For health care executives, 2024 was not a great year for revenue cycle management (RCM). A recent analysis of claims and billing data concluded what most executive teams know—it’s harder to get paid than it was a year ago. The February 2025 Revenue Cycle KPI Benchmarking Quarterly Report, a year-over-year analysis of 2023 and 2024 data from thousands of health care organizations, found that initial claims denial rates are up 2.4% and final denial rates as a percent of net patient revenue are up 0.4%.   

Not surprisingly, accounts receivable (A/R) days are up 5.2% year-over-year and A/R greater than 90 days is up 2.1%. In the one bright spot in the survey data, bad debt as a percentage of net…