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Written by Reed Tinsley | July 6, 2005
This post has seemed to cause a little stir among the physician practice manager community. Here is a reply I recently received:
Reed,
I appreciate receiving your newsletters and I especially liked the article on employee embezzlement. The physician has every right to be angry at the employee and to pursue legal action.
However, the comment about the office manager being stupid or lazy (may be the case), but there is another possibility. He/she may not have adequate education, experience or training to implement strong internal controls. Clearly from the description of their practices, there was no reconciliation occurring. I find that many smaller practices can't afford "administrator" level management (experienced business managers) and the lack of internal controls is very common.
In those cases, responsibility lies with the physician/owners to get advice from their accountant or others who are qualified instead of pointing a finger after they have been victimized. I think the physician's anger is misplaced as she should be taking responsibility for this occurring. They have no one to blame but their selves.
Hope you don't mind my little rant, but comments made by physicians to "fire" everyone, when in fact the physician is mostly liable, is unfair.
