If a group has adopted a compliance plan, its work is just beginning, not ending. Compliance is a process that includes education, monitoring, taking corrective action and monitoring improvement. It is important to document these compliance efforts, just as it is essential to document clinical services. A compliance program is expected to uncover problems. If a group's compliance program is not identifying any deficiencies or questions, the group may want to consider whether or not it has been properly implemented.
Accurate billing is a team effort.
Physicians commonly believe that their role is to provide clinical services and it is the job of their billing staff, whether employees or a contracted outside billing service, to figure out how to bill for those services. The way in which physicians transmit information to their internal or external billing staff may predetermine the coding decisions. Physicians often fail to appreciate that their billing staff is wholly reliant on the information they provide. When an anesthesiologist marks anesthesia start and end times, the billing staff has little way to verify the accuracy of that information. Providing billing personnel with complete information and encouraging them to ask questions not only will promote compliance with billing rules, but also may expedite the billing process by minimizing delays to clarify ambiguous information.