{"id":14124,"date":"2021-08-20T00:28:30","date_gmt":"2021-08-20T00:28:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.medicalbillersandcoders.com\/blog\/?p=14124"},"modified":"2026-05-11T11:13:45","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T11:13:45","slug":"reducing-ar-days-in-healthcare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.medicalbillersandcoders.com\/blog\/reducing-ar-days-in-healthcare\/","title":{"rendered":"Reducing AR Days in Healthcare"},"content":{"rendered":"

Streamlined revenue cycle operations ensure the financial stability and growth of your practice. When the healthcare revenue cycle is not managed well, collection efficiency drops, and accounts receivable (AR) days increase. <\/span><\/p>\n

Accounts receivable is at the heart of revenue cycle management<\/a>, as you get paid faster which results in healthier operations. Streamlining the healthcare revenue cycle involves ensuring collection efficiency and monitoring AR days. <\/span><\/p>\n

With a well-managed revenue cycle, revenue comes in faster, with less effort. Everyone has a role, from physicians, nurses, and other clinicians to medical billing and coding team to front office staff. Here are basic ways which would help in increasing collecting and reducing AR days.<\/span><\/p>\n

Clean Claim Submission<\/h2>\n

Try to submit claims with accurate information about patient demographics, insurance details, billing details, provider details, procedure codes, a set of diagnosis codes, and other information like preauthorization. Things became really easier if you submit clean claims in the first place. <\/span><\/p>\n

Submitting clean claims will ensure quicker payments. It\u2019s a good idea to set goals for clean claim submission. Industry-standard for a clean claim is 90 percent while Medical Billers and Coders<\/strong> achieve more than 95 percent of clean claim submission<\/a> for all their clients.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Set AR Goal<\/h2>\n

One of the important steps in reducing your AR days is to set an AR goal. You have to set this goal in terms of acceptable AR days. What does an acceptable number of AR days look like for your facility? Acceptable AR days numbers will differ depending on several factors including the type of facility and the mix of payers you have. <\/span><\/p>\n

Setting a specific, yet realistic goal for reducing your AR days will help make the process easier. You can share your AR goals with your team in brainstorming sessions. Post these goals somewhere so everyone, including yourself and your billing staff, can see them and have the motivation to achieve what you\u2019re working towards.<\/span><\/p>\n

Track Denials<\/h2>\n

Denials are another part of the healthcare revenue system that can get miscommunicated, delayed, and cause more AR days. By ensuring that you have processes in place for tracking denials can help your personnel understand how your facility handles denials to minimize time to payment. <\/span><\/p>\n

Experts from the billing and coding team along with providers should communicate on regular basis for denial management<\/a> and resolutions. Most healthcare organizations just focus on submitting clean claims and forget about tracking submitted claims. Each submitted claim should be tracked within one month after submission. <\/span><\/p>\n

If the payment is received then payment should be updated along with pending patient responsibility, if applicable. All denied claims should be categorized payer wise and your accounts receivable team should start calling insurance companies to find out the exact reason for denial.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Target Major Payers<\/h2>\n

You can target the top 5-6 payers that constitute the largest amount of billed AR over 90 days. Adopting payer wise approach for resolving AR, will help to find denial patterns for every payer. Every payer has their own set of billing and coding guidelines so you need to follow payer wise approach for handling denials. <\/span><\/p>\n

Your team can review claims payers-wise and try to find the root cause of denial and appeal it accordingly. Once you find the resolution, it can be applied to other denied claims from the same payer. <\/span><\/p>\n

You can always call and ask payer representatives the exact reason for denial and also ask for resolution. We always suggest talking with insurance representatives because it will reduce the rework.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To Summarize, The Following Steps Will Help in Reducing AR Days:<\/h3>\n