Revenue Cycle Management Glossary
A plain-English guide to the terms, metrics, and workflows that power modern RCM operations.
Payment Posting
What is Payment Posting?
Payment Posting is the final stage of the revenue cycle where payments received from insurance payers and patients are recorded (posted) into the patient’s account. This process reconciles the cash received with the original billed amount.
Why Payment Posting is Critical for CFOs and Financial Leaders
Accurate posting is essential for maintaining a clear and auditable financial record.
- Revenue Visibility: Timely posting allows CFOs to see the organization’s actual cash position in real-time, rather than relying on projected revenue.
- Accurate A/R Management: Posting ensures that paid claims are removed from the Aged A/R list, allowing collections teams to focus only on truly unpaid accounts.
- Identifying Underpayments: During the posting process, discrepancies between the expected and actual payment are flagged for Underpayment Recovery.
Use Cases: Accelerating Financial Reconciliation
- Automated ERA Posting: RPA bots automatically retrieve X12 835 (ERA) files from payer portals and post them to the billing system with 100% accuracy, eliminating manual data entry.
- Denial Routing: Automation software reads "reason codes" in the remittance file and automatically routes denied claims to the appropriate work queue for immediate appeal.
Payment Posting vs. Collections
- Payment Posting: The administrative task of recording money that has already been received.
Collections: The active pursuit of money that has not yet been received.