Accounts receivable is the pending amount that your practice is still supposed to receive from your patients and their insurance companies. Managing these payments on time is important to avoid revenue loss. Getting regular payments within the standard time after submitting claims helps prevent AR from piling up. Good healthcare accounts receivable management services keep your practice's cash flow steady every month. Ignoring your delinquent accounts can be detrimental to your practice's financial health as this is the money that you actually deserve. Handling AR daily and clearing claims before they age past 30 days keeps your finances strong and stable.
You can measure AR days in two intelligent ways. First, you should divide your total AR by your average daily charges. Secondly, you can sort your accounts-you can classify your AR based on their age. Here are four age buckets for measuring your healthcare AR-
- 1-30 days
- 31-60 days
- 61-90 days
- 91-120 days
You can only reduce your AR days when you know about the key benchmarks and how to monitor them:
Key healthcare AR benchmarks to follow
- The average AR days allow you to know how long it takes for you to receive payment after submitting a claim. Experts say this should be 30 days or less as the more account ages, the less amount of money you can collect from that account.
- Running regular A/R reports helps manage the revenue cycle better. These reports should track average A/R days, delays between services and billing, aged accounts, and collection rates. Reviewing this data every month can highlight issues and help improve payment collection. Monitoring these numbers closely can keep cash flow steady and boost financial health.
Unfortunately, not every healthcare practice has an effective strategy to keep their accounts receivable minimal and manage them regularly. You need to understand how AR backlog can jeopardize your entire revenue structure:
How healthcare AR backlog can damage your revenue foundation
Delaying AR follow-ups causes your unpaid claims to pile up and miss timely filing limits, making your payment collection harder. This is money your practice needs to pay staff and cover other expenses. If you keep ignoring them every month, it can become overwhelming and hard to manage.
If you are already frustrated with your delinquent and aged accounts due to a lack of experienced professionals in your team, outsourcing your AR management could be an ideal solution.
It's time to know how an outsourced AR management service works.
How a healthcare accounts receivable management service works
A AR management service knows how to provide a tailored workflow to meet your specific A/R needs and cover the entire process. They handle end-to-end A/R management, including follow-ups and final billing; ensuring payments are received on time and A/R days stay low. Their advanced analytics and reporting tools help identify issues and suggest improvements. They also offer patient engagement support by simplifying billing explanations and sending reminders to encourage timely payments. By using modern billing software, they automate tasks and improve efficiency with real-time updates.
Now that you have realized how a professional AR management partner can help minimize and improve your overall revenue, it's time to hire the right partner.
Hire a healthcare accounts receivable management service
A healthcare accounts receivable management service can help lower direct expenses by cutting payroll and benefit costs. It also reduces AR days and the overall cost of collecting payments. With strong AR strategies, practices see higher revenue realization and better Collection Effectiveness Index (CEI). These services give access to skilled AR specialists without needing to hire or train new staff. There's no need for extra office space or equipment. Collection rates improve, leading to better cash flow.
So, what are you waiting for? Hire a perfect healthcare accounts receivable management service and see amplified revenue!
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