WCH 25th Anniversary · Free live webinar
Where Independent Practices Lose Revenue
New 2026 data on collections, denials, and credentialing turnaround — plus a December checklist for the January 1 prior auth deadline.
Most practices can't answer one question: are you collecting what you're owed?
Not "did the claims go out." Not "is the denial rate acceptable." The actual question — of everything that was collectible this year, how much of it reached the bank account?
Most independent practices don't know. The number isn't on a dashboard, and the places money leaks out — unworked A/R, appeals nobody filed, underpayments nobody audited, patient balances that quietly aged into write-offs — don't announce themselves.
On December 9, WCH Service Bureau is publishing a year of operational data to help answer that question, and walking through what changes three weeks later when the federal prior authorization requirements take effect on January 1, 2027.
This is WCH's 25th year. We're marking it by publishing what 25 years of claims, enrollments, and appeals actually look like in aggregate — and by saying plainly what independent practices should be doing in December.
What you'll take away
- Five numbers to pull from your own system this week — each with a benchmark for practices your size
- Which denial codes are worth auditing first — ranked by dollar value, not by frequency
- What share of A/R over 90 days is normal — and what share means something is broken
- Median credentialing turnaround times by payer type — data that isn't published anywhere else
- A five-point checklist for the January 1, 2027 prior authorization deadline — including what to ask your EHR or clearinghouse vendor before the holidays
- A straight answer — on whether payers have been meeting the decision windows already in force
Agenda
Billing: are you collecting what you're owed?
Net collection rates by specialty. Days in A/R and aging. First-pass acceptance. Denial rates, top codes by dollar value, and appeal overturn rates. Algorithmic denials — what we see when a decision arrives in under two hours with no clinical rationale attached. Patient responsibility as a growing share of practice revenue, and how much of it never gets collected.
Credentialing: what it costs to wait
Median and 90th-percentile days from submission to effective date. Where the time actually goes, stage by stage. Which delays you can control and which you can't. What a realistic timeline looks like when you're hiring.
January 1, 2027: the prior authorization deadline
What the federal requirements actually change in daily operations — and what they don't. Where payer compliance stands today. A checklist for December.
Live Q&A
Open floor with our team and guest panelists. Bring your specific situation.
Host
Olga Khabinskay
COO, WCH Service Bureau — with guest panelists from independent practice, healthcare policy, and the billing industry.
Panelists announced as they're confirmed — check back, or register and we'll email you.