Medical Waste Disposal 101: Can an Audit Help?

You’re the perfect candidate for a medical waste audit if you:

  1. Generate medical waste

  2. Have not evaluated your invoices in the past 6 months

  3. Have experienced any price increases in the past 12 months

  4. Cannot explain any of the fees on your medical waste invoices

An audit will certainly benefit you if any of the above is true. 

Do you generate medical waste?

Red bag waste invoices should be audited for savings using an audit program.

If you’re generating waste, there’s a 90% chance you’re overspending.

Why? Because regulated medical waste often comes with “special” pricing. Medical waste services are notorious for their exorbitant fees and frequent price hikes. 

I wish there were some good reason for this - a lot of people assume there is! They think that red bag disposal is expensive because the process requires people to handle dangerous materials. Or they think that paying higher prices means better quality of service. (It can - but it doesn’t always!)

Medical waste service providers will often hike prices because your contract allows them to do so.

Because of this, audits - and constant monitoring - are imperative. You need an independent third party to review every aspect of your medical waste management process. Your current vendor isn’t going to disclose your current savings opportunities. They’re not going to tell you that another vendor in your area charges 95% less (as we recently discovered for one of our clients)! They’re not going to show you what terms in your contract are costing you thousands every year.

We will.

Sign up for a free consultation today, and find out how our medical audit can help you save thousands.

Most companies are sitting on savings opportunities - and they have no idea. 

After we find your current disposal problems, we typically recommend the following to save on medical waste invoices:

  • Renegotiating rates

  • Capping price increases

  • Requesting credits

  • Removal or reduction of ancillary fees

We complete all of these services on your behalf - you don’t have to put in any extra effort. After our audit is complete, we show you what you’ll save once our recommendations are in place.

These savings are often significant. We recently conducted an audit for an assisted living management company with 20 locations.  At just one location, we were able to reduce their medical waste expenses from $875 per month down to only $45 per month! They’re saving 95% each month - $830! That’s almost an extra $10,000 every year. How much could you be sitting on?

Are you monitoring your medical waste invoices?

Medical waste audits yield savings.

If you haven’t thoroughly reviewed your invoices in the past six - don’t worry! You’re in good company. Most companies don’t have the time or the resources to thoroughly review paperwork that seems non-urgent. 

If you’re not looking carefully at your invoices, you may not notice price hikes or billing discrepancies. An unfortunately, these are pretty regular occurrences. In the 17 years we’ve been in business, we see errors about 10% of the time. This can add up to hundreds of dollars in missed savings or credit opportunities for just a single location. 

If you can’t connect your invoice fees to actual services, there’s a good chance you’re being overcharged.

Have you experienced any price increases recently?

If you have had a significant price increase in the past 12 months, it means that your contract most likely has less than ideal terms. It means that you’re paying your vendor more than you should.

Your contract needs to have rate increases capped at a certain amount or eliminated altogether. This will be entirely dependent on whether your vendor is willing to provide these terms. If you are nearing the end of your contract term, they may be willing to include these modifications in your new contract. But few service providers are willing to make significant adjustments to terms in the middle of a contract. Some may - but not many.

Do you have unexplained fees?

A fair cost of service should always be included on an invoice. However, most invoices will include additional fees on top of regular service costs. Many companies will simply tack these fees on because they can - your contract does not limit them. They’re not transparent because they’re not always legitimate fees.

These fees may have difficult to understand names like, “cost recovery” fee, or “regulatory” fee. These names sound official, but they’re not always associated with the cost of providing service. In fact sometimes, they occur on your invoices simply to increase revenue.

If you can’t connect your invoice fees to actual services, there’s a good chance you’re being overcharged.

These fees are not required to be on your invoice. Many service providers are willing to forgo them completely if a favorable and fair contract can be installed! You don’t have to pay them if your contract specifically prohibits them from occurring on your invoices.

Do you want to find savings?

If you want to know for sure that you’re not sitting on savings opportunities, you need an independent auditor to evaluate your waste streams. It’s so easy to unintentionally overpay on your waste expenses and expert analysis will find where you’re overspending.

If you want to find savings, look for an auditor who will provide a free initial audit. This means you can take on zero initial risk in order to ensure your medical waste disposal services are efficient. This consultant model is guaranteed to be cash-flow positive since you will only pay the auditor out of the savings they have found for you. It’s not an additional line item, making for easier budgeting.