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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 […]
November 19, 2018
Healthcare systems can lose funds when potential invoice discrepancies aren’t investigated in a timely manner. In a recent Accounts Payable recovery audit TAG reviewed invoices spanning three years for a Northeastern U.S. healthcare system. We identified potential overcharges of approximately $71,900 by a large medical products distributor. At the time, some of the potential overcharges were almost four years old. The distributor refused to research invoices and payments prior to that year, which resulted in significantly fewer potential fund recoveries for the healthcare system. However, the vendor offered a partial settlement for the potential overcharges. In total, the distributor proposed […]
October 24, 2018
We know monthly statements are a chore to review, but they provide vital updates about your organization’s financial status with a vendor. If you don’t take the time to regularly analyze them, then it could lead to lost or unused credits. The Audit Group’s Krista Brown describes an example in which one of clients missed a credit for $300,000, which we successfully recovered. In the competitive healthcare market, every dollar your organization saves is a dollar toward your bottom line. The Audit Group implements detailed statement collection processes that give you the peace of mind that every vendor statement is […]
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 […]
August 24, 2018
Despite having vendor contracts in place, invoice errors happen. Human error is a part of the business we are in. However, many vendor invoice errors are overlooked during payment processing. This is due to the fact that many health systems do not have a procedure in place for documenting and tracking this error. The Audit Group works with healthcare clients nationwide to develop processes to avoid errors like these. When a Breakdown Happens Imagine a Healthcare system started an agreement with a vendor in November of last year. During the course of the vendor relationship, purchase orders were always issued […]
July 26, 2017
Invoice errors happen. It’s a part of the business we are in. However, in healthcare, vendor invoice errors may be overlooked during payment processing. In fact, many health systems may not have a procedure in place for documenting and tracking these errors or the credits issued to correct them. The Audit Group works with healthcare clients nationwide to develop processes to avoid errors like these. Vendor Invoice Errors Cause Confusion We recently worked with a client to discover that McKesson had issued two invoices for the same software and maintenance charges. Both invoices were subsequently paid – all against the […]
