Employee Files & What to Do With Them

By: Valery Bond, RHIT

As healthcare professionals, we take pride and care in the detail in maintaining our employee files.  Certain items must be separated from the others, files securely locked and out of reach from co-workers hands.  Personnel’s personal information must be protected.  We all know these things and probably already have a procedure in place for compliance.

Whether your facility has been deemed accredited (Joint Commission, for example) or just starting up, employee files must be maintained, reviewed, audited, and kept according to retention requirements.  Knowing which laws apply aids in keeping your business compliant.  For example, pursuant to ERISA laws, there is no specific time period to maintain records that reflect age, marital status and/or service records.  The Social Security Acts states that employees’ social security numbers must be kept four years from the tax due date or payment of tax, whichever is later.  So, there’s a lot of tracking going on.Continue reading

Healthcare Business Operations: Non-Profit Regulations for the Rehab Industry

By: Shobha Lizaso

There has been a growing trend in the substance abuse rehabilitation industry to provide services through a non-profit, tax-exempt organization. Unfortunately, there is also a growing trend relating to IRS audits of non-profits. An audit by the IRS can yield many negative outcomes, including the revocation of a treatment center’s tax exempt status and fines imposed on the organization and/or its Directors when the non-profit fails to operate within the rules applicable to 501(c)3 non-profit organizations.

A non-profit may be able to fly under the IRS’s radar for a few years, but as the years pass, the chances that non-profit non-compliance will be caught by the IRS grows exponentially.  To protect your non-profit, please follow some of these basic rules:Continue reading