While proper medical care is your paramount concern when visiting a medical clinic or hospital, you also expect to receive fair and ethical treatment from the staff. The accounting staff is responsible for coding and billing the products and services you receive during your visit. According to the American Institute of CPAs, ethics are made up of three components: independence, integrity and objectivity.

 

Independence

The ethics component of independence requires medical accounting personal to avoid conflicts of interest. Conflicts of interest with vendors and other medical services can lead to inflated pricing of products and services in an attempt to maximize the earnings of outside interests. An example of how a conflict of interest would affect a patient might be when a hospital or an anesthesiologist uses a specific drug not because it is the best choice for the patient but because the supplier offers a financial incentive to use the drug.

 

Integrity and Objectivity

The integrity component of ethics requires accounting personnel to maintain the appearance of trustworthiness and is closely tied to the objectivity component. Integrity and objectivity require health-care accounting personnel to avoid situations that might appear on a purely superficial level to be a conflict of interest. This means health-care accounting personnel should not operate businesses or act as a freelance consultant for competitors or health-care facility vendors because it might appear the costs that are passed on to the patients may be inflated to line the pocket of the moonlighting accountant. Other acts that can cause people to question the ethics of accounting personnel is the receipt of expensive gifts from suppliers. Expensive gifts can cause outsiders to question whether the accountant is being paid off for unethical accounting practices.

Related Reading: Examples of Ethics in AccountingLinks to an external site.

 

Competency

Related to the three components of ethics is the responsibility of health-care accounting staff to remain on the leading edge of changes in generally accepted accounting principles. They are also charged with staying current on regulation changes related strictly to the bookkeeping for medical facilities. Competency is directly related to maintaining the appearance of integrity. Otherwise, outsiders would have a hard time distinguishing the difference between dishonest behavior and ignorance of changes in policies and procedures.

 

Responsibility

Other definitions of ethics rely heavily on the responsibility of an employee to do the best job possible to service both the patient and the employer. When the responsibility of both parties conflict because of unethical practices, such as double-billing or inflated costs, the employee has a responsibility to question the practices and report them to authorities. This ethical responsibility to protect social interest above those of the employer is a good checks and balance system to protect the interest of patients within the legal perimeters established by the government.

 

About the Author:

Betsy Gallup is a writer with extensive business, tax law, management and accounting experience. During her free time, she enjoys crafting, reading and caring for her children and pets. She holds a B.S. in management/accounting from Park University.

 

Citation: 

Gallup, B. (n.d.). Accounting Ethics in Healthcare. Retrieved May 1, 2015, from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/accounting-ethics-healthcare-36147.html

 

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QUESTION: 

1) Based on what you have learned from the article above, what do you feel is the most important component?

2) Can they operate independently, or must the components always be used together to be ethical? Support with facts from the article or website resource?