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FCPA Compliance Report

Tom Fox has practiced law in Houston for 30 years and now brings you the FCPA Compliance and Ethics Report. Learn the latest in anti-corruption and anti-bribery compliance and international transaction issues, as well as business solutions to compliance problems.
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Now displaying: Page 1
Jul 9, 2018

In this five part podcast series, I will be taking a deep dive into health care monitoring and how the pro-active use of a health care monitor can positively impact all stakeholders in the healthcare industry: the regulators, the health care industry and the consumers of health care services, the public. I am joined in this exploration with two individuals from Affiliated Monitors, Inc. (AMI), the sponsor of this series. The first is Catherine A. Keyes, Vice President of Operations and the second is Jesse Caplan is Managing Director of Corporate Oversight. In this first episode, I visit with Jesse Caplan to introduce the use of an independent integrity monitor in the healthcare sector and explain how such a monitor can increase value.

Independent integrity monitoring can be particularly valuable and important in the healthcare sector because in many way healthcare is the perfect storm for significant compliance risks, but also has a greater opportunity to mitigate those risks. Using an independent third-party compliance expert or monitor can be one strategy to help mitigate risks.

Healthcare occupies a unique space in the American business world. First of all is the size of the healthcare industry as it accounts for almost 20% of our economy. Moreover a very large portion and an ever growing portion of that money comes from the taxpayers, federal programs like Medicare, Medicaid, the VA and state funded programs. When you have lots of money being spent in a particular industry, there is always the potential for fraud, waste and abuse. Now overlay this with the public money involved, there is the potential for a False Claims Act or government action, civility or criminally. Finally, the healthcare industry is highly regulated, with most, if not, all healthcare providers, whether individuals or organizations, licensed by the state, either by a Board or state agency and some might even be licensed or certified by federal authorities.

Not every healthcare organization has a good handle on either the effectiveness of their compliance program or the compliance culture of their organization. Independent integrity monitoring can proactively assess compliance programs and culture, identify potential areas of compliance risk. Furthermore they can help mitigate or limit the adverse consequences of violations and help persuade regulators to look more favorably on an organization. 

By using an independent compliance expert to do a proactive assessment of a compliance and ethics program and culture, a healthcare organization can get a lot of value by assessing not just whether the organization has a compliance program that appears to meet all the elements of an effective compliance program but the monitor can come in and actually assess whether that program truly is effective. The assessment can identify the ethical culture of the organization, detect gaps, make recommendations to remediate those gaps and provide the organization with a particular level of comfort that the structure of the program is truly effective and that the culture of the organization is such that compliance has been embraced by the workforce throughout the organization from the top to the bottom.

In the second instance, where there is a compliance issue and the organization has the government looking at it, bringing in an independent compliance monitor can help demonstrate to the government that any compliance violations are not indicative of a systematic problem with the compliance program or the ethical culture of the company. It can show the problems have been remediated. Through monitoring, the government can feel comfortable that the organization is going to be a compliant organization going forward. Using an independent integrity monitor can help an organization avoid more severe sanctions, such as license suspension or even exclusion from a government healthcare program.

There is also value to the government of approving a monitoring relationship in a matter they are involved in. Governments and healthcare regulators want to ensure, above all, that patients and healthcare consumers receive high quality and safe care, that taxpayer money is efficiently and well spent, and that there is a healthcare industry environment and culture of compliance, transparency, and quality. An independent monitor can help the company meet these objectives and provide assurance to the government that the compliance risks have been addressed.

An independent integrity monitor can work with the government to ensure compliance with an oversight requirement, such as a Corporate Integrity Agreement (CIA) or other resolution agreement. Yet an independent compliance monitor typically is going to be an expert in compliance and ethics. The healthcare industry is incredibly complex. Hospitals have many different regulations with which they must comply, which are different from regulators under which a health insurance company must comply, which, again, are different from a medical device company. These are but some of the challenges that an independent compliance monitor needs to have expertise on. The independent monitor can come in and do a proactive assessment, identify gaps in particular areas, such as HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) privacy, data security, compliance program and internal controls.

Next up, how proactive assessments can enhance healthcare ethics and compliance programs and culture.

For more information on how an independent monitor can help improve your healthcare entity's ethics and compliance program, visit our sponsor Affiliated Monitors at www.affiliatedmonitors.com.

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