PDF Version - Glidewell Dental Labs

check for and to look at in order to stop embezzlement,
or to find out if it’s happening. My approach is a little
bit different. What I tell dentists is that there might be a
thousand different ways to embezzle from their practice,
but regardless of which of those thousand the thief is
using, the way these thieves behave is very predictable. We
already mentioned the people who are in the office alone
at unusual times. You also might consider that employees
who are reluctant to take vacations might have their finger
in the till. So we have what we call the “Embezzlement Risk
Assessment Questionnaire,” which is a scored questionnaire.
If you score at a certain level, it tells you that you either
have very little risk or, conceivably, that you are at high risk
of embezzlement going on in your office.
MD: So are you saying that one type of employee who might be
suspicious is someone who gets two weeks’ paid vacation from
the dentist but never uses it and cashes it out? Or maybe it’s the
person who wants to stay in the office even when everybody else
goes on vacation?
DH: Yes, that’s a symptom. Whether they get cash for their
vacation or not is irrelevant. To me, the real issue is that
they do not want the office open when they are not there.
MD: I see, so they want to be able to cover their trail at any
moment if something irregular is discovered. They probably
worry that if they are gone for a week and somebody starts
digging through the computer that any irregularities could
be noticed.
DH: What uncovers a lot of fraud is patients asking questions
about things. A very common scenario is when a patient
says, “I was in two weeks ago and I paid by cash, but I just
got my statement and it showed that I paid by check.” If that
call comes to the thief, they can squelch it by saying: “Yes,
I know. We just upgraded our computer system and there
are a couple of bugs. The software vendor is working on
it. We’re very sorry it happened.” It doesn’t matter whether
there is one of those calls a day or a hundred, the thief can
make them go away. On the other hand, if the thief is not
in the office and there is someone else getting these calls,
sooner or later that person is going to say to the doctor that
something funny is going on. And then it unfolds. It’s about
control of information in the practice, and the thief can only
exert that control by being there.
MD: That makes sense. They’d probably even insist on taking
all phone calls, right?
DH: That’s right. They’re often the ones who almost lunge for
the phone when it rings. For a dentist who doesn’t suspect
fraud, this looks like a very motivated, committed employee.
MD: Might this employee work on having the best phone skills in
the office, so it only makes sense to have them answer all calls?
“
You’ll see hand instruments and
all kinds of consumables that are
for sale online at a lower price
than you can buy them from
a supplier. Theoretically,
I guess some of this stuff is
gray market that somebody
bought in some other country
and imported. But I think a
vast majority of it just kind of
‘fell off the truck’ in one way
or another.
”