Health Care Compliance Association

The Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA) is a nonprofit, individual membership association which provides resources for ethics and compliance professionals in the United States. It serves over 6,100 members through publications, education programs, conferences and professional networking3 including an online social network. HCCA also helps professionals become certified in health care compliance.

History

The HCCA started as a meeting at the 1996 annual Medical Group Management Association. Attendees included Roy Snell, then the compliance officer for the University of Wisconsin and now CEO of the HCCA, Brent Saunders of Thomas Jefferson University and Ed Longozel from the University of Pennsylvania. 5 At HCCA’s first annual meeting, held in September 1997 in Los Angeles, CA, many members asked for more local networking opportunities. It was decided at that meeting that HCCA would establish ten HCCA Regions, based on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services regions. From two members in a Minneapolis Chinese restaurant in 1996, grew to 2000 members three years later and today serves more than 6,100 compliance professionals.

Education, Publications and Events

The HCCA offers publications6 and live training to its members.7 Members of the HCCA have access to a repository of over 2,600 electronic documents including white papers and government memorandum. 8 These resources cover the range of challenges faced by health care compliance professionals including changing regulatory requirements from HIPAA and the OIG, as well as managing a program designed to meet the Organizational Sentencing Guidelines definition of an effective compliance program. HCCA has partnered with the OIG in issuing Government-industry roundtable reports to combat fraud and abuse and to drive for quality in long term care. In the past, Daniel Levinson, inspector general of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has spoken at HCCA Compliance Institutes.9

Certification

In 1998, the HCCA set out to develop a certification program for healthcare compliance professionals. After preliminary work by the HCCA Board of Directors and Education Committee, HCCA established the Compliance Certification Board (CCB) in 1999 to complete the process of developing an examination and assume responsibility for managing the certification program.

The independent CCB is governed by a Board of Directors appointed by the HCCA Board. The mission of the CCB is to develop criteria for the determination of competence in the practice of health care compliance at a variety of levels and to recognize individuals meeting these criteria. In pursuit of this mission, CCB utilizes four basic committees: Exam Development, Continuing Education, Admissions, and Ethics. Committee members are appointed by the CCB Board of Directors from among individuals Certified in Healthcare Compliance (CHC) and leaders in the field.

HCCA 2009 Executive Committee

1. Frank E. Sheeder III, Jones Day
2. Julene Brown, MeritCare
3. Jennifer O’Brien, Halleland, Lewis, Nilan & Johnson PA
4. Shawn Y. DeGroot, Regional Health
5. John C. Falcetano, University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina
6. Daniel Roach, Catholic Healthcare West
7. Rory Jaffe, California Hospital Patient Safety Organization
8. Keith J. Halleland, Halleland Lewis Nilan & Johnson, PA
9. Roy Snell, Health Care Compliance Association (CEO)

HCCA 2009 General Board

1. Urton Anderson, McCombs School of Business, University of Texas, Austin
2. Marti Arvin, University of Louisville
3. Angelique P. Dorsey, Medstar Health
4. Steven W. Ortquist, Meade & Roach, LLP
5. Dave Heller, Boeing
6. Karen A. Murray, Yale New Haven Hospital
7. Matthew F. Tormey, Health Management Associations
8. Debbie Troklus, University of Louisville School of Medicine
9. Sheryl Vacca, University of California
10. Gregory J. Warner, Mayo Clinic
11. Sara Kay Wheeler, King & Spalding

References

Health Care Compliance News : http://compliancenews.inhealthcare.com