What is a drawback of retrospective audits?

Retrospective audits primarily analyze practices and claims after the fact, often looking back over specified timeframes to identify discrepancies, fraud, or areas for improvement in healthcare billing and operations. A specific milestone refers to the moment or period that is selected for the audit review, which is crucial because retrospective audits often rely on historical data and trends.

Setting these milestones is vital for maintaining focus on relevant data and ensuring the audit yields useful insights. However, the retrospective nature of these audits means that reaching back to analyze past performance can be less effective without those milestones to gauge progress or improvement over a defined period. This illustrates the drawback inherent in relying on retrospective audits, as they may miss current issues or fail to address ongoing concerns due to their focus on historical practices. Thus, without clearly defined points of reference, it can be challenging to apply learned lessons effectively for real-time improvements.

The other options do not align with the nature of retrospective audits. They do not entail real-time analysis, which is characteristic of prospective audits, nor are they notably hard to access, especially with the right tools. Additionally, they do not provide immediate feedback, given their retrospective nature focused on past behaviors rather than current or ongoing situations.