3 ways to prevent getting embezzled

Your employees may be embezzling...and you probably don’t know it. Yes, you read that right. In medical offices, employees can embezzle from you easily. Here are some ways they do that.

How employees embezzle (and how to stop it)

1. Cash co-pays. If someone pays in cash, the receptionist can just pocket that money and you would not know about it. They could then update the patient’s account saying, “Oh, they paid $100.” You probably won’t notice if you’re missing $100 out of $50,000 in your monthly collections. Your solution: never allow anyone to pay in cash. Staff can pocket it too easily.

2. Another way is giving them access to your checking account. You have to have boundaries with your practice. We picked up an account where the doctor had a lot of turnover.  His last office manager arranged his bank account so she could do his deposits and withdrawals. She was taking money out of his account and he had no idea. Your solution: you, as the doctor and business owner should be the only one on the bank account. You can still have someone stamp the back of checks and deposit the checks without giving anybody permission to take money OUT of your account. You shouldn’t have somebody else able to sign checks for your practice. Only you can sign. The office staff can fill out checks for you but you should be the only one that can sign them. Go to the bank and redo your signature card.

3. A third way involves stolen credit card numbers. You shouldn’t take payments over the phone because there is too much liability of someone committing fraud. Anybody can steal somebody else’s credit card number. It could be an employee or a patient. Your solution: Do not accept credit card payments over the phone. If someone is going to pay by credit card, have them come into the office and show their ID and then swipe their credit card on your machine. A patient could also mail you a check but don’t take any payments over the phone. The potential for fraud is too high.

You can’t put blind trust in your staff. We’ve seen embezzlement happen over and over. A doctor trusts his staff and isn’t really watching his statements every month. He starts asking questions when he senses his finances aren’t where they should be.