Compliance in Healthcare

The world of compliance in healthcare is complex and, at first, might seem daunting. Let’s explore it together:

healthcare compliance diagram and Compliance in Healthcare

The World of Compliance

As promised we will be focusing this week on compliance ….and what better way to begin this focus than to discuss exactly what healthcare compliance is.  What is compliance in healthcare?  It seems to be a simple question, and we will begin with a broad answer.

Compliance is the state or fact of according with or meeting certain standards and regulations.  In Healthcare, compliance is meeting all applicable healthcare compliance and regulatory standards, of which there may be many.

Healthcare organizations cover a vacomst and diversified range of organizations, providing an even more diverse variety of services.  Each of these organizations and sub services may be subject to independent rules and regulations.  Additionally Healthcare organizations are subject to federal and state regulations, corporate regulations, legal regulations, and many more.

When an organization is in compliance they are essentially meeting all of the rules and requirements set forth and applicable to them across a broad range of criteria, but the regulations concerning the healthcare industry are so many and so varied that organizations often struggle to understand what compliance is and how exactly they can maintain the parameters of the regulations set forth for them while still maintaining profitability.

Now that we have briefly skimmed over compliance in the most general sense of the word we will gear up to look at some particularly influential regulations that have affected the healthcare industry.  Tomorrow we will be  discussing one of the most prevalent and costly regulations in healthcare history… the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, better known as HIPAA.  We will examine what this act is, what it has meant for the industry in terms of dollars spent, and how recent crackdowns in compliance have organizations running for cover.

We hope that you will join us, and as always look forward to any questions or comments that you may have in order that we can maximize your return on our blog investment!