Dentrix Ascend Unveils Vision for Autonomous Revenue Cycle Management

AMERICAN FORK, Utah — July 16, 2026 — Henry Schein One, the global leader in dental software and A.I. technology, today unveiled the vision for its autonomous revenue cycle management in Dentrix Ascend (Ascend) and launched Claims Manager, a new claims dashboard for practices and Dental Service Organizations (DSOs), at the Dykema DSO Conference in Denver. The announcement lays out how Henry Schein One is bringing eligibility, claims, ERA reconciliation, and patient collections onto a single, flexible foundation built to support AI agents that increasingly do more work themselves.

Henry Schein One's technology already underpins the business of dentistry at scale: more than 100,000 locations globally, including approximately 90% of the top DSOs, run on its platforms, with Ascend installations more than tripling since January 2025. That momentum is showing up in industry recognition, too — Eligibility Pro, the AI agent already live inside Ascend, just won Gold in the 2026 Dental Innovator Awards for transforming insurance verification for dental practices.

The vision: one view of the full billing lifecycle, built to run itself

DSOs don't run revenue cycle management in one uniform way. Some centralize everything under one billing team; others manage it by region, by tax ID (TIN), or individual office level; most run some mix of all three. Ascend's RCM foundation is built around that reality: an organization-wide view of eligibility, claims, ERAs, and patient collections, with the flexibility to filter and work that view at whatever level matches how a DSO actually operates.

A clean single-location queue for an office biller results in:

• Time gained for higher importance tasks because organization-wide views allow centralized teams to spot trends that no single office could see on its own.
• Efficient billing operations because permissions — not separate systems — determine what each person sees, so DSOs can reorganize their billing operations without re-platforming.

Layered on top of that foundation is where the bigger shift happens: AI agents that do the underlying work automatically, surfacing only the exceptions that need a person. Henry Schein One already runs this model in production through Eligibility Pro and is extending it to claims, ERA reconciliation, and patient collections. The result: eligibility gets verified, claims get submitted, ERAs get reconciled, and patient balances get collected. Staff step in only when something needs human judgment.

“This new release of Ascend is a significant step forward in managing dentistry at scale. Centralization, flexibility, and org-wide visibility of RCM will enable customers to simplify, reduce costs, and improve time to cash. Combined with the Model Context Protocol (MCP) layer, this opens the path for AI agents to complete even more of the work.”

— Brian Weatherly, Chief Executive Officer, Henry Schein One

What's new for RCM workflows:

• Eligibility Pro — Award winning organization-wide exceptions dashboard. Eligibility Pro is live and verifying insurance automatically for Ascend customers, surfacing only what needs staff attention at each location — the same results that just earned it Gold in the 2026 Dental Innovator Awards. Launching now: an organization-wide exceptions dashboard, with the same filtering, so DSOs can decide who handles exceptions and staff only work the patients Eligibility Pro couldn't clear on its own.
• Claims Manager — organization-wide dashboard and queue to effectively handle all claims. Claims Manager gives billing teams an organization-wide dashboard and queue for every claim across every location, filterable by however the DSO is organized. It also supports assigning specific claims to specific staff, so centralized teams can divide work by payer, location, or claim type.
• ERAs — ERA reconciliation and three-way matching. Henry Schein One has already deployed ERA reconciliation for select clients, including three-way matching that reconciles the electronic remittance advice (ERA), the corresponding procedure on the patient ledger, and the EFT payment landing in the bank. This capability is expanding to all Ascend DSO customers in Q4 2026.
• Patient Collections — instantaneous patient statements in any format. Rounding out the revenue cycle, patient collections will handle sending patient statements with simple patient payment options.

What comes next: agents that do the work

Henry Schein One's roadmap moves each of these four workflows toward the same end state already live in Eligibility Pro: agents doing the repetitive work automatically, with staff dashboards evolving into exception queues. For claims specifically, the company is building toward an agent that works the claim from submission to full resolution, with staff getting involved only when a claim can't go out the door on its own.

New agents will also drive improved outcomes for eligibility and benefits, clean claims, denials and appeals, and underpayment recovery.

“Eligibility Pro has proved the model in thousands of offices already. Staff just aren't checking eligibility anymore, they're only working the handful of patients the agent flagged. That's exactly what we're building for claims, ERAs, and patient collections. The dashboards you see today are the foundation; the agents are what make them shrink down to just the exceptions.”

— Brian Weatherly, Chief Executive Officer, Henry Schein One

Open to build on: DSOs can create their own agents, too

Henry Schein One isn't only building these agents for customers, it's opening the same foundation for DSOs to build on their own. Through the Build layer of Ascend's MCP platform, DSOs can build their own custom agents, using their own data and business rules.

To show DSOs what that looks like in practice, Henry Schein One is hosting a hands-on vibe-coding workshop at the Dykema DSO Conference, where attendees build a working agent on the Ascend platform in real time. Demand for the session outpaced the room; it's already fully subscribed.

That impact is already showing up for customers.

“With Ascend, payments are being collected quicker, our revenue cycle is shorter, cash flow is improved, and we've reduced outstanding balances. The auto-verification and subscriber ID eligibility status checker have significantly enhanced our efficiency and accuracy, giving our teams greater confidence and preparedness for appointments and treatment planning. The intuitive insurance dashboard within the practice overview has helped our teams stay on top of unresolved claims, leading to improved turnaround times and more consistent timely filing. We've enhanced the entire financial experience for our patients and staff.”

— Alysha Znika, Director of Clinical Informatics, P1 Dental Partners

For more information, visit www.dentrixascend.com.