Free medical billing audit, written and returned in 3 business days
Northgate Billing is a medical billing company for US private practices. Send one 90-day A/R aging report and we return a written audit: denial rate and its top causes, days in A/R against your specialty benchmark, where revenue is leaking, and what is still recoverable. No call. The report is yours either way.
- Denial rate and its top three causes, by reason code
- Days in A/R and aging against your specialty's benchmark
- A dollar figure per leak category, and what is still recoverable
- Your all-in fee today next to our published pricing
Start your free billing audit
What the audit covers
Four to six pages, plain English. Every figure shows how it was calculated and the benchmark it was measured against.
| Section of the audit | What we measure | Benchmark we compare against |
|---|---|---|
| Denial rate and causes | Share of claims denied on first submission, grouped by denial reason code (CO-16, CO-97, CO-4, timely filing, eligibility, and so on) | Under 5% to 10% is healthy; top performers run under 5% |
| Clean claim and first-pass rate | Share of claims accepted and paid without rework | 90% to 98% |
| Days in A/R | Average days from claim submission to payment, by payer | Under 40 days overall; Medicare under 30 |
| A/R aging | Dollars sitting at 0 to 30, 31 to 60, 61 to 90, 91 to 120 and over 120 days | Less than 15% of A/R over 90 days |
| Net collection rate | What you collect against what payers contractually owe, after write-offs | 95% or higher |
| Payer mix and problem payers | Which payers deny, delay or underpay most | Your own mix, flagged against the others |
| Revenue leak categories | Unworked denials, timely-filing losses, unbilled encounters, underpayments against contract, patient balances never statemented | Dollar figure per category |
| Fee schedule check | Your paid amounts for your ten highest-volume codes against the payer's contracted rate, where you supply the fee schedule, or against the Medicare rate for your locality where you do not | Underpayment flagged per code |
| Coding spot checkOptional | A sample of 20 claims reviewed for missing modifiers, undercoding and bundling errors, if you attach the claim detail | Error rate and the codes involved |
| Recoverable estimate | What we believe can still be collected from the last 90 days, and what is lost | Stated with the assumptions behind it |
| Fee comparison | What you pay today per dollar collected, including the fees you may not have noticed, against our published brackets | Our pricing page |
How the audit works
Two steps are yours, two are ours.
Answer ten questions
Four minutes. They tell us where to look.
4 minutesAttach your aging report
A 90-day A/R aging report from your practice management system, plus a denial or ERA summary if you have one. The form shows where to find both. On a phone, submit now and upload later from your confirmation email.
One exportWe analyze
A billing lead codes your denials and measures every figure against the benchmark for your specialty and size.
Starts within 1 business dayYou get the written audit
By email, as a PDF, within 3 business days. A 20-minute walkthrough call is optional and offered at the end of the report.
Day 3What to send, and what not to send
Aging and ERA reports can include patient names. Two ways to handle that:
Send summary-level reports
Most systems export an aging summary by payer and a denial summary by reason code with no patient identifiers. The audit needs totals, not names.
Tick the box, sign the BAA, then upload
Tick the box in the form, e-sign a Business Associate Agreement, and the upload unlocks. We never ask for logins.
Why the audit is free
Most practices that read their own audit can see within a page whether they want help. If the numbers are fine, you keep the report and we have spent a few hours. If they are not, you already know what we would fix and roughly what it is worth, which makes the next conversation short.
What a finished audit looks like
Page one of a sample audit. The full audit runs four to six pages.
- Denial rate
- 14.2% against a benchmark of under 8%. Top causes: CO-16 missing information (41% of denials), CO-97 bundled service (22%), timely filing (11%).
- Days in A/R
- 51 against a benchmark of under 40. Driven by two commercial payers at 68 and 74 days.
- A/R over 90 days
- 23% of total against a benchmark of under 15%.
- Unworked denials, last 90 days
- $31,400 billed, of which we estimate $19,800 recoverable if resubmitted within timely filing limits.
- Patient balances never statemented
- $8,900
- Current billing cost
- 4% headline rate plus $2.10 per statement and $25 per appeal, an effective 6.3%. Northgate bracket rate at this volume: 5.0%.
Questions about the free billing audit
What is a medical billing audit?
A medical billing audit reviews a practice's claims, denials, accounts receivable and fees over a set period and compares each against industry benchmarks to find lost or delayed revenue. Northgate's free version covers the last 90 days using two reports from your own system and returns a written document within 3 business days. What a medical billing audit covers.
Is the free billing audit really free, and is there a catch?
It is free and there is no obligation. The report is yours. The only ask is the consent box on the form, which lets us review the reports you send and email you about them.
Do you need access to my practice management system?
No. One exported aging report is enough, two is better. We never ask for logins for an audit.
What if my reports contain patient information?
Send summary-level reports where you can. If your export includes identifiers, tick the box and we send a Business Associate Agreement to sign before the upload unlocks.
How long does the audit take?
3 business days from the time we have your aging report. If it is missing we email you a checklist and the clock starts when it arrives.
Will someone call me?
Only if you book the 20-minute walkthrough linked at the end of the report. Submitting the form does not trigger a call.
Can I get an audit if I already use a billing company?
Yes, and that is the most common case. The fee comparison section shows what you pay today, all in, against our published brackets.
Will this disrupt my current billing?
No. The audit works from exported reports. Nothing changes in your system, no one contacts your current biller, and your staff spend about ten minutes pulling the export.
What happens to my reports afterwards?
They are stored encrypted, used only for the audit, and deleted 30 days after delivery unless you become a client.
Last updated 12 October 2026. Reviewed by [Name, Title], Northgate Billing.