Every practice has them: the claims sitting at 90, 120, 180 days, quietly aging past the point of no return. Industry data consistently shows that the probability of collecting a claim drops sharply after 90 days — and once a payer’s timely filing deadline passes, that revenue is gone for good, no appeal possible. Most in-house teams never get to old AR because they’re buried in today’s claims.
That’s exactly what our aging AR recovery service is built for. We take your backlog — 60, 90, 120+ day buckets — and work it like a dedicated strike team: triage by deadline, aggressive payer follow-up, denial rework, and appeals, all before the filing clock runs out. If your current billing workflow needs a broader overhaul, our medical billing services cover the full revenue cycle; AR recovery is the specialized unit that cleans up what’s already stuck.
What’s Included in AR Recovery
- Full AR audit: we stratify your entire outstanding AR by aging bucket, payer, and denial reason so nothing collectible hides in the pile.
- Deadline triage: claims are sequenced by timely filing deadline first, dollars second — the claims closest to expiring get worked first.
- Payer follow-up at scale: structured call cadences with every major payer, documented in your system or ours.
- Denial rework and appeals: CO-29 timely filing misses can’t be appealed, but coding, medical necessity, and authorization denials often can — we rework and resubmit them correctly.
- Root-cause reporting: you get a clear picture of why claims aged in the first place, so the backlog doesn’t rebuild.
- Clean handoff: recovered dollars flow back through your normal posting process; we don’t leave a mess behind.
Our 90-Day Recovery Process
| Phase | Timeline | What Happens |
|---|---|---|
| Triage & audit | Days 1–14 | Full AR stratification by bucket, payer, and deadline; collectibility scoring on every claim over 60 days. |
| Strike phase | Days 15–45 | Highest-risk claims worked first: payer calls, corrected claims, and appeals filed before deadlines expire. |
| Systematic workdown | Days 46–75 | Remaining buckets worked payer by payer; denial patterns identified and fixed at the source. |
| Handoff & prevention | Days 76–90 | Final reporting, root-cause analysis, and a prevention plan so AR stays current going forward. |
What We Fight For vs. What We Write Off
Not every old claim is worth chasing. Part of honest AR recovery is telling you which dollars are real.
| Worth working | Usually a write-off |
|---|---|
| Claims inside timely filing with a fixable denial reason | Claims past timely filing with no valid appeal path |
| Underpaid claims (contract rate not honored) | Balances below your cost-to-collect threshold |
| Stuck in payer processing with no denial | Duplicate claims already paid |
| Authorization denials with clinical support for appeal | Patient balances where the patient is deceased with no estate |
We score every claim before we touch it, so you’re never paying us to chase dead dollars.
Signs Your Practice Needs AR Recovery Help
- Your over-90-day bucket keeps growing month after month.
- Days in AR sit above 45–50 with no downward trend.
- Staff tell you “we’re working on it” but can’t show a workdown report.
- You’ve written off more than 3–5% of expected collections this year.
- Timely filing denials (CO-29) are appearing at all — even one is a red flag.
If two or more of these sound familiar, your backlog is costing you real money every week it sits.
How We Charge
AR recovery is typically priced as a percentage of actual recoveries — if we don’t collect, you don’t pay — or as a fixed project fee for defined backlogs. Either way, the engagement starts with a free AR assessment where we tell you, honestly, how much of your backlog is collectible before you commit to anything.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is AR recovery different from regular medical billing?
Regular billing handles today’s claims as they come in. AR recovery is a focused cleanup of claims that are already 60+ days old — different workflow, different urgency, different skill set. Many practices use both: billing keeps the front clean while recovery clears the backlog.
Will you work inside our existing billing software?
Yes. We work in your clearinghouse, PMS, or EHR billing module, or alongside your current medical coding and credentialing setup — whatever keeps the workflow intact.
What if our timely filing deadlines have already passed?
Then those specific claims are generally uncollectible, and we’ll tell you so upfront rather than bill you for trying. But deadlines vary by payer — Medicare allows 12 months, many commercial payers 90–180 days — so a claim you assumed was dead may still be alive. The audit answers this definitively.
How fast will we see results?
Most engagements show first recoveries within 30 days as the strike phase hits the highest-value claims. Full backlog workdown typically completes within 90 days.
Do you require a long-term contract?
No. AR recovery is project-based: we clear the backlog, hand you the prevention plan, and step back. Ongoing billing support is available separately if you want it.
Get a Free AR Assessment
Send us an AR aging summary — even a rough one — and we’ll tell you what’s collectible, what’s not, and what it would take to recover it. No obligation, no sales pitch dressed as an audit. Contact us to start.