How to Reduce Dental Insurance AR Over 90 Days
Bucket claims by age and dollar value, work denials before they age, track appeal deadlines per claim, and chase secondary claims on their own schedule.
Introduction
Insurance AR crosses 90 days when a claim gets stuck and nobody works it before the next batch stacks up behind it. There isn't one fix for this, it's a weekly routine: bucket what's aging, work the highest-value and easiest-to-fix claims first, and stop new claims from joining the backlog. This guide lays out that routine and where dental offices typically lose time running it in-house.
Key Takeaways
- Sort the aging report by age and dollar value, not date alone. A $40 claim at 95 days and a $900 claim at 91 days are not the same problem.
- Most claims that reach 90+ days were denied or flagged earlier and never worked. Catching a denial at 15 days is far cheaper than rebilling it at 100.
- Underpayments hide inside claims marked "paid." Check posted payments against the fee schedule before writing anything off.
- Secondary claims need their own follow-up cadence. They don't move on their own once the primary pays.
- Teero's payment posting and insurance aging service works claims over 30 days old, handles denials and appeals, and starts at 2% of payments posted with an $800 monthly minimum, no contract.
The AR Reduction Playbook
1. Bucket claims by age and dollar value
Run the aging report in 30/60/90/120-day buckets, then sort each bucket by dollar amount. Work the 90+ day bucket top-down by dollar value first. A handful of large claims usually make up a disproportionate share of what's overdue.
2. Work denials before they age
A denial that sits for a few weeks before anyone looks at it is the single biggest driver of 90+ day AR. Classify each denial (missing information, timely filing, coordination of benefits, medical necessity) and route it immediately: correct-and-resubmit for the ones your team can fix, appeal for the ones that need payer pushback.
3. Rebill or appeal before the deadline closes
Every payer has a timely-filing and appeal window. Track it per claim, not per payer, since the clock can start at the date of service or the date of denial depending on the payer's rules. A claim that misses its appeal window becomes uncollectable AR, not just aging AR.
4. Chase secondary claims on their own cadence
Secondary insurance doesn't get billed automatically when the primary pays. Someone has to send it. If secondary claims wait for the next full aging review instead of going out the same week the primary posts, that's where a lot of clean, collectable AR quietly ages past 90 days.
5. Reconcile every payment before counting it resolved
A posted payment isn't necessarily the correct payment. Check it against the fee schedule and the expected contractual adjustment before closing the claim or moving the balance to secondary or the patient. Underpayments that go unchecked at posting time don't surface again until someone audits the whole year.
Where This Work Tends to Stall In-House
Front-desk and billing staff usually own eligibility checks, patient collections and claim submission on top of aging work, and aging is the first thing that slips when the schedule gets busy. Teero's payment posting and insurance aging service posts every payment inside the office's practice management system (Dentrix, Open Dental, Eaglesoft or Curve) and works the aging report behind it: claims over 30 days old, denials, secondary claims and appeals. Claim submission stays with the office's own team. The service starts at 2% of payments posted, with volume discounts and an $800 monthly minimum, no software license and no contract, and most offices are live within two weeks of signing up.
Signs the Routine Has Broken Down
A rising share of the aging report sitting past 90 days, denials that get noticed only when someone finally opens the mail or portal weeks later, and secondary claims that only go out during a full monthly review instead of the same week the primary pays, are all signs the weekly cadence has slipped rather than a one-time backlog.
Frequently Asked Questions
How old is too old for a dental claim? It depends on the payer's timely-filing and appeal windows, but once a claim crosses 90 days without a plan to resubmit or appeal, the odds of full recovery drop fast.
Should I write off everything past 120 days? Not automatically. Check whether the appeal window is still open first. A write-off should follow a decision that the claim isn't collectable, not just its age.
Does Teero submit the original claim? No. Teero's scope is verification before the visit and posting, aging, denials, secondary claims and appeals after the claim goes out. Claim submission stays with the dental office. See does Teero submit dental insurance claims.
Conclusion
Reducing 90+ day AR comes down to routine, not a one-time cleanup: bucket by age and dollar value, work denials early, track appeal deadlines per claim, and chase secondary claims on their own schedule. For offices where that routine keeps losing to the daily schedule, Teero's payment posting and aging service handles it inside the practice management system the team already uses. Related: what outsourced dental payment posting costs and going live with Teero payment posting.