Fee Schedule
A complete list of dental procedures and the corresponding fees a provider charges or an insurer allows for each.
Full Definition
A fee schedule in dental practice is a structured document listing CDT-coded procedures alongside the associated fees, either as set by the dental provider (the office fee schedule) or as contracted with an insurer (the contracted or allowable fee schedule). Fee schedules govern patient billing, insurance reimbursement calculations, and write-off amounts. Editors working on these documents must ensure that procedure codes, descriptions, and fee amounts are consistently aligned and that any update date or effective date is clearly stated. 'Fee schedule' is a two-word open compound and should never be hyphenated.
Usage
Usage note: Two-word open compound; never hyphenate. Include an effective date on all published versions.
In Context
- "The annual fee schedule update must be distributed to front-desk staff before the new contracted rates take effect on 1 January." — Practice management memo
- "Verify that every line of the fee schedule document aligns the CDT code, procedure description, and fee column without transposition errors." — Fee schedule document audit