In case you haven’t heard, the attorney general of the United States has characterized healthcare fraud as the "Crime of the ‘90s" and made it her department’s No. 2 priority, just behind violent crime.

To protect your practice and reputation from the crackdown, industry consultant Stewart B. Gold recommends that you:

• enact a billing and coding compliance program (for guidance, visit the HCFA Web site at www.hcfa.gov.)
• make sure that you, your employees and your associates understand compliance requirements and how to meet them.
• use electronic medical records (EMR). EMR is an important component of third-party compliance, which ensures complete, accurate documentation of patient encounters in charts.