Questions that actually block this
Answered plainly, including the ones where the honest answer is "ask us."
Do I need an account?
No, and the person you send it to never does either. Only someone who wants to come back and see their own history has any reason to make one, and that is optional. Answering a referral requires no login, no password and no install.
Do I need Epic, or any hospital system?
No. ReferralRight is a neutral third party record that connects to whatever you already use. It does not live inside your hospital system, it is not owned by one, and it does not need an interface built. That is deliberate: a record that one health system owns is a record the other side has a reason to distrust.
What does it cost?
Nothing, for every party on the loop, permanently. Coordinators, physicians and dentists.
Can the dental office reply by fax?
Yes. Fax carries the link and the reference number, and the completed record faxes back as a PDF. Fax is the channel with no adoption cost, which is why it is supported rather than argued with. The difference is that here a fax has a clock attached and an arrival that gets recorded.
Is this a CMS form?
No. CMS published no instrument for this exchange. ReferralRight documents coordination between a physician and a dentist. It does not determine coverage, does not submit a claim, and is not endorsed by CMS or the ADA. Leg one is modeled on the ADA sample referral form and credits it.
What exactly does the payment rule say?
The CY2023 Physician Fee Schedule preamble at 87 FR 69673 describes payment for dental services inextricably linked to covered medical care, with a documented exchange of information between the treating physician and the dentist. The KX modifier attests the requirements are met. Per CR 13649 contractors may deny claims submitted without it for claims received on or after January 1, 2025, and it is mandatory for claims received on or after July 1, 2025. We state both dates because the versions in circulation get one or the other wrong.
What goes in Box 35?
The referring physician’s name and Medicare PIN, in Box 35 Remarks of the 2024 ADA Dental Claim Form or the equivalent 837D field. It is one line, it is the step most often missed, and the completed record prints it where the dental biller will see it.
Do I need a business associate agreement?
This record holds protected health information, so a covered entity using it in production should have one in place. Ask before you send real patient data, and we will tell you plainly where we stand rather than pointing at a policy page.
The link opens patient information. How is that safe?
The link alone is not enough. Opening a record also requires the patient’s date of birth, which the intended recipient already has on the referral they received and which never travels in the link. A forwarded link therefore opens nothing. Wrong answers are counted and the link closes after five, every attempt is recorded with the time and the address it came from, and the link stops working after its own expiry.
What if the link expires or closes?
Ask whoever sent it for a new one. The record and its deadline are unchanged, and nothing is lost. An expired link is never a dead end.
Can I check the status without the link?
Yes. Use the reference number that starts with RR and the patient’s date of birth. It tells you whether the loop is open or closed and how many days are left, and it shows no clinical detail.
Can I just start using this on my own?
Yes. One coordinator and one patient is the whole requirement. There is nothing to install, nothing to sign and nothing to buy, so there is nothing to arrange before the next case on your desk. The dental office does not have to join anything either. If it turns out not to help you, stop using it and nothing is left behind.
What do I actually get out of doing this?
The number. After a handful of referrals you can say how many went out, how many came back signed, how long they took, and how many are sitting open past the date the patient needed to be ready. Nothing counts that today, which is why it is usually answered from memory. The numbers are yours to keep, print and pass on to anyone who asks how referrals are going.
Is anyone going to ask me to pay later?
Not for this. The record, the clock, the return leg and your own numbers are free and stay free, for every party on the loop. Guident sells other software to practices and organizations, and if a health system later wants every coordinator’s loops in one view it can ask us about that. Nothing about it changes what you are using or costs you anything.
Who is behind this?
Guident. ReferralRight is the free coordination record and stays free. Guident sells other software to practices, and nothing about that is a condition of using this.
Start a referralCheck a referral status
Why this record exists. Medicare payment for dental services that are inextricably linked to a covered medical service depends on a documented exchange of information between the treating physician and the dentist (CY2023 Physician Fee Schedule preamble, 87 FR 69673). The KX modifier attests that the linkage requirements are met. Per CR 13649 contractors may deny claims submitted without it for claims received on or after January 1, 2025, and the modifier is mandatory for claims received on or after July 1, 2025.
CMS published no instrument for this exchange. The ADA publishes a one way sample referral form whose return leg is a single checkbox reading "Written or Faxed Report from Dental Office / None," with no defined format. No CMS, ADA, HL7, X12 or specialty society standard defines what the dentist sends back. That undefined return leg is what this builds.
ReferralRight is not a CMS instrument and not a claim. It documents coordination. It does not determine coverage, submit a claim, or replace clinical judgment. The dentist must be enrolled in Medicare before providing the linked dental service.
ReferralRight is free to every party on the loop: coordinators, physicians and dentists. There is no paid tier of this record and no participant is excluded.