Close 2025 Strong: Turn Healthcare Accounts Receivable Backlogs into Recovered Revenue

Many hospitals, labs, FQHCs, and Community Health Centers are heading into Q4 with claims that are rejected, denied, or simply... stuck.

The reality is that there’s a lot going on in healthcare right now that remains uncertain, and this results in: staffing shortages, payer policy changes, and new layers of complexity from Medicare, Medicaid, and Advantage plans. No one signed up to work in healthcare because it was easy.

But here’s the good news: accuracy and automation win. You can still turn your healthcare accounts receivable (AR) backlog into collected revenue before the books close.

Why Healthcare AR Backlogs Happen, and Keep Growing

Even with the most dedicated revenue cycle teams, three consistent challenges keep AR from moving off the ledger:

1. Inaccurate or incomplete patient data These can be the simplest of mistakes, from typos or misspellings to outdated addresses or name changes. But they wreak havoc on revenue down the line. These errors often slip through at registration, and once they hit the billing cycle, they’re expensive and time-consuming to fix manually.

2. The complexity of payer plans Between Medicare Advantage, Medicaid Managed Care Organizations (MCOs), and commercial plan variants, finding the right payer and plan for each claim has never been harder. A claim sent to the wrong payer delays payment and can push you past the timely filing window.

3. Resource and staffing challenges Turnover across the healthcare revenue cycle has surged up to 40% annually, with 41% citing burnout as the top driver, creating significant training gaps and inconsistent workflows.

“To maximize revenue, your AR backlog should be managed quickly, accurately, and cost-effectively by acknowledging and addressing these three factors. The attack plan must result in accurate patient demographic and insurance information and discovery of the right insurance for the specific claim, with an automated and timely process.”

– Becker's Hospital Review

The Solution: How Automation Changes the Game

The best way to reduce AR days and futureproof your workflow is to make sure your data and processes don’t depend on who’s sitting at the front desk or who happens to be managing billing that week.

Solutions like FrontRunnerHC continuously validate and correct patient demographic and insurance information, ensuring every claim starts clean and stays accurate, automatically.

Here’s how it helps:

• Instantly surfaces active insurance coverage, including Advantage and MCO plans.

• Confirms eligibility and benefits in real time.

• Identifies grant and sliding-scale program eligibility for FQHCs and Community Health Centers.

• Reduces manual touches and rework, protecting revenue even in high-turnover environments.
  

In other words, your system doesn’t forget the steps, even if your team is stretched thin.

Real-World Automation & Patient Accuracy Results

Here's what the results of accuracy and automation look like in practice:

FrontRunnerHC recently identified millions of dollars in claims that had been misrouted to the wrong insurance companies or missed key eligibility data. These are dollars that would have otherwise been written off.

Don’t End the Year with Revenue Left on the Table

There’s a better way! And opportunity awaits; there’s still time to organize your AR backlog.

With the right automation in place, you can clean up your data, collect what you’ve already earned, and start 2026 on stronger financial footing.

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Meet us at the athenahealth Thrive Summit to see how automation lightens the load or schedule a year-end review with our team to uncover hidden revenue opportunities.