Claims · Updated 2026-09-09 · 6 min read
How long do I have to file a dental claim?
Filing deadlines in published dental provider manuals run from 95 days to 24 months. Every row here is quoted from a named carrier or public-programme document.
There is no industry answer, and a practice with a mixed payer book cannot run one rule. Published dental provider manuals put the deadline for the same act — sending a claim — anywhere from 95 days to 24 months, and the same carrier routinely runs different numbers on its commercial, federal and Medicaid books. The table below is quoted from carrier-wide, network and public-programme documents, each named. Three things make a plain list wrong: some documents state a soft target and a hard cutoff in the same paragraph, a secondary claim's clock can start at the primary plan's payment, and one large carrier publishes no number at all.
What we measured
Denied dental claim lines by reason, measured September 2026 across 37 dental practices and more than 170 payers. Timely filing is famous and rare.
| reason | denied lines | practices | payers | share of all denials |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Timely filing expired | 99 | 9 | 12 | 0.2% |
| Claim submission error | 634 | 24 | 19 | 1.0% |
| Patient not eligible on the date of service | 1,908 | 31 | 98 | 2.9% |
Ninety-nine lines across nine practices is a small number, and it is small partly because offices already treat filing as urgent. It is also the kind of denial that is almost never recoverable, which is a poor trade for how rare it is.
What the carriers' own documents say
| Carrier or network | Filing deadline | Document |
|---|---|---|
| BCBS South Carolina — State Dental and Dental Plus | 24 months | BCBS South Carolina Dental Provider Administrative Office Manual |
| BCBS South Carolina — FEP Dental / Medicare Advantage / Blue Secure | 12 months | same manual |
| BCBS Michigan — commercial | 24 months | BCBS Michigan Dental Provider Manual |
| BCBS FEP Dental (FEDVIP) | 24 months | 2026 BCBS FEP Dental Brochure (FEDVIP) |
| Delta Dental of Arizona | 15 months | Individual Plan Select Dental sample policy |
| MetLife FEDVIP | 13 months | MetLife Federal Dental Plan 2026 FEDVIP Brochure (OPM) |
| Delta Dental of New Jersey | 1 year, or the primary's payment if later | Delta Dental of New Jersey 2023 Participating Dentist Handbook |
| Delta Dental of California — federal programmes | 12 months | Federal Government Programs Dental Office Handbook 2026 |
| UnitedHealthcare — commercial | no number published; see your Participation Agreement | UnitedHealthcare 2026 Care Provider Administrative Guide |
| UnitedHealthcare — Healthplex NY commercial | 180 days; government claims 90 days | UHC Healthplex Commercial PPO and DentCare Provider Manual |
| United Concordia — TRICARE Dental Program | 12 months | TRICARE Dental Program Handbook Supplement |
| Cigna DPPO | 180 days, with a footnoted variance | Cigna DPPO Dental Office Reference Guide |
| Aetna — New York | 120 days, reconsideration to 365 days | Aetna Provider Manual State Supplement, January 2026 |
| GEHA FEDVIP | 90 days requested, hard cutoff 31 December of the following year | 2026 GEHA Plan Manual for Dental Providers |
| Humana FEDVIP | 1 year | 2026 Humana Dental FEDVIP Brochure |
| Liberty Dental Plan | 45 days encouraged, 365 days to resubmit | Liberty Dental Plan National (All States) Provider Reference Guide 2025 |
| Keystone First (PA HealthChoices) | 180 calendar days; resubmission 365; COB 60 days | 2025 Keystone First Provider Manual |
| Alabama Medicaid | 1 year | Alabama Medicaid Provider Manual, Chapter 13 Dentist, October 2025 |
| Wisconsin Medicaid / BadgerCare | in-network 120 days, out-of-network 365 | MHS Health Wisconsin 2025 Medicaid Provider Manual |
| TennCare Adult | 120 days | Renaissance TennCare Provider Manual, Adults, v8, November 2025 |
| UHC Community Plan — Texas CHIP and STAR | 95 days | UHC Community Plan Texas CHIP/STAR Care Provider Manual 2026 |
| Buckeye MyCare Ohio (Medicare-Medicaid) | 365 days | Ohio MMP (Buckeye) Envolve Dental Plan Specifics 2023 |
| Envolve Dental — Indiana Medicaid | 90 calendar days | Envolve Indiana Provider Manual |
Three sentences from those documents are worth reading in the carrier's own words. The first gives no number at all.
"Refer to your internal contracting contact or Participation Agreement for timely filing information." (UnitedHealthcare 2026 Care Provider Administrative Guide)
"A completed claim form or pre-treatment voucher requesting payment for services completed must be received by Delta Dental within one year from the date of service or, provided it was timely submitted to the primary carrier, the receipt of payment from a primary plan (where there is coordination of benefits), whichever is later." (Delta Dental of New Jersey 2023 Participating Dentist Handbook)
"Keystone First will not grant exceptions to the Claim filing timeframes outlined in this section. Failure to comply with these timeframes will result in the denial of all Claims filed after the filing deadline." (2025 Keystone First Provider Manual)
Why it depends on the contract
Every number above belongs to one document and one product line, and none of them generalises. Cigna's own guide runs a 180-day national default, asterisked to a variance footnote, with state carve-outs; Aetna's New York supplement adds a reconsideration window at a reduction that disappears entirely at 365 days. A carrier name is not a deadline.
Liberty Dental Plan says the quiet part plainly in its national guide: timely filing "may vary based on the plan in accordance with your Provider Agreement and applicable laws, and as indicated on your Explanation of Payment." The real deadline is on the remittance and in the agreement, not in the manual.
And a published number can move. Every deadline above belongs to a dated edition, and a manual that reprints a different number next year does it without telling the offices already working to the old one. A filing table that quietly goes stale is worse than no table.
What to do
- Keep the deadline per plan, per product, not per carrier. Two public-programme books in this table are 95 days in Texas and 365 in Ohio.
- When a document gives two numbers, work to the soft one and know the hard one. GEHA asks for 90 days and still pays until 31 December of the following year; Liberty encourages 45 and allows 365 to resubmit.
- Start the secondary claim's clock at the primary plan's payment where the contract says so, and check whether a separate, shorter window applies to coordination of benefits.
- File electronically where the carrier requires it. Some do not accept paper claims at all, and a mailed claim at a carrier that refuses paper is a claim that was never filed.
- Re-read the manual each plan year for the books you file most, and check the edition date against the one your deadline came from.
- When a claim is denied for late filing and you have proof of the original submission, send the proof — that is the one timely-filing appeal that works on its own facts.
Numbers last refreshed September 2026.