AR follow-up
AR follow-up is the active pursuit of unpaid claims sitting with a payer, organized by how old they are and how much they are worth.
Follows denial management and appeals. Feeds into old ar recovery.
Where practices lose money here
AR is worked oldest-first regardless of value
Working the oldest claim first sounds logical but often means chasing small-dollar claims while large ones with closer deadlines sit untouched.
Follow-up has no cadence
Without a defined contact schedule per payer, claims sit in a queue with no one actually calling or checking status until someone happens to notice.
How we handle it
Segment AR into aging buckets: 0-30, 31-60, 61-90, and 90+ days, tracked separately by payer.
Prioritize the daily worklist by dollar value and approaching deadline, not strictly by age.
Follow up with payers on a defined cadence using portal status checks and phone calls where portals are insufficient.
Check claim status directly rather than waiting for a payer response that may never come unprompted.
Escalate stalled claims through payer provider relations contacts when standard follow-up channels stop producing movement.
What you receive
Concrete output for this step, delivered on a set schedule rather than on request.
- An AR aging report by bucket and payer, updated continuously.
- A worklist showing claims contacted, outcome, and next action.
Where this sits in the cycle
AR follow-up is the ongoing work that keeps claims from drifting into old AR. Every claim not resolved through normal posting or denial handling lands here until it is paid, appealed, or written off with a documented reason.
Questions about this step
How often do you follow up on an open claim?
Cadence depends on the payer and dollar value, but no claim sits untouched past the interval set for its aging bucket.
What counts as "resolved" AR?
Paid in full, paid and moved to patient responsibility, denied and moved into appeal, or written off with a documented reason. Nothing sits indefinitely without a status.
Want us to review how this is handled in your practice right now?
The free billing audit looks at ar follow-up alongside the rest of the cycle, and comes back with specific findings.