Verifying healthcare vendors is a vital practice that saves your organization from potential financial and reputational risks. Performing complete background checks ensures that you only work with vendors that have a clean background. Therefore, healthcare organizations and providers should perform regular vendor screening. The screening process checks whether the vendor is well-qualified, can provide the required services, and follows all rules and regulations. As a result, the screening process consists of multiple background verification checks. Therefore, even screening a single vendor takes a considerable amount of time and experience to confirm complete verification.
Healthcare vendors are responsible for providing essential goods and services. Thus, screening healthcare vendors improves the quality of the services and treatment. This improved treatment quality is the result of hiring vendors that offer high-quality services on time. Additionally, this screening process is a part of the broader
vendor compliance checks. It helps healthcare providers adhere to strict compliance and legal regulations. Therefore, experts recommend regularly screening your current and new vendors. If you cannot spare enough time for the screening, consider hiring a reliable compliance service provider, such as Venops. Choosing Venops for screening services provides you with trusted and accurate services at a competitive price.
Verify the Financial and Criminal Background of Healthcare Vendors
Working with a vendor that is involved in illegal activities or has a history of financial fraud poses a significant risk to your organization. Therefore, before working with a vendor, it is your responsibility to perform a complete background check. Vendor screening is a process that involves multiple checks for accurate verification. It ultimately helps you avoid unreliable vendors, allowing you to work with verified ones. Background verification of vendors is important for the following reasons:
1. Avoid Legal Penalties
The healthcare industry is bound by strict rules and regulations. Noncompliance with these regulations leads to legal penalties and fines. That is why regular screening and checks are highly recommended to avoid such penalties and fines.
2. Preventing Financial Fraud
Working with a vendor of questionable financial background significantly increases the risk of fraud. Therefore, you must check their background and see if they were involved in financial crimes. Healthcare organizations invest a lot of money in their vendors to get essential goods and services. Therefore, you should verify the vendor before working with them.
3. Meeting Requirements
Each healthcare organization has its unique specifications and needs. Choosing the right vendor ensures that all your requirements are met and on time. The vendor screening process also provides you with a common platform for clear communication. Therefore, you can explain what you are expecting and what the vendor can provide.
Why You Should Perform OIG Screening for Vendor Verification?
The OIG, or the Office of the Inspector General, maintains a list of excluded individuals and entities (LEIE). Any party present in this list is prohibited from participating in federally funded healthcare programs. The parties mentioned here also include healthcare vendors, which means that OIG can exclude vendors from federal healthcare programs. These OIG excluded vendors may be involved in fraud, the illegal handling of controlled substances, or other serious offenses. For this reason, healthcare providers should avoid working with vendors excluded by the Office of Inspector General (OIG).
You can easily avoid working with excluded vendors with the help of accurate OIG screening and checks. The screening process requires you to search if the vendor is present on the most updated OIG exclusion list. As the list continues to update over time, regular screening services are highly recommended. Working with excluded vendors, knowingly or unknowingly, is punishable by the law. Those found guilty are liable for fines and civil monetary penalties(CMPs). OIG screening not only saves you from dangerous vendors but also helps you avoid civil monetary penalties(CMPs).
Concluding Note
Screening vendors is necessary for complete and accurate background checks. The importance of vendor screening is more significant in the healthcare industry. Healthcare vendors provide essential goods and services to the organisation, which in turn impact the quality of their services. Therefore, every healthcare organization should carefully select its vendors. The screening process is also essential, as it can serve as a communication platform. The vendors and healthcare providers can discuss the delivery of goods and services in detail.
While there are multiple screening service providers, Venops still stays ahead of the competition. They offer various services, including staff, vendor, automated, and daily screening. You can trust them for a highly accurate and advanced screening process with the correct pricing.