Practice Management Alert

5 Steps Ensure Internal Audit Compliance

Investigators are sometimes suspicious of internal audit results because billing office insiders are apt to overlook or misunderstand billing problems. 
 
To prove your compliance, make sure you have documentation of each of the following key steps:

1. Check your compliance plan first. Your plan may call for an independent audit, or for certain internal audit criteria - and if you conduct audits differently, investigators may accuse you of poor commitment to compliance.

2. Choose an in-house expert. The billing office employee who carries out your audits should have superior coding and billing expertise. If no one in the office has audit experience, invest in training materials or programs.

3. Get together to review results. The claims management supervisor and compliance officer should meet with the auditor to review audit procedures and results.

4. Correct problems quickly. Once your auditor has identified billing problems, you must take corrective action - and document what you do.

5. Have an outsider review results. An external review of your audit - by an independent auditor or other qualified consultant - will add validity to your audit results. In addition, an outsider may spot problems that you overlooked.