Free tool
Dermatology Revenue Leakage Calculator
Answer six questions about your practice and see an estimate of the revenue leaking out of it each year through denials, aged A/R and avoidable write-offs — adjusted for your state's Medicare Administrative Contractor.
Revenue leakage calculator
A few questions. A dollar figure on what your practice is losing.
Benchmarked against dermatology practices we bill for: 1.6% denial rate, 21 days in A/R, and 1.2% write-offs.
Estimate only, based on aggregate dermatology benchmarks. Your free claims audit replaces these numbers with line-item findings from your own data.
Estimated annual leakage
$238,289
on roughly $2,463,300 in annual charges — about $19,857 every month.
- Unworked & abandoned denials
- $63,799
- Undercoded derm procedures
- $76,362
- Avoidable write-offs
- $68,972
- Aged A/R carrying loss
- $29,155
Recommended next steps
- Pre-bill scrubbing tuned to modifier 25, lesion counts, and Mohs staging on every derm claim.
- Root-cause denial rework within 48 hours instead of write-offs.
- Pick your state above for a jurisdiction-specific plan and payer rulebook.
No PHI required to run the numbers.
Side-by-side impact
Today’s denials vs. the recommended next steps
Recoverable per year
$203,004 (85%)
| Leakage source | With current denials | After next steps | Recovered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unworked & abandoned denials | $63,799 | $5,604 | $58,195 |
| Undercoded derm procedures | $76,362 | $15,272 | $61,090 |
| Avoidable write-offs | $68,972 | $9,853 | $59,119 |
| Aged A/R carrying loss | $29,155 | $4,555 | $24,599 |
| First-pass denial rate | 9% | 2.3% | — |
| Days in A/R | 45 days | 25 days | — |
| Annual write-offs | 4% | 1.6% | — |
| Total annual leakage | $238,289 | $35,285 | $203,004 |
“After next steps” assumes the plan above is executed: root-cause denial rework inside 48 hours, derm-specific coding review, and A/R worked to our 21-day benchmark.
What revenue leakage means in a dermatology practice
Revenue leakage is earned revenue that never reaches the bank: services performed and documented, but never billed, billed below what the documentation supported, denied and never appealed, underpaid against the contracted rate, or written off after ageing past a filing deadline. It is distinct from bad debt, because in each case the money was collectible at the point the work was done.
Dermatology leaks in specific, repeatable places. Lesion counts that do not reach the unit field. Excisions sized from the pathology specimen instead of the excised diameter. Same-day E/M services stripped by a bundling denial that nobody appealed because the individual dollar value looked small. Multiplied across a full clinic schedule, the small ones dominate the total.
How the estimate is built
- Your provider count, visit volume and average charge per encounter set the annual charge base.
- Your denial rate is applied against the share of denials that are typically recoverable but never worked, rather than treating every denial as lost.
- Days in A/R above a healthy range is treated as a carrying and attrition cost, not as outright loss.
- Write-offs are separated into contractual adjustments, which are not leakage, and avoidable write-offs, which are.
- Your state adjusts the assumptions, because denial behavior differs by Medicare Administrative Contractor and by the local payer mix.
What the number is and is not
This is a modelled estimate from the inputs you provide, not an audit finding, and it will not be right to the dollar. Its purpose is to tell you whether the leakage in your practice is a rounding error or a material number worth acting on — those two answers lead to very different decisions, and most practices have never separated them.
If the estimate is large enough to matter, the next step is a claims audit against your actual data rather than a model. That is free and it produces findings you can check line by line.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to give you my data to use the calculator?
No. The calculator runs in your browser from the numbers you type. Nothing is submitted unless you separately choose to request an audit.
How accurate is the estimate?
It is a model, and its accuracy depends entirely on the accuracy of your inputs. Treat it as an order of magnitude, not a figure to put in a budget.
Why does the state selection change the result?
Coverage rules, denial patterns and payer mix vary by Medicare Administrative Contractor jurisdiction and by state Medicaid program, so the recoverable share of denials is not uniform nationally.
What happens after I calculate a number?
Nothing automatically. If you want it verified against real claims, request the free audit and we will sample your recent claims and report what we find.