Healthicity Blog

In May of 2017, two Southwest Missouri health care organizations agreed to pay the United States $34,000,000 to settle allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by engaging in inappropriate financial relationships with referring physicians, wrote the US Department of Justice.

The OIG has added some more items to their work plan for this month, October 2017. Some of these new items may interest you. Staying informed is a large part of maintaining an effective compliance program.

You probably already know that Auditing and Monitoring is one of the seven elements of an effective compliance program. But did you know that it’s so important the OIG considers it to be key for maintaining compliance?

“Any company or individual receiving anything of value in exchange for referrals should understand that their actions may have serious legal and financial consequences.”

Those of you who have been following my work on the Healthicity blog, my webinars and/or speaking engagements know that one of my topics of choice is the government's increased efforts to hold individuals, not just organizations, accountable for suspected non-compliance.

In our latest Compliance Conversations episode, I sat down with product development expert, Jeff Young, to discuss tools that can simplify compliance and make you more effective as a compliance officer.

Most of us have seen the emotionally charged video of University of Utah nurse, Alex Wubbels, being arrested by Salt Lake City Police after refusing to allow the police to draw blood from an unconscious patient.

The OIG has updated their work plan in the last year more frequently than in the past and recently added nine more items in September of 2017. Anytime the OIG updates their work plan, I think it’s important to take a deep dive into the new content.