Insurance aging tells you how much money insurance companies owe your practice and how long those dollars have been outstanding. But when claims start sitting beyond 30, 60, or even 90 days, cash flow can quickly suffer. In this episode, Kirk Behrendt is joined by coach Carlie Einarson to explain how to read your insurance aging report, recognize when claims are becoming a problem, and create a consistent system for getting outstanding balances resolved. Learn what healthy insurance AR should look like, why clear ownership matters, and what your team can start doing today to improve collections.
Listen to Episode 1111 of The Best Practices Show!
Main Takeaways:
- Insurance aging shows how much money insurance companies owe your practice and how long those balances have been outstanding.
- The majority of healthy insurance AR should remain in the zero-to-30-day bucket.
- Growing balances in the 60-, 90-, and 90-plus-day buckets indicate that claims need more attention.
- Claims need a consistent follow-up process and a clearly designated team member responsible for resolving them.
- Clean claims with complete X-rays, notes, and required information can help prevent unnecessary payment delays.
- Insurance aging balances should decline over time rather than steadily increase from month to month.
- Start by identifying how much money is sitting in each aging bucket, then build systems to resolve the outstanding claims.
Episode Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to Metric Mondays
01:00 What insurance aging means
03:52 Signs your insurance AR is going in the wrong direction
05:12 Finding where insurance money is getting stuck
07:14 What healthy insurance aging looks like
08:57 Assigning ownership and creating a follow-up system
11:00 How to evaluate your insurance aging report
12:42 Using reporting systems to improve insurance AR
13:00 Wrap up
Guest Bio:
Carlie Einarson is a lead practice coach who has a passion for helping others succeed in the dental field. She loves helping to create a stable foundation for practices so both professionals and patients have a great experience every time they walk in the door!
Carlie graduated from Utah College of Dental Hygiene. She has ten years of experience in the dental field, including clinical dental hygiene, front office, and leading teams.
In her free time, she enjoys spending quality time with loved ones, traveling, skiing, playing volleyball, and golfing.
Episode Resources:
Check out our practice reporting guide:
https://hub.smilesource.com/c/resources/practice-reporting-guide
More Helpful Links for a Better Practice & a Better Life:
