The Level Index
HealthcareHow does your practice compare?
Revenue cycle, overhead, and provider productivity benchmarks for U.S. medical, dental, physical therapy, chiropractic, and specialty practices. Sourced from MGMA, HFMA, ADA, AMGA, and Level client engagements.
Last refreshed April 2026. Government data (BLS), association surveys (MGMA, HFMA, ADA), and HFMA MAP Award statistical appendix. Anonymized, segmented by percentile, and rounded.
$5.3T
U.S. health spending (2024)
224K+
Physician offices in the U.S.
135K+
Dental practice establishments
9
Core operating metrics
About the Data
The Level Index is compiled from operating data across 2,200+ service businesses plus named public filings, government statistics, and industry association surveys. This page focuses on medical, dental, pt & specialty practices — drawn from MGMA · HFMA · ADA · BLS, public company 10-Ks, and Level engagements. Where private-company quartile data is not publicly published, we use the best available median, range, or surveyed cohort and label the source clearly.
Methodology
Quartile data for ambulatory medical groups is largely behind MGMA DataDive / AMGA paywalls. Where 'best published equivalent' is shown, the figure is a credible median/range or HFMA MAP Award winner cohort percentile (n=14), not a national private-practice median.
The Level CLEAR Framework
Five pillars of healthcare financial health
Every metric in the Level Index maps to one of five pillars. Together they give you a complete picture of where money is made, lost, stuck, or at risk.
Insurance reimbursement lag, patient out-of-pocket collections, claim processing speed. Every day past 30 in A/R costs you money — collection probability drops from 94% to 26% over 12 months.
Provider productivity (revenue per FTE), support staff ratios, no-show rates. An underperforming provider leaves $100K–$300K on the table annually.
Net collection rate, procedure-level margins, overhead ratio by specialty. The gap between 55% and 52% overhead on $2M revenue is $60K in annual profit.
Patient volume trends, referral patterns, payer mix optimization, coding accuracy. Denial rates above 10% signal systematic revenue leakage.
Payer concentration, malpractice exposure, compliance gaps, coding audit risk. Single-payer dependency above 40% is a structural vulnerability.
Key Finding
Insurers denied 19% of in-network claims in the 2024 ACA Marketplace — and most practices don't see it.
If you only track 'denial rate of submitted professional claims,' your dashboard is missing the real magnitude. KFF analysis of CMS public-use files shows in-network denials at 19% across HealthCare.gov plans (37% out-of-network). For a $2M practice, the difference between handling 8% vs. 19% denials is six figures in delayed and lost revenue.
Top-quartile practices keep denials below 5% by fixing front-end eligibility, prior auth, and coding — not by hiring more billers.
Most practices wait 35–45 days to collect. The best collect in under 30.
Days in Net A/R
Source / sample: HFMA MAP Award + MGMA-style targets
HFMA MAP Award winners (n=14) cluster between 30–45 net A/R days. Practices over 50 days usually have front-end eligibility, charge lag, denials, or patient collection problems — not 'just billing.'
Patient point-of-service collections separate the top from the bottom.
POS Cash Collection (% of patient liability)
Source / sample: HFMA MAP Award winners (n=14, 2024)
Patient balances are now a retail-collection problem. Practices that collect at time of service recover 50–70% of patient balances vs. 34–48% for those who bill after — a $100K+ annual swing for a busy practice.
Better-performing practices generate $100K+ more revenue per physician.
Total Medical Revenue per Physician FTE
Source / sample: MGMA 2023 DataDive — Better Performers vs. all
The gap is rarely 'work harder.' Better performers staff differently: ~73% more support staff per physician at the top productivity quartile, with stronger APP leverage and tighter coding integrity.
Primary care overhead spans ~14 points across the distribution.
Primary Care Overhead Ratio
Source / sample: Industry literature; AMA PPI 2024 (PE = 51.1% of cost)
Specialty clinics run 40–50%, dental ~55%, primary care 55–65%. The biggest controllables: rent above 6–8% of revenue, underutilized practice management seats, and supply costs nobody renegotiated.
2 more findings
Unlock the full Healthcare index
See all 6 findings with charts, sources, and detailed methodology.
Benchmarks by Practice Type
HealthcareMargins and revenue cycle metrics vary dramatically by specialty. Use these as rough anchors when reading your own numbers.
Primary Care
Revenue per physician
$668K (all) / $770K (top)
Surgical Specialty
Revenue per physician
$648K (all) / $777K (top)
Multispecialty Group
Revenue per physician
$748K (all) / $879K (top)
Dental — General
Avg gross billings/dentist
$942K
Dental — Specialty
Avg gross billings/dentist
$1,146K
Physical Therapy
Avg revenue per visit
$98–$101
Advanced Healthcare Metrics
Sub-segment breakdowns, advanced operational metrics, and percentile distributions for medical, dental, pt & specialty practices.
Want the full breakdown?
See all 10 sub-segment metrics with bottom/median/top quartile splits.
Benchmarks for other service businesses
How does your practice compare?
We'll benchmark your revenue cycle, overhead, and provider productivity against the industry. Free audit included.
No commitment. Real numbers, not generic advice.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good net collection rate for a medical practice?
Top-performing practices achieve 97–99% net collection rates. Below 95% signals significant revenue cycle problems — typically claim denials, untimely filing, and poor patient collection. At $2M in charges, the difference between 95% and 98% collection is $60K annually.
How many days in A/R is acceptable?
Under 30 days is the HFMA benchmark. Over 50 days is a red flag. The key metric to watch is A/R over 90 days — it should be less than 10% of total receivables. Collection probability drops from 94% at 30 days to 26% at 12 months.
What should my practice overhead ratio be?
Primary care typically runs 55–65% overhead, specialty clinics 40–50%, dental ~55%. If you're above these, the most common culprits are overstaffing, underutilized technology, and rent that exceeds 6–8% of revenue.
How much does a claim denial actually cost?
Each denied claim costs $25–$118 to rework (HFMA). With industry-average denial rates at 12–15%, a practice submitting 10,000 claims annually faces 1,200–1,500 denials costing $30K–$177K just in rework labor — not counting delayed or lost revenue.
What revenue should each provider generate?
MGMA: Primary care physicians typically $500K–$700K, procedural specialists $1M+. The key is revenue per provider FTE relative to total compensation and overhead allocation — under 2.5× their compensation, the practice is likely losing money on them.
Sources
- • MGMA DataDive (medical group medians)
- • HFMA MAP Award Statistical Appendix 2024
- • ADA Health Policy Institute Survey of Dental Practice 2024
- • AMA Physician Practice Index 2024
- • BLS Occupational Employment & Wages 2023–2024
- • KFF analysis of CMS QHP transparency files 2024
- • Level Index — operating data across 2,200+ service businesses (contractor ground-truth cohort) + healthcare practice engagements
The Level Index represents the personal analysis and professional opinions of the Level team, compiled from public industry surveys, government statistics, SEC filings, and Level engagements. All data is anonymized and aggregated. Specific figures are rounded and should be treated as directional benchmarks, not precise measurements. The Level Index does not constitute financial advice. Individual results vary based on segment, geography, company size, and operational maturity. © 2026 Level. All rights reserved.