Focus on 3 Key Areas to Audit Collection Agencies: Area 3, Compliance Plan

This is the 3rd in a 3-part series about best practices for auditing collection agencies that support revenue cycle management. You can read all of the installments -- and download the valuable questionnaires -- here:

1. Focus on 3 Key Areas to Audit Collection Agencies: Area 1, Cash Handling

2. Focus on 3 Key Areas to Audit Collection Agencies: Area 2, Training 

3. Focus on 3 Key Areas to Audit Collection Agencies: Area 3, Compliance Plan

Compliance plans are preventative tools that may have an important place both with in-house and outsourced medical collection efforts. When well considered, drafted correctly and used in ongoing training, the benefits of compliance plans are not just anecdotal. They can help:

• Correct costly problem areas and identify areas of improvement
• Standardize collections processes to improve efficiency and profitability
• Supply critical documentation for potential regulatory audits

Since using an outsourced collection agency does not absolve healthcare providers from responsibility to comply with all relevant regulations, it’s especially important to audit vendors. Both agency and provider are accountable for errors and omissions in collection activities, but the federal government maintains a “known or should have known” standard toward providers regarding the activities of the collection agency. Establishing and maintaining well-managed vendor relationships depends on a clear and routine audit function that keeps vendors and providers on the same page.  

Download a complimentary copy of this questionnaire here: Auditing Vendor Compliance