Guides Fixing lost revenue

How to export your 835s and AR aging report from your EHR

By Marlow’s billing manager, 20+ years in medical billing, former billing manager at Mount Sinai South Nassau, Oceanside · Updated November 9, 2026 · 7 min read

The short answer

Your 835s (electronic remittance files) usually live in your clearinghouse or billing system, and your AR aging report lives in your practice management reports. Each EHR names them differently, so this guide gives the path each vendor publishes, and who to ask where the vendor’s help is behind a login.

Two files tell you most of what is happening in a practice’s billing: the 835s, which are the electronic remittance files payers send with every payment or denial, and the AR aging report, which lists every unpaid balance by how old it is. The 835s are usually in your clearinghouse portal or your billing system’s remittance screen. The AR aging report is in your practice management reports.

This guide shows where each of ten common systems keeps them, using only what each vendor publishes in its own help center. Where the help is behind a customer login, it says who to ask and what to ask for. Menus change, so treat the paths as accurate as of November 2026 and check the linked article first.

What you are looking for

The 835. The 835 is the HIPAA standard format for remittance advice, maintained by X12. CMS confirms that every Medicare contractor sends ERAs in the X12 835 version 5010 format (CMS remittance advice page). Commercial payers send the same format. A raw 835 is a text file of segments and codes; most systems also show a readable version or a PDF.

For an audit or a biller switch, the raw 835 files are what you want, because software can read every adjustment code in them. A PDF of the remittance is the fallback. If you never enrolled in ERAs with a payer, you will have paper EOBs instead.

The AR aging report. It groups open balances into buckets, usually 0–30, 31–60, 61–90, 91–120 and over 120 days. Two settings make it useful:

Age by date of service if the report lets you choose. Most filing limits count from the date of service, so that is the date that tells you what’s still collectible.
Insurance and patient balances split, or two separate runs.

Export it as CSV or Excel rather than PDF when you can, so the balances can be sorted.

How much. Twelve months of 835s and a current AR aging report cover a full year of payer behavior and every balance still open.

Epic

Epic’s own documentation is on its customer site, not public, so there is no public step-by-step to link. Ask your Epic application analyst or your organization’s Epic administrator for:

the 835 remittance files for the last 12 months, from Epic’s remittance processing or the clearinghouse that feeds it
an AR aging report aged by date of service, split by insurance and patient balance, exported to Excel

If your Epic is hosted by a health system or another organization, the request goes to whoever hosts it. See Epic billing for independent practices.

athenahealth (athenaOne)

athenahealth publishes its help pages publicly.

AR aging: On the Main Menu, click Reports, then under Financials click Accounts Receivable Aging Wizard (athenaOne help). The advanced view has an “age by date of” option, and athenahealth’s page recommends aging by charge creation date or date of service. Choose the comma-delimited output to open it in Excel. You need the AR/Activity Wizards report permission. Very large reports may need to run offline, which delivers them to your Report Inbox the next morning.
835s: Go to Financials, then under Payments click Remittance (Manage Remittance help). The help page lists an ANSI 835 download, described as the raw ERA data file, on the tab for remittance that athenahealth did not receive itself. For 835s athenahealth received and posted for you, ask athenahealth support for the raw files.

See athenahealth billing.

eClinicalWorks

We could not find public eClinicalWorks help articles for these reports; its documentation sits behind the customer login. Ask eClinicalWorks support or your eCW administrator for the ERA (835) files from the last 12 months and an AR aging report by date of service, exported to Excel. The 835s can also come from your clearinghouse (see the fallback below). See eClinicalWorks billing.

NextGen

NextGen’s public help guide for NextGen Enterprise PM has articles titled ERA 835 and Lookup an archived ERA file, and lists an Insurance Aging Analysis report and an Aging Analysis by Line Item report under its accounts receivable reports. Those are the names to ask for. If you run NextGen Office rather than Enterprise PM, the reports differ, so ask NextGen support. See NextGen billing.

ModMed

We could not find public ModMed help articles for these reports; its support content is for customers. Ask ModMed support, or whoever administers ModMed PM in your practice, for the 835 files for the last 12 months and an aging report by date of service, split by insurance and patient. See ModMed billing.

Tebra (formerly Kareo)

Tebra’s help center is public.

835s: In the desktop application, open Encounters, then Clearinghouse Reports, and choose the Electronic Remittance tab. Clear “Show unreviewed only” to see every report, open one, and use Save As to save it as an ANSI 835 text file (Tebra help). This works one report at a time, so twelve months can take a while.
AR aging: Go to Reports, then Accounts Receivable, then A/R Aging (Tebra help). Set “Show Aging By” to Date of Service instead of first billed date. The report has views by insurance plan and by patient.

See Tebra billing.

DrChrono

AR aging: DrChrono’s help center lists an Aging AR Analysis report under its billing reports (DrChrono help). The public page doesn’t spell out the steps, so when you run it, look for a date setting to age by date of service, run insurance and patient balances separately if you can, and export to CSV or Excel.
835s: DrChrono’s ERA help article covers viewing ERAs. It does not clearly say whether raw 835 files can be downloaded, so ask DrChrono support, or pull them from your clearinghouse.

See DrChrono billing.

Elation Health

AR aging: Open Reports, then Lightning Reports. The list includes Accounts Receivable Aging - Insurance and Accounts Receivable Aging - Patient. Set the dates, click Download Report and choose Excel (CSV) (Elation help).
835s: In Elation Billing, ERAs are under Payments, then ERAs. Clicking the payer name opens the ERA as a PDF you can download (Elation help). The article doesn’t mention raw 835 downloads, so ask Elation support for those.

See Elation billing.

Canvas Medical

Canvas’s help article says ERAs come in from its clearinghouse, Claim.MD, and can be viewed from the claim ledger by choosing Remittance under the document icon (Canvas help). It doesn’t describe a raw 835 download or an aging report. The 835s can come straight from the clearinghouse (see the fallback below); ask Canvas support for an AR aging export. See Canvas billing.

Healthie

AR aging: Open Visualize (reports), then Billing, then AR Aging. Use Download Results to save it as CSV or Excel (Healthie help).
835s: ERA details are under Billing, then Claims, then Claim details (ERA) on a claim (Healthie help). Healthie’s help says this view works for accounts connected to Claim.MD, so for those accounts the raw 835 files can come from Claim.MD.

See Healthie billing.

The fallback: your clearinghouse portal

Whatever your EHR, the 835s pass through a clearinghouse on the way in, and most clearinghouses let you download them. As one documented example, in Claim.MD you open View ERA, use Search to reach older files (the default views only go back three months), tick the remittances you want, and choose Download Selected 835 from the action menu. The files save with a .x12 extension that you can rename to .txt to read (Claim.MD docs).

If your clearinghouse is a different one, ask its support for “all 835 files for the last 12 months, for every payer, as raw X12”. If you also have Medicare remittances, CMS provides free Medicare Remit Easy Print software through your Medicare contractor to view and export them (CMS).

If your biller holds the files

If an outside billing company works your claims, the files may sit in its systems. Ask it in writing for the 835s for the last 12 months and a current AR aging report by date of service, and keep a copy of the request. Your contract with the biller may say how and when it must hand over records. If you are switching billers, make the request before the notice period ends.

A short checklist

Twelve months of raw 835 files, from every payer, not just the largest.
An AR aging report as of today, aged by date of service, as Excel or CSV.
Insurance and patient balances shown separately.
A note of anything you couldn’t get, and which payers send paper EOBs instead.

These are the two files Marlow’s free billing audit asks for. Our guide to reading an AR aging report explains what to look for once you have it.

Sources

General information, not advice on a specific claim, contract or legal question. Rules and rates change; check the linked sources for the current version.