Identifying And Managing Risks With Third-Party Relationships

Third-party relationships pose many risks and challenges for organizations. In a recent article published by the Heath Care Compliance Association's monthly periodical,Compliance Today, Lisa Taylor, Amy Smith, and Kasie Ray discussed these challenges and provided effective solutions.

Overview

While most organizations have a central mission and scope of services, it is not uncommon for various organizational departments to view third-party relationships and risks differently. For example, a clinical business unit may decide to contract with a vendor to provide widgets. However, that business unit does not know that the contracting vendor is about to be involved in a large-scale Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) investigation. While there are no crystal balls to predict which third parties can create large-scale risks for an organization, it is reasonable to see that there could be compliance implications in each arrangement. One of the worst things a compliance officer