How Southern Dental Group Rebuilt Their Billing Process After Years of Chaos

When Southern Dental Group purchased their practice in 2020, they stepped into one of the most difficult periods imaginable for healthcare businesses. Between COVID shutdowns, staffing losses, and multiple devastating hurricanes in South Louisiana, the practice was forced into survival mode.

For Julie Boudreaux, Chief of Operations at Southern Dental Group, insurance billing became one more overwhelming responsibility in an already impossible situation.

“We were just trying to stay afloat,” Julie said. “With years of that happening, the books were a mess, income was a mess, we needed help.”

Working with Wisdom today, Southern Dental Group has regained control of their billing operations, improved collections, and built a process that feels manageable again — all while continuing to learn and grow internally.

Results with Wisdom:

• Reduced total accounts receivable aging by approximately 20% (from $50K to $40K)
• Decreased aging over 30 days by more than 50% — ($20K+ to $10K)
• Lowered Insurance AR over 90 days from nearly 35% to just 4.09% (88% improvement)
• Consistently submitting approximately 200 clean claims per month
• Posting approximately $40K in payments monthly
• Maintained an average collection rate of 101%

A Practice Hit by Crisis After Crisis

Julie and her husband purchased Southern Dental Group in 2020, but between COVID, staff turnover, and natural disasters shuttering their business, the practice struggled to stay afloat.

As staff members left, Southern Dental Group lost the team members who previously handled insurance billing and accounts receivable.

“Everyone that had experience with insurance billing was gone,” Julie said. “The billing and checking up on everything had just kind of gone by the wayside.”

Before partnering with Wisdom, Southern Dental Group attempted to manage billing internally, but found that hiring experienced dental insurance staff proved nearly impossible.

“You can run ads all day long asking for people to come and apply,” Julie said. “It doesn’t mean that they’re going to come.”

And even when applicants did appear, they often lacked the knowledge the practice needed.

“It was pretty much a situation where I didn’t want to flounder around anymore,” she said. “This needed to be done. I need to go to people that know what they’re doing to help us out.”

Finding Wisdom Through Trust

Julie first heard about Wisdom through dental industry expert and Wisdom partner Teresa Duncan.

“I was watching one of her videos and she had mentioned Wisdom as a resource,” Julie said.

Initially, Southern Dental Group wasn’t ready to move forward financially, but after another staffing change left the practice without anyone managing billing, Julie knew they needed support.

“If I’m going to have to manage this, I’m going to need help,” she said. “So I called Wisdom and they stepped in and it’s been such a blessing.”

One concern many practices have about outsourcing billing is whether an outside team can truly feel integrated into day-to-day operations, and for Julie, that concern quickly evaporated.

“It’s almost like she’s in a different room,” Julie said about working with her Wisdom billing lead, Brittany. “I don’t picture her in a different state somewhere. She’s part of the team.”

Julie and Brittany communicate constantly throughout the week, discussing claims, adjustments, insurance questions, and workflows.

“Brittany has been my saving grace,” Julie said. “We talk almost daily.”

It feels like I have somebody sitting on a computer over there that I can send an email to real quickly and they will get back to me quickly to answer all my questions,” she explained.

Better Organization, Better Collections

“[Before Wisdom,] I dreaded anything having to do with billing and AR and insurance,” she admitted. “I didn’t want to fool around with it.”

But instead of simply handing everything off to Wisdom, Julie uses the partnership as an opportunity to learn.

“This experience has made me kind of delve into the world of insurance and say, okay, well what about this? How does this work?”

Now, she actively participates in the process and feels empowered to better understand the business side of the practice.

“Nobody else is going to look out for my company but me,” Julie said. “I have to know how it works.”

Since working with Wisdom, Southern Dental Group has noticed an improvement in operational visibility. “Everything’s accessible,” she shared.

Julie especially appreciates the shared spreadsheets and centralized systems that allow her to quickly track payments, AR, EFTs, and insurance activity.

“It’s very helpful to have everything at your fingertips without having to go and run reports,” she said.

Most importantly, collections improved to an average rate of 101%.

“Checks are coming in,” Julie said simply.

For a practice that spent years wondering where the money was going, that visibility has been transformational.

“I’m no longer saying, okay, where’s all the money?” Julie said. “Because the money is coming in.”

Looking Ahead

Today, Southern Dental Group continues to grow while navigating increasingly complex cases like full-arch restorations and All-on-X procedures. Julie is still learning, still asking questions, and still building systems that will support the practice long term.

But now, she has a team behind her.

“If in doubt, do it,” Julie said about outsourcing billing support to Wisdom. “I just can’t speak highly enough of what they’ve done for us the past few months. It’s made such a difference.”

And after years of instability, that difference means everything.

“The fact that you could do it without a long-term contract is pretty much a no brainer,” she said. “Give it a try, let them come in for a couple of months, see how it works for you.”