Box 1
Medical Audit in action, 8 years NHSO experiences. It was
not until 2006 that NHSO settled medical audit of IP
claims when the number of trained independent physicians
and coding auditors became adequate. Initially,
random audit of 1% of medical records in all hospitals
was applied between 2006 and 2008; later selective audits
of potential errors using screening criteria were applied
since 2009. Three errors were identified using auditors as
gold standard; (1) between attending physician and
medical auditor discharge summary, called ‘summary
error’; (2) between hospital and auditor coders using
hospital discharge summary, called ‘coding error’ and (3)
relative weight computed from hospital claim and auditor,
called ‘changes in relative weight’, which can be over- or
under-claimed by hospitals, for which reclaiming from
and additional pay to hospitals by NHSO. Appeal
provision was made available if hospitals do not agree
with verification by auditors. Medical audit facilitates
NHSO mutual accountability; in 2012, NHSO audited 1.2%
of total IP claims and reclaimed the over-reimbursement
by hospitals the total amount of US$ 6.07 million.