For healthcare CFOs and practice administrators, the start of 2026 doesn’t feel like just another calendar change. It reflects a point where payer requirements are more complex, administrative pressure is heavier, and reimbursement risk is harder to ignore. Many organizations still assume that if claims are being submitted and payments are coming in, the revenue cycle must be performing well. In practice, that assumption often hides deeper issues.
This is where many leaders encounter what can best be described as invisible value. Billing teams stay busy, reports look reasonable, and operations appear steady on the surface. The bigger question is whether the current billing approach—internal or partner-led—is delivering the financial performance it should. A resilient revenue cycle isn’t built on activity alone. It depends on measuring performance against clear, best-in-class benchmarks.
Why CFOs Need Clear Revenue Cycle Benchmarks
Instinct and informal signals are no longer reliable indicators of revenue cycle health. With 86% of healthcare practices citing administrative burden as a major challenge to financial stability, revenue cycle oversight has become a leadership concern, not just an operational one.
Regardless of whether billing is handled in-house or outsourced, medical A/R management needs to be evaluated against objective standards. Benchmarks provide clarity. They show where revenue is slowing down, where it is being lost, and where performance is falling short of what is possible.
Across high-performing organizations, several benchmarks consistently stand out. Net Collection Rate is one of the clearest measures of revenue cycle performance. Strong results begin at 95%, while best-in-class organizations typically operate between 96% and 99%. Days in Accounts Receivable is just as important. Maintaining healthy cash flow requires keeping charges under 30 days in A/R, yet many practices run closer to 30–40 days, which increases financial risk.
A/R aging also reveals risk. Best-in-class organizations keep A/R over 120 days below 10%. Many independent practices sit closer to 10–15%, which makes recovery increasingly difficult. Clean claims rates tell a similar story. Practices operating at a high level maintain first-pass resolution rates above 95%, reducing both rework and delays in payment.
Taken together, these benchmarks help leadership determine whether revenue cycle operations are simply functioning or truly resilient.
The Financial Impact of Small Performance Drops
Small declines in performance are often dismissed as short-term issues. Over time, those declines add up.
A drop of just 0.5% in Net Collection Rate results in a $5,000 loss for every $1 million in annual allowed revenue. A larger decline—from 97% to 93%—translates to a $40,000 loss per $1 million. These numbers scale quickly across larger organizations.
What makes this more concerning is that much of this revenue is never recovered. Up to 60% of denied claims are never resubmitted, which turns temporary issues into permanent losses. This is why strong medical A/R management is not only about follow-up activity. It’s about preventing avoidable problems before they ever reach accounts receivable.
Strengthening Medical A/R Management with Talisman Solutions
At Talisman Solutions, revenue cycle management is treated as a connected system, not a series of isolated tasks. This perspective comes from years of hands-on RCM experience working directly inside provider and healthcare organization workflows. Our focus is on helping organizations consistently meet—and maintain—best-in-class performance across billing, collections, and A/R.
Medical A/R management works best when issues are caught early, processes stay consistent, and performance is easy to see. That consistency is maintained through a combination of experienced operational oversight and AI-driven automation designed to support—rather than replace—human decision-making.
Accurate billing and coding sit at the foundation. Errors made early in the process tend to create extra work and delays down the line. Our coding workflows and ICD coding engine focus on reducing these issues, including the 63.4% of Medicare billing problems linked to incorrect coding.
AI helps flag things that might cause problems, but our coding teams review everything before it goes out. They apply payer rules and real billing experience to make sure claims are accurate. When claims are cleaner at submission, fewer denials show up later in A/R.
Documentation quality also matters. Our AI SOAP Notes and AI Scribe solutions reduce documentation burden while improving consistency. Providers report 63% less burnout, and billing teams receive documentation that more clearly supports billed services, which improves collections over time. Human review remains part of the process so documentation accurately reflects the clinical intent, follows coding requirements, and holds up during audits
Preventive controls are equally important. When eligibility verification and pre-authorization are built directly into workflows, unnecessary denials are reduced before they occur. As a result, 98% of appointments proceed with valid coverage, cutting down on delays and rework in A/R. These controls reflect operational lessons learned over years of managing real payer behavior—not theoretical workflows.
Visibility is what makes this work. Rather than working from static reports, leadership can see A/R aging, Net Collection Rate trends, and denial patterns as they change. This level of visibility allows experienced teams to step in early and focus their efforts where it will make the most difference. It makes it possible to address issues while balances are still recoverable, rather than after they have aged too far.
Is Your Revenue Cycle Built for Stability?
As healthcare operations continue to evolve, inefficiencies in the revenue cycle are becoming harder to absorb. In 2025, only 12% of independent practices reported operating completely efficiently. Most continue to deal with rework loops, aging A/R, and administrative strain that slowly erodes margins.
Medical A/R management remains one of the clearest indicators of overall revenue cycle health. When billing accuracy, documentation quality, and follow-up processes work together, organizations gain more predictable cash flow and greater financial control.
Resilience does not come from longer hours or larger teams. It comes from running a revenue cycle that is measured, disciplined, and built to handle complexity.
That kind of resilience is achieved when automation and AI reduce operational friction, while experienced teams provide the oversight, context, and judgment that complex healthcare workflows demand.
This is where Talisman Solutions supports practices and healthcare organizations—by combining intelligent technology with real, hands-on RCM experience to build stability that holds up over time.
