Vice President, Access Healthcare
Why Being “Average” Is Failing Ambulatory CFOs in 2025
For financial executives in charge of ambulatory care facilities, today’s revenue cycle management (RCM) benchmarks are not a “destination” for operational performance. What once looked like a mark of solid performance now mirrors a broken system: rising denials, bloated A/R, and creeping bad debt. Achieving “industry average” doesn’t necessarily mean you’re financially healthy. It really means you’re standing on quicksand, and three years from now, what felt like firm financial footing will have you looking up the walls of a cash flow sinkhole.
Your goal isn’t achieving industry benchmarks—it’s to push to surpass them. You can’t just monitor cash flow. You must diligently defend it against payer friction, patient responsibility, and operational lag.
Too many CFOs fall for what can only be called fool’s goals: aiming just to match industry averages or tracking activity metrics that look impressive but have no real bearing on margin or cash flow. Don’t celebrate KPIs like volume of claims processed, percentage of scheduled visits completed, or “manual touchpoints minimized.” These metrics do not guarantee financial strength or stability.
The Real Numbers That Demand More Than “Average”
Here’s how the industry’s 2025 ambulatory care benchmarks look (notice how “average” is rarely enough):
| Metric | Industry Average (2025) | Best-in-Class Target |
|---|---|---|
| Days in A/R | 30–50 days | Under 30 days |
| % A/R Over 90 Days | 22.5% | Under 15% |
| Initial Denial Rate | 10–15% | Under 5% |
| Net Collection Rate (NCR) | 95%+ | 97–98% |
| Bad Debt as % of Gross Revenue | 2–3% | Under 1.5% |
A “benchmark” denial rate leaves 1 in 10 claims unpaid—a direct hit to margin.
NCR at 95% means accepting a steady stream of write-offs — enough to push many outpatient groups into the red.
Every day above 30 in A/R ties up six figures or more in stagnant revenue for mid-sized clinics.
Why Top Performers Refuse to Settle
CFOs winning in 2025 are the ones who:
Aggressively compare internal metrics not against the median, but against the best-performing 10 percent (top decile) of organizations in their peer group.
Root out “fool’s goals” and double down on KPIs that directly drive margin, which is actual money in the bank, not dashboard vanity numbers.
Demand RCM partners who have a track record of taking providers from average to elite (and have the reporting and guarantees to back it up).
Why Strategic RCM Partners Matter
The distance between “average” and “industry leader” is growing rapidly. CFOs cannot afford to cling to benchmarks built for an outdated system, nor can they wait years for internal fixes.
This is why forward-looking RCM partnerships are game changers:
Agentic AI capabilities instantly adapt to changing payer rules, proactively flag and resolve denials, and automate appeals.
Full Transparency delivers dashboards that synchronize revenue cycle metrics with payer contracts and bottom-line outcomes, eliminating “black box” analytics.
Together, they empower CFOs to compete at the payer level, instead of fighting yesterday’s battles with yesterday’s tools.
Real-World Margin Impact
Going beyond benchmarks isn’t theoretical, it’s immediately measurable:
Each five-day A/R improvement in a $10M practice delivers $137,000 in cash flow.
Cutting denial rates by just 2 percent can return six figures a year to a mid-size clinic.
Improving net collection from 92 percent to 96 percent recovers hundreds of thousands in lost revenue.
These are not abstract “ops wins.” They’re direct defenses of your financial margin.
CFO Self-Check: Are You Chasing Fool’s Goals?
Ask these critical questions:
Is your A/R aging over 50 days?
Are more than 20 percent of receivables over 90 days?
Is your net collection rate under 95 percent?
Is bad debt taking more than 3 percent of revenue?
If yes to any of these, you’re measuring against fool’s goals. And in 2025, that’s not survival—it’s financial submission.
Stop Chasing Benchmarks. Start Setting Them.
In 2025, “average” performance isn’t survival—it’s surrender. CFOs who lead the pack are no longer content with 95 percent net collection rates or 50-day A/R. They’re setting goals that push their RCM partners to deliver elite performance—and they’re seeing the margin gains to prove it.
If your numbers look “fine” on paper but you’re still fighting cash flow headaches, denials, or patient bad debt, that’s your signal. It’s time to demand more.
Your Next Steps:
Audit Your Metrics: Compare every key RCM KPI against best-in-class targets, not industry medians.
Prioritize Margin-Impact KPIs: Focus on A/R, denials, and net collections over vanity stats like claim volume or touchpoints.
Partner with Performers: Work with an RCM team that proves they can take providers from “good enough” to top decile with transparent reporting and guaranteed outcomes.
Don’t let “industry standard” become your ceiling. In 2025, playing it safe will cost more than ever. Lead with ambition. Set bold goals, demand more from your partners, and hold your RCM to best-in-class standards. The margin you defend today is the difference between tomorrow’s surviving versus thriving.
Get a Complimentary Performance Review
Access Healthcare’s experts will benchmark your revenue cycle against best-in-class targets, identify margin leaks, and deliver a roadmap to move from average to elite.
Schedule Your RCM Benchmark Review
Because in 2025, the cost of standing still is measured in millions, and the CFOs who win are the ones who refuse to settle for “average.”
About the Author
Ridda Domenech is Vice President of Sales at Access Healthcare, where she brings more than 25 years of experience transforming healthcare service delivery and strengthening client partnerships. With a career spanning payer, provider, and patient-facing operations, Ridda has led enterprise programs, high-performing teams, and multimillion-dollar growth initiatives across the healthcare ecosystem. She partners closely with clients to understand their unique challenges and deliver revenue cycle management solutions that improve efficiency, protect margins, and support long-term growth. Her expertise includes revenue cycle management, scalable service delivery models, and client retention strategies that deliver measurable results.
About Access Healthcare
Access Healthcare stands as one of India's largest and fastest-growing providers of healthcare business processes and technology solutions. Our team of over 27,000 professionals operates from 20 service delivery centers across three countries, emphasizing global delivery, workflow optimization, and our award-winning AI-enabled technology platform.
Since 2011, Access Healthcare has been a trusted partner to the US healthcare sector, leveraging domain expertise, technology, automation, and analytics to enhance clinical outcomes, financial performance, and operations for healthcare providers and payers.