Vendor Screening and Its Importance in the Healthcare Sector

Screening your vendors is a multi-step process in which vendors are thoroughly vetted for compliance with laws and regulations, relevant experience, history with other clients, and qualification to work with the organization. These vendors offer medical equipment, pharmaceuticals(drugs/medicines), and other essential services required by the healthcare organization. Screening the vendors before entering into a contract is crucial because they directly affect the organization’s services. It helps the organization verify the credibility and reliability of the goods and services provided by the vendors. Vendor screening is a time-consuming and complex process. That is why healthcare organizations generally hire trusted third parties to screen potential vendors, saving them time.

Vendor compliance screening is necessary in the Healthcare sector because people trust these organizations with their health and well-being. Contracting with the wrong vendor exposes the organization’s patients to health risks, including poor-quality products or delayed services. The risks are even higher for pharmaceutical vendors. Purchasing medication from an unauthorized or fraudulent supplier results in getting fake or expired medicine. This is precisely why Vendor screening is a moral, ethical, and professional responsibility of every healthcare organization.

Benefits of Vendor Screening – Reduces Financial Risks, Law Compliance, and More

Screening your vendors is essential, especially in the medical sector, because it directly affects a patient’s health and life. Vendor Screening helps the organization deliver high-quality goods and services to the patients. The best part is that this screening process also benefits the organization in direct and indirect ways. Some of the key benefits are listed below:

Reduces the Chances of Financial Risks

Vendor screening assesses a vendor’s financial credibility and checks whether they were involved in any past financial fraud. During the screening process, potential vendors are thoroughly vetted to determine whether they are financially stable and can provide the required resources and services. This also involves enquiring about their services and delivery time so that the organization does not face any financial crisis due to delays or low-quality services.

Ensure Vendor’s Law Compliance

There are laws every Vendor must follow, and they are even stricter for vendors in the healthcare sector. Your vendors must work within the boundaries and standards set by the law and the government. Non-compliance with rules and regulations, and the absence of mandatory certificates indicate that the vendor’s products and services are unreliable and untrustworthy.

Better Communication with Vendors

The screening process provides a platform for better communication between the healthcare organization and the vendors. It helps clarify healthcare providers’ doubts about the quantity, quality, and delivery time of the vendor’s goods and services. This communication also enables vendors to understand the healthcare provider’s requirements, thereby improving service efficiency.

Saves the Reputation of the Healthcare Provider

It takes time, effort, quality services, and good communication to gain people’s trust in the Healthcare sector. People do not easily trust others with their health and well-being unless they are 100% sure. Therefore, getting your organization’s name associated with unreliable vendors can damage its reputation. This reputational damage has very long-lasting impacts, especially for healthcare organizations. Screening your vendors before signing a contract can help avoid such damages by alerting the healthcare providers about the Vendor and their involvement in unlawful activities.

Selecting the Best Possible Vendor

Vendor screening services allow you to analyze multiple vendors and their service quality to choose the best possible vendor for your requirements. Screening different vendors can be time-consuming, but the results are always in the organization’s favor.

OIG Screening for Vendors – Save Yourself from Penalties

OIG, or the Office of Inspector General, maintains a List of Excluded Individuals/Entities(LEIE). Any individual or vendor present in this list is not allowed to participate in federally funded programs. This means that the excluded individuals or entities will immediately stop receiving any form of federal funds, including Medicare and Medicaid.

There are various reasons for the OIG exclusion, and some of the important ones are listed below:

• If they are involved in Medicare and Medicaid fraud
• Involvement with other federal or state program fraud
• Illegal manufacturing and distribution of controlled substances(potent drugs/medicines)
• Suspension of license due to unprofessional behavior or not being able to perform their responsibilities professionally
• Abusing or ignoring their professional duties
• Misbehaving with patients and other staff members

OIG Screening is a process to verify whether the individual or entity is present in the List of Excluded Individuals/Entities. The entities mentioned here include Vendors that provide goods and services to healthcare organizations. According to the law, any healthcare organization that contracts with or works with an excluded vendor will face civil monetary penalties (CMPs). Under certain circumstances, the organization might also need to pay extra penalties. These excluded vendors are often associated with fraud and illegal activities, which is why working with them will negatively impact the healthcare organization’s reputation.

To avoid such severe risks, it is crucial to conduct an OIG check during the vendor screening process. Performing an OIG background check will confirm whether the vendor is on the excluded list. It will save your organization from contracting with or working with such vendors, helping you avoid penalties and reputation loss.

Venops – Monthly Automated Staff/Vendor Screening and Other Benefits

Thousands of healthcare providers trust Venops for our accurate and reliable vendor screening program. Building trust in this sector is not easy, but we have earned our clients’ trust through quality services, ease of use, and fair prices. The professionals at Venops value this trust and are dedicated to providing the best-in-class services, including:

• OIG Screening with the latest and updated database to ensure 100% accuracy
• Automated Monthly Screening with the help of software tools
• Screening of Vendors without any additional cost
• Also, we provide all of the above benefits at the best possible prices

As the leading background screening company, our services help healthcare organizations save precious working hours so they can focus on their patients’ health and well-being.

Conclusion

Staff and vendor screening have significant implications for a Healthcare Organization. It helps the organization avoid hiring staff or working with vendors with a bad reputation due to their involvement in unlawful activities. Venops uses advanced software tools for screening vendors. We have years of experience and a team of legal and financial experts that enable us to screen existing/new staff and vendors quickly and accurately.

We offer trusted third-party vendor screening services to save your time and reduce the chances of manual errors.

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