Written by: Amanda Geelhoed Papach, ageelhoed@spendmend.com
As kids, my sisters and I would travel from our small quiet street to a giant neighborhood. We would head to our uncle’s house where we would meet up with cousins and friends and fuel up with pizza before the big night of trick-or-treating. All the moms would stay home to pass out candy, and the dads would take us trick-or-treating. Our army of costumed kids would sprint house to house filling up our pillowcases. When it was time to head home our little legs were tired, our sugar high (from candy we sneaked past our dads) was fading, and our pillowcases felt like dumbbells. Every year inevitably, someone would drag a full pillowcase on the ground creating a hole for candy to fall out during the walk back and it was too dark for anyone to notice the lost trail of candy. Losing a piece of bubble gum didn’t matter but losing a quarter of your collected candy was devastating.
The same is true for healthcare finances. Just like the hole in the pillowcase, there are unseen control gaps leading to financial leakage throughout every single U.S. health system. But unlike the lost candy your financial leakage can be returned with a recovery audit. Now, if the idea of a recovery audit scares you more than seeing a shadowy figure in the corner of a room then read more HERE.