This is the perfect time for lab compliance managers to focus on not only the past year’s accomplishments, but also what they want to accomplish in the year ahead. One recommended best practice from a leading healthcare attorney: Set specific compliance goals for 2023. Consider these goals a set of New Year’s resolutions for your lab.
Your lab’s goals don’t have to be elaborate or fancy. Just sit down with your lab compliance committee and list the three top things you need to be doing, how you’re going to do them, and how you’re going to measure the effectiveness of each of your efforts.
The attorney also recommends that compliance managers approach their boards and “impress upon them that now, more than ever, it’s essential for the board and corporate management to engage in compliance.” Be sure they know all about the Department of Justice’s policy (typically referred to as the Yates Memorandum after the document that established it) of holding corporate boards, officers, and managers personally accountable for fraud and abuse violations committed by their organizations.
If you don’t already, schedule monthly or regular meetings with board members and management to review the progress you’ve made to reach your compliance goals. In addition to helping you focus your efforts, monthly review enables you to keep your lab’s corporate leadership engaged in and accountable for compliance activities.