| Client Snapshot | |
|---|---|
| Region | Southeast |
| Headquarters | South Carolina |
| Employees | 3600 |
| Beds | 533 |
| Patient Revenue | $2.8 Billion |
Duplicate Invoice Detection: This process uncovers instances where a vendor or supplier invoices a company multiple times for the same goods or services. Detecting and rectifying duplicate invoices is essential to prevent overpayment and maintain accurate financial records.
problem
As part of a full-scale AP recovery audit for a healthcare system that had not completed an audit for many years, we were able to identify a significant duplicate billing credit through our duplicate invoice detection process for a multi-billion dollar regional healthcare system. Duplicate billing can occur due to various reasons, such as administrative errors, system glitches, or fraudulent activities. Detecting and rectifying duplicate billing is essential to prevent overpayment and maintain accurate financial records. In this instance, the vendor applied payment from our client to a separate client’s account and then re-issued the invoice as past due to our client who paid the invoice a second time. PCR pursued this erroneous duplicate billing with the vendor and recovered over $250K for our client.
results
In support of the accounts payable recovery audit, our auditors reviewed various exception reports to detect possible instances of duplicate invoices and payments. Our team collected and analyzed accounts payable data including invoices, payment records, purchase orders, and vendor contracts. We examined the data to identify discrepancies, such as duplicate payments, overpayments, pricing errors, and unclaimed credits. The duplicate invoice detection process flagged this particular invoice due to the high dollar amount and the identical issue dates. Working directly with the vendor’s credit team, PCR was able to locate both client payments and assisted the vendor in identifying the error to recover over $250K for our client that would otherwise have been lost.
benefits of working with pcr
- Premier Cost Recovery helped the client recover more than $250K through our duplicate invoice detection.
- The process was managed professionally to ensure the client’s relationship with the vendor remained intact.
- The client did not have to allocate any staff hours to researching and recovering the duplicate credit funds.
A well-executed accounts payable recovery audit can result in significant cost savings for healthcare systems of all sizes and help ensure the accuracy of their financial records. It also serves as a valuable internal control to prevent future payment errors.
