Question 2

How long does it take to complete AUDIT IT?

Answer

From project kickoff to presentation of the final results, AUDIT IT takes approximately four weeks to complete.  This assumes that Company XYZ submits all data collection materials to Auditrax, Inc. within 1 week of the project kickoff date.

Question 3

How often should I do an AUDIT IT?

Answer

AUDIT IT is an overall IT health check, and just like an annual physical, it should be completed on an annual basis.  Doing the assessment once yearly enables you to track and trend IT performance over time.  Perhaps more importantly, it enables your organization to chart and demonstrate annual improvements in cost, performance, productivity, and IT effectiveness.

Question 4

Who are the results of the AUDIT IT presented to?

Answer

Anyone in your organization is welcome to attend the AUDIT IT final presentation.  Typically, the audience for the presentation includes the CIO or CFO and his/her direct reports.

Question 5

What are the steps required to complete AUDIT IT?

Answer

The three phases of AUDIT IT are data collection, data analysis, and presentation of results.  During the data collection phase of the project, your organization will be asked to answer a questionnaire and participate in interviews with Auditrax analysts.  After all data has been collected, Auditrax will complete a benchmark and assessment of your IT spending and performance levels.  Finally, Auditrax will schedule a time and location to present the results of the assessment, including all findings, conclusions, and recommendations.

Question 6

Is AUDIT IT a benchmark or an assessment?

Answer

Both.  AUDIT IT provides an overall assessment of the IT organization, but uses benchmarking as one of the primary tools for evaluating IT performance.  Your organization will be benchmarked against a peer group of comparable IT organizations in key areas including cost or price, performance, productivity, and effectiveness.

Question 7

What’s the difference between price and cost benchmarks?

Answer

Price benchmarks are conducted for IT functions that have been outsourced, or for areas that are under consideration for outsourcing.  The result of a price benchmark is an estimate of the market price that you could expect to pay for outsourcing a particular area of IT.  This, in turn, enables you to ascertain whether you are paying a fair price for services that are being sourced from a third party, or alternatively to develop a business case for outsourcing a service that is currently provided in-house.  Auditrax’s price benchmarks are built upon real price data from current, industry outsourcing contracts.

Cost benchmarks, by contrast, measure the cost efficiency of services that are currently provided in-house.  The output of a cost benchmark includes normalized unit cost comparisons relative to a peer group of comparable IT organizations.  Cost/MIPS for mainframe, cost/call for help desk, cost/desktop, and cost/function point are just some of the typical metrics provided by a cost benchmark.

Question 8

Who is Auditrax’s competition for AUDIT IT?

Answer

The closest competing products are offered by Gartner and META Group; it’s called the ITOA (Information Technology Overview Assessment).  Their costs are roughly double Auditrax’s.

Question 9

How is AUDIT IT different from competing offerings?

Answer

Other companies may offer individual components of AUDIT IT , but AUDIT IT  is a comprehensive IT assessment that is unique in the marketplace.  It includes cost or price benchmarks, more in-depth key performance indicators than competing offerings, client alignment surveys, and prescriptive recommendations and action items.  No other product in the marketplace offers such an all-encompassing analysis of IT performance.

Question 10

Where does Auditrax get the data for AUDIT IT?

Answer

Data for AUDIT IT   comes from a variety of sources including ongoing research conducted by Auditrax analysts, and META Group’s Worldwide Benchmarking Database.

Question 11

How much time and effort is required of us (the client) to complete AUDIT IT?

Answer

Your involvement is required at three specific points in the project: at the kickoff meeting, during the data collection phase, and at the final presentation of results.  The kickoff meeting typically lasts 90 minutes to two hours.  During the meeting, Auditrax will explain the project goals and objectives, the project methodology, and the data collection documents.  The second phase of the project – data collection – will be the most time consuming element for company XYZ.  Depending upon the availability of information, data collection may require 30 hours or more.  Additionally, Auditrax may conduct up to 15 interviews with key IT managers during this phase of the project.  These interviews typically last between 45 minutes and an hour.  The third and final time that Auditrax requires your involvement is at the final presentation of results. The presentation will be scheduled for a time and location that is convenient for Company XYZ management.  The presentation itself is typically about two hours in duration. Auditrax also requests that Company XYZ designate a project manager/liaison with whom Auditrax can interface during the course of the project.  This will not require a full-time commitment on the part of the Company XYZ project manger, but he/she must be available as-needed to help guide Auditrax data collection efforts (e.g., provide names of individuals at company XYZ who can provide data to Auditrax).  Auditrax will also report its progress on a periodic basis to the XYZ project manager.

Question 12

Do I use actual spending or budget information for the cost analysis?

Answer

Actual spending data is preferred, but if this data is inaccurate or not available, budget numbers are acceptable.  Whichever data is provided (actual spending or budget projections), it is important to ensure that the time frames for the cost numbers match the time frames for other data provided.  So, for example, if benchmarking your help desk, the time frame for the cost or budget numbers must match the time frame for the call volume data.  The same general principle holds true for any other benchmarking tower in your AUDIT IT  Assessment.

Question 13

Are travel expenses charged on top of the project fee?  How much are they?

Answer

Travel fees are in addition to the project fees.  We expect that there will be one, possibly two people making two trips out to visit the client.  Details are in the AUDIT IT proposal.

Question 14

Who from my company needs to be involved in the project?

Answer

You company will need to assign a central contact point that will then interface with 3 to 5 additional people – these are individuals knowledgeable on the IT towers, IT processes and individuals identified within the business units that will fill out the alignment questionnaire.

Question 1

Why should I contract for an Auditrax A/P Audit?  What are the benefits?

Answer

Auditrax will recover funds that immediately enhance your bottom line, with no risk to your company, and very little level-of-effort on the part of your staff.  Key areas addressed by Auditrax’s A/P Audit include:

-           Supply Purchases                    

-           Pricing Rebates

-           Omitted Cash Discounts

-           Price Discrepancies

-           Statement Credits                    

-           Tax Charges and Percentages  

-           Discounts taken at wrong date 

-           Allowances

-           Bill backs        

-           Advertising and Printing Expense          

-           Cash/Trade Discounts

-           Freight Rate & Traffic Compliance

-           Contract Compliance   

-           Telecom Billings                       

-           Vendor Returns                       

-           Deals/Vendor Programs

-           Duplicate Payments                 

-           Quantity Discounts

-           Volume Rebates                      

-           Credits Not Taken

-           Returns                        

-           Cost-Price Differences

-           Prepaid Freight Sent Collect    

-           Tax On Resale Items

-           Contractual Mis-Billings           

-           Vendor Master Review

-           Freight                                     

-           Telecommunications

-           Service Purchases  

Question 2

How long does it take to complete an Auditrax A/P Audit?

Answer

From project kickoff to presentation of the interim results, Auditrax A/P Audit takes between six to eight weeks to complete.  This assumes that the client submits all vendor A/P data collection materials to Auditrax, Inc. within 1 week of the project kickoff date.  The process of A/P Audit is often on-going with clients submitting vendor payment data on a periodic, normally quarterly, basis for analysis and recovery.

Question 3

How often should I do an Auditrax A/P Audit?

Answer

Auditrax A/P Audit is an overall A/P health check, and should be completed every six months.  Doing the assessment on a regular basis enables you to track and trend vendor and A/P performance over time.  Perhaps more importantly, it enables your organization to chart and demonstrate improvements in cost control and contribution to the bottom line.

Question 4

Who are the results of the Auditrax A/P Audit presented to?

Answer

Anyone in your organization is welcome to receive and review the Auditrax A/P Audit final presentation and data summaries.  Typically, the audience for the presentation includes the CFO and his/her direct reports.  It is your call who in your company gets this presentation and data.

Question 5

What are the steps required to complete Auditrax A/P Audit on my part?

Answer

Simple.  Once our clients sign the contract on a shared-savings basis, and provides a letter to the vendors advising them that we are conducting the A/P Audit Audit, our clients only need to provide Auditrax with copies of the vendor A/P invoices for the period being assessed, and occasionally the contracts to which they apply for compliance comparison. 

Auditrax does the rest. 

Periodically, a teleconference may be necessary to clarify some billings under review.

Question 6

What is the price of Auditrax A/P Audit?

Answer

There are no up-front or other charges for Auditrax A/P Audit.  Auditrax A/P Audit is conducted on a contingency basis, and the

recovered savings are shared equally; normally on a 50-50 percentage basis. 

If Auditrax does not identify savings to be recovered, there is no cost to the client.

Question 7

Who is Auditrax’s competition for Auditrax A/P Audit?

Answer

The closest competing services are offered by one national firm but they do not do IT, freight, or telecom A/P audit to the degree that Auditrax does.  Some niche, normally local, accounting firms do, or say they do, A/P auditing.  They too do not address the breadth or depth of Auditrax’s A/P Audit offerings.

Question 8

How is Auditrax A/P Audit different from competing offerings?

Answer

Other companies may offer individual components of A/P Audit, but Auditrax A/P Audit is a comprehensive A/P assessment that is unique in the marketplace.  Competitors do not do the breadth of A/P areas that Auditrax does, nor do they have proprietary assessment software, Profit Plus, to quickly determine the existence of possible savings.  In all cases, competitors take much, much longer than Auditrax to engage and provide results that enhance the bottom line.

Question 9

Where does Auditrax get the data for Auditrax A/P Audit?

Answer

Data for Auditrax A/P Audit comes from a variety of sources but principally from client-provided vendor invoices and contracts, and from Auditrax’s proprietary databases.

Question 10

How much time and effort is required of us (the client) to complete Auditrax A/P Audit?

Answer

Your involvement, while minimal, is required at four specific points in the project:

(1)  At the project kickoff meeting, typically held via conference call

(2)  During the data transfer phase, when your A/P data is transferred to Auditrax for audit

(3)  At the end of our on-site visit to validate our findings, and

(4)  And at the final presentation of results. 

Question 1

 How does an OPPS audit work?

Answer

After agreement documents are signed, Auditrax will conduct an initial audit of approximately 200 patient charts.  This initial review will focus on the accuracy of APC and CPT coding, adherence to Medicare rules and regulations, as well as the capture of documented but unbilled services.  At the conclusion of the initial review, we will review our findings with hospital management and, if significant findings have been identified, we will proceed to a full audit of all outpatient records.  The rebilling process begins at this point, and will continue throughout our review of the complete compliment of patient records.

Question 2

What are you looking for during the audit?

Answer

Hospitals typically charge for what was used to provide patient care.  While we make sure those charges were processed correctly, we are also reviewing charges for services performed to provide that care.  Coding accuracy, adherence to rules and regulations, and capturing unbilled services for rebilling are some of the areas we review.

Question 3

How long does the audit take?

Answer

The initial review of charts can be accomplished in approximately one week of our arrival at your facility.  Audit of the full number of outpatient charts will commence after that point; the total audit time will be determined by the number of patient records to be reviewed.

Question 4

How much of my staff’s time is required?

Answer

Very little.  Directions to the patient records and a place to work while on site are about all we require.  We will provide documentation for review throughout our audit process and will assist you with the rebilling of any unbilled claims.

Question 5

 Who is going to be performing this audit?

Answer

Auditrax OPPS auditors are Registered Nurses with national certification in coding and compliance – experts in both clinical and coding issues with extensive hospital experience.

Question 6

How far back do you look?

Answer

We will look back as far as is allowable, but the typical period of review averages approximately 18 months.

Question 7

We already have in-house people looking at our billings; why should we hire Auditrax?

Answer

We recognize that our clients have an in-house coding and audit staff.  What Auditrax provides is a unique review with highly trained, specialized, and experienced professionals that know how and where to look for any issues, and how to produce positive results for our clients.  We have proven successes with many clients.  While your staff has many areas over which to spread their daily activities, we focus only on our project task.  This brings better, quicker results to our clients.  Plus, our work is at our risk – we are paid only if we are able to bring results to you.