Most practice owners get one number from their billing company: how much was collected last month. It feels like the only number that matters. It isn’t.
Collections tell you what came in. They don’t tell you what should have come in, what is stuck, or what was quietly written off. A practice can see steady collections for six months while its AR ages, denials pile up unworked, and money it already earned goes past the filing deadline.
If you pay someone to run your billing, these are the 7 numbers you should see every month, and what healthy looks like.
1. Days in AR
What it is: how many days, on average, it takes to get paid after a service.
Healthy: under 40 days for most specialties. Under 30 is strong.
Why it matters: this is the single best early warning. When days in AR climbs month after month, something upstream is broken, even if collections still look fine.
2. AR over 90 days (as a percent of total AR)
What it is: the share of your outstanding money that is more than 90 days old.
Healthy: under 15 to 20%.
Why it matters: the older a claim gets, the less likely it is to be paid. Money past 90 days is money at risk. Past 120, much of it is gone.
3. Clean claim rate
What it is: the share of claims accepted and paid on the first submission, with no rework.
Healthy: 95% or higher.
Why it matters: every claim that is not clean costs time and delays cash. A low clean claim rate usually points to problems before the claim is sent: eligibility, authorization, coding or registration errors.
4. Denial rate
What it is: the share of submitted claims that payers deny.
Healthy: under 5 to 10%. Industry-wide, initial denials reached 11.8% in 2024.
Why it matters: each denial costs $25 to $50 to rework, and 35 to 60% of denied claims are never resubmitted at all. A high denial rate is expensive twice.
5. Denials worked (and how many were overturned)
What it is: how many denied claims your team actually followed up on, and how many of those were paid on appeal or resubmission.
Healthy: every denial touched within a week, and a clear count of dollars recovered.
Why it matters: this is the number most billing companies leave out. A denial rate tells you how many problems arrived. Denials worked tells you whether anyone fixed them.
6. Net collection rate
What it is: what you collected divided by what you were allowed to collect after contractual adjustments.
Healthy: 95% or higher. Strong teams reach 98 to 99%.
Why it matters: gross collection rate is easy to make look good. Net collection rate shows how much of the money you were actually owed made it to your bank.
7. Eligibility issues caught before the visit
What it is: how many patients had a coverage problem (inactive plan, wrong primary payer, missing authorization) that your team caught before the appointment.
Healthy: any number above zero, reported every month.
Why it matters: the cheapest denial is the one that never happens. If your billing company isn’t checking eligibility before visits, those problems surface weeks later as denials.
What to do if you only get one number
Ask your billing company for these 7 numbers, every month, in writing. A good partner will send them without hesitation, because good numbers are easy to share.
If the answer is vague, slow, or “we’ll look into it,” that tells you something too. Here are 8 signs your billing company is hiding problems. Visibility isn’t a favor. It’s part of the service you pay for.
How DrBillerz reports
DrBillerz clients don’t wait for a monthly report. Our client portal shows the work as it happens: claims worked, denials resolved, eligibility issues caught before the visit, and money collected, plus a dedicated RCM manager who explains every number. Our results include 99% of claims paid within 60 days and a 98 to 99% collection rate.
Billers start from $7 an hour, and the first 4 weeks are a free pilot with no contract.
Start your free 4-week pilot · Book a 30-minute call
FAQ
What reports should a medical billing company provide?
At minimum: days in AR, AR aging by bucket, clean claim rate, denial rate, denials worked and overturned, net collection rate, and eligibility issues caught before visits. Monthly is the minimum; weekly is better.
What is a good days in AR for a medical practice?
Under 40 days for most specialties, and under 30 is strong. A rising trend matters more than any single month.
What is a good denial rate for medical billing?
Under 5 to 10% of submitted claims. Industry-wide initial denial rates reached 11.8% in 2024, so many practices are above that range.
What is the difference between gross and net collection rate?
Gross compares collections to total charges. Net compares collections to what you were allowed to collect after contractual adjustments. Net is the honest measure of billing performance.