How to Fix AR Problems After Staff Turnover

Taking over the billing desk after a round of staff turnover is like moving into a house and finding closets full of forgotten laundry. You sit down, log into Open Dental, and within a few days, you notice old claims sprinkled throughout the ledger—some never appealed, some not even followed up on. You realize this isn’t just misfiled paperwork; it’s real income left hanging, and now it’s your mess to clean up.

What this problem actually looks like

I remember one office in particular: the prior biller left with no handoff and no notes in the claims section. The first week, as I dug into the aging report, I saw dozens of PPO claims over 90 days old. Some were for simple prophys with no documentation uploaded, so the payers never processed them. Others were major cases, denied months ago and never touched after that first EOB. While I was supposed to help with check-in and answer the phones, I spent whole afternoons cross-checking patient accounts and preparing appeal packets, all because that work had been skipped or lost. Every reminder call to a payer or patient felt like tracing someone else’s unfinished business, and there was a sinking worry: are we missing thousands in collections and not even aware of it?

It doesn’t just hit the billing team, either. The front desk gets peppered with patient questions about old balances or “double bills.” Hygienists and doctors don’t know which codes are running into frequency limits, and treatment plans stall because benefits haven’t been tracked. When you walk in after turnover, you often inherit AR that’s aged beyond the window most payers will even consider, putting a hard cap on what the practice can recover.

Where this usually breaks and what it costs

Most of these problems bubble up in very ordinary moments. Claims get stuck because the biller didn’t know a specific carrier wants pre-op x-rays uploaded separately, so Open Dental marks the claim as ready but it never gets processed. Or, maybe the insurance verification was missed when the schedule got reshuffled, so the claim goes out with the wrong group number and comes back denied for ineligibility. These errors pile up over months, and no one notices until the AR report looks grim and the booking calendar starts feeling thin.

It’s not just a matter of slow money. Productivity takes a hit when clinical staff have to dig back through old charts for documentation, and those billing detours mean less time on today’s claims and calls. The national picture reinforces this: the U.S. spends about 440 billion dollars annually on administrative tasks, with 90 billion tied to CAQH-tracked transactions (CAQH 2024). For a practice, that means more wasted energy and less room for growth. Proper AR tracking is also key for patient trust—no one likes getting a bill for last year’s filling, only to be told it was “never paid.”

What we would do this week

 
• Start by pulling an aging report for all outstanding insurance claims, sorted by payer and age bracket. Work backwards from the oldest, and for each claim, check the notes, attached documentation, and eligibility details in Open Dental before contacting the payer or planning an appeal.
 
• Set up a recurring daily micro-meeting (10–15 minutes) between billing and front desk—review urgent AR issues and clarify which patient accounts need priority follow-up or re-verification. This builds in-house communication and closes gaps left by prior turnover.
 
• Make a short claim workflow checklist for everyone touching AR: confirm eligibility before each appointment, attach all required documentation at claim submission, follow up at 21 days if not paid, and log every action in the claim history for future billers. Tweak this as you find more recurring errors in your backlog.

Where DayDream helps

DayDream blends experienced billers with automation and AI to clean up the repetitive side of revenue cycle management, so your team can focus on the legacy AR that needs judgment and hands-on follow-up. Their technology integrates with Open Dental (as well as payer portals and clearinghouses), making it possible to track claims, denials, and appeals with real-time dashboards. Routine tasks like payment posting, EOB matching, and batch eligibility checks are handled by automation, which frees up dozens of admin hours each week. This means fewer missed claims and faster payments—about 50% quicker—and a lift in collections of around 5% compared to old manual methods. Best of all, DayDream’s platform documents every step, offering full transparency for owners, managers, and new staff alike.

If you’re staring down a mountain of unfinished AR after turnover, you’re not alone. Most dental offices will face this mess at some point, and no amount of clean-up feels fast enough when money is on the line. With steady steps and the right technology partner, you can make real progress, keep your team sane, and bring overdue income back in the door. When you want an expert clean-up and real visibility into your dollars, book a short consult.