1. Divide responsibilities for deposits. Daily bank deposits should not be prepared by the staff member responsible for posting payments, Ms. Semanyshyn says. “At the very least, two people with independent responsibilities within your organization should run two separate [register] tapes of all checks and cash to be deposited,” she says. The totals between the two parties must match up before any deposit is made, ensuring dual control and reducing the possibility of error.
2. Use a daily reconciliation form to recap receipts. According to Ms. Semanyshyn, your center should use a form to recap all your receipts for the day, including daily electronic funds transfers, bank deposits and credit card charges. At the end of the day, payment posters should run a daily balance report from your billing system and reconcile the total receipts. “This may sound elementary, [but] recapping your receipts in an organized manner allows for easy detection of discrepancies and enforces accountability,” she says. The reconciliation should be then given to your manager or the ASC bookkeeper, who should record the receipts and use them to prepare the monthly bank reconciliation.
3. Keep two separate logs recording daily patient numbers. Ms. Semanyshyn says your ASC should keep two logs recording the number of patients you see every day — one that you keep on the clinical side and one that you keep in the billing department. The billing department should list patients billed out and any charges not charged. “These numbers should be reconciled on a weekly basis to ensure all charges have been submitted and nothing has fallen through the cracks,” she says. At the end of the month, your center should do a formal reconciliation that reports the final monthly head count, to be signed by the center’s director and billing manager.
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