“NovoHealth Dental has demonstrated that its pre-emptive claim quality assurance checks, reliable fraud detection, and accurate clinical assessments can deliver significant ROI,” said Jim Hinkle. “With the platform’s ability to securely and successfully analyze millions of claims flowing through high-volume, real-time environments, NovoHealth Dental is the right AI for U.S. dental insurers who want and need the best-in-class, enterprise-scale dental AI solution.”

Jim has an outstanding track record in helping customers succeed with performance improvement, digital transformation, and healthcare analytics technologies. He joins NovoDynamics after serving for half a decade as Senior Vice President of Sales for Health Data Management Solutions, a CVS Health/Aetna Health Analytics Company, and several years as VP of Business Development for Philips Consulting. Over the course of his career in the healthcare industry, Jim has held leadership positions with responsibilities ranging from Strategic Operations to Strategic Partnerships. Jim currently serves as a Board Member for the Integrated Benefits Institute, a non-profit that provides unbiased research and insights to help employers and providers make health decisions that positively impact the “3Ps”: people, productivity, and performance.

According to David Rock, Chairman and CEO of NovoDynamics, “NovoHealth Dental has been proven at major U.S. dental insurance companies, so we are well positioned for continued growth. We look forward to having Jim apply his expertise to expand our customer and partner relationships.”

Jim earned his Master of Health Administration (MHA) from the Medical University of South Carolina, specializing in Operations and Financial Health System Management, and his BA in Political Science from the College of Charleston, focusing on International Relations, Middle Eastern Politics, International Conflict, and War and Diplomacy.

About NovoDynamics, Inc.

NovoDynamics provides artificial intelligence (AI) solutions that address critical healthcare challenges, save payers and providers time and money, and help improve the quality of care for patients. The NovoDynamics® NovoHealth® Dental platform analyzes dental insurance claims in real time, delivers accurate clinical assessments, helps deter fraud, waste, and abuse, and supports more consistent plan payments. NovoDynamics, an In-Q-Tel portfolio company, has been applying its proven AI expertise and advanced image processing technology to solve complex problems for governments, commercial enterprises, and academic institutions since 2001. For more information, follow NovoDynamics on LinkedIn or visit NovoDynamics.com.

FEATURED IMAGE CREDIT: Miguel Á. Padriñán from Pexels.com.

“HITRUST Certification is just one of the many ways we are leading our industry,” said NovoDynamics CEO David Rock. “NovoDynamics’ best-in-class dental AI solutions streamline dental insurance claim reviews to benefit payers, providers, and patients alike. NovoHealth Dental’s unparalleled features include pre-emptive claim quality assurance checks, reliable fraud detection, and accurate clinical assessments. Plus, NovoHealth Dental has been proven to successfully analyze claims in a high-volume, real-time environment.”

“HITRUST r2 Certification demonstrates NovoDynamics is taking the most proactive approach to cybersecurity, data protection, and risk management,” said Bimal Sheth, Executive Vice President, Standards Development & Assurance Operations at HITRUST. “The HITRUST Assurance Program is rigorous and reliable because of the comprehensiveness of control requirements, depth of review, and consistency of oversight.”

About HITRUST r2 Certification

HITRUST Risk-based, 2-year (r2) Certified status demonstrates that the NovoDynamics NovoHealth Dental platform has met key regulations and industry-defined requirements and is appropriately managing risk. By including federal and state regulations, standards, and frameworks, and incorporating a risk-based approach, the HITRUST Assurance Program helps organizations address security and data protection challenges through a comprehensive and flexible framework of prescriptive and scalable security controls. During 2022 and 2023, more than 99.4% of HITRUST Certified environments proved resilient in fending off potential security breaches.

About NovoDynamics

NovoDynamics provides artificial intelligence (AI) solutions that address critical healthcare challenges, save payers and providers time and money, and help improve quality of care for patients. The company’s NovoHealth Dental platform analyzes dental insurance claims in real time; delivers accurate clinical assessments; helps deter fraud, waste, and abuse; and supports more consistent plan payments. NovoDynamics, an In-Q-Tel portfolio company, has been applying its proven AI expertise and advanced image processing technology to solve complex problems for governments, commercial enterprises, and academic institutions since 2001.

For more information, follow NovoDynamics on LinkedIn or visit NovoDynamics.com.

FEATURED IMAGE CREDIT: Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.

“NovoDynamics has a long track record of providing successful artificial intelligence solutions to governments and commercial enterprises, which differentiates it from others in the AI space,” said Howard Hoffen. “I’m eager to help support the company as it works to achieve its vision of becoming the leading AI solutions provider across the Dental industry, with expansion into the broader Healthcare market.”

According to David Rock, chairman and CEO of NovoDynamics, “Now that our Dental AI platform has been proven at major U.S. dental insurance companies, we’re well positioned for growth. We look forward to Howard Hoffen’s strategic guidance as we transition the company to the next level.”

About NovoDynamics, Inc.

NovoDynamics provides artificial intelligence (AI) solutions that address critical healthcare challenges, save payers and providers time and money, and help improve quality of care for patients. NovoDynamics, an In-Q-Tel portfolio company, has been applying its proven AI expertise and advanced image processing technology to solve complex problems for governments, commercial enterprises, and academic institutions since 2001. For more information, follow NovoDynamics on LinkedIn and Twitter (@NovoDynamics), or visit NovoDynamics.com.

FEATURED IMAGE CREDIT: Dizain/Shutterstock.com.

According to Dr. Borg, who has more than 30 years of experience as a clinician and dental director at one of the nation’s largest payers: “There’s a lot of buzz, today, about how AI can read x-rays and point out problems in a patient’s mouth, which may or may not all require immediate interventions. But quality care relies on more than diagnostics, at which most dentists are trained to excel. Dental practitioners need support to ensure the treatment plans they recommend will be accepted by patients who want to know how much of the cost their insurer will cover and how much out-of-pocket expense they will incur. When AI is purpose-built to improve insurance claim review, it evaluates whether the services meet the patient’s specific insurance plan guidelines, as well as whether they are necessary and appropriate.”

Dr. Borg’s presentation will incorporate real-world examples based on studies NovoDynamics has performed for several major U.S. dental insurers using the company’s AI-based NovoHealth dental platform, which has been in commercial use since 2019.

About NovoDynamics

NovoDynamics provides artificial intelligence (AI) solutions that address critical healthcare challenges, save payers and providers time and money, and help improve quality of care for patients. NovoDynamics, an In-Q-Tel portfolio company, has been applying its proven AI expertise and advanced image processing technology to solve complex problems for governments, commercial enterprises, and academic institutions since 2001.

For more information, follow NovoDynamics on LinkedIn and Twitter (@NovoDynamics), or visit NovoDynamics.com.

This novel technology is part of the NovoDynamics NovoHealth Dental solution, supporting clinician and payer decisions with objective, statistically driven disease assessments. NovoHealth Dental has been shown to meet or exceed the performance of committees of periodontists examining the same evidence.

Filed in 2019, the patent describes methods and systems that were incorporated and further developed in the NovoHealth Dental platform, which automatically analyzes dental insurance claims in real time; delivers accurate clinical assessments; uncovers fraud, waste, and abuse to effectively eliminate “pay and chase;” and efficiently streamlines claim review to accelerate reimbursement.

The NovoHealth Dental Periodontitis Disease Assessment module can achieve high-quality results even when only low-quality or non-diagnostic quality radiograph images are available. It pinpoints affected sites, assesses severity, and determines whether claimed procedures meet the patient’s dental insurance plan reimbursement criteria.

Periodontitis (a.k.a. gum disease) can damage soft tissue and erode bone that supports the teeth. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly half of U.S. adults have periodontal disease. While less-severe disease can be addressed with diligent at-home oral hygiene, professional intervention may be indicated for more severe cases.

“Evaluating claims for periodontal services such as scaling and root planing, and even gum surgery, can be time consuming and particularly challenging,” says Dr. Joseph Borg, DDS, Dental Director at NovoDynamics. “Because radiographs submitted with insurance claims are often of poor quality, identifying bone loss and other pathologies can be difficult, potentially delaying patient treatment, insurance claim adjudication, and population-based healthcare planning.”

To address the numerous challenges inherent in computer-aided periodontal disease assessment, the NovoDynamics patent draws on the company’s wealth of experience and expertise solving complex problems by applying its proprietary technologies and employing sophisticated techniques such as federated database retrieval, data normalization, advanced image processing, pattern recognition, predictive analytics, machine learning, and much more.

Built with this powerful intellectual property, the NovoHealth Dental Periodontal Disease Assessment module rapidly recognizes and classifies insurance claim attachments, discerning between radiographs, photographs, periodontal charts, and narratives such as practitioner notes or correspondence. It automatically extracts relevant images and labels each x-ray according to view type (bitewing, periapical, or panoramic), tooth type, and location. It quickly identifies key anatomical structures and uses AI-driven statistical models to assess bone loss and to calculate the number of teeth affected per quadrant for coding review purposes.

NovoDynamics CEO David Rock suggests, “Accurate, reliable, consistent technology like the patented periodontal disease assessment and decision support tool we’ve built into NovoHealth Dental not only improves quality of care, it fosters goodwill among payers, providers, and patients. That kind of trust is essential to ensuring quality healthcare is not only accessible but is also embraced.”

About NovoDynamics

NovoDynamics provides artificial intelligence (AI) solutions that address critical healthcare challenges, save payers and providers time and money, and help improve quality of care for patients.

NovoDynamics, an In-Q-Tel portfolio company, has been applying its proven AI expertise and advanced image processing technology to solve complex problems for governments, commercial enterprises, and academic institutions since 2001.

For more information, follow NovoDynamics on LinkedIn and Twitter (@NovoDynamics), or visit NovoDynamics.com.

“This partnership brings together two best-in-class solutions,” said Vyne Dental President, Steve Roberts. “NovoDynamics has an extensive track record of deploying successful AI solutions across world-class enterprises and its NovoHealth Dental solution has already analyzed hundreds of millions of insurance claims and demonstrated impressive ROI for some of our largest customers. By integrating our systems, we’re offering a turnkey solution for payers and providers of all sizes to gain value from leading-edge AI.”

Payers Can Streamline Workflow, Optimize Resources, and Maximize Savings

NovoHealth Dental automatically pre-checks every claim to help ensure submissions are complete, prior to payer review. It integrates payer-specific plan guidelines so the AI can automatically assess whether all required claim information and documentation are provided, including appropriate radiographs showing the relevant anatomical structures. NovoHealth Dental triggers timely claim quality alerts so dental offices can quickly correct any claim submission errors or omissions.

This preemptive claim quality assurance reduces administrative time and effort and alleviates payer-provider friction.

With its accurate clinical analysis, disease assessment, and cross-payer error detection capabilities, the integrated offering distinguishes between clean, compliant claims that can be rapidly routed to the payer’s system for approval, versus claims warranting review.

NovoHealth Dental prioritizes review worklists based on payer-defined criteria including costs associated with flagged claims, detection confidence levels, and the availability of professional resources, all of which can be adjusted for optimum efficiency and effectiveness. NovoHealth Dental further enhances efficiency by presenting reviewers with annotated radiographs and associated claim data in a portal designed to expedite decision-making, and reporting can be configured to offer the most effective actionable insights.

“Vyne Dental has partnered with NovoDynamics to bring a first-of-its-kind, intelligent claim review workflow to the dental revenue cycle management ecosystem,” states Vyne Dental’s Chief Growth Officer, Vance Taylor. “By moving automated claim analysis up in the workstream, Vyne Dental is uniquely positioned to leverage AI to benefit both the payer and the dental provider, and exponentially increase the value of this next generation technology across our industry.”

Providers Gain Dental AI Access to Help Accelerate Claim Processing and Improve Cash Flow

The integration of NovoHealth Dental into Vyne Dental’s payer services portfolio makes the benefits of the latest dental AI technologies accessible at the point of claim submission, prior to transmitting files to the payer’s system.

The integrated platform does not require providers to install any new technology or change how they currently submit claims. By helping dental offices submit accurate, complete claims, and helping payers deliver accurate, consistent clinical review decisions, the Vyne Dental and NovoHealth Dental integration facilitates improved communication, builds trust and goodwill between providers and participating payers, and helps improve the efficiency and effectiveness of both sides of the claim transaction.

“By using AI to enhance the dental insurance claim submission, review, and adjudication workflow, we’re saving everyone time, effort, and money, and we’re helping to unify the entire dental ecosystem,” said NovoDynamics CEO David Rock. “This innovative partnership leverages the broad reach of Vyne Dental’s payer services to bring the benefits of NovoHealth Dental’s powerful AI and proven ROI to hundreds of payers, tens of thousands of providers, and ultimately millions of patients.”

About Vyne Dental

Vyne Dental is part of the Vyne family, an industry leader in end-to-end information exchange and communication management solutions for healthcare.

Vyne Dental helps dental practices manage their revenue cycle, send encrypted communications, and position their practices to thrive. Its solutions are used by more than 74,000 dental practices across the U.S. to streamline claims management and adjudication, determine patient eligibility and benefits, submit electronic claims attachments, eliminate paper forms, streamline secure electronic patient communication, and reduce missed appointments through electronic patient reminders.

Vyne Dental also partners with more than 800 dental plans and payers for the electronic delivery of claim documentation. Vyne Dental continuously strives to advance the dental industry by providing technology that improves workflows, decreases administrative costs, and improves reimbursements for service provided.

For more information, visit www.vynedental.com.

About NovoDynamics

NovoDynamics provides artificial intelligence (AI) solutions that address critical healthcare challenges, save payers and providers time and money, and help improve the quality of care for patients. The company’s NovoHealth Dental platform analyzes dental insurance claims in real time; delivers consistent, objective clinical assessments; helps deter fraud, waste, and abuse; and accelerates reimbursements.

NovoDynamics, an In-Q-Tel portfolio company, has been applying its proven AI expertise and advanced image processing technology to solve complex problems for governments, commercial enterprises, and academic institutions since 2001. For more information, follow NovoDynamics on LinkedIn and Twitter (@NovoDynamics), or visit NovoDynamics.com.

Vyne logos, products, and service names, including but not limited to, Vyne Dental and Vyne Trellis, mentioned herein are registered trademarks and are the property of National Electronic Attachment, Inc. and its respective affiliated entities. NovoDynamics and NovoHealth are registered trademarks of NovoDynamics, Inc.

FEATURED IMAGE CREDIT: Markus Winkler on Unsplash.

NovoDynamics has named Joseph Borg, DDS, its dental director. Borg is one of the dental insurance industry’s foremost experts in utilization management, quality assessment, and regulatory compliance, according to the company, which will help it grow and scale its NovoHealth Dental artificial intelligence (AI) platform.

Previously, Borg was dental director for the past 11 years at Delta Dental of California (DDCA), where he had worked for a total of 20 years. DDCA is one of the largest dental insurers in the United States, with more than 22 million enrollees, NovoDynamics said.

Borg worked in private practice before joining DDCA. He received his California dental license in 1990 after earning a DDS from the University of Southern California.

“I’ve spent most of my career, to date, working to make claim review more efficient and effective for payers and ensuring appropriate care is delivered. I joined NovoDynamics because I recognized that NovoHealth Dental is the most advanced AI-enabled claim review system on the market today,” Borg said.

“I’m eager to help the company realize its vision of using AI to provide real-time dental claim review and processing. This is the direction dentistry is going. I look forward to working with the company to make a positive impact on the entire dental ecosystem,” Borg said.

Borg will report to NovoDynamics CEO and board chair David Rock.

“We’re thrilled that Dr. Borg has chosen to join the NovoHealth Dental team,” said Rock. “His extensive knowledge of dental payer operations and clinical claim review will help NovoDynamics continue to successfully develop and deploy leading-edge AI products for the dental industry.”

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