Days in AR tells you where the cash is
The target is under 40 days in AR. Past 50, cash is sitting in unworked claims — claims nobody has called about, and that will quietly pass their timely filing limit.
How we prioritise
Not oldest-first, and not largest-first. Each open claim is ranked by:
- The odds of recovering it
- How close it is to the payer's filing deadline
- Its balance
- Whether it is blocked by a fixable upstream issue
Legacy AR from a previous vendor
When you switch billing companies, the real risk isn't the new claims — it's the AR your old vendor stops working. We take it on as a distinct, defined project: prioritised by recovery odds and filing deadline, and we tell you in writing which balances to write off rather than chasing them forever.
Aging past 90 days is reported monthly by payer, so you can watch it shrink.
What AR follow-up involves
Most unpaid claims are not denied — they are simply unanswered. A claim can be lost in the clearinghouse, pended for information nobody requested, or processed and paid to the wrong place. AR follow-up is the work of finding out which, claim by claim:
- Claim status checked through the payer portal or by phone
- Missing information supplied, and pended claims released
- Lost claims resubmitted with proof of timely filing
- Underpaid lines escalated against your contracted rates
- Denials found during follow-up routed to the denial team
- Credit balances and overpayments identified for refund
Timely filing is the deadline that matters
Every payer sets a limit on how long after the date of service a claim, a corrected claim or an appeal may be filed. Once it passes, the claim is denied as CO-29 regardless of whether the care was covered. Medicare's limit is one year from the date of service; commercial and Medicaid plans set their own, and some are much shorter. We track each payer's limits so the claims nearest their deadline are worked first.