By Kathleen Wetzel, CHC
From Compliance Today, a publication for HCCA members
As a compliance professional, you already know that the government’s most recent return on investment (ROI) rate is $6.10 for every $1 spent fighting healthcare fraud, waste, and abuse.
What you may not yet know is that you can create an even more impressive ROI by attending HCCA’s Board Audit & Compliance Committee Conference with a board member. The 2017 Conference will be held on February 27 and 28 in (sunny, warm) Scottsdale, Arizona.
Why attend?
Here’s the premise: Boards of directors who are responsible for organizations in the high-risk, rapidly changing realm of healthcare, with its complex systems and steep learning curve, deserve to receive high-quality education that will inform their decision-making.
Having attended four of the past five Board Audit & Compliance Committee Conferences, each time with a different board member, I can assure you that attendance is a wise investment of both time and money in your compliance program and in your organization as a whole.
The content is timely and well-presented by high-caliber speakers who make good use of the time of those (often volunteer) board members who are busy managing their own businesses, which are often not in the healthcare field. The conference allows board members to focus on healthcare compliance and risk mitigation. The group is limited to only 70 attendees, which promotes comfortable interaction and exchange of ideas.
There may be no better way to help board members understand the risks of non-compliance than by giving them the opportunity to learn—first-hand—from knowledgeable, experienced compliance professionals who have lived through government investigations.
Invest in your board – and yourself
When board members hear the same information from someone other than you, it reinforces your message. The same content sounds different coming from speakers such as Dan Roach, who infuses his presentations with stories of the situations that he has experienced over the years—and the lessons learned from them.
Here are a few of my practical takeaways from the 2016 Conference, which you can be sure were included in my next report to Reading Health System’s Audit & Compliance Committee:
- Audit & Compliance Committee should have standing executive sessions with the chief compliance officer (no inference of any specific concerns).
- Employee performance incentives should be tied to compliance, as a means of balancing financial and quality incentives.
- Ensure that the Incident Response Team is identified, knowledgeable, and prepared.
- Tone at the top: Enlist the help of the CEO in frequently reminding employees of the organization’s commitment to compliance by using phrases such as: “Compliance is a trusted advisor.” “We need your help to report any potential violations.” “We do not tolerate retaliation.”
- Create a Compliance Library within the board portal and post copies of the United States Sentencing Commission Guidelines Manual; OIG’s Practical Guidance for Health Care Boards on Compliance Oversight; key compliance policies; and Frank Sheeder’s article on the Yates Memo, published in the November 2015 issue of Compliance & Ethics Professional.
Conclusion
If you would like to obtain buy-in to accomplish similar improvements to your compliance program, attending the conference with a board member will go a long way to helping you achieve your goals. And the investment in “social capital” will reap the intangible benefit of relationship-building with your board members. Please feel free to contact me with any questions, at 484-628-8685 or kathleen.wetzel@readinghealth.org. I’ll be happy to help you make the case for achieving a strong ROI by attending the Board Audit & Compliance Committee Conference.
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Kathleen Wetzel (kathleen.wetzel@readinghealth.org) is Vice President, Legal Services/Chief Compliance Officer at Reading Health System in West Reading, Pennsylvania.