How To: Understand Red and Yellow Alerts

Summary:

VendorProof notifies users of new monitoring alerts by email and dashboard updates. Red alerts mean a confirmed exclusion and require immediate attention—VendorProof also calls designated users. Yellow alerts mean “Unable to Determine,” usually due to missing client data or limited details from exclusion sources. VendorProof resolves most cases but passes unresolved ones to clients for compliance review. Many organizations manage yellow alerts by collecting more vendor data or using affidavits to document risk management.

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When your organization receives new monitor alerts, designated users will be notified via email to log in to VendorProof and review these alerts.

To review the latest alerts, begin by clicking on the red or yellow number displayed on your dashboard. Alternatively, you may access this information by selecting the Vendor tab and filtering the monitor status to Red or Yellow.

A Red matched exclusion alert indicates that our verification team has definitively matched an exclusion to your vendor. Due to the time-sensitive nature of matched exclusions, we promptly contact the designated users at your organization via phone and email upon receiving this information.

VendorProof verifies all vendors against two federal and forty-two state exclusion lists. For a comprehensive list of exclusion sources, please click here.

A Yellow alert signifies an unable to determine exclusion, meaning we have identified a potential exclusion with the same name as your vendor but lack sufficient information to provide a definitive match or no-match result. There are two categories of yellow unable to determine exclusions:

• Insufficient or Inaccurate Client Data indicates that a similar name match was found; however, we did not receive enough information about your vendor to confirm a match or no match. The recommended next step is to obtain additional key identifying information about your vendor, specifically the Tax Identification Number and/or address, and either manually add this information to the vendor record or include it in the next vendor file upload. Upon receipt of additional information, our verification team will conduct further research regarding a potential match to your vendor.

• Unable to Determine or Suspected No Match means that the exclusion source did not provide sufficient information for us to make a definitive match to your vendor.

  Since exclusion sources do not adhere to a standardized requirement for the amount of information provided on an exclusion record, some sources offer very limited details—particularly older exclusions or certain state sources. Our verification team employs advanced verification methods, including augmented data analysis, address history review, public records examination, collaboration with credit bureau partners, direct communication with exclusion sources, and cross-referencing with OIG and other exclusion listings to confirm matches and no matches. Approximately 99% of potential matches are resolved; however, the remaining 1% will be presented as unable to determine alerts.

For either type of yellow alert, we do not expect your organization to resolve the issue but recommend establishing a compliance plan to assess the potential risk. Many clients have adopted the best practice of requiring vendors to sign an affidavit affirming they are not excluded. A sample affidavit is attached at the end of this lesson for your reference.

For additional support, please watch one of our VendorProof On-Demand Training Webinars. Contact our client care team for more information at help@vendorproof.com.