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Compliance officer ensuring rules are followed

Years ago, Chautauqua County officials contemplated and made a decision to bring on a full-time compliance officer.

The move was due to a growing number of regulations, handed down from the state and federal levels, that warranted and required regulatory compliance procedures and programs. Before, the duties were handled by the County Attorney’s Office on a part-time basis.

Today, the county runs a $260 million budget consisting of public funds for services and programs. Roughly $30 million, or half the tax levy, goes to the Medicaid program.

With Medicaid comes a list of rules and elements to follow, avoiding any risk for hefty penalties. Deb Zahn, county compliance officer, spends her time assuring all rules and regulations are followed not only in Medicaid, but other departments and programs they administer. Zahn came over to Mayville after serving as the compliance officer for the County Home.

“We have to annually attest to the state that we met regulations,” she said. “Every department has certain regulations they’re obligated to follow. There’s also constant changes in laws and regulations that you have to keep abreast of.”

Staying in compliance with regulations like Medicaid comes at a cost to the taxpayer between the protections in place and time spent to review policy and procedure. For Medicaid alone, the county must follow eight guidelines as prescribed by state law. They include the appointment of a compliance officer, written policies and procedures that speak to compliance, training and education to all employees, disciplinary procedures for those who break the rules, mechanisms for reporting issues and other internal controls.

“Yes, there’s a lot of rules and regulations. But from my perspective, it does safeguard public money,” said County Executive Vince Horrigan. “There’s a significant investment that we make to ensure we are in compliance so that our taxpayers don’t get hit with penalties and fines. What I want do is protect the taxpayers from any fines that could be levied against us.”

Compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, also brings heavy penalties if a violation occurs. Fines can amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars if health information isn’t kept private and secure.

With hacking threats prevalent, the county has placed securities to ensure the protection and safe transmission of data. Horrigan said technology is an efficiency measure, but it’s also a vulnerability.

“When you look at the amount of electronic communications, it’s huge,” he said. “We’ve got to make sure that we’re complying with all the requirements in the security area. We protect not only clients we service, but we also protect against breaches and hacks.”

Zahn provides watch over various departments who do Medicaid billing, including the Office for the Aging and the Health and Human Services Department. She also provides oversight of the CARTS department to assure compliance with federal transportation laws.

Right now, Zahn said they’re working on anti-discrimination regulations.

“We’re working on getting that in place and meeting the requirements on that,” she said.

Zahn said they’re improving efficiencies and collaboration among departments, and they’re looking to consolidated billing with the Office of Mental Hygiene and the Office for the Aging.

“We’re developing efficiencies to alleviate the work among those departments and make it more centralized so I can take over,” she said.

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