When your staff go rogue

This month, Vin Pandha continues her popular series by showing how medical practices are targeted with fraud committed by their own employees. There are many ways a dishonest employee can defraud their employer and here she focuses on the methods used to obtain the practice’s money.

Practices face other types of employee dishonesty risks, of course – for example, theft of assets such as drugs and equipment or accepting bribes to break practice rules and, not least, the misuse and sale of data. 

These risks also need to be considered and managed.

Employee fraud, sometimes referred to as insider fraud, tends to be less common than fraud committed by an external fraudster.

But, if an employee does commit fraud, the amounts lost can be significant, particularly if the fraud has gone undetected for some time. And, of course, these events can be distressing and have a devastating impact on morale at the practice.

Despite most employees being totally honest, it is often someone who is seen as a ‘trusted employee’ who commits fraud. 

They might have been with the practice for many years and a change of circumstances might have caused a sudden need to commit fraud or they just see an opportunity and take it. The key is to manage the size of the risk appropriately for your practice.