Sean M. Weiss, CHC, CEMA, CMCO, CPMA, CPC-P, CMPE, CPC, Vice President of Compliance
This auditing and compliance “Tip of the Week” was originally published by the National Alliance for Medical Auditing Specialists (NAMAS), a division of DoctorsManagement.
Welcome to 2020! It is my hope that all of you had a great holiday season and New Year and are well rested and ready to take on the challenges of this new year head-on and armed with the necessary tools to ensure compliance and streamlined operations.
As part of beefing up your compliance process and mitigating risk, I thought I would begin this year with a topic that everyone loathes, which is figuring out deductibles, co-payment and/or co-insurance at the start of the year. The best way to do this is to have a Practice Financial Policy in place. But the key to being successful with this part of your job is ensuring from the outset that you have clearly explained things to your patients. At the start of each year, every patient should sign your practice policy so that at a minimum when they say, “I didn’t know this” or “You didn’t explain that to me,” you have something they signed that specifically says they read the document and were given opportunities to ask questions about. In short, the signed forms show that patients have acquiesced to your practice’s financial policy, and that you are able to hold them to it.
We live in an age of entitlement and litigiousness where patients threaten legal action or reporting you to the state medical board if they don’t get their way, or even to deter you from collecting what you are entitled to. This is why you have to be two steps ahead of your patients and three steps ahead of any investigatory agency.
Click to download a sample policy template
This policy is lengthy and intended as a template so you will need to adjust it to make it work for your practice and to ensure it complies with any applicable state laws. Again, please do not take this template and implement it as is.
As always, should you have questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to NAMAS.
Best wishes in 2020!
This Week’s Audit Tip Written By:
Sean M. Weiss, CHC, CEMA, CMCO, CPMA, CPC-P, CMPE, CPC, Vice President of ComplianceWhat to do next…
- Contact us to discuss your audit needs by calling (800) 635-4040 or email [email protected].
- Read more: What can you expect from a coding and compliance review?
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