In this, part four of our series, we will look at another method an employee can use to embezzle money from a practice. This method involves changing the procedure fees.
When the patient is checked out, the employee may enter all of the procedures, fees and payments exactly as they should be entered with one small difference. The employee could reduce the fee.
For example, let's suppose the procedure was a crown with a normal fee of $1000. If the employee knows the patient is going to pay $200 in cash, the employee could change the fee to $800 and pocket the cash.
Even if the employee is not given permission to edit or delete transactions, they still may be able to change the fee before it is posted. This type of activity is much less likely in a practice where the doctor carefully monitors production and collection reports. But of course, all embezzlement activity is less likely when the doctor is focused on the business.
Sometimes, when the schedule is full and the activity is hectic, it's difficult to stay focused on the business. In those situations, the ACE Dental program has a solution for this situation.
The solution is called the "Changed Fee Report". Anytime a procedure is posted to a patient with a fee that is not to be listed in the fee schedule, that transaction is flagged and will appear on the Changed Fee Report.
Like the deleted/edited transaction report, this is a secret report, that is, it is not mentioned in our documentation. Access to this report is only given to the doctor.
Topics: dental software, dental practice fraud, dental practice embezzlement