What your numbers are actually telling you.
Structured reporting is where HDT earns its keep. Below is a de-identified example of an 18-month review we ran for a multi-surgeon orthopedic group — turning four raw practice reports into a clear picture of production, cash, resolution, and payer economics, with prioritized actions.
Four reports, four questions answered
Every review starts by connecting the numbers most practices look at separately.
How much work are we doing?
Charges and encounters by month and provider, split hospital/ASC vs. office.
How fast does work turn into cash?
Deposits by payer and by months-since-service — the collection-speed curve.
Does every charge get resolved?
Share of each month's charges fully satisfied, and where open A/R sits.
Who pays, and how well?
Charge vs. payment mix, actual rates by CPT and provider, exception audits.
Bottom line: production is stable, cash is fast, and old A/R clears at ~99%. The margin story is in the payer economics — who's in the mix, what they actually pay, and the $3.4M adjusted to zero.
Exception audits: money falling through the cracks
Three built-in audits catch what most billing operations write off silently. This is where a structured review pays for itself.
Every dollar here was earned and surrendered. Top codes deserve root-cause review: bundling denials, missed auth, or timely-filing.
Small count, pure leakage — usually a charge-entry or fee-schedule mapping gap. Cheap to fix permanently.
When a payer pays 100% of charge, the charge is below the contracted allowable — those codes are priced too low.
What we recommended
Protect the engine
Production, cash speed, and resolution are healthy. Keep the four reports as a standing monthly scorecard.
Chase the $3.4M question
Root-cause the 100% adjustments by code and payer. Even a 10% recovery is ~$340K — the largest single opportunity.
Work the recent outliers
A few payers' newest claims resolve slower than same-age peers. Targeted follow-up now beats aged A/R later.
Reprice what pays at 100%
725 units paid at full charge means the charge master is below contract on those codes. Reprice and capture the difference.
Mind the payer mix
Watch government-plan growth and use the per-payer collection table in every contract negotiation.
Audit the E&M curve
A level-5 visit paying less than a level-4 is a documentation/coding flag. A one-week coding audit settles it.
Ready for a revenue cycle you can actually see?
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