By Shani Pacheco
For day two of the 2016 Managed Care Compliance Conference in Las Vegas, I attended a morning session titled “The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) – What Every Managed Care Compliance Department Needs to Know.” Led by Matt Werner, Chief Compliance Officer from Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., it was an interesting session about a federal law concerning the bribery of foreign officials.
If I missed the wisdom imparted during the first few minutes of Mr. Werner’s presentation, it was because I was distracted by his opening quote: “The best disinfectant is sunlight.” After reciting the quote, Werner asked us if it was Plato or Socrates who’d first said those words, stating that he couldn’t remember. No one raised their hands to answer so Werner continued his talk. Since I, however, couldn’t reconcile the image that’d popped into my head of a very ancient Socrates wielding a container of Clorox wipes, I turned to Google for answers.
Turns out it was former Supreme Court Justice Louis Dembitz Brandeis (1856-1941) who first turned that phrase. Seems that he was all about transparency before transparency was a thing.
Anyway, once he had my attention again, Mr. Werner explained the (surprising) connections that can be made to between the FCPA and Managed Care plans. In the end, he helped me understand why the FCPA should be an important addition to our Compliance program’s radar.
I was reminded of the famous quote: “Trust but verify.”
(Was it Jennifer Lopez or Joe Biden that said that?)