Stressed? Tell me about it
The Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics and the Health Care Compliance Association conducted a survey and released their results in a report entitled Stress, Compliance, and Ethics. The survey results address leading causes of stress among compliance and ethics officers. When three of every five respondents agree that they have considered leaving their job, and over half consider their relationship with colleagues to be adversarial or isolated, it is a strong message to take action.
There exists a small pool of Medicare Advantage and Part D Compliance professionals in the country. Of those charged with the responsibilities of the Medicare Compliance Officer, they know full well what CMS has focused on over the past few years: compliance program effectiveness and performance reviews based on data.
CMS expects plans to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Medicare Compliance Officer by way of communication efforts, transparency throughout the organization, and effective training programs, among other things. We know total effectiveness is near impossible when you are not a true partner in the C-suite. Common barriers to compliance program success include:
• Barriers to leadership: Communication becomes a game of “Operator” when the chain is Compliance Officer to Director to Assistant Vice President to Executive Vice President to General Counsel to Audit Committee to CEO… surely the original message got through;
• Insufficient resources: Compliance divisions often do not have the trained staff or the right tools in order to perform the tasks of a well-oiled compliance machine; lots of manual processes, too little automation;
• Operational pushback: Delay, resistance or refusal to maintain compliance standards will have you seeing stars, and not in a good way.
As a true officer of the company, it is CMS’ expectation that your role is meaningful and effective. When the title of Medicare Compliance Officer is given to someone without a seat at the table, the effectiveness of the compliance program is at risk. Next week we’ll talk some real-life examples that make up a day in the life of these compliance warriors.