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December 20, 2018
The best way to manage office supply contracts is before they’re signed. Once a contract is approved and signed, trying to protect against fund loss through overcharges and unnecessary price increases is complicated. Recovering losses—which can be hundreds of thousands of dollars in larger hospitals—is a laborious, yet necessary process. A Process for Managing Office Supply Contracts Defending against fund loss should start before the contract is approved. The following process can help ensure your organization does not lose funds on routine contracts, like those for office supplies. Survey the Purchasing department to identify what items departments are buying before […]
December 13, 2018
Medical equipment for hospitals and healthcare systems can range from a small needle to an enormous MRI machine. Shipping such heavy equipment incurs large freight costs for hospitals. Without foresight or proper monitoring, excessive freight costs can be mistakenly approved for payment. For example, during a recent Discovery Review, we identified that a health system paid $28,000 for freight on operating room equipment when the actual freight charge was $11,000. Causes for Incorrect Freight Charges In the case of the health system that we worked with recently, it all came down to the payment policy. This health system allowed freight […]
September 12, 2018
We’ve said it time and time again–it pays to review your invoices even when you’re under a contract. Human error and software error often create higher invoices that are passed along to hospitals and paid before any catches the issue. The Audit Group’s Mike Dean recently encountered an error in which our client’s item pricing was tripled halfway through a two-year contract. Take a look at how we caught the error and saved them more than $200,000. Contract pricing almost always benefits the hospitals, but only if they’re receiving the agreed-upon price. Trust The Audit Group’s trained healthcare auditors to […]
August 29, 2018
We’ve written at length about the value of vendor maintenance and why it pays to understand how each vendor invoices and credits your organization. For as often as your billing team may make a payment error, the vendor may make a billing error that costs your organization thousands without you even realizing it. Our own John Martin’s tenacity with vendors helped recover a six-figure sum for one of our clients after discovering inconsistent pricing. Keeping your vendor list well-organized and frequently reviewing it are the best ways to prevent errors like contract overpayments, duplicate payments, and missed discounts. For busy […]
