Aging A/R nobody owns
Work queues grow faster than they are worked, balances age past 120 days, and no one can say which buckets are actually recoverable versus administrative noise.
Revenue cycle consulting
Revenue cycle optimization for practices losing money to process, not pricing.
Most revenue leakage in a physician practice is operational: front-end data captured incorrectly, denials reworked instead of prevented, aging A/R with no owner, and no shared view of performance. This engagement fixes the process around the billing system you already have.
What this usually looks like before the work starts
Denials treated as one-offs
Denials get reworked individually instead of grouped by root cause, so the same eligibility, authorization, coding-hand-off and documentation themes repeat every month.
Front-end problems paid for at the back end
Registration, insurance verification, authorization and point-of-service collection gaps at check-in surface weeks later as rejections, write-offs and patient-balance friction.
No shared definition of performance
Clinical, front-desk and billing teams report different numbers. Leadership has no consistent view of days in A/R, clean-claim rate, denial rate or collection trends.
What the engagement covers
Revenue cycle process review
Map the full cycle from scheduling and registration through charge capture, claim submission, denial handling, follow-up and patient balances. Identify where work stalls, duplicates or falls between roles.
A/R cleanup project structure
Segment aging by payer, age band and dollar value, define what gets worked in what order, and build a tracked cleanup plan with owners and weekly checkpoints.
Denial theme analysis
Group denials by root cause rather than by claim, then design the upstream workflow change — front-end, documentation or hand-off — that prevents the recurring category.
Front-end workflow design
Standardize intake, eligibility verification, authorization tracking and point-of-service collection expectations so back-end rework drops.
Roles, accountability and cadence
Clarify who owns which queues, what the daily and weekly rhythm looks like, and how exceptions escalate to a manager rather than sitting.
Leadership KPI reporting
Build a small, honest reporting set — days in A/R, aging distribution, denial rate and themes, clean-claim rate, collection trend — that owners and administrators can actually read.
Scope note: SAS Health Ops is an operations advisory firm. This work is process, workflow, reporting and accountability design. It does not include coding, billing submission or collections as a service, does not replace your billing vendor or clearinghouse, and does not guarantee specific financial results.
Where this fits with the rest of the work
Revenue-cycle process rarely fails alone. Scheduling and patient access drive the front end, staffing structure determines whether queues get worked, and multi-site groups need one standard rather than five. Related reading and engagements:
- Practice Operations Diagnostic — the paid assessment most revenue-cycle engagements begin with.
- Medical practice operations consulting services — workflow, staffing, project implementation and fractional advisory.
- Medical practice KPIs every practice leader should track
- Multi-site medical practice operations: what to standardize first