Guest guest Posted December 30, 2011 Report Share Posted December 30, 2011 I read the article about avoiding fraud, appreciated the general advice but didn’t get much about the best way to avoid fraud in a solo practice with employees that handle money. My approach to discouraging fraud is to: 1. Do Accounts payable myself. It takes 5-10 minutes twice a week.2. Have the receptionist hand write a log of all payments by type (cash, check, credit card) as received and sign a daily log. This log gets randomly reviewed by me and is saved with the daily bank deposit report.3. Personally, open all checks mailed in and stamp for deposit only before passing along to billing staff. Takes less than 3 minutes a day.4. Check bank account once a month to see that all deposits were made as expected.5. Base staff bonuses on total collections. Anyone see a flaw in what I’m doing?What have others found works best in their solo practice? From: [mailto: ] On Behalf Of wood.averySent: Friday, December 30, 2011 9:10 AMTo: Subject: Skimming Hello all,I read this well done article, " Is Your Practice at Risk for Fraud " in Family Practice Management last month and decided that I didn't have much for checks and balances and so put a double check in on my co-pays - I had been giving them to my billing person and she entered the data and made out the deposit which she to my husband to enter into the practice books and deposit. I had not been telling my husband how much cash to be expecting so I started giving him a list of the cash and checks to be expecting. So the first one had $40 missing, groan. I got behind on my billing and last week gave her three weeks at once - $60 missing. This woman has worked for me for 12 years here and before that in my group practice. She has been asking for her check early so I know she has been short on money. I am a floored and very sad. I have no idea yet how much she has been skimming but I think I know how to go about figuring it out. In that patients haven't been complaining about being wrongly billed, I assume she has been cooking the books somehow. I reckon it will take us some time to figure that out - double groan. I have a call in to get some legal advise from the state medical society. Fortunately she is away on vacation for a week to give us some time to figure things out and think.Any advise?(My advise: times are tough - check out that article and eliminate the temptation!)Avery Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 1, 2012 Report Share Posted January 1, 2012 I make all the deposits myself.you can also have isurance payments get direct deposited.Sent from my iPadLarry Lindeman md I read the article about avoiding fraud, appreciated the general advice but didn’t get much about the best way to avoid fraud in a solo practice with employees that handle money. My approach to discouraging fraud is to: 1. Do Accounts payable myself. It takes 5-10 minutes twice a week.2. Have the receptionist hand write a log of all payments by type (cash, check, credit card) as received and sign a daily log. This log gets randomly reviewed by me and is saved with the daily bank deposit report.3. Personally, open all checks mailed in and stamp for deposit only before passing along to billing staff. Takes less than 3 minutes a day.4. Check bank account once a month to see that all deposits were made as expected.5. Base staff bonuses on total collections. Anyone see a flaw in what I’m doing?What have others found works best in their solo practice? From: [mailto: ] On Behalf Of wood.averySent: Friday, December 30, 2011 9:10 AMTo: Subject: Skimming Hello all,I read this well done article, "Is Your Practice at Risk for Fraud" in Family Practice Management last month and decided that I didn't have much for checks and balances and so put a double check in on my co-pays - I had been giving them to my billing person and she entered the data and made out the deposit which she to my husband to enter into the practice books and deposit. I had not been telling my husband how much cash to be expecting so I started giving him a list of the cash and checks to be expecting. So the first one had $40 missing, groan. I got behind on my billing and last week gave her three weeks at once - $60 missing. This woman has worked for me for 12 years here and before that in my group practice. She has been asking for her check early so I know she has been short on money. I am a floored and very sad. I have no idea yet how much she has been skimming but I think I know how to go about figuring it out. In that patients haven't been complaining about being wrongly billed, I assume she has been cooking the books somehow. I reckon it will take us some time to figure that out - double groan. I have a call in to get some legal advise from the state medical society. Fortunately she is away on vacation for a week to give us some time to figure things out and think.Any advise?(My advise: times are tough - check out that article and eliminate the temptation!)Avery Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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