If your practice received an electronic health record (EHR) incentive payment for either the Medicare EHR Incentive Program or the Medicaid EHR Incentive Program, you may be subject to an audit. The best way to get ready for a meaningful use (MU) audit of your practice is to assume you will be audited and prepare accordingly.
Preparing your medical practice for a Meaningful Use compliance audit is much easier with some preparation and planning throughout the year. Here are some strategies that your practice can use to make sure you meet all the requirements of the MU program should the auditors come calling, and ensure you can keep the incentive money you earned.
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Assume you’ll be audited
The best thing a physician can do to ensure an audit goes well is assume they will be audited before they attest and prepare for it. Because some physicians are chosen for audits at random, there is no way to completely eliminate the possibility of being audited.
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Take charge
Many small practices leave the legwork of meaningful use to practice managers. While it is good to have some level of trust in the practice manager or whomever is in charge of the legwork, it’s always smart for physicians to verify for themselves that the work is being done and not simply assume.
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Avoid discrepancies
The auditors are looking for discrepancies between what was submitted during the attestation process and what was actually done. Smaller practices might not have a dedicated administrative team to shoulder the needs of a Meaningful Use audit. The practice manager might not have the necessary skills to properly prepare for an audit. In this instance, physicians should step in to supervise or take charge of the audit preparation to ensure they are able to pass the audit successfully.
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Ensure EHR certification
Your practice must have certified use of EHR technology on or before the date of any attestation period, approved by an authorized certification body. Simply being on the certified system prior to running meaningful use reports is not sufficient. To satisfy the certification requirements, you will need to have documentation from your vendor confirming the version you are using.
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Respond promptly
Complying with the demands of an audit means accomplishing a long list of tasks. But there are also things physicians should avoid doing. It’s also important to respond right away after receiving an audit letter. Getting the necessary documents in order can be a time consuming process. Auditors generally allow 14 days to respond to an audit notice. Physicians should not to engage the auditors on their own, outside of the document exchange.
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