Your staff members are essential to the smooth functioning of your practice, and you rely on them to keep things going. But according to a 2014 report by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), health-care businesses are likely to be victims of fraud, with yearly losses averaging $175,000 per practice. The same study also found that small businesses are disproportionately affected — and under protected — from fraud and employee theft.[1]
Three major types of employee theft plague health-care practices, according to the Medical Group Management Association.[2] Here are the top three ways employees steal, along with tips for prevention:
- Removing cash from the daily deposit. If your practice accepts cash for copayments and other charges, an employee could take some of this cash and hope not to be detected. Warning signs that this might be happening generally come in the form of patient complaints when they’re being billed for something they’ve already paid for. You can help prevent this type of theft by blocking staff access to any means that could allow them to delete accounts, appointment records or payments. It may also help if the person accepting the cash payments isn’t the same person who fields patient complaints. Consider using software that records and reconciles payments, as well as video surveillance.
- Paying personal bills from company funds. Giving your employees access to checks and/or credit cards from your practice puts you at risk for internal theft. To help prevent this, you or a third-party firm should regularly examine outgoing funds, including credit card statements, bank statements and check records.3
- Falsifying payroll records. The person in charge of your payroll can adjust hours and/or pay rates beyond what you’ve authorized. Per the ACFE, this is generally the longest-lasting form of fraud, which means it has the potential to do great harm to your practice. It also occurs almost twice as often in small businesses as large ones.4 Your best protection is keeping a close eye on things. Personally review payroll payments regularly — and let your workers know this is part of your practice. The best way to combat fraud and employee theft is to prevent it before it happens.
This article was published in Dental Tribune U.S. Edition, Vol. 10, No. 10, October 2015 issue. A complete list of references is available from the publisher.
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