{ dental team } by Jodi Schaefer, SPHR, SHRM-SCP Embezzlement: It’s More Common Than
You Think (and COVID Isn’t Helping) I’m embarrassed to even be writing this, but I’ve recently found out that an employee who has been with me for years has been embezzling money from the practice over the last six months. I’m feeling so hurt and angry! How could this employee have done something like this to me, and how could I have not known it was hap- pening for so long? Please tell me I’m not alone in this. What would drive a person to steal?
Y
ou are not alone, but I can understand why you may feel that way. Rarely do dentists share
their own embezzlement experi- ences for fear of being viewed as incompetent, gullible and/or inca- pable of managing their practice. They worry, as you might, what an incident like this will do to their reputation among their patients, their community, their peers, their employees and their referral sources. On top of these exter- nal concerns, is the emotional anguish, embarrassment, and feelings of helplessness that dentists experience when they discover that an employee has taken what doesn’t belong to them. Victims are emotionally tapped after going through such a trying experience and prefer not to relive it if at all possible, which is why very few choose to prosecute.
LEGAL
Protecting Your Dental Office from Fraud
A free download from the ADA is “Protecting Your Dental Office from Fraud.” This comprehensive publication is designed to educate you about the legal issues surrounding embezzlement and to ensure that you are in the best position possible to exercise your legal rights if an employee ever embezzles from you. Access it at ebusiness.ada.org/ productcatalog/product.aspx?ID=2260.
While rarely talked about, the situation you are going through is more common than you know. Roughly three in five dentists will fall victim to embezzlement sometime in their career, according to David Harris, CEO of Prosperident. David has been investigating embezzlement in dental offices for more than 20 years. More often than not, the perpetra- tor is your most trusted employee, the one who comes in early and stays late. They typically have been employed with you for a number of years. They know your internal systems, your checks and balances, and have
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a ‘take charge’ personality. Because of these desirable employee traits, most dentists never see it coming. Based on David’s experi- ence, no practice is immune. Employees who decide to steal will do so from any environ- ment—size, location, specialty, and/or insur- ance mix do not make a practice more or less susceptible. Likelihood for embezzlement has more to do with employee motives, not your practice setting.
Generally, embezzlers steal out of greed or desperation. Greedy employees take for rea- sons unrelated to their current economic cir- cumstances. They either feel they are under- paid/underappreciated or they covet things they typically could not afford. Desperate
employees, on the other hand, are driven to steal when their basic financial needs are threatened by an unforeseen circumstance, i.e., a spouse’s job loss, gambling or other addiction, medical issues, house foreclosure, etc. You easily could add ‘pandemic’ to this list. The shutdowns that resulted from the ‘Stay Home Stay Safe’ order in early 2020 created a backlog of work and increased stress on staff as a whole. Couple that with po- tential financial hardship—and a boss who may be preoccupied with a thousand other things—and you have fertile ground for embezzle- ment to take root.
While you may not be able to control the reasons for embezzle- ment, you can learn to identify
typical behaviors of employees who are guilty of such crimes and implement basic controls in your practice that will help alert you to improprieties sooner rather than later. I will explore both of these topics in more depth in future columns. Until then, thank you for being brave enough to bring this issue to the forefront. Surround yourself with financial and legal expertise, follow their advice and keep moving forward. You will get through this and your practice will be stronger for it. f
Jodi Schafer is owner of Human Resource Management Services. To learn more about her and services available, visit workwithhrm.com.
