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Media coverage
February
2007
The following article was
published in the February 2007 issue of Internal Auditor,
the magazine of The Institute of Internal Auditors. It was
edited by Andi McNeal and written by Renee Jaenicke, an Audit
Senior Manager for CHAN in Camarillo, California.
Funding a
Dream: A trusted employee defrauds a community hospital with a
little help from her friends
- by Renee Jaenicke
A vendor payment scheme
proves that even the most trusted employees are capable of
fraud. This tale shows how a company without a policy requiring
contracts with vendors runs the risk of being victimized. It
calls for organizations to require: payments to go through
approved vendors instead of to employees, original invoices and
supporting documents for all vendor payments, policies covering
what payments are allowed and payment timing, and vendor
verification procedures.
Fall
2006
T he following
article was published in the Fall 2006 New Perspectives, the
Journal of the Association of Healthcare Internal Auditors
Anatomy of Health Information Management - An Annual Check Up
- by Alicia
Campbell, Diane Schultz, and Jana Daugherty
Summer
2006
T he following
article was published in the Summer 2006 New Perspectives,
the Journal of the Association of Healthcare Internal Auditors.
Optimizing Outpatient Revenue: Making Your CAAT Pay - by
Terri L. Alle n
D espite what your
CFO may say, charges still matter. Some managed care payors
reimburse hospitals on a percentage of charges. So depending
upon the terms of a hospital's managed care contract and its
payor mix, allowing missed charges could hurt the bottom line.
If a hospital's managed care contracts do not reimburse based on
a percentage of charges, then missed charges may not have a
direct net reimbursement impact, but they will likely impact
outlier calculations and future rate settings.
The following article was published in the Summer 2006 New
Perspectives, the Journal of the Association of Healthcare
Internal Auditors.
Reviewing the Patient Access Function: A Risk Based Approach
- by Scot Murphy
Using a risk and control approach to audit a hospital's
patient access area can help identify revenue cycle
opportunities and help the facility develop processes to improve
the effectiveness of the admitting and registration function.
When using this approach, weaknesses in controls become evident,
enabling the swift and deliberate development of corrective
action plans.
July 2006
The following article was published in the Spring 2006 New
Perspectives, the Journal of the Association of
Healthcare Internal Auditors.
Travel and Expense Reporting: Protecting Your Organization
with an "Accountable Plan" - by Thomas J. Stec
The IRS has stiff penalties for organizations that reimburse
their executives for expenses that are either not
business-related or unsubstantiated. They treat such
reimbursements as "excess benefit transactions." The best guard
against such penalties is to adopt an expense reimbursement plan
that clearly holds employees accountable for proving that their
business expenses are within IRS guidelines. This article
describes the key elements of such a plan and how to ensure that
it remains effective - what the IRS would consider an
"accountable plan."
August 23, 2005
The Summer 2005 New Perspectives, the Journal
of the Association of Healthcare Internal Auditors, features
four articles authored by Associates of CHAN Healthcare
Auditors.
Unlocking the Mysteries of Operational Auditing -
by Daniel Clayton
The United States 2002
Sarbanes - Oxley Act has created a widening stir in accounting.
Its requirements of assessing and attesting to internal control
quality have disturbed the peace of many comfortable armchair
auditors. Traditional auditing models of sampling, audit
program development, and attesting must be reassessed. Some
have dispatched legal gurus to define the new law and the ranges
of acceptable compliance, with the intent of building their
accounting and auditing practices to meet that compliance.
Others conceptualize about where accounting and auditing will be
in the future, attempting to develop the next new standard.
It is not easy to know where the solutions to future value and
regulatory requirements will lie. However, quality
internal audit and effective operational auditing are well
positioned to stake their claims on the future. To do so, we must define
what exactly is an operational
audit that identifies the right issues at the right level in the
most valuable and efficient way.
Surgery Charge Capture:
An Audit Approach to Stop the Bleeding - by Angelique
Hemstreet and Jill Linden
Hospitals are losing
millions of dollars in revenue due to unbilled surgical services
and supplies. The culprit is poor charging controls.
A solution, used extensively by CHAN Healthcare Auditors, is
operational auditors combined with clinical coding and computer
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assisted audit techniques. This close interplay of
expertise can stop the financial bleeding.
Performing the First Internal Audit: Do You Know Where Your
Risks Are? - by Renee Jaenicke
In June 2004, Catholic
Healthcare West acquired two new facilities along the California
Central Coast. Internal audits had not been performed
previously at either of these facilities. CHAN Healthcare
Auditors has a contract to perform audit services at all CHW's
facilities. This article describes how the author
determined the potential risks and the effectiveness of internal
controls, and educated the management and staff on the value of
internal audit.
Unprotected Health Information Security Gaps Are Being Found in
Wireless Computer Networks - by Tom Tharp
A growing number of
healthcare facilities use wireless computer networks because
they help employees become more efficient. The biggest
reason for security gaps is that wireless radio frequency signals
travel beyond facility borders, making them accessible to
outsiders.
March
17, 2005
CHAN Healthcare Auditors has been named to the
Companies That Care Honor Roll. Click on the
link below for the press release.
Press Release
For more information about Companies That Care,
visit their website by clicking on the link below.
Center for
Companies That Care
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