“Try to figure out what you [should] be watching for and make sure you correct anything you’re doing wrong,” she said. “Find your weak links.”
Complete documentation and regular staff training is also essential, Mr. Breen added. Employees charged with coding or documentation duties should understand MA rules and regulations what information is required. If hit with a fraud or coding error accusation, doctors should be able to say that they made efforts to identify mistakes, he said.
“It’s not enough to say, ‘I made a mistake,’” he said. “You have to be able to say, ‘I looked for mistakes and tried to make sure we weren’t doing anything inappropriate.’ At the end of the day if you made a mistake, you have to demonstrate that you did something to prevent [such errors] in the first instance.”
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