The HFMA MA-RI Chapter is honored to introduce this year’s dedicated team of professionals who are committed to upholding the highest standards of corporate compliance and privacy in healthcare. Our Compliance Committee plays a vital role in exploring best practices, regulatory changes, and industry trends to ensure that healthcare organizations remain compliant with key laws and regulations.
Each member of this year’s Compliance Committee brings a wealth of expertise and passion for advancing compliance excellence. Through collaboration and education, we work together to coordinate impactful educational sessions, publish thought-provoking content, and share insights that benefit professionals across the healthcare compliance landscape.
This year, our committee comprises of the following individuals:
- Co-Chairs: Grace Jodhan and Wendy Chartrand
- Board Liaison: Dhara Satija
- Members: Kelly Breslin, Garrett Gillespie, Nellie Goodman, Olga Gross-Balzano, Robyn Hoffmann, Michael Lozzi
Throughout the year, we’ll be engaging in discussions around emerging compliance challenges, regulatory shifts, and innovative solutions to support the healthcare industry. Stay tuned for updates on upcoming educational sessions, insights from our committee members, and key developments in the compliance space.
Compliance is a shared responsibility, and together, we can build a stronger, more ethical healthcare environment. We’re excited for another productive year of learning, collaboration, and advancing compliance best practices. If you’re interested in joining our efforts or attending our events, reach out and get involved. We are always looking for volunteers, so please reach out to us at admin@ma-ri-hfma.org anytime of the year. We welcome your interest, feedback and support.
Upcoming events:
- Compliance Hot Topic Webinar September 18, 2025
- Annual HFMA MA-RI & NEHIA Joint Compliance and Internal Audit Conference December 3-5, 2025
Meet the 2025 Committee Members and learn what they are seeing as the top current challenges in the compliance industry:
Kelly Breslin, Privacy Officer at Southcoast Health
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- Patient Privacy: Understanding how patient portals work that may result in patient privacy implications while adhering to other obligations in the 21st Century Cures Act (Information Blocking).
- Regulatory Changes: Adapting quickly to value-based care initiatives, telehealth, and other changes to ensure compliance.
- Reimbursement: Providing diligent coding and billing practices to ensure medical record documentation is accurate, complete, and properly supports the care, diagnosis, and services provided for Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement.
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Wendy Chartrand, Co-Chair
Chief Compliance and Privacy Officer at UMass Memorial Health – HealthAlliance -Clinton Hospital and UMass Memorial Health – Marlborough Hospital
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- Increase focus on data security & privacy
- The Rise of AI
- Evolving landscape of telehealth and remote patient monitoring
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Garrett Gillespie, Chief Compliance Officer at Tufts Medicine
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- Emerging Technologies: The increasing impact of emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, on healthcare delivery and administration, is not a tomorrow It’s a yesterday issue. Compliance professionals should specifically address controls and risk management regarding these technologies.
- Continuous Improvement and Adaptation: Compliance professionals need to both (a) keep their programs rooted in the key compliance-effectiveness concepts, (b) and regularly evaluate how to adapt the compliance program to changing circumstances.
- Need to stay informed: Given the constant change in the healthcare industry and its regulatory landscape, compliance professionals should have a plan for staying informed.
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Nellie Goodman, Enterprise Sales Director at MDaudit
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- Medicare / Medicaid reimbursement pressures and scrutiny on overpayments
- Cost / Budget pressures due to inflation concerns, labor costs and tariff uncertainties (medical supplies)
- Commercial Payer delays in payments and specifically on Medicare Advantage plans – fraud/abuse and waste
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Olga Gross-Balzano, Senior Manager at BerryDunn
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- AI utilization for claims processing and in other areas of revenue cycle
- Medicare Advantage expansion
- Uncertainties related to the regulatory environment and significant changes with CDC and HHS
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Robyn Hoffmann, Senior Manager, Compliance at Berry Dunn
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- Ehanced scrutiny of billing for behavioral health services and opioid treatment by state Medicaid agencies
- Increased challenges to healthcare organizations’ revenue cycle if proposed cuts to Medicaid programs occur
- Ongoing cybersecurity threats
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Grace Jodhan, Co-Chair
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- The impact of the Executive Orders on the Healthcare industry and how your organization plans to mitigate potential risk.
- As we prepare for annual risk assessments and work planning, consider how the current political climate impacts this work, including whether your organization’s risk profile has changed.
- Continue to keep cyber security top of mind.
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Michael Lozzi, Conflict of Interest Officer at Boston Children’s Hospital Director
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- Identifying and mitigating risks associated with malign foreign talent recruitment programs.
- Protection of institutional data and intellectual property.
- Leveraging Artificial Intelligence technologies to increase efficiency while ensuring proper security measures are in place.
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Dhara Satija, Board Liaison & HFMA MA-RI Chapter President
Healthcare Consulting Leader at Paul Hastings, LLP
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- Ever-shifting Regulatory and Industry Landscape: Assessing and managing the impact to the organization via regular and targeted risk assessments, monitoring, auditing, and oversight
- Use of Artificial Intelligence: Balancing innovation with compliance when managing 1) regulatory and patient care standards, and 2) data governance, protection, and bias
- Data Privacy & Cybersecurity: Conducting gap assessments, analyzing current practices, and implement required enhancements to address and anticipate the risk of regulatory changes (both at the federal and state level)
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