When a clinical position sits vacant, the effects are clear. Schedules shift, patients wait longer, and staff feel stretched. But when a Revenue Cycle Management role remains open for 60+ days, the financial impact is quieter and often more costly, which is why many organizations begin evaluating solutions offered by top healthcare revenue cycle management companies to maintain stability.
And this staffing challenge is not uncommon. A recent MGMA Stat poll found that 34% of medical group leaders identified medical coders as the hardest revenue cycle role to fill, highlighting how difficult it can be to keep revenue cycle teams fully staffed.
While care happens in exam rooms, revenue flows through billing, coding, and claims follow-ups. When those roles sit empty, claims are delayed, denials go unresolved, and cash flow slows. The longer the vacancy, the greater the strain across the organization.
Here is the real cost of leaving RCM roles unfilled and what healthcare providers can do about it.
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Slower Cash Flow
RCM teams keep your financial engine running. When key team members, especially in A/R and follow-ups, are missing, claims do not move as quickly as they should.
Think about what happens over 60+ days:
- Claims are not followed up promptly
- Denials are not appealed on time
- Underpayments go unnoticed
- Aging buckets quietly grow
A delay of even a few weeks can ripple into months of financial strain. For smaller practices, this can mean difficulty covering payroll or reinvesting in patient care. For larger groups, it may mean stalled growth plans.
Many organizations turn to top healthcare revenue cycle management companies not because they want to delegate workloads, but because they cannot afford this kind of slowdown.
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Growing Accounts Receivable
When A/R professionals are understaffed, balances pile up. The 0 to 30-day bucket slowly shifts to 60 to 90 days. Soon, you are looking at aging reports that are harder to fix.
The longer a claim sits unpaid, the less likely you are to collect the full amount.
Here is the part many providers underestimate. Catching up is harder than staying current. Once the backlog builds, even a new hire needs weeks to understand workflows, payer nuances, and documentation patterns.
This is why many healthcare groups compare internal hiring delays with partnering with top healthcare revenue cycle management companies that can deploy trained professionals quickly.
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Increased Denials and Write-Offs
Denials do not wait.
If there is not someone consistently reviewing explanation of benefits, tracking trends, and submitting appeals, your denial rate can quietly climb. Small documentation issues become recurring problems. Timely filing limits get missed.
After 60 days without a dedicated RCM professional:
- Appeals may lapse
- Refiling deadlines pass
- Patterns go unnoticed
- Preventable errors continue
The end result is higher write-offs and lost revenue that cannot be recovered.
You might not notice it immediately, but three to six months later, it shows up clearly in your numbers.
This is one reason healthcare administrators explore top healthcare revenue cycle management companies with structured denial management processes already in place.
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Burnout Among Remaining Staff
When an RCM seat is empty, the workload does not disappear. It gets redistributed.
Over time, this leads to:
- Mistakes from fatigue
- Missed follow-ups
- Lower morale
- Higher turnover
Now what started as one open position becomes multiple hiring challenges.
Turnover in revenue cycle roles is expensive, not just financially but culturally. Training new hires takes time. During that ramp-up period, performance dips again.
Healthcare providers often do not initially plan to delegate tasks to third-party service providers. However, after repeated hiring delays, some begin reviewing top healthcare revenue cycle management companies as a stability strategy rather than just a cost-saving move.
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The Hidden Cost of Recruitment
Finding experienced RCM professionals is not easy. Skilled A/R specialists, coders, and denial analysts are in high demand.
A 60+ day vacancy typically includes:
- Job posting and recruitment fees
- Interview time from managers
- Onboarding and training hours
- Lower productivity during ramp-up
Add the lost revenue from delays during that period, and the true cost is far higher than just a salary line item.
Some healthcare organizations are beginning to evaluate whether maintaining open requisitions for months makes sense, especially when top healthcare revenue cycle management companies can provide trained remote professionals within weeks.
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Impact on Patient Experience
Revenue cycle issues do not stay behind the scenes.
When billing departments are understaffed, patients experience:
- Longer wait times for billing questions
- Incorrect statements
- Delayed insurance updates
- Confusion around balances
That frustration affects your brand and reputation. In today’s healthcare environment, transparency and responsiveness matter.
Strong RCM teams do not just protect revenue. They protect patient trust.
Healthcare leaders comparing in-house delays with external partnerships often prioritize partners among the top healthcare revenue cycle management companies who emphasize communication quality and patient sensitivity.
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Missed Strategic Opportunities
When your leadership team is constantly focused on plugging operational gaps, strategic growth stalls.
Instead of planning service expansions or improving workflows, managers spend their time fixing delayed claims, reviewing aged receivables, and managing staffing shortages.
Stable revenue cycle operations free up leadership energy for bigger goals. That stability becomes harder to achieve when roles stay open for 60+ days.
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Why 60 Days Is a Critical Threshold
The first 30 days of a vacancy are often manageable. Teams stretch temporarily.
But once you cross the 60-day mark:
- Backlogs compound
- Data becomes harder to reconcile
- Team morale declines
- Financial visibility decreases
Recovery becomes more complex than prevention.
Healthcare providers who monitor key performance indicators, such as days in A/R, denial rates, and net collection percentages, often notice measurable shifts when RCM gaps exceed two months.
At that point, leadership usually faces a decision. Continue recruiting and absorb the operational strain, or look at flexible staffing solutions offered by top healthcare revenue cycle management companies that specialize in revenue continuity.
Final Thoughts
Leaving an RCM role open for 60+ days may feel like a hiring inconvenience. In reality, it can quietly erode collections, increase denials, strain your team, and impact patient experience. Revenue cycle work is not optional. It is foundational. Healthcare providers who treat RCM continuity as a priority, whether through internal hires or partnerships with top healthcare revenue cycle management companies, position themselves for stronger financial stability and long-term growth.
Protecting your revenue means protecting your ability to care for patients. That is a cost no organization can afford to overlook.
If you are facing prolonged RCM vacancies, MedCore Solutions can help you stabilize your revenue cycle quickly with experienced remote professionals. Let’s strengthen your team and protect your cash flow today.