There’s a significant connection between healthcare compliance and risk management. Compliance officers must thoroughly understand both concepts to protect their organizations and the patients they serve. Some compliance officers turn to free resources like the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) risk assessment tool to assess their organizational compliance and risk, while others use spreadsheets or software.
We’ll discuss how regulatory compliance enables proper risk management and how risk assessment advances healthcare compliance.
Understanding Compliance and Risk Management
Compliance and risk management are distinct concepts but have substantial overlap. Compliance means adhering to various rules and standards that protect patient privacy, uphold safe working conditions, and prevent fraud, waste, and abuse of federal resources.
Risk management refers to identifying, avoiding, and mitigating the factors contributing to healthcare non-compliance. Risk management procedures enable healthcare organizations to pinpoint their vulnerabilities to such hazards as security breaches or Medicare fraud. Risk management also makes it possible to develop the most effective methods for safeguarding organizational operations and patient safety.
Risk assessments are crucial to the activities of your compliance program. A risk management strategy typically contains the following elements:
- Take inventory of vulnerable areas and safety gaps
- Quantify and prioritize the risks in terms of their likelihood and impact
- Investigate and report unforeseen events that threaten safety and signal non-compliance incidents
- Document and learn from mistakes or near-misses that could have but did not lead to incidents
- Provide thorough staff training on risk factors and compliance regulations
- Establish a communication plan that outlines how to report incidents while maintaining a safe culture without retaliation
- Develop a protocol for taking corrective actions after incidents
- Implement regular monitoring and auditing to detect risks that could lead to non-compliance incidents
The risk assessment process promotes a culture of compliance in your organization and with your vendors and stakeholders. Regularly identifying risk factors and taking steps to mitigate them communicates to employees, patients, and external parties that your organization prioritizes compliance. In fostering a strong compliance culture, you can implement other strategies to cement a strong relationship between compliance and risk assessment:
- Develop clear policies and procedures for upholding compliance and make them easily accessible for all employees
- Encourage anonymous reporting of incidents and protect whistleblowers from retaliation
- Provide comprehensive training for all staff who work with patients, deal with patient data, or handle matters relating to federal programs like Medicare
- Use HHS risk assessment tools like the Security Risk Assessment Tool for greater compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. You can also consult the HHS Guidance on Risk Analysis
- Encourage internal and external collaborations for sharing insights and information on compliance and risk management
Assurance With Compliance and Risk Management Software
Compliance officers and upper-level managers can access many digital tools to implement compliance activities that reduce risk. Compliancy Group offers compliance and risk management software that helps you stay up-to-date on all the essential healthcare regulations. Our software also provides templates for carrying out and reporting risk assessments, staff training, mechanisms for tracking and documentation, and formats for communicating clear policies and procedures that enable effective risk mitigation.
Investing in software and other digital tools is a positive step in implementing compliance activities that reduce and address serious risks. Contact Compliancy Group today to learn about our software, resources, and expert guidance.
