AR Aging: Accounts Receivable Aging Waterfall
AR aging classifies unpaid claims into time buckets (typically 0-30, 31-60, 61-90, 91-120, 120+ days). The aging distribution measures revenue cycle health and predicts net collection rate.
What is AR aging?
Accounts Receivable Aging buckets every unpaid claim by how long it's been outstanding. Standard buckets:
- 0-30 days — current; should be the largest bucket
- 31-60 days — primary follow-up window for clean claims
- 61-90 days — first sign of payer slowdown or workflow gap
- 91-120 days — recoveries become harder; appeals harder still
- 120+ days — write-down territory unless there's an active appeal
Best-in-class healthcare AR distributions keep 65-75% of total AR in the 0-30 bucket and under 20% in 90+. Anything materially different points to a payer issue, a clearinghouse routing issue, or a workflow gap.
Why the aging waterfall matters
The aging waterfall (rolling AR by bucket over time) is the canonical CFO and revenue cycle director view. It surfaces:
- Payer-specific slowdowns — one MCO pushing AR into the 90+ bucket signals a contract or policy change.
- Service-line workflow gaps — a department's claims systematically aging suggests documentation or charge-capture issues.
- Recovery trajectory — claims moving forward (90→61→31) indicate effective follow-up; static AR at 90+ predicts write-downs.
- Net collection rate forecast — aged AR distribution is the strongest predictor of full-year net collection rate.
AR aging by payer — the most useful cut
Total AR aging hides payer-specific issues. AR aging by payer surfaces them. A payer whose 60-90 bucket grew 25% over the last quarter is a payer with a new policy, new prior-auth requirement, or clearinghouse routing change. Catching the shift in week 2 is worth orders of magnitude more than catching it at quarter-end.
Where Vizier fits
Vizier ingests the open AR balance from your EHR or PM system through the connector and refreshes daily. The aging waterfall is pre-built; the payer-by-bucket trend chart is one click. Drill from a bucket to the patient/encounter list. Vizier also flags the specific CARC patterns that drove a payer's AR aging shift, so the workflow gap is immediately actionable.