Practice Management Alert

A few simple background checks can greatly reduce risky hires

Hiring an employee who will have fiduciary responsibilities within the billing office is not a task to take lightly.

"It is so easy to embezzle in a medical office," says Maggie Mac, CMM, CPC, CMSCS, CCP, ICCE, an administrator at Bay Area Women's Care in Clearwater, Fla. Potential hires lie all the time about their credentials and work history, so make a little extra effort and do the appropriate background checks for all prospective employees, says Mac, who presented a recent teleconference titled "Smart Employment Practices in the Medical Office."

Guard against risky hires by following this order of events for background checks:

1. Check the HHS Office Of Inspector General's (OIG) Exclusions Database to make sure the applicant isn't on the exclusion list for unethical or illegal dealings with Medicare or Medicaid. Visit http://oighhs.gov/ and click on "Exclusions Database."

2. Perform reference checks. Try to speak with at least two work-related references to verify the applicants' previous employment information -- their title, salary, length of employment and reason for leaving, Mac says. Be sure to ask about the applicants' job performance, attendance, ability to work with others, potential problems, and rehire status, she says.

Remember: Reference checks often don't provide a well-rounded perspective because the applicant is likely to list only those references who are sure to say good things.

3. Conduct a background check that includes credit history and any criminal activity. Many companies that offer background-check services will be able to do all of these checks for you at one time. A credit report that shows late bills is not an automatic disqualifier for an applicant, but it should make you question if he is financially responsible and ethical, Mac says. Most important, you want to look for any criminal history that will make an applicant unfit for fiduciary responsibilities.

Not so fast: Before doing the background check, "You must provide the applicant with a written disclosure stating that the report is being obtained for employment purposes," Mac says. The applicant must sign the statement, and you should present this statement separately from all the other consent forms involved in the hiring process. Afterward, of course, the report must be kept confidential and accessible only to those who need to see it.

Don't be shy: You absolutely have the right to question the applicant about suspicious results of any background check "because they've given you their permission" by signing the release form, Mac says.

How often are background checks successful at finding risky hires? "Probably about 50 percent of the time," Mac says. And a lot of the credit and criminal history reports you'll be obtaining are not up-to-date. This means it's a good idea to run another background check three to six months after hiring an employee to see if anything new has popped up on the reports, Mac says. Include a statement in the initial background check consent forms that reserves your right to obtain additional reports later on, she says.

Background checks for everyone! Be sure to run a check on every person considered for hire. This way you can't be accused of unfair or inconsistent hiring practices.