Enter a few numbers about your practice and get an estimate of what's likely being underpaid or lost to denials — based on Elva's own claims data.
Most of what a practice loses to insurance doesn't show up as a single event. It's a percentage of every claim that goes out slightly underpaid, and a share of every denial that never gets appealed. This calculator estimates both, for your specific practice size and claim mix.
The gap this calculator estimates isn't a rounding error — it's a structural, growing feature of dental insurance, not a one-off inefficiency.
Since Jan 2021
Since January 2021, dental reimbursement rates have risen just 19% while inflation has run 27% — a gap that hasn't closed.
Source: ADA Health Policy Institute, "The State of the U.S. Dental Economy," Q2 2026 Update. Accessed Aug 17, 2026.
Payers are responding to pressure too, not just practices: more than 100 dental insurance reform bills were introduced across 37 states in the 2026 legislative session alone — much of it targeting the downcoding and denial practices that create the exact gap this calculator measures.
Source: American Dental Association, "State dental insurance reforms continue momentum in 2026 legislative sessions." Accessed Aug 17, 2026.
A widening reimbursement gap and an accelerating regulatory response point the same direction: this money is real, it's growing, and most of it goes untracked.
Elva's own analysis identifies approximately 3% of total insurance billing volume in underpayments, recovering an estimated 70% of what's found. On denials, Elva's appeal process recovers an additional 35% of denied claims value that would otherwise go unappealed.
Source: Elva product data, Elva claims data, H1 2026.
This estimate runs on two figures, both from Elva's own claims data:
The share of your total insurance billing volume that Elva's payment audit typically identifies as underpaid relative to the contracted rate, adjusted for how much of that gets successfully recovered.
The share of your denied claims value that Elva's appeal process typically recovers, on top of whatever your practice already recovers manually.
Both figures scale with the practice size, claim value, and denial rate you enter above — this isn't a flat industry average applied to every practice the same way.
This is an estimate, not a guarantee. Actual results vary by payer mix, procedure mix, and your practice's existing billing processes. Book a demo to see this run against your actual claims data, not just an estimate.
Yes — it's based on the numbers you enter: claim volume, average claim value, and denial rate. Actual recovery still depends on your specific payer relationships and claim history, which is why it's an estimate rather than a guarantee.
The portion of your insurance billing that is likely being paid below the contracted rate — the kind of gap Elva's Denials Management and Accounts Receivable tools are built to catch and resolve.
Revenue tied to denied claims that can realistically be recovered through appeal, based on your current denial rate and Elva's appeal-recovery rate.
No — this is a self-serve estimate based on the numbers you enter, not a live analysis of your practice's real claims. Book a demo to see Elva run against your actual data.
Elva's pricing is discussed directly with your practice, since it depends on your specific size and needs. Book a demo for real numbers.
It's not a flat average applied to every practice — the estimate scales with the claim volume, claim value, and denial rate you actually enter, so two practices of different sizes get different numbers.
Since 2021, reimbursement has risen 19% while inflation has run 27%, per the ADA Health Policy Institute — a gap that's widened every year and shows no sign of closing.
It's accelerating. More than 100 dental insurance reform bills were introduced across 37 states in the 2026 legislative session alone, much of it aimed directly at the denial and downcoding practices this calculator measures.
This calculator is one piece of a connected revenue cycle. The rest:
Book a demo and Elva will run this analysis against your actual claims — not an estimate.
