What is timely filing, and what happens if I miss it?
Timely filing is the deadline by which a payer must receive your claim, counted from the date of service. Miss it and the claim is permanently unpayable - there is generally no appeal for a late filing. Windows vary by payer and state, so the deadline is different for each of your payer lines.
Why aged AR is different from slow AR
Slow AR is a cash flow problem. Aged AR approaching timely filing is a write-off in waiting, and the distinction matters because it changes the order in which you work the queue.
Most agencies work denials by dollar value. The right sort is by remaining days against the payer's filing window, because a $400 claim with a week left is worth more attention than a $4,000 claim with four months.
People also ask
- Does resubmitting a denied claim reset timely filing?
- No. The clock generally runs from the date of service, not from the denial. A claim that bounces twice can age out while it is still being worked.
- How do I stop claims ageing out?
- Submit weekly and run an ageing report against each payer's window, working oldest-at-risk first. Anything approaching a deadline should jump the queue regardless of value.
Last reviewed · Payer rules change and vary by state - confirm specifics against your payer.
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Related answers
Why do home care claims get denied?
Most home care denials are created before submission, not during adjudication. The recurring causes are an expired or missing authorization, a mismatch between delivered and authorized hours, EVV data that disagrees with the billed visit, coverage that lapsed at redetermination, and wrong service codes or modifiers.
How long does the VA take to pay home care claims?
Clean claims submitted to a VA third-party administrator are typically paid within a few weeks. Agencies reporting 60–90 day waits are usually seeing the cost of rework, not administrator processing time - denied claims restart the clock, and every correction cycle adds weeks.