AR over 90 days:
under 3% of total AR
This is the number that matters most. Above 3% means claims are aging past the point where they get paid easily. Above 10% and a meaningful share of that money is close to unrecoverable.
Dental AR Recovery
Expert dental accounts receivable solutions for dental practices and DSOs
Every claim sitting in your aging report is work your practice already did and hasn't been paid for. Somewhere between the appointment and the deposit it stalled, and unless someone is working it on a schedule, it keeps aging until the filing window closes and the money is gone for good.
iDental Billing works your aging report every week, oldest and largest balances first. Our dental accounts receivable follow-up chases every stalled claim, denials get appealed with documentation, and underpayments get caught against your fee schedule rather than posted as complete. Solo practices, growing groups, and multi-location DSOs run 21 days in AR with us, against an industry average closer to 45.
21 daysAverage days in AR
75%+Recovery on aged claims
98.7%Net collection rate
98%Clean claim rate
Free AR Review
See what's still
recoverable
- HIPAA compliant
- BAA before access
- Dedicated AR specialist
- Works in your PM software
AR benchmarks
Is your AR a problem? Five benchmarks to measure your insurance aging report against
Before you look at dental accounts receivable solutions, it helps to know whether you have a problem. Most practices know their AR feels high without knowing whether it is. These are the numbers the industry measures against. Pull your aging report and check.
AR over 90 days:
under 3% of total AR
This is the number that matters most. Above 3% means claims are aging past the point where they get paid easily. Above 10% and a meaningful share of that money is close to unrecoverable.
AR over 60 days:
under 15% of total AR
The early warning. If this is climbing while the 90-day figure still looks fine, you have claims about to become a problem rather than claims that already are.
Days in AR:
under 30
The industry average sits closer to 45. Every day above that is a day your production is funding a payer's cash flow instead of yours.
Total AR:
roughly equal to one month of production
The AR ratio. If your total outstanding is more than about 1.0 times your average monthly production, money is accumulating faster than it's coming in.
Net collection rate:
98% or higher
What you actually collected against what you were entitled to collect after contractual adjustments. Below 95% and something systematic is wrong.
iDental Billing clients run 21 days in AR and a 98.7% net collection rate. If your numbers are worse than the benchmarks above, the gap between them is money still sitting on your aging report.
AR Recovery Review
Not Sure Where Your AR Stands?
Send your aging report and we'll identify what needs action, what can be recovered, and where revenue is getting stuck.
- No commitment required
- Expert AR review
- HIPAA-secure process
The diagnosis
Where dental AR actually gets
stuck, and why claims stop moving
Dental accounts receivable solutions exist because aging reports don't grow from one big failure. They grow four small ways at once, and every one of them is invisible until someone looks.
Claims nobody followed up on
A claim that goes quiet is a claim nobody is working. Payers don't chase you, and a file sitting untouched for 90 days is often past appeal by the time it surfaces on a report someone finally reads.
Denials written off instead of appealed
Appealing takes documentation and forty minutes. Writing off takes thirty seconds. Under pressure the second one wins, and every write-off teaches the payer that denying that claim type works.
Underpayments posted as paid in full
Payers pay below contracted rates more often than practices realize. If nobody checks the EOB against the fee schedule, the shortfall gets posted as complete and the account closes with money still owed.
Claims that aged past the filing window
Every payer has a timely filing deadline. Once it passes, the money is unrecoverable regardless of who was right about the claim. This is the only loss on this list that can never be reversed.
None of this requires a bad biller. It requires a busy one, which describes almost every front desk in the country.
Recovery triage
What's still collectible, and
what's already gone
A practice with a bad aging report usually has three kinds of money on it, and treating them the same way wastes effort on claims that will never pay while newer ones age behind them.
Still collectible
Claims inside the filing window with a fixable problem. A missing attachment, a coding mismatch, an eligibility issue at the time of service, a denial that was never appealed. Most aged AR falls here, and most of it pays once someone works it properly.
Time sensitive
Claims approaching the filing deadline or already denied once. These get worked first, because the window closes on a fixed date and no amount of follow-up reopens it afterward.
Already gone
Claims past timely filing with no appeal rights left. iDental Billing flags these rather than billing you to chase them. Knowing what to write off is worth as much as knowing what to pursue, because it stops your team spending hours on money that no longer exists.
AR Recovery Triage
Find the AR revenue still worth recovering
We sort your balances into still collectible, time sensitive and already gone, so the urgent ones get worked first.
The cadence
What systematic AR follow-up
actually looks like
Most AR gets worked when someone finds an hour. That's why it drifts. Dental accounts receivable management only works on a fixed schedule, and here's the one your aging report runs on.
Every week
The full report, oldest first
Your entire aging report gets worked weekly, starting with the oldest and largest balances because those carry the most risk and the most money. That cadence is what keeps dental insurance collections moving. Nothing waits for a monthly review.
Every claim
A reason, not a resubmission
A stalled claim gets investigated before it gets refiled. Missing attachment, coding mismatch, eligibility problem, or a denial that needs an appeal with documentation. Resubmitting the same claim unchanged just restarts the clock.
Every denial
Appealed with evidence
Denials get appealed with the narrative, radiographs, or documentation the payer asked for. The root cause gets fixed too, so the same denial stops repeating next month.
Every month
What changed and why
You get your days in AR, your aging buckets, your net collection rate, and the denial patterns we're seeing by payer. Your AR specialist walks you through it if you want the call.
One person owns your account and knows which claims are currently stuck. You reach them directly rather than through a queue.
Two kinds of AR
Insurance AR and Patient AR
are different problems
Your aging report holds two kinds of money and most billing companies work them the same way. They shouldn't be. One is a payer problem and the other is a relationship problem.
Insurance AR
Money a payer owes you and hasn't paid. A process problem with a fixed deadline.
- Every stalled claim investigated before it gets refiled
- Denials appealed with the documentation the payer asked for
- Underpayments caught against your contracted fee schedule
- Filing deadlines tracked so nothing ages past recovery
- Claims worked until they pay or until we tell you they can't
Patient AR
Money a patient owes after insurance has settled. A communication problem, not a collections one.
- Statements sent on a schedule with balances patients understand
- Insurance portions confirmed so patients aren't billed twice
- Follow-up that stays consistent without becoming aggressive
- Balances escalated to you before any write-off decision
- Accounts worked in a way that keeps patients coming back
Both sit on the same report and both get worked, but they get worked differently.
Software
We work inside the software you already run
No new system to learn and nothing to migrate. Our AR specialists log into your practice management software and work your aging report where your data already lives.
Access runs through an encrypted connection under permissions you set and can revoke at any time. Nothing gets exported and nothing moves to a system you can't see.
Don't see your software listed? Tell us which EHR or EMR you run and we'll confirm we work in it, then show you where AR is getting stuck inside it.
Practice types
Dental AR management for solo practices,
groups, and DSOs
Our dental accounts receivable solutions scale to any practice size, and the aging report looks different at each one. What changes is how much is on it and how many places it has to stay clean across.
Solo and small practices
One aged claim is a bigger share of your month when there's less production behind it. You get the same weekly aging review and the same appeals process as a group twenty times your size, without hiring for it.
Group practices
Every provider and location worked to one standard, so a clean aging report at one group practice site isn't offset by a growing one at another. One report, one process, consistent across all of it.
DSOs and multi-location
Centralized AR with reporting that rolls up the group or drills into a single location. You see which sites are carrying the aging and which payers are causing it, rather than a blended number that hides both.
Pricing
AR recovery pricing, tied to
what we collect
Our dental accounts receivable solutions are priced on a percentage of what we recover. Nothing on claims that don't pay.
Priced on recovery
A percentage of what actually comes back, never a flat monthly fee. Aged claims we can't recover cost you nothing.
Rate drops as you grow
Your percentage is set by monthly collection volume. Larger volumes sit in lower bands, so the rate falls as your practice grows.
Everything included
Weekly aging reviews, denial appeals, underpayment recovery, patient statements, and your dedicated AR specialist. No plan is a lighter version of another.
No obligation. Or see all pricing first.
- No setup fee
- No per-claim charges
- No long-term contract
- Rate in writing before you sign
FAQ
Dental accounts receivable questions
we get asked most
1
AR over 90 days should sit under 3% of your total AR, and AR over 60 days under 15%. Days in AR should be under 30, against an industry average closer to 45. Total AR of roughly one month's production is healthy. iDental Billing clients average 21 days in AR.
2
Days in AR is the average time between completing treatment and receiving payment. You calculate it by dividing total AR by average daily production. Under 30 days is healthy, 30 to 45 is workable, and above 45 means claims are aging faster than they're being collected.
3
Work the aging report weekly rather than monthly, starting with the oldest and largest balances. Investigate why each claim stalled instead of resubmitting it unchanged. Appeal denials with documentation rather than writing them off. Verify insurance before appointments so fewer claims fail in the first place.
4
Often, yes. Claims still inside the payer's filing window are usually recoverable once someone investigates why they stalled. Claims past the deadline with no appeal rights left are not, regardless of who was right about the claim. We sort your aging into what's collectible and what isn't before we start.
5
It varies by payer, commonly between 90 days and one year from the date of service, and Medicaid programs often run shorter. Once that window closes the claim is unrecoverable. This is why aged AR gets worked oldest first rather than easiest first.
6
Most denials trace to a handful of causes: missing attachments or narratives, coding that doesn't match the clinical notes, eligibility problems at the time of service, coordination of benefits errors, frequency limitations, or a provider who isn't credentialed with the payer yet. Nearly all of them are appealable with the right documentation.
7
It depends on whether your aging report is being worked on a schedule. A practice with AR over 90 days under 3% and someone dedicated to follow-up usually doesn't need to. A practice above 10% with nobody assigned to it is losing money every month it waits.
8
We tell you. Claims past filing with no appeal rights get flagged as unrecoverable rather than chased, and you aren't billed for pursuing them. Knowing what to write off stops your team spending hours on money that no longer exists.
9
Yes. Patient AR gets worked differently, with statements on a schedule, balances patients can understand, and follow-up that stays consistent without becoming aggressive. Balances get escalated to you before any write-off decision.
10
A percentage of what we actually recover, set by your monthly collection volume, and nothing is charged on claims that don't pay. There's no setup fee and no long-term contract. See the pricing page for the bands. Practices on our dental billing services already get AR follow-up in their rate.
Still have an AR question?
Ask us anything about your aging report and an AR specialist will get back to you.
Free AR review
See what's still recoverable
An AR specialist works through your aging report and shows you what can still be collected, and what needs action first.
- 21 days average in AR
- 75%+ recovery on aged claims
- 98.7% net collection rate
- Claims filed within 24 hours
In a hurry? Call (916) 546-9339
Get your free AR review
Your accounts receivable, worked weekly.