What is Timely Filing?
Also called: filing deadline · timely filing limit
This is the one denial category with no recovery path, which makes it the clearest evidence of a broken process rather than a payer dispute. Every timely filing write-off traces back to a claim that sat unworked.
The usual causes are unread clearinghouse rejections, credentialing gaps that stalled claims for a new provider, and AR queues sorted by dollar value rather than by age.
Where Vizora handles this
Primary sources
Where "Timely Filing" is defined by the bodies that set the rules, rather than by us.
- Medicare timely filing requirements (opens in a new tab)
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services — The one-year filing limit and the narrow exceptions to it. Commercial payers set their own, usually shorter, limits by contract.
- Medicare claims appeals process (opens in a new tab)
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services — The five levels of appeal, what each requires and the deadline for each. Missing a level's deadline ends the appeal regardless of the claim's merits.
Last reviewed August 20, 2026
Related terms
Rejection
A rejection is a claim stopped before adjudication — by the clearinghouse or the payer's intake system — for a format, data or eligibility error. Because it never entered adjudication, it carries no appeal rights and does not appear in payer claim status. It must be corrected and resubmitted.
Denial
A denial is a claim the payer adjudicated and refused to pay. It differs from a rejection, which never entered adjudication. That distinction determines your remedy: a rejected claim is corrected and resubmitted, while a denied claim must be appealed within the payer's deadline.
Days in AR
Days in accounts receivable measures the average time between billing a service and collecting payment. It is calculated as total accounts receivable divided by average daily charges. It is the single best summary indicator of revenue cycle health, because every upstream failure eventually shows up in it.
Appeal
An appeal is a formal request that a payer reconsider a denied claim, supported by documentation addressing the stated denial reason. Commercial payers typically allow 90 to 180 days from the remittance date; Medicare provides five escalating levels beginning with redetermination within 120 days.
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