If your days in A/R is sitting above 50, you’re not dealing with “slow payers” — you’re dealing with a process problem, and the data backs that up.
What Days in A/R Actually Measures
Days in A/R tells you the average number of days it takes to collect on a claim after it’s submitted. It’s the single clearest signal of how well your revenue cycle is functioning, because it captures coding accuracy, submission speed, and denial follow-up all in one number.
Benchmark Ranges by Specialty
- Primary care: 30-40 days is healthy. Above 45 usually points to slow claim submission or weak follow-up on aging claims.
- Behavioral health: 35-45 days is normal, given more frequent prior authorization requirements. Above 55 often means authorization issues aren’t being caught before the visit.
- Physical therapy: 30-40 days. PT claims are high-volume and repetitive, so a process gap here compounds fast.
- Orthopedics: 35-50 days, since many procedures carry higher documentation requirements. Above 60 typically signals coding or modifier issues.
- Dermatology: 30-45 days. Above 50 often traces back to pathology coding mismatches between the biopsy and the diagnosis code.
Why Practices Misread Their Own Number
A lot of practices assume a high days-in-A/R number means payers are slow. In most cases, it means claims are sitting somewhere internally before they’re even submitted, or denials aren’t being worked promptly.
How to Bring the Number Down
- Submit claims within 48 hours of the visit. Every day a clean claim sits unsubmitted adds directly to your A/R days with zero benefit.
- Work denials within a week, not when someone has spare time.
- Track the number monthly by payer, not just in aggregate. One slow payer can hide a process problem with the other nine.
If your number is above the range for your specialty, that’s not a payer issue to wait out — it’s a specific, fixable gap in the cycle.
What OmniBridge Actually Does
We run the parts of the revenue cycle most practices struggle to staff well: medical coding, claims submission, denial management, and full RCM — built specifically for US physician practices, on a performance-based fee.
If you want to see where your practice currently stands, request a free billing audit and we’ll show you your actual clean claim rate and days in A/R before you commit to anything.
