Arizona A/R Follow-Up Services That Get Unpaid Claims Paid
Every unpaid claim has a deadline. Arizona Billing Services works your unpaid, underpaid and denied claims by dollar value and days left to file, across AHCCCS, Medicare and commercial payers, until each one is paid or closed for a documented reason.
- Every open claim touched at least every 14 days
- AHCCCS 6-month and 12-month deadlines tracked on each claim
- Every ERA checked against your contracted rates for underpayments
- HIPAA compliant
- BAA signed before access
- Works inside your PM/EHR
- Phoenix team, Arizona hours (MST)
What Is A/R Follow-Up in Medical Billing, and What Is It Worth to Your Practice?
A/R follow-up is the ongoing work of tracking every insurance claim that has not been paid in full, checking its status with the payer and taking the step that gets it paid: correcting, resubmitting, appealing or escalating it before the payer's deadline closes.
Submitting a claim starts the payment process; follow-up finishes it. Most clean electronic claims pay within 14 to 30 days. A claim still open after 30 days usually has a problem: a missing modifier, an eligibility mismatch, a records request nobody saw, a coordination-of-benefits question. The longer it sits, the less it is worth. Industry data consistently shows collection odds dropping sharply once a claim passes 90 days, and many claims become uncollectible after 120.
Six Claim Statuses We Turn Into Payments
| Claim status | What it usually means | How we get it paid |
|---|---|---|
| No response | The payer never received it, or it is stuck in processing | Confirm receipt, get the claim number, resubmit with proof of timely filing if needed |
| Pending / in process | The payer is waiting on records, COB or an itemized bill | Identify what is missing and send it within 48 hours |
| Rejected | Failed clearinghouse or payer front-end edits, so no claim is on file | Fix the data error and resubmit the same day, because rejections do not stop the filing clock |
| Denied | Processed and refused, with a CARC/RARC reason code | Correct and resubmit, request reconsideration or file a formal appeal |
| Underpaid | Paid below your contracted rate | Dispute the variance with your fee schedule as evidence |
| Recouped or misdirected | Offset, overpayment or payment sent to the wrong party | Reconcile, recover the funds or document the adjustment |
AR Followup Built for Arizona Payers
National billing companies work every payer the same way. Arizona payers have their own clocks and rules, and a missed Arizona-specific deadline turns a payable claim into a write-off.
AHCCCS Claims Worked Inside the 6-Month and 12-Month Windows
AHCCCS fee-for-service requires the initial claim within 6 months of the date of service, and the claim must reach clean-claim status within 12 months of the date of service or AHCCCS is not liable for payment. AHCCCS Complete Care plans, including Mercy Care, Banner–University Family Care and Arizona Complete Health, publish their own filing and dispute rules. Our Arizona team tracks which clock applies to each claim, not just which payer it belongs to.
Noridian Medicare Denials Appealed Within 120 Days
Arizona Medicare Part B claims go to Noridian, the Jurisdiction F Medicare Administrative Contractor. Medicare allows 12 months from the date of service to file and 120 days from the initial determination to request a redetermination. We work Noridian's portal and appeal levels directly so denials are contested on time.
Commercial Payers Held to Arizona's Prompt-Pay Law
Under A.R.S. § 20-3102, a health insurer generally has 30 days to adjudicate a clean claim and another 30 days to pay the approved amount, unless your contract sets other terms, and late payments accrue interest at the legal rate. When Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, Aetna, Cigna, UnitedHealthcare or another commercial payer sits on clean claims, we document the timeline and use it to push payment.
7 Signs Your Practice Is Losing Revenue in Aging A/R
Days in A/R is above 40 and no one can explain why.
More than 15% of your A/R is older than 90 days.
Your biller splits the day between new charges and follow-up, so follow-up loses.
Denials appear in reports but are rarely appealed.
Payer letters asking for records or COB updates sit unanswered.
You changed billers or PM systems, and the old A/R was never worked.
You suspect underpayments but have never compared payments to your contracts.
If two or more sound familiar, revenue you have already earned is aging toward a write-off.
Our 6-Step A/R Follow-Up Process Gets Claims Paid Faster
Triage your aging report in 72 hours
We sort A/R by payer and bucket (0–30, 31–60, 61–90, 91–120, 120+) and flag every claim within 30 days of a filing or appeal deadline.
Work the money and the deadlines first
Claims are ranked by balance and days left. A $4,000 claim with three weeks left goes ahead of a $90 claim with five months left.
Get the real status from the payer
We check payer portals, run electronic claim status inquiries (276/277) and call when needed, logging the representative's name and a reference number for every contact.
Remove what's blocking payment
We correct coding and demographic errors, send medical records, update coordination of benefits, request reconsideration or file a written appeal with supporting documentation.
Recover what payers underpaid
We compare every ERA (835) line to your contracted fee schedule and dispute variances, including prompt-pay interest where Arizona law applies.
Fix the cause and show you the results
Each resolved claim is tagged with a root cause. You get a weekly activity summary, a monthly KPI report and a quarterly review of the denial causes we've fed back to your front desk, coders and billers.
Complete A/R Follow-Up Services From One Arizona Team
Insurance Claim Follow-Up on a 14-Day Cycle
Weekly work queues cover commercial, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, AHCCCS, TRICARE and workers' compensation claims. No open claim goes more than 14 days without a documented touch.
Denial Appeals Filed Before the Window Closes
Every denial is read by its reason code, then corrected, reconsidered or appealed with the right documentation. Repeat denials go to our denial management team so they stop at the source.
Underpayment Recovery Against Your Payer Contracts
Line-by-line checks of allowed and paid amounts against your contracted rates, with each dispute tracked to a final answer.
Old A/R Cleanup for 120+ Day Balances
A focused project for aged balances left by a previous biller, staff turnover or a system migration.
Secondary Claims Billed as Soon as the Primary Pays
COB updates and crossover claims so secondary and tertiary payers are billed within 48 hours of the primary payment posting.
Credit Balances Resolved Within 60 Days
Overpayments are identified and refunded or offset correctly. For Medicare, identified overpayments must be returned within 60 days, and we track that deadline for you.
Clean Hand-Off to Patient Billing
Once insurance is finished, the patient's share moves to our patient billing team with an accurate statement.
Recover Old A/R Without Wasting Time on Dead Claims
Not every old claim is lost, and not every old claim is worth chasing. In your free analysis, we sort aged A/R into three groups:
Recoverable now
still inside filing or appeal limits. These are worked first.
Recoverable with proof
past the limit, but you hold proof of timely filing, such as a clearinghouse acceptance report or an earlier payer response.
Not recoverable
past every deadline with no proof. We document the reason so you can write it off cleanly and stop carrying it on your books.
You see a dollar estimate for each group before any work begins.
Your First 90 Days With Arizona Billing
| Timeframe | What happens | What you see |
|---|---|---|
| Days 1–5 | BAA signed, system access set up, aging report pulled | Onboarding checklist complete |
| Days 1–14 | Deadline sweep: every claim within 30 days of a filing or appeal limit worked first | List of at-risk claims and their status |
| Days 15–30 | Every open claim touched; denials sorted by reason code | First weekly activity summaries |
| Days 31–60 | Appeals and underpayment disputes in progress; root causes sent upstream | First monthly KPI report |
| Days 61–90 | A/R over 90 days trending down toward the 15% target | 90-day review with next-quarter priorities |
The A/R Benchmarks We Work Toward
| Metric | What it measures | Best-practice target |
|---|---|---|
| Days in A/R | Average days from charge to payment | Under 40 days (top practices: under 30) |
| A/R over 90 days | Share of total A/R older than 90 days | Under 15% |
| A/R over 120 days | Share of total A/R older than 120 days | Under 10% |
| Net collection rate | Collected ÷ collectible after contractual adjustments | 95% or higher |
| First-pass denial rate | Claims denied on first submission | Under 5% |
| Clean claim rate | Claims accepted on first submission | 95% or higher |
Arizona Billing reports these figures for your practice by payer and aging bucket every month.
Why Outsourcing A/R Follow-Up Beats Hiring Another Biller
| Comparison | In-house A/R staff | Arizona Billing Services |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Phoenix A/R follow-up roles are advertised at about $18.50–$25 an hour, roughly $38,000–$52,000 a year before benefits, payroll tax, training and software seats | One fee tied to collections, with no salary, benefits or recruiting cost |
| Coverage | Stops during vacations, sick days and resignations | A team, so follow-up never pauses |
| Payer knowledge | Depends on one person's experience | AHCCCS, Noridian and commercial workflows documented and shared |
| Focus | Split with charge entry, posting and phones | A/R follow-up is the whole job |
| Visibility | Whatever your PM system reports | Weekly activity and monthly KPI reports by payer and bucket |
A Named A/R Specialist Who Knows Your Payers
You get a dedicated A/R follow-up specialist who learns your payer mix and specialty, backed by a team lead who reviews high-dollar and aged claims every week. Every payer contact is logged in your system with the date, representative name and reference number, so your A/R history never depends on one person's memory.
Straightforward A/R Follow-Up Pricing
In the billing industry, ongoing A/R follow-up is usually priced as a percentage of collections, commonly 4% to 9% when bundled with full billing. Standalone old A/R recovery projects are usually priced on contingency, often 15% to 30% of the dollars actually recovered, so you pay only when money comes in. Arizona Billing Services quotes your exact rate in writing after the free analysis, based on claim volume, payer mix and A/R age. See our pricing page for more.
Specialty-Smart A/R Follow-Up for Arizona Practices
Each specialty has its own denial patterns: authorization denials in radiology, medical-necessity denials in wound care, visit-limit denials in chiropractic, and payer carve-outs in mental health. We follow up accordingly for cardiology, dermatology, urgent care, oncology and other specialties.
We support practices in Phoenix, Tucson, Mesa, Scottsdale, Chandler, Gilbert, Glendale, Flagstaff and across Arizona.
Stronger A/R Starts Earlier in Your Revenue Cycle
The best follow-up is the follow-up you never need. Eligibility verification, prior authorization, accurate medical coding and current credentialing decide how many claims stall. A/R follow-up decides how many of them still get paid. Want one team handling all of it? Explore our full revenue cycle management service.
A/R Follow-Up Questions Arizona Practices Ask Us
Find Out How Much of Your A/R Is Still Collectible, Free
Send Arizona Billing Services your current A/R aging report. Within 2 business days, you get:
- Total recoverable A/R by payer and aging bucket
- Claims closest to their filing or appeal deadlines
- Your top 5 denial reasons and what is causing them
- An estimate of underpayments against your contracts
No cost, no obligation. We sign a BAA before we see any patient data.
Call (631) 652-3106 · Mon–Fri, 8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. MST