HI555 Unit 7 Accounts Receivable Report Example

Course	HI555 Revenue Cycle Management
Unit	Unit 7
Paper type	Accounts receivable report
Length	About 960 words, 6 pages double-spaced
Format	APA 7 student paper
School	Purdue University Global
Program	MS in Health Informatics
Updated	October 2026

Free sample paper for HI555 Unit 7

Behind the 52.4: A Unit 7 Accounts Receivable Report That Splits, Ages and Prices Ninety-Four Million Dollars of Balances

[Student Name]

Purdue University Global

HI555: Revenue Cycle Management

Unit 7 Accounts Receivable Report

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

Bellcourt Health, its payers, balances and recovery rates are composite; the sources cited are real.

What this part is doingRefusing to let one summary figure stand for the whole balance is the stance the report takes in its first sentence, and every table follows from it.

Summary for the Chief Financial Officer

Net days in accounts receivable rose from 49.8 to 52.4 over the quarter. The rise is not spread evenly. Three findings explain most of it. First, about one eighth of the total, $11.8 million, has never been billed, and most of that is waiting on coding or physician queries, work no collector can do. Second, one Medicare Advantage plan holds 34 percent of its balances beyond 90 days, far above any other insurer. Third, self-pay balances over 120 days are large, $4.8 million, but historically return about six cents on the dollar. The recommended actions put follow-up hours where they return the most cash and send the unbilled problem to the health information department.

Definitions

Days in accounts receivable is computed several ways, so the report states its method and follows the net days definition in HFMA's MAP Keys so that the figure can be compared from period to period. Gross days divide gross charges outstanding by average daily gross charges. Net days, used here, divide net receivables, after expected contractual adjustments and bad debt allowance, by average daily net patient revenue over the last 90 days, which was $1.80 million. Net receivables of $94.2 million divided by $1.80 million gives 52.4 days.

Credit balances, $2.1 million this month, are reported separately rather than netted against debit balances. Netting them would make receivables look smaller than they are and would hide money that may be owed back to payers or patients. Finance texts treat receivables quality, not just size, as the measure of revenue cycle performance (Gapenski & Reiter, 2016).

Table One: Billed Receivables by Payer Class and Age

Amounts in millions of dollars, for buckets of 0 to 30, 31 to 60, 61 to 90, 91 to 120 and over 120 days.

1. Medicare: 9.8, 3.1, 1.2, 0.7, 1.0. Total 15.8.

2. Medicare Advantage: 8.6, 4.3, 2.6, 1.5, 3.4. Total 20.4.

3. Medicaid managed care: 4.1, 1.9, 1.0, 0.6, 1.2. Total 8.8.

4. Commercial: 13.2, 6.4, 3.5, 1.9, 2.6. Total 27.6.

5. Self-pay: 1.6, 1.3, 1.1, 1.0, 4.8. Total 9.8.

Billed receivables total $82.4 million. Within Medicare Advantage, one plan accounts for $9.6 million, and $3.3 million of it, 34 percent, is more than 90 days old. The other Medicare Advantage plans together hold about 15 percent of their balances past 90 days.

A single Medicare Advantage plan holds nearly twice as much past ninety days as all of traditional Medicare.

What this part is doingNaming the slow plan with its share past ninety days gives the escalation action a fact that the payer's representative cannot easily dispute.

Table Two: Unbilled Accounts by Hold Reason

Amounts in millions of dollars.

1. Coding not complete: 5.1.

2. Physician query open: 2.3.

3. Record deficiency, such as an unsigned operative note: 1.6.

4. Claim scrubber edit unresolved: 2.0.

5. Registration or authorization missing: 0.8.

Unbilled accounts total $11.8 million. Of that, $9.0 million sits with coding, queries and record deficiencies, which belong to health information and the medical staff, not to patient financial services. Only the scrubber edits and the registration holds can be worked by billing staff.

Table Three: What Each Block Would Return per Hour

Expected collections for each block are the balance multiplied by the historical recovery rate for that payer and age. Hours are the typical follow-up time the block needs, from the last two quarters of work queue data. Yield per hour is expected collections divided by hours.

1. Commercial, 31 to 90 days: $9.9 million balance, 78 percent recovery, $7.7 million expected, about 1,300 hours, roughly $5,900 per hour.

2. Medicare, 31 to 90 days: $4.3 million, 85 percent, $3.7 million expected, about 900 hours, roughly $4,100 per hour.

3. The slow Medicare Advantage plan, over 90 days: $3.3 million, 55 percent, $1.8 million expected, about 600 hours, roughly $3,000 per hour.

4. Medicaid managed care, 61 to 120 days: $1.6 million, 60 percent, $1.0 million expected, about 400 hours, roughly $2,400 per hour.

5. Self-pay, over 120 days: $4.8 million, 6 percent, $0.3 million expected, about 900 hours, roughly $320 per hour.

Ranking by yield per hour reverses the usual instinct to work the oldest or largest balances first. Self-pay over 120 days is the largest aged block in the report and the least productive use of a collector's time.

Five Actions

1. Work commercial balances between 31 and 90 days daily, assigned by payer, before they age further.

2. Clear Medicare balances between 31 and 90 days, most of which are claims returned for correction, through a weekly edit review.

3. Escalate the slow Medicare Advantage plan through its provider representative with a list of every claim over 90 days, its submission date and status, and request a meeting within 30 days.

4. Send the $9.0 million of unbilled coding, query and deficiency holds to the health information director with a weekly report by hold reason, since collectors cannot work accounts that have not been billed.

5. Place self-pay balances over 120 days with the collection agency under the existing financial assistance screening policy, rather than assigning staff hours to them.

What this part is doingEach action follows the yield ranking or names an owner outside patient financial services, which shows the report was built to direct effort, not only to describe balances.

Limits

Recovery rates come from history and may not hold if a payer changes its behavior. Billing and insurance work is costly in itself (Tseng et al., 2018), and the hours estimates assume the current mix of electronic and manual follow-up. Healthcare finance texts note that days in receivables can rise simply because revenue grew late in the period (Nowicki, 2021), so the next report should confirm that the trend holds once a full quarter of revenue is in the average.

References

Gapenski, L. C., & Reiter, K. L. (2016). Healthcare finance: An introduction to accounting and financial management (6th ed.). Health Administration Press.

Nowicki, M. (2021). Introduction to the financial management of healthcare organizations (8th ed.). Health Administration Press.

Tseng, P., Kaplan, R. S., Richman, B. D., Shah, M. A., & Schulman, K. A. (2018). Administrative costs associated with physician billing and insurance-related activities at an academic health care system. JAMA, 319(7), 691-697. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2017.19148

The Purdue Global HI555 Unit 7 instructions

The seventh unit typically asks you to prepare an accounts receivable report for leadership and recommend actions. Expect to define the measures you use, present aging by payer class, separate unbilled from billed accounts and propose where to focus follow-up. Many prompts provide aging data or ask you to build a composite set. Seven pages with an executive summary is a common format. Define days in receivables precisely, since it is computed several ways. Report credit balances separately rather than netting them. Show unbilled balances by hold reason so the right department owns them. Estimate expected collections and the effort each block needs, and rank actions by return per hour rather than by age or size alone.

How the HI 555 Unit 7 example is put together

A one-page summary gives the chief financial officer three findings. A definitions section explains gross and net days, the 1.80 million dollar average daily revenue behind 52.4 days and why credit balances stand apart. Table one ages 82.4 million dollars of billed balances across five payer classes and five buckets, and the highlighted sentence notes that one Medicare Advantage plan holds nearly twice as much past 90 days as all of traditional Medicare. Table two lists 11.8 million dollars of unbilled accounts by hold reason. Table three estimates expected collections, hours and yield per hour for five blocks. Five numbered actions follow the ranking, from daily commercial follow-up to placing old self-pay with an agency. A limits section notes recovery assumptions and revenue timing.

HI555 Unit 7 rubric: what earns full points

Receivables reports are generally scored on accuracy of measures, quality of analysis, recommendations and presentation for an executive reader. Analysis carries a large share and is rewarded when the report explains what drives the headline figure rather than restating it. Measures earn credit when definitions are stated and applied consistently. Recommendations score well when ranked by expected return and assigned to owners, including departments outside billing. Presentation matters because the audience is an executive: a clear summary, readable tables and plain language earn points. Accurate arithmetic is essential. APA format completes the rubric. Reports that present aging tables without interpretation, or that recommend working the oldest balances first without considering yield, tend to lose points.

Common HI555 Unit 7 mistakes, and how to avoid them

A common reason these reports are returned is an undefined days in receivables figure. Another is netting credit balances against debits, which hides money that may be owed back. Some students treat all receivables as collectable by billing staff and ignore unbilled accounts held for coding or documentation. Recommendations often focus on the largest aged block, which may return the least. Tables that do not add up draw immediate comments. Executive summaries sometimes bury the findings under definitions. If your data come from a physician group or a single hospital, gather your aging and unbilled reports with the prompt, and a report can be prepared from your own numbers.

Get an HI555 Unit 7 example written to your instructions

An aging report, a set of month-end totals or nothing at all: whatever the course provides becomes the basis of the report, and clearly marked sample figures cover the last case. The rubric should travel with it. The first custom sample is free, arrives within 24-48h, and ranks balances by expected return rather than by size. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.

More HI555 papers and MS in Health Informatics samples

HI555 Unit 7 questions, answered

What is the difference between gross and net days in accounts receivable?

Gross days divide total receivables by average daily gross charges; net days use receivables after expected contractual adjustments and average daily net revenue. Net days better reflect cash the organization expects to collect. The example reports net days as its headline and gross days in the definitions box, noting that the two move differently when payer mix shifts.

Why report credit balances separately?

Because they represent money the organization may owe to patients or payers, not money it is waiting to receive. Netting them against debit balances shrinks the reported total and hides an obligation that often needs resolution within set timeframes. The example lists them as a separate line with their own age profile, so a reader sees both sides of the ledger.

Where can I find a free HI555 Unit 7 sample paper?

The complete Unit 7 report is on this page, with aging by payer class, unbilled holds and a yield-per-hour ranking behind five actions.

Why rank follow-up work by yield per hour?

Because the oldest or largest balances are not always the most collectable. Dividing expected collections by the hours a block needs shows where staff time returns the most cash.

Who owns unbilled accounts in a receivables report?

Mostly the departments holding them. Accounts waiting on coding, physician queries or record deficiencies belong to health information and the medical staff, not to collectors.