Skip to main content
Medtransic Logo

A/R Recovery Services

Old AR Cleanup - Work the Aged Accounts Your Team Ran Out of Time For

Review, rework, and recover old or neglected AR accounts for maximum revenue recovery and financial cleanup.

A recoverable claim and an expired one look identical until someone checks the filing runway.

Every account is triaged before any work goes in: appeal, rebill, bill the patient, or close it.

A blanket write-off surrenders the collectable claims along with the dead ones.

(888) 777-0860Book a Free ConsultationView Pricing
A backlog, layer by layerIllustrative sample
120+ daysoldestworked
91-120 daysworked
61-90 days
31-60 days
0-30 daysnewest
Oldest buckets cleared first2 of 5 buckets worked

A backlog is not one problem, it is five. The oldest layer is the hardest to collect and the first to expire, so it is the one that gets worked first.

How We Deliver A/R Cleanup the Right Way

Our approach is built on transparency - you see exactly what we're doing, why, and what it produces.

Step 01

Old Accounts Worked as Their Own Project

Aged A/R needs attention that does not compete with today's claims. We work your backlog as a separate project, methodically and start to finish, giving the stalled and forgotten balances the sustained attention they never get when current work is always the priority.

Aged accounts worked as a separate project / No competition with current-claim workload / Experienced with complex, stalled claims / Steady progress through the whole backlog

Step 02

Every Account Triaged Before It's Touched

We don't work the pile blindly. Each aged account is reviewed to reconstruct why it stalled and to decide its best path: appeal the payer, correct and rebill, move the balance to the patient, or - where it's genuinely dead - document a clean write-off. Sorting the recoverable from the truly lost before any effort goes in is what keeps the work efficient and stops time being spent on claims that can't be saved.

Each account's stall reason reconstructed / Recoverable claims separated from dead ones / Filing-deadline runway checked per account / The right recovery path chosen for each

Step 03

Appeals and Rebilling on the Claims Worth Saving

For accounts with real recovery potential, we reassemble the supporting file, build the case, and pursue it - appealing where the denial can be overturned, correcting and refiling where an error stalled the claim, and staying on it through the payer's response. Even claims near or just past a standard filing limit sometimes have a legitimate path, and we take it where the justification holds rather than assuming the door is closed.

Missing records and documentation reassembled / Appeals built and submitted with justification / Corrected claims rebilled where appropriate / Followed through to a final determination

Step 04

Patient Balances Moved and Handled With Care

When a claim's insurance path is exhausted but the balance is legitimately the patient's responsibility, we transfer it correctly and pursue it through clear statements and, where the amount warrants, payment arrangements. This recovers revenue the insurer will never pay while handling the patient relationship professionally - the person on the other end is still your patient, and the collection approach reflects that.

Eligible balances transferred accurately / Clear patient statements issued / Payment arrangements for larger balances / Professional, patient-respectful collection

Costly Bottlenecks in A/R Cleanup

Aged accounts receivable represents lost revenue that drains practice finances and requires specialized recovery expertise.

1

Old Claims Are Racing a Deadline You May Have Already Passed

Every payer sets a window for appealing or refiling a claim, and aged accounts are the ones closest to that line. Some are past it and truly lost; others still have days or weeks left that nobody is using. The tragedy of aged AR is that a recoverable claim and an expired one look identical in the system until someone opens each account and checks how much time is actually left to act.

Impact: Accounts over 120 days are revenue you earned and can still recover

2

Nobody Remembers Why the Account Stalled

An account that's sat for months rarely explains itself. The original denial reason, the missing piece, the half-finished appeal - the context is gone, and without it your staff can't sort what's still worth fighting from what should be billed to the patient or closed out. Reconstructing that story for hundreds of old accounts is exactly the work that never fits into a busy billing day.

Impact: Unclear denial reasons leave recoverable money sitting untouched

3

The File Needed to Recover It Has Gone Cold

Aged claims frequently need supporting material to move - a record, an authorization, a note proving the service was covered - and by the time an account is this old, that material is scattered, archived, or never captured. The money may be genuinely owed, but without reassembling the file to prove it, the claim stays frozen and slides closer to the filing deadline.

Impact: Missing records are what keep otherwise-collectable claims from being paid

4

Your Billers Physically Can't Get to It

A billing team is measured on keeping current claims moving, and current work always wins the day. Last quarter's aging accounts get pushed to 'when there's time,' and there's never time. So the old AR doesn't shrink - it grows, each account aging further out of reach, until the practice quietly accepts the whole pile as a loss it never actually tried to collect.

Impact: Aged A/R grows every month your staff is buried in current claims

5

Write-Offs Get Taken Without Anyone Checking

When aged accounts are too much to work, the path of least resistance is to write them off in bulk. But a blanket write-off treats collectable claims and dead ones the same, surrendering real, earned revenue simply because sorting it looked like more effort than it was worth. The largest recoverable pool in many practices is hiding inside balances already mentally marked as lost.

Inside A/R Cleanup, Explained

Every component managed with precision and expertise.

Account Analysis & Triage

Top-to-bottom review of all aged accounts to categorize by collectability and priority for recovery efforts.

Review all accounts 90+ days / Categorize by recovery probability / Prioritize high-value accounts / Identify write-off candidates

Documentation Research

Research and obtain missing medical records, authorizations, and supporting documentation needed for appeals.

Request medical record copies / Obtain authorization documentation / Compile supporting clinical notes / Organize appeal packages

Insurance Appeals & Rebilling

File appeals for denied claims with strong recovery potential and attempt rebilling where appropriate.

Prepare detailed appeal letters / Submit with supporting documentation / Track appeal status and follow up / Rebill corrected claims when possible

Patient Collection & Write-Off

Convert insurance-denied balances to patient responsibility and systematically write off uncollectable accounts.

Transfer to patient responsibility / Send patient statements / Attempt collection contacts / Proper write-off documentation

Inside Aged A/R Recovery

01

Finding the Money Worth Chasing First

Not every aged account is worth the same effort, and treating them all the same is how practices leave real money uncollected. A large, recently denied claim with a fixable reason is very different from a tiny balance that has sat untouched for a year. We start every cleanup by sorting your aged accounts into clear buckets - the ones we can recover quickly, the ones that need records or an appeal, the long shots, and the ones that should simply be written off correctly.

That triage almost always surfaces recoverable revenue your team had written off in their heads, and it lets us work the highest-value accounts first so cash comes back sooner. You get a clear map of your aged A/R before any work begins, plus regular updates so you always know what is being recovered and what is realistically collectable.

Aged accounts are not equal - the big, recently denied, fixable ones come first.

A structured review routinely surfaces recoverable revenue the practice had given up on.

Working the highest-value accounts first brings cash back to your practice sooner.

You see a full account map up front and regular progress updates throughout.

02

Recovering Claims Your Team Assumed Were Too Old

The biggest reason practices abandon aged claims is the belief that the filing window has closed. In reality, the deadline that matters is often not the one your team assumes. A claim that was originally filed on time but denied can frequently still be appealed or corrected well after the point most staff would give up. Coordination-of-benefits mix-ups, secondary-payer delays, and documented processing disruptions can all extend the window to collect.

We know where those openings are and how to document them, so money that looked permanently lost gets recovered instead of written off. Before any account is abandoned, we verify the real deadline against the payer's actual rules rather than a rule of thumb - which is exactly why cleanup projects so often recover claims a practice had already counted as gone.

Many "expired" claims are still recoverable - the assumed deadline is often not the real one.

Claims filed on time but denied can frequently be appealed long after staff would stop trying.

Payer delays and benefit-coordination errors can extend the window to collect.

We check the real deadline before writing anything off, so recoverable money is not abandoned.

03

Cleaning Up Your Books, Not Just Your Aging Report

A cleanup is only finished when both your revenue and your records are right. Carrying uncollectable balances on the books makes your practice look weaker than it is, distorts how fast you appear to collect, and clouds decisions from budgeting to a future sale or partnership. Part of our work is recovering what can be recovered; the other part is writing off what genuinely cannot - in the right categories, with proper documentation, and in a way that keeps you compliant with the rules on what may and may not be billed to patients.

The result is a true picture of your financial health: the recoverable revenue back in your account, the uncollectable balances cleared correctly, and books you can actually trust when you make decisions about the practice.

Uncollectable balances left on the books make your practice look weaker than it really is.

Recovery and correct write-off together produce financials you can actually rely on.

Write-offs are categorized and documented properly, keeping your practice compliant.

Clean books support better budgeting and stronger footing for any sale or partnership.

What Each Payer Still Allows

How much of your aged A/R is recoverable depends on the payer. Medicare, Medicare Advantage, and commercial plans each have their own deadlines, appeal paths, and exceptions - the openings we use to collect on accounts your practice has often already given up on.

Medicare

Medicare

  • Medicare gives you a full year to file and, importantly, separate windows to reopen or appeal claims already decided - openings we use to recover money your team may have assumed was gone.
  • Medicare appeals move through defined stages with their own deadlines; we know them and file in time so recoverable claims are not lost to the calendar.
  • For older medical-necessity denials, we confirm what can genuinely be collected versus what has to be written off, so you are not chasing money that is not recoverable.
  • When another insurer should have paid first, we untangle the coordination so the claim finally gets paid instead of aging further.

Medicare

Medicare Advantage Plans

  • These plans often set tighter filing deadlines than regular Medicare, so we check each plan's real rules before assuming a claim is too old to collect.
  • A common reason these claims stall is an authorization that was obtained but never linked to the claim - resubmitting correctly often recovers them.
  • Denials from these plans have their own appeal deadlines, including faster tracks for urgent cases, which we use to recover time-sensitive balances.
  • These plans sometimes underpay by downgrading visits; partially paid aged claims may still hold recoverable money we can pursue.

Commercial

Commercial Payers (UnitedHealthcare, Aetna, Cigna, BCBS)

  • Filing deadlines vary widely by contract and are measured from different starting points, so we verify the exact language before treating any claim as expired.
  • Many contracts allow corrections and appeals of denied claims well past the standard filing window - money most staff would have written off.
  • Benefit-coordination denials are among the easiest aged claims to recover because the fix is administrative; we get the record corrected and the claim reprocessed.
  • When the delay was the payer's fault, some contracts owe interest - leverage we use to collect the full amount your practice is due.

All payers

All Payers (What This Means for Your Practice)

  • Before we write off any account, we confirm the true filing deadline - cleanup projects routinely find "expired" claims that are still collectable.
  • We match each denial to the right recovery action, so aged claims get worked systematically instead of guessed at.
  • When a balance shifts to the patient, we send a clear statement explaining exactly why, which reduces disputes and speeds payment.
  • You get regular reporting on what has been recovered, what was written off, and what is still in progress - no black box.

A/R Recovery Timeline: What to Expect

A structured, milestone-driven project, with progress reported at each step.

Days 1-15

Account Intake & Triage

We receive your aged A/R export, classify every account by collectability (recoverable, appeal candidate, patient balance, write-off), and prioritize by dollar value. You receive a triage report before any work begins.

Milestone: Full account map delivered

Days 16-30

Documentation Research

For accounts with appeal potential, we request medical records, authorization letters, and supporting clinical notes. Missing documentation is the #1 barrier to recovery - we eliminate it systematically.

Milestone: Appeal packages assembled

Days 31-60

Appeals & Rebilling

Detailed appeal letters are filed with supporting evidence. Corrected claims are rebilled where coding or demographic errors were the denial cause. We track every submission and follow up until final determination.

Milestone: Appeals in flight, first payments returning

Days 61-90

Patient Balance & Closeout

Insurance-denied balances eligible for patient responsibility are transferred and statements issued. Uncollectable accounts receive proper write-off documentation. You receive a final recovery report with all actions taken.

Milestone: Final recovery report delivered

Frequently Asked Questions About Medical Billing

Expert answers to common questions about medical billing, coding, insurance requirements, and revenue cycle management.

See all 24 questions

Still Have Questions?

Our team is ready to answer your specific questions and provide personalized guidance for your practice.

Book a Free Consultation

Related Services

AR Management

Ongoing AR management to prevent aged accounts.

Learn more

Denial Management

Address root causes of aged accounts receivable.

Learn more

Medical Billing

Improved billing processes to reduce future AR aging.

Learn more

Stop Losing Revenue to A/R Cleanup Results

Let our experts show you how we can improve your operations and increase revenue.

(888) 777-0860Book a Free Consultation
Expert TeamHIPAA CompliantDedicated Support
Back to All Services