---
title: "What Is Revenue cycle? Dental Practice Glossary"
description: "The revenue cycle is every step from scheduling a visit through treatment, coding, billing and final payment, including follow-up on unpaid claims and patient..."
url: https://joncopeland.multisites.ai/glossary/revenue-cycle
publisher: Copeland Consulting Services
email: drcopeland@joncopelanddds.com
contact: https://joncopeland.multisites.ai/contact
---

Finance and valuation

# Revenue cycle

The revenue cycle is every step from scheduling a visit through treatment, coding, billing and final payment, including follow-up on unpaid claims and patient balances.

A paper in PMC defines revenue cycle management as tracking the payment process from patient scheduling through treatment, coding, billing and reimbursement. It adds that improving it can reduce the time between submission of claims and payment and increase cash flow. The same paper also notes that insurance payors have varied claim submission processes and can deny or underpay claims. A dental practice has the same steps: scheduling, verifying benefits, [dental billing](https://joncopeland.multisites.ai/glossary/dental-billing), filing a [dental claim](https://joncopeland.multisites.ai/glossary/dental-claim), posting payments and following up. Weak steps show up as high [accounts receivable](https://joncopeland.multisites.ai/glossary/accounts-receivable). The paper is not about dentistry, but the steps are alike.

[Next stepPractice consulting with Dr. Copeland](https://joncopeland.multisites.ai/contact?topic=consulting)

## Related terms

-   [Dental billing](https://joncopeland.multisites.ai/glossary/dental-billing)
-   [Dental claim](https://joncopeland.multisites.ai/glossary/dental-claim)
-   [Accounts receivable](https://joncopeland.multisites.ai/glossary/accounts-receivable)
-   [Days sales outstanding](https://joncopeland.multisites.ai/glossary/days-sales-outstanding)

## Sources

1.  [PMC, Revenue Cycle Management: The Art and the Science](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11219169/)

## Talk with Dr. Copeland

[Contact Dr. Copeland](https://joncopeland.multisites.ai/contact)[Email](mailto:drcopeland@joncopelanddds.com)