Common Mistakes Businesses Make That Can Cost You

Most practice owners and managers are aware of the potential fines associated with OSHA and HIPAA violations. However, there are other areas that can result in penalties—areas many practices either don’t think about or simply aren’t aware of. In some cases, they were considered at one point but have been overlooked as time goes on. More often than not, these gaps aren’t due to bad intentions, but rather a lack of consistent systems and follow-through.

Here are some of the most common mistakes we are seeing dental practices make and how to handle them before they become a problem.

Assuming a professional’s license is active without verifying:

• Offices often assume that the employee’s license is valid, and usually they are, but it is something that needs to be verified and checked on a regular basis. 

We have had a few different experiences with licenses not being valid. One of our offices had an associate whose license lapsed for a couple of months and they were unaware. 

Another office hired a recently graduated hygienist after having her work from a temp agency. The hygienist was asked several times to bring her license into the office, but knowing that the temp agency verifies that before hiring hygienists they were not too concerned. However, when searching the dental board’s website for the hygienist, the office found that there is another hygienist with the same name and that was who the temp agency thought this hygienist was. The new hygienist had not gotten a license yet after taking her boards. Apparently she was confused about what all she needed to send into the board.

• If you have someone on your team that is working with an expired, suspended or restricted license, your practice can face serious consequences. There can be fines from the dental board, legal liability, claim denials, as well as damage to your reputation if it gets out.

• Our recommendation is to have a License Verification Protocol - create a spreadsheet with names, license #s, expiration dates, etc. You should always verify the license at a clinical team member’s hire date and recheck annually, at a minimum. 

Another mistake that has recently come to our attention is:

Playing music without proper licensing

• This one caught us by surprise… and it continues to surprise nearly every practice we bring it up to.

• The story we have heard is that there are secret shoppers coming into businesses and determining if they are using streaming services like Pandora, Spotify, Apple Music, etc. that are for personal use only. When playing music in a business setting it is considered a “public performance” and requires proper licensing. 

• You can face fines for playing the music if you only have a personal use license. We have heard all kinds of different amounts for the fines so your best bet is to use a business-approved music service. It will probably cost you a couple hundred dollars a year which is much less than even one fine could be. The business-approved music services listed on Google are Soundtrack Your Brand, SiriusXM for Business, Sound Machine and several more. We suggest looking into this sooner than later.

Improper Wage/Payroll reporting

• This is an area that will get reported to the authorities pretty quickly because employees do not like to be short changed or underpaid. 

• Areas to be aware of include: 

• Not paying overtime correctly; the rule is 40 hours in a work week (Sun-Sat) not in a pay period.

• Misclassifying employees as an independent contractor instead of an employee; make sure to look up the rules according to the IRS

• Failing to pay a terminated employee, either voluntary or involuntary termination, according to the rules of your state. This includes PTO or sick pay, if you offer that. 

Poor Documentation & Recordkeeping - Consistency is the key here

• Missing documentation for employees; did you know that you are supposed to keep I-9 in a folder separate from the other documents on your employees?

• Disposing of documents outside of the regulated timeframe

• Lack of signed consent forms for treatment; contact your malpractice insurance company to determine what they recommend - they are the ones that need to protect you.

HIPAA Violations

• Lack of training - conversations with your team should be held quarterly concerning the methods your office uses to protect patient information.

• Failing to maintain proper HIPAA practices; even small breaches can result in significant fines from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Our society is so HIPAA aware, it will be an offended patient that would turn you in. 

Improper Billing Practices

• Upcoding or incorrect insurance coding

• Billing for services not rendered

• Waiving co-pays improperlyThis can lead to audits, insurance clawbacks, or fraud allegations.

Most fines that dental offices incur do not come from careless behavior. They come from not knowing the regulations. This is why it is so important to keep up to date with what is happening out there in the world. We find many dental offices are not up to date with these minor mistakes that can end up costing a significant amount of money. As we say in dentistry, prevention is better than the cure. 

If you need help putting some protocols in place for license tracking or have any questions for us, please feel free to email us at info@gtsgurus.com

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Janice Janssen, RDH, CFE, Consultant

At age 14, Janice Janssen got an after-school job working for her dentist. Twenty-something years later, she is the co-founder of Global Team Solutions and an expert in practice consulting. Besides hands-on experience, Janice has gained professional recognition for her hard work and commitment to excellence. She is co-author of OMG! Office Management Guide, the “bible” used in GTS training workshops. She is a member of the Academy of Dental Management Consultants (ADMC), and is a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), which positions her as an expert in educating dentists to deter fraud and embezzlement in their practice.

Janice can be reached at: janice@gtsgurus.com