The AR aging report is the single most honest document in your practice. It shows exactly how much you're owed and how long it's been sitting. Most owners glance at the total and move on. The story is in the buckets.
The buckets, and what each means.
0–30 days is healthy, expected float — claims in flight. 31–60 means follow-up is starting to slip. 61–90 is a warning: something wasn't worked. 90+ is money actively at risk, and the older it gets, the less of it you'll ever see. A healthy practice keeps the vast majority in the first two buckets.
Insurance AR vs patient AR.
Split the report in two. Insurance AR is worked with payer calls, corrected claims, and appeals. Patient AR is worked with statements, reminders, and payment plans. They fail for different reasons and need different playbooks — reading them as one number hides both problems.
The goal is AR kept under 30 days on average, with very little past 90. If your 90+ bucket is growing month over month, that's the number to attack first.
Where to act first.
Start with the largest dollars in the 90+ insurance bucket — that's recoverable money on a deadline. Then fix the process that let it get there, usually days-to-submission and a missing 60-day follow-up routine, which we cover in why AR ages. Working the aging every business day is exactly what our AR follow-up service does. Want a read on your report? Book a call.