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This goes without saying that now more than ever we are witnessing decreasing reimbursements and increased compliance scrutiny. Therefore you need every available tool to stay on top of your Medicare compliance and reimbursement game. If you have worked throughout the previous year to tighten up your identity theft prevention processes, don't think that it went in vain. The provisions in the Red Flags Rule are still considered smart if you want to stay away from problems in your practice. In fact, you practice is still legally responsible for protecting the confidential information that patients hand out to you. If you created a Red Flags program, do not just toss it aside. In its place, continue to implement the safeguards that you put in place to safeguard your patients. Say for instance it is very common now to take a photograph of your patients and store that picture to verify that the person presenting for a visit is the same patient connected to the insurance identification number. This way you will know that someone has pilfered or borrowed an insurance card to get care and have someone else pay the bill. You should continue to follow it if you instituted this practice. That aside, you should have processes in your practice to protect the information patients have given to you. Oftentimes in medical practices, identity theft is an inside job. Someone might take just enough information to use a patient's identity or even take their credit card information. There is not much you can do to safeguard yourself against the dishonest actions of one employee acting alone; however you do want to have at least a bare minimum outline of what you would do in case you found out someone has misused patient information. What's more, see to it that you have a plan in place when you find someone looking for treatment with a stolen identity. For more on this and for other Medicare compliance and reimbursement updates, sign up for a good medical coding resource like Coding Institute.
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