Which insurance payers Amy can verify

Amy verifies eligibility with hundreds of dental and medical payers in real time through Valian's clearinghouse connection — the same national network your billing team already relies on. That covers the carriers you see every day and the long tail of regional and employer plans, so most patients are verified the moment they give a member ID.

How Amy finds the right payer

Every carrier has a unique payer ID — the routing address the request is sent to. When Amy takes a patient's insurance on a call, or when you type it into Plan basics, she matches the carrier name to Valian's payer directory and picks the correct payer ID for you. You'll see both the carrier name and its payer ID on the plan, so you can confirm the match at a glance.

Because the directory is keyed on the payer, not just the brand name, Amy can tell apart plans that share a parent company — which matters more than most people expect (see the note on dental vs. medical below).

Real-time for most, flagged for the rest

• Reachable electronically (most payers). The eligibility request goes out and the full benefits breakdown comes back in seconds. This is the normal path.
• Partial responders. Some payers confirm the patient is eligible but don't return every benefit detail electronically. Amy shows what came back and marks the rest as unknown rather than guessing — see Reading the eligibility breakdown.
• Not reachable electronically. A small number of plans — often niche or self-funded ones — can't be checked online at all. Amy flags these for your team in What needs to get done so someone can verify them by phone, and nothing silently falls through.

Carriers you'll recognize

The directory spans the major national carriers and thousands of their plan variants — for example Delta Dental, Cigna, Aetna, MetLife, Guardian, UnitedHealthcare, Ameritas, Principal, Humana, the Blue Cross Blue Shield family, and Medicare. This is a sample, not the full list; if a patient names a smaller regional or employer plan, it's very likely in the directory too.

Dental and medical are separate payers

A carrier's dental arm and medical arm usually have different payer IDs, even though they share a logo. "Aetna Dental" and "Aetna Medical," for instance, route to different places. If a check fails with the details looking correct, the wrong arm of the carrier is a common culprit — reselect the dental payer and re-verify. More on this in A verification failed — what do I do?.

When a carrier won't match

If Amy can't line a plan up with the right payer, or a check keeps failing:

Frequently asked questions

Does Valian support medical insurance, or only dental? Both. The directory includes dental, medical, and Medicare payers. For a dental practice, the vast majority of checks are dental plans, but medical and Medicare coverage verify through the same real-time path.

A patient's small local plan isn't showing up — is it supported? Very likely. Type the carrier name in Plan basics and let Amy match it. If it truly isn't reachable electronically, she'll flag it for a quick phone verification rather than leave you guessing.

Why did a check come back as a partial response? That payer confirmed eligibility but didn't return the full benefit detail electronically. Re-verify in a few minutes, or call the number on the back of the card for the missing pieces.

My carrier isn't in the directory at all — what now? Tell us. Submit a ticket from the Help Center or email help@valiansystems.com with the carrier name and payer ID from the patient's card, and we'll get it added.