Track licenses, revalidations, and expirables

A dental support organization (DSO) and its professional entities may track hundreds of deadlines across entities, dentists, and payers. A lapsed license, CAQH attestation, or Medicaid revalidation can interrupt billing. This guide builds a central tracking system.

What has to be tracked

Per dentist

Item	Cadence	Lead time
State dental license	1–3 years, per state	60 days
DEA registration	3 years	60 days
State controlled substance registration	Varies	60 days
Sedation / anesthesia permit, where held	Per state board	90 days
Specialty board certification, where held	Per board	90 days
CAQH attestation	~120 days	14 days
Malpractice coverage	Annual	60 days
Continuing education hours	Per state board renewal cycle	90 days
CPR/BLS certification, where the board requires it	2 years	30 days

Track credentials for the rest of the clinical team in the same system. These may include hygienist and assistant licenses, radiography credentials, and local-anesthesia certifications where the state issues them.

Per dentist per payer

Item	Cadence	Lead time
Commercial recredentialing for each carrier and each Delta member company separately	~3 years	90 days
Dental benefit administrator (DBA) recredentialing	~3 years	90 days

Per entity

Item	Cadence	Lead time
Medicaid revalidation	At least 5 years, state-specific	90 days
Medicare revalidation, if enrolled	5 years (3 for DMEPOS)	90 days
DSO registration renewal, where the state requires one	Per state (e.g. Texas: annual)	60 days
Payer contract renewal / fee schedule review	Annual	90 days
State annual report	Annual, per state	60 days
Franchise tax	Annual, per state	30 days
Registered agent renewal	Annual	30 days
Business licenses	Varies	30 days
Radiography equipment registration, where required	Varies by state	60 days

Several states require a role-specific DSO, manager, business-entity, or owner registration with annual or periodic renewal. See Register a DSO for the applicable categories.

Ongoing, monthly

Check
OIG LEIE exclusion screening, all staff and contractors
SAM.gov debarment screening
State Medicaid exclusion lists
License status spot-check

The two highest-risk items

CAQH attestation expires roughly every 120 days and, when it lapses, makes profiles invisible to payers mid-credentialing. It is the highest-frequency item on this page and the one most often missed.Medicaid revalidation notices go to the enrollment correspondence address on file with the state. Dental benefit administrators may run separate recredentialing cycles. Monitor every address and portal because a missed notice can lead to termination. Groups that bill Medicare should also check due dates in the Medicare Revalidation Lookup Tool instead of waiting for a PECOS notice.

Build the system

Choose the tool honestly

Scale	Tool
1–5 dentists, 1 entity	Spreadsheet plus calendar reminders
5–20 dentists, 1–3 entities	Spreadsheet plus a task system, or entry-level credentialing software
20+ dentists, or 3+ entities	Credentialing software

Consider a credentialing system once the grid reaches several hundred rows or the team can no longer review changes and exceptions reliably.

Structure the record

Six columns minimum: Item · Entity or person · Jurisdiction or payer · Due date · Lead time · Owner.Add status and a last-verified date. Give each Delta member company and dental benefit administrator its own row for each state.

Set alerts on lead time, not due date

A reminder on the due date is a reminder you’re late. Use the lead times above.

Assign a named owner per row

“Operations” is not an owner. A person is. Include a backup for anything whose lapse stops revenue.

Review monthly

Add “review the next 60 days of the compliance calendar” to the month-end close checklist.

Verify rather than assume

Each quarter, compare a sample with primary sources such as the dental board’s license lookup, the state Medicaid portal, and CAQH. The check can catch data-entry mistakes in the grid.

Add every new hire and new entity on day one

Add a dentist before their start date. For an acquisition, build the new practice’s rows during diligence so deadlines are already assigned at closing.

Recovering from a lapse

Lapse	Immediate action
Dental license expired	Stop the dentist from practicing. Renew immediately. Assess claims billed during the lapse: they may be unbillable and may need to be refunded.
CAQH attestation lapsed	Re-attest immediately; notify payers with pending applications
Medicaid or DBA revalidation missed	Submit immediately; termination is possible and reinstatement may not be retroactive
Malpractice lapsed	Stop clinical work until reinstated; notify payers if coverage falls below their minimums
DEA expired	Stop prescribing controlled substances immediately
Sedation permit expired	Stop sedation cases immediately; reschedule or refer
Recredentialing missed	Contact the payer; you may be terminated from the network
Annual report missed	File immediately with any late fee, before administrative dissolution

A lapsed license means claims for services during the lapse may be unbillable, and services already paid may be subject to refund. Discovering an overpayment starts the 60-day report-and-return clock for Medicaid (and Medicare, where you participate). See Report and return overpayments.

Verify it worked

Every item above is in the tracking system
Delta member companies and DBAs tracked as separate rows per state
Alerts set on lead time, not due date
Named owner and backup per row
Monthly review is part of the close checklist
Quarterly primary-source spot-check running
Enrollment correspondence addresses monitored by a named person
Monthly exclusion screening documented
New hires, new entities, and acquired practices added at onboarding

Common failure modes

Failure	Consequence
Spreadsheet outgrown but not replaced	Rows silently missed
Alerts on the due date	Always late
No named owner	Nobody acts
Delta tracked as one payer	A member company’s recredentialing missed
Correspondence addresses unmonitored	Terminated enrollments discovered via denials
Exclusion screening at hire only	Post-hire exclusion undetected
Acquired practice’s expirables never loaded	A whole location’s obligations tracked by nobody
Grid never verified against primary sources	Records what was entered, not what’s true

Formation & Corporate

Agreements

Credentialing & Payer Enrollment

Billing Operations

Patient Payments & Membership Plans

Acquisitions & Growth

Banking & Finance

Compliance Tasks

Track licenses, revalidations, and expirables

What has to be tracked

Per dentist

Per dentist per payer

Per entity

Ongoing, monthly

The two highest-risk items

Build the system

Recovering from a lapse

Verify it worked

Common failure modes

​What has to be tracked

​Per dentist

​Per dentist per payer

​Per entity

​Ongoing, monthly

​The two highest-risk items

​Build the system

​Recovering from a lapse

​Verify it worked

​Common failure modes

What has to be tracked

Per dentist

Per dentist per payer

Per entity

Ongoing, monthly

The two highest-risk items

Build the system

Recovering from a lapse

Verify it worked

Common failure modes