FLAGSHIP REPORT · 1,114 HOSPITALS · 4-YEAR PANEL PUBLISHED Q1 2026

The median independent hospital is waiting 92.7 days to collect cash it has already earned.

Four-year financial benchmarks from 1,114 public CMS cost reports. Read the report or request a private benchmark read of your facility.

Read the report Request access →

EXHIBIT 1 · INDEPENDENT PPS HOSPITALS · n=1,114

Four years of public cost reports. The trajectory is one direction.

The HFMA-cited benchmark for well-managed systems is 35–50 days in AR. The median hospital in this cohort is running at 2.5× that benchmark, and the paid-claim ratio has compressed 5.2% over four years.

410 of 1,114 hospitals (37%) entered FY2024 with a negative operating margin and DAR above 90 days simultaneously.

Fiscal year	Median DAR	Median PC ratio	Median margin	% at a loss
FY2021	85.9	0.381	(9.1%)	80%
FY2022	87.7	0.368	(12.4%)	85%
FY2023	92.5	0.358	(12.4%)	85%
FY2024	92.7	0.361	(11.9%)	86%

Source: CMS Healthcare Cost Report Information System (HCRIS), FY2021–FY2024. n=1,114 independent PPS hospitals across 32 states. Synergize AI analysis.

APPROACH

The cost report is the diagnostic.

The cost report is not an administrative task. It is the most complete financial diagnostic available to a hospital CFO — and most organizations treat it as a compliance obligation filed once per year and handed to an external preparer.

The patterns we document consistently:

01 Denial categories where the root cause is at registration, not PFS.
02 Worksheet S-3 submissions that have never been reviewed against a reclassification opportunity.
03 B-1 allocation statistics last updated three cost-report cycles ago.

These are not edge cases. They are the baseline at the majority of independent hospitals we analyze.

Research

All notes →

SYNERGIZE AI

Healthcare Revenue Intelligence

Revenue Cycle Distress at Independent U.S. Hospitals

Q1 2026 · Edition 01

FLAGSHIP REPORT ·HEALTHCARE REVENUE INTELLIGENCE ·Q1 2026 · SUBSCRIBER

Revenue Cycle Distress at Independent U.S. Hospitals

Four-year financial benchmarks from 1,114 public cost reports. The median independent PPS hospital is collecting 36.1 cents per dollar billed and waiting 92.7 days for cash.

86%

operated at a net loss in FY2024

92.7

median days to collect cash already earned

37%

in compound distress: negative margin + DAR > 90

Read the report → By Diego Armas Morales · Founder & Director of Research · ~8 min read

PAIRED WITH ↑

Read alongside the flagship data report.

The data report establishes the pattern. The companion piece names the priority sequence and the action layer.

COMPANION PIECE ·CFO IMPLICATIONS ·Q1 2026 · BYLINED

The cost report tells you what to fix. Here is where to start.

A four-priority sequence for independent PPS CFOs, drawn directly from the FY2021–FY2024 dataset. Bylined by Diego Armas Morales.

01 PC ratio below 0.35 — the problem is upstream.
02 Days in AR above 90 — start at the front door.
03 Compound distress — collect before you cut.
04 Three cost-report levers most CFOs never pull.

Read the companion piece → By Diego Armas Morales · Founder & Director of Research · ~5 min read

Mar 2026

RESEARCH NOTE · MEDICARE BAD DEBT · SUBSCRIBER

The 65% That Most Hospitals Leave Unclaimed

Medicare reimburses 65% of allowable bad debt. Most independent PPS hospitals do not capture the full reimbursement they qualify for — not because the rule is contested, but because S-10 documentation is filed as a compliance exercise rather than a revenue optimization document. The gap is mechanical, not statutory.

Mar 2026

RESEARCH NOTE · WAGE INDEX · SUBSCRIBER

The September 2026 Window: Wage Index Reclassification for FY2028

Worksheet S-3 data filed on FY2024 cost reports — currently under MAC audit — sets IPPS reimbursement rates beginning October 2027. Reclassification applications are due the first business day of September 2026. One documented case: $5M per year lost over a single reclassification cycle.

Mar 2026

RESEARCH NOTE · CASH VELOCITY · SUBSCRIBER

The Mid-Size Independent Hospital Has a Cash Velocity Problem

Days in AR by bed size across 683 independent PPS hospitals. The 100–199 bed segment is the most distressed cash-velocity bucket in the cohort: 113.4-day median DAR, +28.8 day deterioration over four years, 242-day 75th percentile.

Intelligence feed

Selected from public research and policy sources — not our content.

Source: KFF Health News

Listen to the Latest ‘KFF Health News Minute’

May 5, 2026

Source: HFMA

States overhaul certificate-of-need laws

May 5, 2026

Source: CB Insights

AI100 Finalist Interview: Leo AI

Source: Healthcare Finance News

UnitedHealthcare to cut prior authorization requirements by 30%

May 5, 2026

REQUEST ACCESS

Synergize AI is in private release.

Research access is being released to qualifying hospitals on a rolling basis. Submit the form to be reviewed for the next cohort.

Each submission is reviewed by the research desk. A discovery call is scheduled within five business days for qualifying organizations. Submissions outside the qualification range receive a written response.