How to Reduce Days in Accounts Receivable: 10 Proven Tactics for Practices

Many practices aim to keep average days in A/R below roughly 40 days, though the ideal target depends on your specialty and payer mix. More important than any benchmark is your trend. If the number rises month after month, something in your process needs attention.

Also look at the aging report. A large share of balances over 90 days is a stronger warning than the average alone.

Every day between the visit and submission delays payment. Capture charges at the end of each day, and submit clean claims as soon as documentation is complete.

Claims for ineligible patients are denied and must be rebilled to the correct payer or the patient. Verification before the visit prevents this delay.

Catching errors before submission avoids rejections and resubmissions that add weeks to the cycle.

Do not wait for payment to arrive. Check status through payer portals or clearinghouse reports after a set number of days, and follow up on any claim that is not moving.

The sooner a denial is addressed, the sooner it is paid. Assign denials to a named person with a target resolution date.

Rank unpaid claims by value, age and filing deadline. High-value claims near deadlines get attention first, while smaller balances are handled in efficient batches.

Delayed or incorrect posting hides what is really outstanding and delays secondary and patient billing. Post remittances daily and compare payments against contracted rates to catch underpayments.

After the primary payer pays, bill the secondary promptly, then send clear patient statements. Collect copays at the visit to reduce balances that must be chased later.

Review an aging report weekly, with detail by payer. Problems with a specific payer show up quickly and can be escalated.

Following up on old claims is time-consuming and requires payer knowledge. A specialist AR recovery team has the processes and the persistence to resolve what in-house staff cannot reach.

Qurexa RCM Solutions provides dedicated AR recovery for aging claims, underpayments and unresolved balances, with transparent reporting on every account we work.

A short weekly meeting keeps A/R under control. Start with the aging summary and note any bucket that has grown. Review the largest unpaid claims and assign next steps. Check the status of denials and appeals due soon. Finally, discuss any payer that appears more than usual in problem accounts.

Thirty focused minutes each week is usually enough, as long as someone owns the follow-up and reports back at the next meeting.

Average days in A/R can hide specific issues. Break the numbers down by payer, provider, location and service type. You may find that one payer accounts for most of the aged balances, or that a single procedure is consistently underpaid. Targeted action on these pockets often improves the overall number faster than general effort.

Shorter A/R is the result of many small habits, applied consistently:

The older a claim gets, the less likely it is to be paid. Payer filing and appeal windows close, documentation becomes harder to retrieve and staff lose context on what happened. That is why early follow-up pays off far more than late rescue efforts, and why a consistent weekly routine beats occasional clean-up projects.

If your days in A/R are climbing, or you have a backlog of old claims, we can help. Contact Qurexa RCM Solutions for a free A/R review. We will show where balances are stuck and what it would take to collect them.