What changes for your practice, how leads flow to you, and how to make the most of your new credentialing status.
You are now credentialed with the VA Community Care Network, TriWest, and TRICARE West. That is a meaningful milestone, and it is also where the work begins. Credentialing alone will produce some Veteran referrals to your practice, because TDSS continually markets to Veteran communities and routes interested Veterans to local TDSS providers. The volume of those leads is not something we can fully control, and it varies. Some of our providers stay busy on credentialing alone. Others have grown their Veteran referrals significantly by taking a proactive role in the communities they already serve.
There are two paths to Veteran referrals once you are credentialed, and both are valid.
The reactive path is straightforward. Your name is now in the systems that VA, TriWest, and TRICARE use to identify community providers. Veterans searching for oral appliance therapy through these channels can be directed to your practice. We support this by marketing to the Veteran community on your behalf, capturing interested Veterans, and routing them to local providers. Some of our busiest providers have built their Veteran case volume entirely through this path.
The proactive path produces faster and more consistent growth. Providers who actively engage their VA referral sources, their local Veteran organizations, and their own patient communities consistently see higher referral volume than those who wait. The mechanics of HSRM, ID.me, and our billing support are the same either way; what differs is how many Veterans know to ask for you specifically.
Credentialing makes you findable. Proactive engagement makes you the first name a VA PCP suggests. Providers who introduce themselves to local VA primary care physicians, present at community Veteran events, and educate their existing patients about oral appliance therapy consistently outpace those who rely on credentialing alone. TDSS provides the marketing infrastructure; the relationships are yours to build.
Credentialing is the start, not the finish.
Eric Northey, CEO, Texas Dental Sleep ServicesProactive engagement happens in five overlapping arenas. None of them require a marketing background, and most providers find at least one that fits naturally with how they already practice.
VA-contracted PCPs and VA sleep physicians are the most direct source of community care referrals. A short letter, a one-page summary of your services, or a brief in-person visit can establish you as a known provider for oral appliance therapy. When a Veteran asks their PCP about alternatives to CPAP, you want your name to be the one that comes to mind.
Local VA health centers and hospitals serve large Veteran populations and often have dedicated sleep clinics or pulmonology departments. Establishing a relationship with the staff who triage sleep apnea care, including the schedulers and care coordinators, can produce a steady flow of community care referrals over time.
VFW posts, American Legion halls, and other Veteran service organizations are gathering places where Veterans share information about their healthcare. A short presentation, a community event, or a sponsored meal can put your name in front of dozens of Veterans at once. These audiences are highly networked and frequently refer one another.
Many of your existing patients are Veterans, even if you do not currently know which ones. A simple intake question or a small notice in your reception area is often enough to surface Veterans who would benefit from oral appliance therapy through their VA benefits. Patients who are already comfortable with your practice are some of the easiest Veteran cases to convert.
Every TDSS provider has a dedicated lead capture form on their TDSS find-a-doctor page. Veterans who find you through the TDSS website, a community event, or a presentation can submit their information directly to your practice. You can also request a custom QR code that links directly to your form, which is useful for printed handouts, business cards, posters at VFW or American Legion events, and signage in your office. To find your page and request your QR code, visit your listing on the TDSS find-a-doctor directory.
You can also direct interested Veterans to the Proactive Approach to VA Referrals expandable section on the TDSS VA Healthcare page, which walks them through how to request a community care referral to your practice.
TDSS focuses exclusively on dental sleep medicine, but from the perspective of VA, TriWest, and TRICARE, oral appliance therapy flows through medical referral pathways, not dental benefit pathways. When VA or TriWest sends a Veteran to your practice for oral appliance therapy, the authorization appears as a medical referral linked to your provider record.
This medical-pathway structure shapes how we support your practice. We coordinate the front end of the referral, verify authorizations against the planned course of care, and route every claim through DRN Billing under your TDSS program agreement. You focus on clinical care and timely documentation; we focus on aligning what you provide with what is authorized so that claims convert to payment.
Before a Veteran is scheduled for claimable services under a TDSS program, our team verifies the referral as part of our Verification of Benefits process. We confirm that the referral specifically authorizes oral appliance therapy or closely related services, that the dates and visit limits align with the planned course of care, and that the referral is correctly directed to your practice and to a TDSS-affiliated provider. This front-end validation is the single biggest factor in reducing denials and ensuring that the cases you treat actually pay.
All VA Community Care and TRICARE West dental sleep claims associated with TDSS programs are routed through DRN Billing. Your office does not submit claims directly to VA, TriWest, or TRICARE for these cases. This consistency matters: claims are submitted in a standardized format, follow-up is centralized, and the cases your team treats convert to payment without your office carrying the administrative load.
VA's HealthShare Referral Manager, known as HSRM, is the secure web-based portal that VA uses to manage every community care referral and authorization. For TDSS providers, HSRM is the central place where VA referrals appear, where appointments and documentation are tracked, and where the records that support payment are uploaded.
HSRM is not a replacement for your existing EMR or scheduling system. What it does is bridge your practice and VA, ensuring that the services you schedule and provide align with the authorizations VA has on file. TriWest's own provider guidance directs community providers to HSRM for reviewing referrals, uploading documentation, and submitting Requests for Services when additional care is needed.
For your practice, HSRM is where:
HSRM is the authoritative source for what VA has authorized. TDSS is your operational partner ensuring that what is authorized is properly documented, billed, and paid.
This is one of the most important operational details for your team to understand. Although you provide dental sleep medicine, VA does not categorize oral appliance therapy as a dental referral inside HSRM. Your VA cases appear as medical referrals.
This matters in three concrete ways. First, when your staff logs into HSRM, they should look for dental sleep medicine cases among the medical referrals, not under any dental category. Second, the clinical information attached to these cases will reference sleep medicine diagnoses, medical sleep studies, and medical benefit structures, even though the treatment itself is delivered by a dentist. Third, the documentation you upload, the codes used, and the claim format all follow medical conventions, not dental ones.
VA requires Single Sign-On External (SSOe) access for community providers logging into HSRM, and SSOe is powered by ID.me. Every individual who needs HSRM access at your practice, whether that is you personally, an office manager, or a designated staff member, must have their own verified ID.me account.
The setup sequence is consistent for every user. Each person completes the required HSRM training, creates an ID.me account at id.me/government, verifies their identity, and signs in to HSRM through the AccessVA portal. When TDSS submits your name and your team's names to VA on the End User Tracker, we use the exact email address tied to each person's ID.me account. Mismatched emails are the most common cause of HSRM access delays, so we ask you to confirm those addresses carefully when we set up access.
If you do not already have a verified ID.me account, this is the first technical step. We have prepared a step-by-step guide that walks you through the process. Create your ID.me account
Once you and your staff can sign in, HSRM becomes part of your operational rhythm. The portal should be checked at least weekly, and ideally more often, for new referrals, appointment confirmations, and documentation requirements. New medical referrals for oral appliance therapy will appear without notification, so a routine of checking HSRM is essential.
HSRM accounts that go unused for extended periods will be locked. Reactivating a locked account requires resubmission through VA and can take days or weeks. Make HSRM access a routine part of your week, even if only to confirm there are no new referrals waiting. Consistent access is the single easiest way to protect your participation in the program.
Coordinate internal scheduling, then ensure the appointment information is accurately reflected in the portal. Upload clinical documentation, including consult notes, appliance delivery notes, and follow-up reports, back into HSRM so that VA can confirm the services you provided.
Your team is responsible for accepting referrals, scheduling appointments, providing clinical care, and uploading documentation. TDSS and DRN Billing are responsible for verifying referral details and benefit structures before treatment, monitoring authorizations, submitting Requests for Services when additional care is needed, and managing the full claims life cycle. This shared structure means HSRM is the authoritative source for what is authorized, while TDSS is your operational partner ensuring that what is authorized is properly documented, billed, and paid.
Resources & Tools
TDSS Quick Guide
ID.me is the identity verification service VA uses to grant HSRM access. Each person at your practice who needs HSRM access must have their own verified ID.me account. Follow the six steps below to create yours.
The email address tied to your ID.me account must match the email TDSS submits for you on VA’s End User Tracker. Mismatched emails are the most common cause of HSRM access delays. If you have not yet confirmed your registered email with TDSS, do that first.
Go to the AccessVA / HSRM sign-in page
Navigate to AccessVA and choose the “Sign in with ID.me” option. If you are creating an ID.me account for use with another federal agency such as the IRS or SSA, the same process works on those agency sign-in pages as well.
Choose to create a new account
Click “Create an ID.me account,” “Sign up,” or similar wording on the ID.me sign-in screen.
Enter your email and create a password
Type the email address that TDSS will register with VA and choose a strong password. Most ID.me accounts require at least eight characters and a mix of upper- and lowercase letters, numbers, and often symbols. Accept the Terms of Service and click “Create account.”
Confirm your email
Check your inbox for an email from ID.me. Click the “Confirm your email” button, or enter the six-digit code from the email on the ID.me page.
Set up multi-factor authentication (MFA)
Choose how you want to receive codes: text message, phone call, authenticator app, or another supported method. Follow the prompts to verify that method. Once MFA is configured, your basic ID.me account is created.
Verify your identity
VA requires full identity verification. You will be asked to provide your Social Security Number, upload photos of a government-issued ID such as a driver’s license, state ID, or passport, and complete either a selfie or a brief live video call with an ID.me agent. Once verification is complete, you can sign in to AccessVA and HSRM using your ID.me credentials.
Once your ID.me account is verified, send your registered email address to TDSS so we can submit your name on VA’s End User Tracker. HSRM access typically follows within a few business days of submission.