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Make Money- Background Checks For The The Medical Industry
September 01, 2011 posted by Steve Brownstein
by Steven Brownstein
You can help physicians take simple steps to protect themselves from becoming subjects of lawsuits or losing substantial revenue.
Obviously, these steps include conducting background checks of staff and other physicians.
It is not, at least to us in the employment screening industry, common knowledge that no federal health benefit payments are permitted for services furnished by persons excluded by the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services 'Centers for Mediacre and Medicaid Services (CMS)'.
Additionally, the government may impose a civil monetary penalty of up to $10,000.00 for each item or service furnished during the CMS exclusion period.
Considering this prohibition, many physician practices hire excluded individuals.
Surprsing as that is, it is a money make for us.
Checking an employee's or physician's background status for exclusion is relatively simple and there are readily available sources of information to you to search.
These include the Health Depts.Office of the Inspector General's Exclusion List (http://oig.hhs.gov/fraud/exclusions.asp) and the General Service Administration's Excluded Parties List System (www.epls.gov)
These lists are updated constantly and provide enough information to determine if a candidate has been excluded.
