Step 1 — Project expected reimbursements
Beyond what's been collected, Mindbill computes expected reimbursement for every open bill — what the California Medical-Legal Fee Schedule says it should pay — and flags where a payer's discount contract or PPO reduction has shorted that number. This turns a pile of open bills into a concrete entitlement total, and it's the same figure that feeds your A/R, your appeals recovery estimates, and the forecast below.
Step 2 — Read the 13-week cash forecast
The 13-Week Cash Forecast (/reports/cash-forecast) is a forward ERA-arrival projection by week. Workers' comp pays on a predictable 60–90 day lag, so Mindbill projects the next quarter of collections from your current pipeline — e.g. a 13-week total of $978,251, averaging ~$75,250/week, with the peak and trough weeks called out. It's the cash-flow view a practice uses to plan payroll and outlays against money that hasn't landed yet.
Step 3 — Separate confirmed cash from projected
The forecast splits every dollar into Confirmed (277CA-backed — bills the payer has already acknowledged into adjudication) and Forecast (model-projected from historic payer behavior). In the example, $394,784 (40%) is confirmed and $583,467 (60%) is projected. The weekly stacked chart with a cumulative line lets you see how much of each week's expected inflow is locked versus modeled — confirmed cash is what you can count on, projected is what you steer toward with appeals and follow-up.
Step 4 — Understand the methodology
The numbers aren't guesses. Confirmed = bills with 277CA A1/A2/A4 acknowledgments combined with each payer's historic days-to-pay distribution. Forecast = projected bills × your 36-month net-collection rate (~42%) × payer-mix weighting. The model re-runs nightly as new 277CAs arrive, so the forecast tightens toward confirmed as bills move through the cycle. Knowing the method is what lets you trust the projection enough to plan against it.