Cash sitting in accounts receivable is cash you can’t use to make payroll, upgrade equipment, or grow your practice. For medical practices dealing with insurance reimbursement delays and rising patient responsibility, every extra day in AR compounds the pressure on already tight margins.
This guide covers what days in AR actually measures, why it matters for your practice’s financial health, and the specific strategies that move the needle—from front-desk collections to denial management workflows. If you want a broader view of financial leadership best practices in the industry, explore our Fractional CFO Services for Healthcare Organizations
Introduction to Accounts Receivable
Accounts receivable (AR) is the total amount of money owed to healthcare providers for services that have already been delivered but not yet paid for. In the context of a medical practice, AR represents a critical component of the entire revenue cycle, directly impacting cash flow and the ability to maintain financial stability. When accounts receivable builds up, it can strain resources and limit a practice’s ability to invest in staff, technology, and patient care.
The average time it takes to collect payment—measured as days in AR—serves as a key indicator of how efficiently a practice manages its billing and collections. High days in AR often signal issues such as unpaid claims, process bottlenecks, or delays in payment posting, all of which can disrupt the revenue cycle. By focusing on proven strategies and effective solutions to minimize delays, healthcare providers can reduce outstanding balances, accelerate cash flow, and ensure they have the resources needed to deliver high-quality services.
Ultimately, effective accounts receivable management is about more than just collecting money—it’s about supporting the financial health of the practice and enabling providers to focus on what matters most: exceptional patient care. By proactively addressing AR issues, practices can strengthen their entire revenue cycle and position themselves for long-term success.
What Are Days in AR in Medical Billing
Days in accounts receivable (AR) tells you how long, on average, it takes your medical practice to collect payment after you’ve provided a service. To bring this number down, practices typically focus on submitting clean claims that get accepted on the first try, collecting patient payments at the time of visit, managing denials quickly, and using automation to streamline processes, reduce errors, and speed up the process.
The math behind it is simple. You take your total outstanding receivables and divide by your average daily charges. So if your practice has $200,000 sitting in AR and you generate about $5,000 in charges each day, your days in AR comes out to 40. That single number reveals how long your money sits in limbo after you’ve already done the work.
You might hear this called “DAR” in medical billing conversations. Either way, think of it as a vital sign for your revenue cycle—similar to how blood pressure gives you a quick read on a patient’s cardiovascular health.
Why Days in AR Matters for Medical Practice Cash Flow
When payments take weeks or months to arrive, the gap between delivering care and getting paid creates real problems. These payment delays can disrupt cash flow and create operational challenges. Your rent, payroll, and supply costs don’t pause while insurance companies process claims.
Here’s what high AR days actually looks like in practice:
- Vendor relationships suffer: Equipment suppliers and pharmaceutical distributors expect payment on their timeline, not yours
- Payroll becomes stressful: Staff salaries are typically the largest expense, and cash flow gaps make meeting payroll unnecessarily tense
- Growth stalls: Hiring new providers, adding services, or upgrading technology becomes difficult when capital remains tied up in unpaid claims
- Negotiating power weakens: Practices with tight cash flow often accept less favorable terms from payers and vendors because they can’t afford to wait
The connection is direct. Every day a dollar sits uncollected is a day that dollar can’t work for your practice.
Industry Benchmarks for AR Days in Medical Practices
The Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) generally recommends keeping AR days below 40, though high-performing practices often hit 30 days or less. These recommendations reflect industry standards for efficient revenue cycle management in healthcare. These benchmarks offer useful reference points, but your specific situation matters.
Practice Type | Typical AR Range | Key Influencing Factors |
|---|---|---|
Primary Care | 30-45 days | Higher patient volume, simpler coding |
Specialty Care | 35-50 days | Complex procedures, prior authorization requirements |
Surgical Practices | 40-55 days | Multiple payers per case, higher dollar amounts |
Your specialty, payer mix, and patient demographics all shape what’s realistic. A practice with mostly Medicare patients will have different AR patterns than one serving primarily commercially insured patients. The goal isn’t to match some universal number—it’s to understand your baseline and improve from there.
Common Causes of High AR Days in Medical Practices
AR problems usually trace back to breakdowns at one of three points: before the patient visit, during claims processing, or after payment arrives. Knowing where your practice struggles helps you focus your energy. Inefficient administrative tasks can contribute significantly to AR issues if not properly managed.
Incomplete Patient Information at Registration
The front desk sets the tone for everything that follows. When staff collect outdated insurance cards, misspell patient names, or skip secondary coverage verification, claims get rejected before a human at the payer ever sees them. Eligibility issues are a common result of incomplete or inaccurate patient information, leading to preventable claim denials. These preventable errors add days or weeks to your collection timeline.
Claim Submission Delays and Errors
Coding mistakes, missing documentation, and slow charge entry stretch the gap between service and payment. Submitting claims accurately and promptly is essential to avoid unnecessary delays in reimbursement. If charges don’t get captured until days after the visit, or if coders lack the clinical documentation they need, claims sit in queues instead of generating revenue.
Ineffective Denial Management
Denials that go unworked or miss appeal deadlines represent lost revenue and bloated AR balances. Unresolved denials can ultimately result in write offs, further impacting the practice’s bottom line. Many practices lack a systematic way to categorize denials, identify the root cause, and ensure timely follow-up. Money gets left on the table.
Slow Payment Posting and Reconciliation
When payments aren’t posted promptly, your AR aging reports become unreliable. Staff might chase payments that already arrived while genuinely problematic accounts slip through unnoticed. Maintaining an accurate record of pending claims is essential to ensure timely follow-up and resolution. Accurate, timely posting gives you the visibility to manage AR effectively.
Limited Point of Service Collections
Patient responsibility keeps growing as deductibles and copays increase. Practices that don’t collect at the time of service shift these balances to AR, where they’re significantly harder to recover. When patients understand their financial responsibility and are given convenient options to pay at the point of service, collection rates improve significantly. Collection rates drop dramatically once patients walk out the door.
Best Practices to Reduce Days in AR for Medical Practices
These approaches address the root causes of extended AR and create improvements that stick.
- Verify Insurance Eligibility Before Every Visit
Real-time eligibility verification catches coverage issues before they become claim rejections. Automated tools can check patient benefits, confirm active coverage, and identify coordination of benefits situations—all before the patient walks in. - Collect Patient Responsibility at the Point of Service
Estimating patient balances before or during the visit allows front desk staff to collect copays, deductibles, and coinsurance while the patient is still there. Streamlined processes help staff collect payments efficiently at the point of service. This single practice can dramatically reduce patient AR and the collection effort that comes with it. - Submit Clean Claims Within 48 Hours
Claim scrubbing software catches errors before submission, while timely charge capture ensures claims go out quickly. Ensuring all authorization details and payer requirements are met before submission reduces the risk of denials. Practices that achieve first-pass claim rates above 95% see significantly lower AR days than those constantly reworking rejected claims. - Work Denials Within Five Business Days
Quick denial response prevents accounts from aging unnecessarily. Regularly train staff on denial categories, payer requirements, and appeal processes to improve outcomes. Categorizing denials by type, tracking root causes, and keeping appeal templates ready allows staff to address issues systematically rather than scrambling. (If your denials are being driven by shifting reimbursement models, see how value-based care vs fee-for-service in healthcare can change authorization, coding, and denial patterns.) - Prioritize Aging Accounts by Dollar Amount and Payer
Not all AR deserves equal attention. Work queues that focus staff effort on high-dollar accounts and payers with approaching timely filing deadlines maximize the return on collection activities. - Hold Weekly AR Review Meetings
Regular cross-functional meetings create accountability and surface problems early. Involving revenue cycle leaders in these meetings ensures accountability and drives continuous improvement. When billing staff, clinical leaders, and practice management review AR trends together, issues get addressed before they compound.
Revenue Cycle Best Practice Metrics to Track
Reducing AR days requires watching leading indicators, not just the AR days number itself. These metrics reveal problems before they fully hit your bottom line.
Days in AR by Payer
Breaking out AR by payer shows which insurance relationships need attention. Your overall AR days might look acceptable while one problematic payer drags down performance.
Clean Claim Rate
Clean claims—those accepted on first submission without errors—predict future AR performance. Tracking this metric helps identify coding, documentation, or registration issues before they inflate AR.
Denial Rate and Recovery Rate
These two metrics work together. Denial rate shows how often claims get rejected, while recovery rate reveals how successfully your team gets that revenue back. High denial rates paired with low recovery rates signal systematic problems.
Net Collection Rate
This percentage shows what portion of expected revenue actually gets collected after accounting for contractual adjustments. It reveals whether your practice captures the revenue it’s entitled to receive. (Payer-driven shortfalls often trace back to contracting and mix—here’s a deeper look at optimizing payer mix for healthcare.)
Percentage of AR Over 90 Days
Aged AR indicates systemic problems and often represents revenue that will never be collected. Watching this percentage helps you catch accounts slipping through the cracks.
Metric | What It Measures | Target Range |
|---|---|---|
Days in AR | Collection speed | Under 40 days |
Clean Claim Rate | First-pass accuracy | Above 95% |
Net Collection Rate | Revenue capture | Above 95% |
AR Over 90 Days | Aged receivables | Below 15% |
Technology Solutions for Medical Practice Revenue Cycle Management
Automation speeds up each stage of the revenue cycle while reducing the manual work your staff handles.
Automated Eligibility Verification Tools
These tools check coverage in real-time and flag issues before appointments, preventing the downstream problems that extend AR days.
Claim Scrubbing Software
Rules engines catch coding errors, missing modifiers, and documentation gaps before claims reach payers. The investment typically pays for itself through reduced rework and faster payments.
Patient Payment Portals
Self-service payment options reduce collection effort and speed up patient AR. Patients increasingly expect online payment convenience, and practices that offer it see faster collection of patient balances.
Real-Time Financial Dashboards
Visibility tools help practice leaders spot trends and step in early. When you can see AR aging in real-time rather than waiting for month-end reports, problems get addressed before they grow.
How to Get Physician Buy-In for Revenue Cycle Improvements
Documentation habits and coding accuracy at the provider level directly impact AR. Yet many physicians view billing as someone else’s concern. Getting clinical staff engaged in revenue cycle goals takes thoughtful communication.
- Connect to practice goals: Frame AR improvement in terms physicians care about—investing in new equipment, hiring additional staff, or improving patient care
- Share relevant metrics: Provide specialty-specific data showing how documentation patterns affect claim acceptance and payment timing
- Create feedback loops: When specific documentation issues cause denials, communicate that information back to providers promptly and constructively
Practices with the strongest revenue cycles typically have physicians who understand their role in the process and take ownership of documentation quality.
Turning AR Management into a Growth Strategy for Your Practice
Reducing AR days isn’t just about running a tighter operation—it’s about freeing capital to reinvest in growth. Every dollar collected faster is a dollar available for hiring, equipment, marketing, or expansion.
This perspective shifts AR management from a back-office task to a strategic priority. When practice leaders view their revenue cycle through the lens of growth rather than just cost control, different decisions follow.
The practices that thrive long-term build financial intelligence into their operations. They know their numbers, understand what drives performance, and use that clarity to make confident decisions about where to invest. Ready to build that kind of visibility into your practice? Talk to an expert about fractional CFO services to create the financial clarity your practice needs to scale.
Conclusion and Next Steps
In conclusion, reducing days in accounts receivable is essential for healthcare providers who want to achieve financial stability and deliver outstanding patient care. By understanding the role of accounts receivable in the revenue cycle and implementing key strategies—such as submitting clean claims, optimizing the billing process, and minimizing claim denials—medical practices can significantly improve cash flow and reduce administrative burden.
The most effective strategies for reducing AR days include staff training, regular eligibility checks, and leveraging real-time reporting to identify opportunities for process improvement. By taking proactive steps and adopting effective solutions, healthcare providers can minimize delays, reduce bad debt, and ensure payments are collected in a timely manner.
Next steps for healthcare practices should include a thorough assessment of current days in accounts receivable, the adoption of digital payment and billing solutions, and collaboration with revenue cycle management experts to optimize every stage of the process. By focusing on continuous improvement and leveraging the right tools and expertise, providers can reduce AR days, strengthen their financial position, and devote more resources to delivering high-quality patient care.
For practices ready to take control of their revenue cycle and achieve lasting financial stability, now is the time to act. Evaluate your current AR metrics, implement the most effective strategies, and consider partnering with experienced advisors to unlock the full potential of your practice’s financial health.
