One of the biggest threats to your medical license is insurance fraud within your practice. If the medical board finds evidence of insurance fraud, they can suspend or revoke your medical license and potentially refer you for criminal charges.
It is important to protect your practice by instituting measures to prevent fraud within your practice.
Separate roles and responsibilities
No single staff member should be responsible for inputting patient record information, generating insurance company invoices and crediting payments. Divide these tasks between several employees to ensure a reasonable system of checks and balances. This prevents the lack of oversight that encourages fraudulent activity.
Require physician signatures on all check deposits and payments
Managing partner signatures must appear on any deposit records or payments made on behalf of the practice. This offers a management-level assessment of transactions as they happen so that you can audit and verify random samples.
Mandate background checks for all employees
Background checks can help raise red flags of concern with potential new hires. Conduct thorough background checks on everyone that you hire within the practice. This can help with malpractice and liability insurance as well because background checks help insurance carriers assess risk factors and determine premiums. With the additional inspection of those background checks, you have a sound defense with the board if issues arise.
Proactive steps to establish procedures, checks and balances within your practice can reduce the risk of insurance fraud and can minimize even the appearance of impropriety. Protect your practice from medical board review with strict safety measures.