The Collection Rate Illusion

What 96% Actually Means

Your net collection rate is 96%. That sounds excellent. And it is — unless you do the math on the 4% you’re losing.

For a $5M practice, 4% is $200k a year going uncollected. Worse, it’s rarely random: it concentrates in a small set of payers, codes, and front-desk workflows that, once identified, are usually fixable in one quarter.

What to Track Together

Net collection rate is meaningful only when paired with contractual adjustment rate and days in A/R. If collection rate is high but adjustments are creeping up, your contracts are eroding silently. That’s the read your monthly AileronMD briefing surfaces, with specialty-adjusted benchmarks.