Meet New 2023 HFMA MA-RI Chapter Compliance Members

By | April 6, 2023

The Compliance Committee focuses on all aspects of corporate compliance & privacy activities required of healthcare organizations. The Committee is charged with exploring compliance program best practices and coordinating regional, annual joint compliance and internal audit conference in November / December 2023 with the New England Healthcare Internal Auditors (NEHIA). The Committee is also responsible for organizing promotional content for the annual education session, including blog posts prior to and following the session, recruiting writers to prepare 2-3 additional blog posts for the chapter’s blog and general advancement activities aimed at enhancing and growing the chapter’s membership.

This year’s Compliance Committee is comprised of seven industry leaders:

  • Co-Chairs: Dhara Satija and Donna Schneider
  • Members: Audra Hulme, Olga Gross-Balzano, Grace Jodhan, Diana O’Malley, and Wendy Chartrand

Meet the Committee!

Wendy Chartrand
Chief Compliance and Privacy Officer, UMass Memorial Health – HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital and UMass Memorial Health – Marlborough Hospital

Question: How does Compliance contribute to/collaborate with Revenue Cycle?
Answer: I believe a collaboration between compliance and revenue cycle is a must – these are two areas that complement each other professionally with in depth industry knowledge. They both have similar goals and expectations to validate, verify & certify data is accurate. They work as a team to identify risks and develop corrective action plans. Compliance is an integral part of every process within revenue cycle.

Olga Gross-Balzano
Senior Manager, BerryDunn

Question: How does Compliance contribute to/collaborate with Revenue Cycle?
Answer: For me, reimbursement and compliance always go hand-in-hand; hence, a collaborative approach among the two teams is required to ensure accuracy, completeness and accountability.


Audra Hulme
Director, PwC

Question: How does Compliance contribute to/collaborate with Revenue Cycle?
Answer: Compliance helps our revenue cycle leaders keep pace with all the changing rules and regulations – it’s tough to stay on top of, so having a partner to navigate the waters is important.


Grace Jodhan

Executive Director, Compliance & Privacy Officer, Beth Israel Lahey Health

Question: How does Compliance contribute to/collaborate with Revenue Cycle?
Answer: The Compliance/Revenue Cycle relationship is an essential one, as we collaboratively work to ensure that the organization is billing per guidelines. There is so much that goes into this collaboration but we primarily contribute to ensuring appropriate controls are in place, addressing revenue compliance issues in a timely manner, continually conduct audits, and providing appropriate education.

Diana O’Malley
Physician Org Operations Administrator, Physician Performance LLC (BIDMC/Harvard)

Question: How does Compliance contribute to/collaborate with Revenue Cycle?
Answer: Compliance has been a huge support through auditing and monitoring of coding, documentation, and interpretation of billing rules and regulations. A Revenue Cycle Compliance program, with required resources and expertise from both Compliance and Revenue Cycle departments, can provide great benefits to the organization, including timely education for staff and providers, compliance with applicable regulations, and accurate coding and billing practices.

Dhara Satija
Healthcare Consulting Leader, Paul Hastings, LLP

Question: How does Compliance contribute to/collaborate with Revenue Cycle?
Answer: Compliance and Revenue cycle’s collaborative partnership is critical to achieve revenue integrity, compliant coding and billing practices, and overall success for the organization. It is imperative for both teams to work together to innovate, increase value, and intelligence using a risk-based, data-driven approach. This effort will help with aligning operational efforts while managing cost, resources, and pressures from ever-changing regulations.

Donna Schneider
Lifespan Vice President, Corporate Compliance and Internal Audit
Lifespan Chief Compliance & Chief Privacy Officer

Question: How does Compliance contribute to/collaborate with Revenue Cycle?
Answer: I believe that Compliance contributes to/collaborates with Revenue Cycle by inviting Revenue Cycle team members to participate in the planning and follow up on revenue compliance auditing, monitoring and education.  Additionally, I always share upcoming Compliance and Privacy training with Revenue Cycle leaders.  Establishing relationships and ensuring a consistent cadence in meetings will go a long way to assist in collaboration, being a “value add” compliance leader, and establishing trust and teamwork.

The Committee meets approximately 10-12 times a year, either in-person or by telephone. During these meetings, the Committee discusses current events and hot topics and prepares for the educational session, all while benefitting from shared knowledge and learning from across the industry. The committee collaborated to think outside the box to host various educational programs virtually and in-person for our members.

Upcoming events:

  • Compliance Hot Topic Webinar July 2023 [More details coming soon]
  • Annual HFMA MA-RI & NEHIA joint compliance and internal audit conference November 29 – December 1, 2023

 

Please contact Dhara Satija at dharasatija@paulhastings.com and/or our HFMA Admin team at admin@ma-ri-hfma.org. We are always looking for volunteers so please reach out anytime of the year. We welcome your interest, feedback and support.