It’s not a staffing gap. It’s a structural problem. Here’s why the backlog keeps coming back, and what to do about it.
Post the role. Train the hire. Watch the numbers move for a quarter. We get the urge to “staff
your way out” of aged AR…it’s an obvious move to grab onto. Then someone leaves, or the
credentialing backlog blows up, or prior authorization becomes the team member that quit this
week…and so…the aged AR sits exactly where it was.
The problem isn’t who you hired. It’s structural.
Current-period billing has deadlines. Prior authorizations have deadlines. Patients calling about
their bills have deadlines. Aged AR has none of that, which means it stacks up quietly – too
quietly. And it only gets pushed to next week so many times before the quarterly review makes it
impossible to ignore.
The people aren’t the problem. The competition for their attention is.
The people aren’t the problem.
The competition for their attention is.
Claims don’t age evenly. Recovery drops off sharply after 90 days. Past 120–150, you’re
spending more effort for fewer dollars. On 2–4% margins, that math stops being survivable; and
nobody sees it coming until the backlog is large and the straightforward claims are long gone.
By then your new hire is six months into a job that takes eighteen to master.
Run these against your own operation:
Is one team handling current-period billing and aged recovery at the same time?
Have you refilled the same billing or AR role twice in two years, with the backlog still
sitting there?
Two yeses, and this isn’t a staffing gap you can close by posting the job again. A backlog that
survives every quarterly cleanup is the clearest signal you’ll get.
The fix isn’t more headcount. It’s changing who owns the problem – pick right back up with us
for how this solution changes the game in Part II.
Current-period billing has deadlines. Prior authorizations have deadlines. Patients calling about
their bills have deadlines. Aged AR has none of that, which means it stacks up quietly – too
quietly. And it only gets pushed to next week so many times before the quarterly review makes it
impossible to ignore.
The people aren’t the problem. The competition for their attention is.
Discover how the Resolv Operating System can help you build a more intelligent, scalable, and profitable customer operation.
