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There are many issues including theft through embezzlement or clever schemes, insurance inaccuracies and misuse, Medicare, or Medicaid fraud, patient data leaks, and the list goes on. But every day a practice like yours takes a financial, reputation, or personal attack that could have easily been prevented with annual or more frequent third party audits.
As we start another year another year, it’s a perfect time to call in the kind of help a third party auditor can give. In each of these
Financial Audit: Find both a strict financial professional and then a healthcare specific professional. Why? Because industry outsiders that are good at financial order and proper bookkeeping can find things that others aren’t looking for. And healthcare specific professionals can suggest improvements to meet your benchmarks and keep you in line with federal, state, and local oversight agencies.
Related: Benchmarking your Medical Practice for Improved Productivity
Workflow Audit: A workflow audit is simply an audit that studies how things get done and suggests how to do them more efficiently. The beauty of having an outside agency do these is that new sets of eyes discover things you won’t see because you are immersed in your day to day. You can obtain workflow audits for your entire practice or one aspect of your process.
Compliance Audit: Are you in compliance with all the contracts you signed and all applicable laws? That’s a big question that has many layers. Practices get in trouble with insurance companies because they have failed to adhere to the payor contract they signed – many of them signed several years past. A constant barrage of new laws to regulate every square inch of your practice needs to be analyzed and audited. Building and equipment leases often have little known consequences that your predecessor may not have been on the lookout for. A professional will sniff these out and protect your practice from known or unknown compliance issues.
HIPPA Audit: There are HIPPA audits and then there are HIPPA audits. We dread them but they are a special kind of necessary protection, so don’t neglect them. You don’t want your practice to turn up on the wrong end of a violation. Find the best professional to turn over every rock. Nobody likes a HIPPA surprise.
There are many other audits that could benefit your practice. However, finding the most appropriate ones shouldn’t happen in
Many practices don’t like the idea or the expense of a professional audit of their business. Audits are intrusive. Audits take time. Audits uncover errors. Audits can feel personal. And audits are the necessary cost of doing business properly. However A professional audit may uncover a ticking time bomb and save your practice a significant loss in money, reputation, and time. Today is the perfect time to begin a regular cycle of practice audits.
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