Revenue can look strong on paper while cash is still stuck in accounts receivable.

For DME providers, this gap matters. Orders may be going out, claims may be billed, and revenue may be recorded — but if payments are not coming in quickly, the business can still feel tight. Payroll, purchasing, deliveries, and growth all depend on cash actually reaching the bank.

That is why Days in A/R is such an important revenue cycle metric.

What Days in A/R really tells you

Days in A/R measures how long it takes, on average, to turn billed revenue into collected cash.

A lower number usually means payments are moving faster. A higher number usually means money is sitting too long before it gets resolved, followed up on, or collected.

The goal is not just to bill more. The goal is to move claims and balances through the process faster and with fewer delays.

Reading the A/R aging buckets

Most A/R reports break balances into aging buckets:

• 0–30 days: Current receivables that should be actively moving.
• 31–60 days: Claims and balances that may need closer monitoring.
• 61–90 days: Items that are starting to slow down and need action.
• 90+ days: High-risk balances where collection becomes harder the longer they sit.

The 90+ bucket is the danger zone. Every day a balance stays there, the chance of collecting it can become lower, and the effort required to recover it usually increases.

Healthy A/R is about speed, not just volume

A provider can have a busy month and still have a cash flow problem if too much revenue is aging.

That is why it is important to look beyond total billed amounts. The real question is: how quickly is that money moving?

Healthy A/R management usually means more balances staying in the younger aging buckets, fewer claims drifting into 90+, a consistent follow-up cadence, clear ownership of payer, patient, and secondary balances, and fewer accounts stuck because of missing information or rework.

Benchmarks can vary by payer mix, product type, documentation requirements, and internal workflow. The most important thing is tracking the trend and acting before balances become old.

Why A/R slows down

Slow A/R is not always caused by a single denial. Often, it comes from small delays across the workflow.

A claim may need documentation. A payer may request more information. A secondary balance may not get worked quickly. A patient responsibility amount may sit without follow-up. A team may fix one issue, only for the account to fall into another queue.

These rework loops add days. Over time, those days turn into cash flow pressure.

How to shrink Days in A/R

Improving Days in A/R starts with visibility and follow-through.

Teams need to know which balances are aging, why they are stuck, who owns the next step, and what needs to happen next. The earlier an issue is identified, the easier it is to resolve.

A strong A/R process should help teams prioritize older and higher-risk balances, separate payer, patient, and secondary follow-up, track what has already been worked, avoid accounts sitting without action, spot patterns by payer or workflow issue, and keep follow-up consistent instead of reactive.

The goal is simple: keep cash moving.

What your A/R report is trying to tell you

Your A/R aging report is more than a finance report. It is a signal for where money is slowing down in the business.

If too much is sitting in 61–90 or 90+, the issue is not just collections. It may point to workflow gaps, delayed follow-up, incomplete handoffs, or balances that are not being routed clearly.

Curasev helps DME providers bring more visibility into revenue cycle workflows, so teams can better track aging balances, prioritize follow-up, and understand where cash is getting stuck.

Because getting paid is not just about what was billed.

It is about how fast that revenue turns into cash.