Lawsuits carry whopping settlement amounts that can drive your hospice to bankruptcy! More than price tag, it's your reputation that's at stake. So, it makes sense to issue a release saying you found and reported a problem instead of having to settle a whistleblower suit. Hospice conferences on tackling legal matters can help you stay clean and steer clear of compliance issues.
Follow these simple steps to head off costly and embarrassing whistleblower suits:
1. Draw up and follow sound compliance plan: Get a compliance plan ready to avoid lawsuits which can bring down your entire business.
2. Encourage a culture of compliance: It's not enough to have a compliance plan sitting on your shelf. Make sure all employees know you are committed to doing the right thing and cultivate an ethical environment that lives up to the compliance plan.
3. Focus on compliance hot spots: You may need to give extra attention to areas that regulators are targeting. Be sure your compliance plan adequately addresses this area and then be sure your practices adhere to your plan.
4. Review eligibility criteria: Make sure you are adhering to Medicare guidelines and your own compliance plan. Everyone admits that predicting life expectancy is an inexact science, but if your patients' average length of stay has gradually trended up past the six-month point, it's time to take a look at your admission practices. Be vigilant about who you are admitting.
5. Be receptive to employee complaints: Bring any concerns to management first before staff members go to outside third parties. If staff complain and management does not appropriately address their concerns, employees have no choice but to take action outside of the organization.
6. Police yourself. Once you have the proper compliance procedures and practices in place, you need to do your own checks and audits to make sure you're complying with them. It's much less costly and embarrassing to fix problems yourself than to have regulators do it for you.
The scenarios are varied and the solutions have to be out-of-the-box for more complex issues, so the easiest way you'll get a one-on-one time with an expert and the answers you need is by attending a Hospice conference.
Follow these simple steps to head off costly and embarrassing whistleblower suits:
1. Draw up and follow sound compliance plan: Get a compliance plan ready to avoid lawsuits which can bring down your entire business.
2. Encourage a culture of compliance: It's not enough to have a compliance plan sitting on your shelf. Make sure all employees know you are committed to doing the right thing and cultivate an ethical environment that lives up to the compliance plan.
3. Focus on compliance hot spots: You may need to give extra attention to areas that regulators are targeting. Be sure your compliance plan adequately addresses this area and then be sure your practices adhere to your plan.
4. Review eligibility criteria: Make sure you are adhering to Medicare guidelines and your own compliance plan. Everyone admits that predicting life expectancy is an inexact science, but if your patients' average length of stay has gradually trended up past the six-month point, it's time to take a look at your admission practices. Be vigilant about who you are admitting.
5. Be receptive to employee complaints: Bring any concerns to management first before staff members go to outside third parties. If staff complain and management does not appropriately address their concerns, employees have no choice but to take action outside of the organization.
6. Police yourself. Once you have the proper compliance procedures and practices in place, you need to do your own checks and audits to make sure you're complying with them. It's much less costly and embarrassing to fix problems yourself than to have regulators do it for you.
The scenarios are varied and the solutions have to be out-of-the-box for more complex issues, so the easiest way you'll get a one-on-one time with an expert and the answers you need is by attending a Hospice conference.
About the Author
Audioeducator offers Hospice conferences and advanced Learning Opportunities for Healthcare Executives, case studies for health plans, impact of healthcare customer choice through all types of audio conference and exceptional series of training CD's, DVD's & Tapes.
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