No Risk, High Reward: Making the Case for Contingency-Based Lookbacks

Written by Meduit RCM | Jul 29, 2025 9:35:22 AM

Meduit has identified missed Medicare Bad Debt reimbursement in 100% of its lookback reviews. That statistic alone indicates that most hospitals are leaving earned reimbursement revenue on the table. Unfortunately, most hospitals don’t have the time, technology, or expertise to go back and track every dollar. But a contingency-based lookback provides a second chance to capture what’s owed.

Why Lookbacks Make Sense

No upfront cost
No risk – if your vendor doesn’t find missed value, there’s no fee
Fast ROI – When missed claims are identified, an amended cost report is filed, and a tentative settlement is delivered within 120 days of submission, per CMS guidelines.
Minimal disruption to existing workflows

Reclaiming What’s Yours

This snapshot of two recent Meduit lookbacks shows just how much can go unclaimed, even in well-run organizations with reliable cost-reporting infrastructures.

	Hospital A (Central CA)	Hospital B (Western NC)
Type	Short-term Acute Care	Short-term Acute Care
# Beds	873	396
Patient Revenue	$6.5B	$2.5B
Years Reviewed	FY 2019 – FY 2022	FY 2016 – FY 2021
Recovered Value	$2M	$1.4M *As part of the engagement, Meduit filed a Humana Medicare Advantage bad debt lookback for FY2016-FY2022, which returned ~$3.4M gross.

In both cases, the hospitals submitted their annual cost reports, believing they had captured everything owed. Without a review, they would have missed out on millions.

These cases aren’t outliers. They reflect a widespread opportunity for hospitals to recover reimbursement that might otherwise go unclaimed. That’s what makes the lookback such a powerful RCM strategy.

For more information about Meduit’s no-risk lookback services, email contactus@meduitrcm.com.

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