OIG/AHLA Guidance for Boards on Quality of Care Oversight: What Your Board Needs to Know Today!
Foley Partners Cheryl Wagonhurst and Jan Anderson spoke on the OIG/AHLA Guidance for Boards on Quality of Care Oversight: What Your Board Needs to Know Today! as part of the Health Care Compliance Association’s (HCCA) Compliance Web conference on September 13, 2007 at 12:00 p.m. Central.
Compliance professionals and other members of hospital administration need to understand that this guidance exists, and they should work in tandem with the quality department, legal counsel, and management to ensure that the guidance is appropriately presented to the boards of their organization.
The OIG and AHLA have recently issued guidance for the boards of health care organizations regarding their fiduciary responsibilities for the oversight of quality of care and patient safety. This conference highlighted the key points of the guidance so that compliance officer could help educate the board of directors to understand these expectations. The speakers discussed how the compliance officer can help the board understand that quality of care is an emerging enforcement area, and that certain proactive steps can be taken to help mitigate the risk of enforcement. Finally, the presenters addressed the ways that an organization can help the board monitor quality.
Quality of care is among the most important compliance areas today. It is emerging as an enforcement priority for health care regulators. Health care organizations need to understand how to work with governance to explain the relationship between quality, risk, and other areas that touch on quality to appropriately carry out its fiduciary duties to oversee the quality of care in the organization.