurance Categories

In the upper left of the Practice-Web Dental screen, click on "Setup." A drop-down menu will open.


Click on "Insurance Categories" to bring up the following window.


These are the insurance coverage categories for the practice. There are two setup functions, the coverage categories and the coverage span, which are performed from here. Each will be addressed separately.

Eleven new categories have been added to the top of the list and any older categories that had been set up previously are now moved to the bottom of the list and hidden. Insurance plans previously entered can continue to use the old categories, while new insurance plans will use the new categories. You should not alter the new categories unless you fully understand what you are doing, or you might not be able to use Benefit Info properly. 

Coverage Categories

Coverage categories have specific spans of procedure codes attached to them according to typical insurance groupings. They are used to perform the actual calculations of insurance coverage for specific procedures. 

Edit Coverage Category

To edit a coverage category, double-click on the desired Category. The following dialog will open. 


  1. The description is the name of the category.  
  2. The "Default Percentage" is the percentage that will be filled in for new insurance plans.   
  3. To hide the category, check the "Is Hidden" box or move to the bottom of list.
  4. The "Electronic Benefit Category" will be used as Practice-Web Dental moves to real-time electronic benefit communications with insurance companies. It is very important that when you are done editing your categories that you have only one of each e-benefit category, as shown in the screenshot at the top of this page. You cannot have any duplicates, and you cannot have any missing. The General category should be at the top, because it will be used to keep track of annual maximums for all patients. 
  5. When finished, click OK. 

Add Coverage Category

Click on the "Add" button in the upper right.


A blank "Edit Insurance Coverage" dialog will open. 


Remember, Categories can never be deleted; however, they can be hidden. 
  1. Enter the description of the new category.
  2. Enter the default percentage that the procedure codes within this new category are covered.
  3. Select an Electronic Benefit Category.
  4. When finished, click on OK. 

Coverage Spans

Each coverage category can have unlimited spans of procedure codes attached to it. The included spans should work for most offices. Adding extra spans does not increase complexity for the staff. They will still only see the categories you have set up. The spans simply allow you to put whatever procedures you want into each category. A span can be as short as a single code. Spans can be deleted using the Delete button. Although this will affect patient data if the span includes a patient's procedure, it does not corrupt the data. Note that changes here will affect the treatment plans of multiple patients.

Edit Coverage Span

Double-click on the desired code span in the list (white area under category).  The following dialog will open.  


  1. In the "From ADA" field, you can change the ADA code that will be the beginning of the code span. 
  2. In the "To ADA" field, you can change the ADA code that will be the ending to the code span. 
  3. When finished, click on OK. 

Add Coverage Span

  1. Highlight the Category that the span is to be added to. 
  2. Click on the "Add Span" button. In the "From ADA" field, enter the ADA code that will be the beginning of the code span.
  3. In the "To ADA" field, enter the ADA code that will be the end to code span. 
  4. When finished, click on OK. 

Delete Coverage Span

  1. Under Coverage Spans, click on the span that you want to delete. 
  2. Click on the "Delete" button, then click on the "OK" button. 


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