Your Decedent Accounts Are a Revenue Recovery Opportunity
80% of healthcare costs are incurred in the months before a patient passes, resulting in millions in unresolved balances. Without proactive estate recovery, that revenue is lost forever. DCM Services helps healthcare organizations identify, file, and recover what's owed, while staying CMS compliant and protecting your brand.
Years of Expertise
Probate Courts Covered
Claims Filed ($1.7B Total)
False Positive Rate
Why Healthcare Organizations Struggle with Estate Recovery
Without a proactive, technology-driven probate recovery process, health systems leave millions on the table and expose themselves to compliance risk during CMS audits.
Missed Probate Claim Deadlines
Probate filing deadlines vary by jurisdiction, from 60 days to 1 year. Miss the window, and the claim is barred forever, even if the estate has funds to pay.
60 days to 1 year filing windowCMS Audit Exposure
Organizations without formalized processes, search logs, and supporting documentation risk losing millions in reimbursement during CMS audits.
Millions at risk in every auditSoaring End of Life Costs
80% of healthcare costs are accrued just before passing, creating significant decedent balances. Without specialized recovery, these high value accounts are written off.
80% of costs in final monthsThe Three Pillars CMS Evaluates
DCM Services is the only provider with technology comprehensive enough to satisfy all three.
Compliance
Formalized processes, complete audit trails, and evidence of proactive estate identification, not just reactive filing when contacted by executors.
Accountability
Timestamped estate search logs for every decedent account showing when it was identified, searched, and filed, with full supporting documentation.
Sensitivity
A brand conscious approach that communicates with survivors respectfully. For over 25 years, our process has been designed to uphold dignity and trust.
$37 Million in Estates Found in 5 Days
See how a major health system uncovered millions in recoverable estate revenue.
A major health system with $2B in annual net patient revenue engaged DCM Services to evaluate their estate recovery opportunity. Within five days, Probate Finder® identified $37M in total estates, with 20% of accounts having a probated estate. In a side by side comparison, 83% of a single competitor's estate matches were confirmed not to be true, fileable probated estates, while DCMS produced 0% false positives.
"They have strong expertise in bankruptcy and probate — we see very few vendors with that much experience and have the operations in place to handle. We recommend them all the time."
We'll predict your estate revenue potential
Better understand the value of your estate portfolio and your potential recovery opportunity with a Test File Analysis. Support your organization by unlocking the value of your estate accounts. A test file is created to include the last 12 months worth of self pay receivables, both closed and active.
How it works
Identify
Identify the number of decedents and estates among your self-pay population.
Match
Match your data to open probated estates and see the potential recovery.
Discover
Discover missed revenue opportunities from expired probated estates.
Review
Review test file data
and potential return on investment.
Check Out Our Recent Estate Management Webinar
With more than 1 in 5 Americans projected to be over 65 by 2050, rising end-of-life care costs and self-pay balances are already increasing complexity across the revenue cycle. Yet many health systems still rely on fragmented or reactive estate processes.
In this executive-level discussion, leaders from Prisma Health, Mercy Health System, and Johns Hopkins Health System share how forward-thinking organizations are addressing this challenge head-on. By watching, you’ll learn:
• The compliance and reimbursement risks of inconsistent estate processes
• How leading systems are integrating estate workflows into their revenue cycle strategy
• Practical opportunities to improve financial performance while protecting the family experience
Frequently Asked Questions
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Probate estate recovery is the process of identifying deceased patients with open account balances and filing claims against their probated estates to recover owed funds. This involves searching probate court records nationwide, verifying dates of death, and filing timely claims before statutory deadlines. Healthcare organizations use this process to recover revenue that would otherwise be written off, while maintaining compliance with CMS regulations and treating families with sensitivity.
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80% of healthcare costs are accrued in the months before a patient passes, creating significant outstanding balances. Without a proactive process, these claims are often missed entirely. Filing deadlines vary by jurisdiction from 60 days to 1 year, and if missed, the claim is barred forever, even if the estate has funds to pay. Manual processes are reactive, inconsistent, and expose organizations to CMS compliance risks during audits.
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CMS requires healthcare organizations participating in Medicaid to comply with federal estate recovery mandates. During audits, organizations must produce estate search logs, supporting documentation, and evidence of a formalized probate recovery process demonstrating they proactively searched for probated estates and filed timely claims. Without this documentation, organizations risk losing millions in reimbursement dollars.
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The claim is usually barred forever, meaning the debt cannot be collected from the estate even if funds are available. Deadlines vary significantly by jurisdiction, ranging from as little as 60 days to 1 year from when the estate is opened. This makes proactive identification critical, as reactive processes often discover estates after the filing window has closed.
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The annual rate of death for people over 60 will nearly double by 2055, dramatically increasing the volume of decedent accounts healthcare organizations must manage. Combined with rising end of life costs and a 10% increase in self pay over the last five years, organizations face a growing revenue recovery challenge that requires proactive technology solutions now.
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DCM Services has over 25 years of specialized experience and partners with 46 of the top 50 health systems. Our proprietary database covers 10.2 million probate records across 3,400 plus courts with 50,000 new estates added monthly. In head to head tests, we find 3 times more probates than competitors with 0% false positives, compared to competitors' 42% false positive rates. Our Net Promoter Score of 87 is world class.
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Recovery amounts vary by organization size and portfolio. In one case study, DCM Services found $37 million in total estates in just 5 days for a $2 billion annual net patient revenue health system, with 20% of accounts having a probated estate. Across all clients, we file over $1.2 billion in probate claims annually.