Accounts Receivable Management
Aging AR worked systematically — oldest first, deadline-driven, fully documented — until unpaid claims become collected revenue or an honest answer.
Accounts receivable is where medical billing either becomes cash flow or becomes archaeology. Every practice has an aging report; the difference is whether someone works it systematically — oldest first, deadline-driven, documented — or glances at it when cash gets tight. Elite Bill Care's accounts receivable management service works your AR the first way: every unpaid claim has an owner, a status and a next action.
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How AR is organized: the aging buckets
AR is managed in aging buckets. Each bucket needs a different action, which is why "working AR" as one lump never works:
| Bucket | What it usually means | Our action |
|---|---|---|
| Current (0–30 days) | Claims in normal payer processing | Monitor; confirm receipt on every claim so nothing is silently lost |
| 31–60 days | Slow payers, claims in review, first problems surface | Electronic status checks (276/277) and portal reviews; act on anything stalled |
| 61–90 days | Something is wrong: a denial not worked, a claim never received, missing information | Payer contact, root-cause identification, corrected claims and appeals started |
| 91–120 days | Deadlines approaching on many payer contracts | Priority escalation — these balances get worked before newer ones, every time |
| 120+ days | Recovery depends on documented timely filing and payer rules | Case-by-case recovery review: appeal with proof of filing where possible; honest write-off recommendation (with your approval) where not |
Our follow-up workflow
- Full aging analysis. AR is broken down by payer, bucket, provider and reason — the shape of the problem decides the plan.
- Prioritization. Work is sequenced by deadline risk first, then dollar value, then age. Newest-first follow-up — the most common in-house habit — is exactly backwards.
- Status verification. Every unpaid claim's status is confirmed electronically (276/277 claim-status transactions), through payer portals, or by phone, and recorded. A surprising share of "AR" turns out to be claims the payer never received.
- Resolution. Depending on what the status shows: resubmission with corrections, documentation supply, escalation to payer representatives, or handoff into denial management for formal appeals.
- Reconciliation. Payments found during follow-up are matched through payment posting, so resolved claims leave the aging immediately and the report stays truthful.
- Reporting. Bucket movement and days-in-AR are reported regularly — you watch the old buckets shrink.
The number that tells the truth: days in AR
Days in AR measures how long, on average, a dollar of charges stays unpaid. It is calculated from your receivables and your average daily charges, and it exposes what raw AR totals hide: a practice can grow its revenue and its AR together and look "busy" while actually collecting more slowly every month. We track days in AR alongside the bucket shape, because together they show whether the cycle is speeding up or quietly stalling. It is one of the core measures in our revenue cycle management reporting.
Why AR grows (it is rarely the payer's fault alone)
- Claims submitted but never confirmed as received.
- Denials posted without a follow-up task attached.
- Follow-up done newest-first, so old balances quietly pass their deadlines.
- Underpayments accepted without comparison to the contracted rate.
- Patient-responsibility balances never transferred after insurance pays — handed off properly via patient billing.
Old AR recovery projects
If your 90+ day buckets have built up over months or years, we can start with a dedicated recovery project before ongoing management: analyze the full aging, separate the recoverable from the lost, and work the recoverable with documented proof of timely filing. What cannot honestly be recovered, we will identify as such — with reasons — rather than bill you for chasing it. Practices that prefer to hand over the entire billing operation can do so through medical billing outsourcing.
Frequently asked questions
How old can AR be and still be recovered?
It depends on the payer and the reason the balance is unpaid. Contracted payers have timely-filing and appeal deadlines, and balances that pass them without documented activity are usually lost. Balances inside their deadlines — with proof of original timely filing — are often recoverable even when they are many months old. The honest answer comes from reviewing the aging itself, which is what our free AR review does.
Do you work patient balances too, or only insurance AR?
Both, but differently. Insurance AR is worked with payers through status checks, corrected claims and appeals. Patient balances are handled through our patient billing process — clear statements and professional follow-up that protects your patient relationships.
What is a good days-in-AR number?
It varies by specialty and payer mix — a Medicare-heavy practice and a commercial therapy practice cannot be judged by the same figure. What matters is the trend and the shape of the aging: a healthy AR has most of its dollars in the current and 31–60 buckets and very little beyond 120 days. We report your buckets and days-in-AR through reporting & analytics so progress is visible, not promised.
Will you write off balances you cannot collect?
Only with your approval, and only after the balance has been genuinely worked and documented as unrecoverable (for example, a confirmed missed deadline or a correct contractual adjustment). Write-offs are never used to make the aging report look cleaner.
How is AR follow-up different from denial management?
Denial management handles claims a payer has formally denied. AR follow-up covers everything unpaid — including claims that were never denied but also never paid: lost claims, claims stuck in review, underpayments and silent non-responses. The two services overlap deliberately; most AR is a mix of both. See denial management.
Get a free AR review
Share your current aging report and we will show you where the recoverable money sits and what is blocking it. Free, specific to your numbers, and with no invented recovery percentages.