The van Halem Group Adds HC Comply as Stribling Departs

ATLANTA — The van Halem Group announced April 25 that
Amarillo, Texas-based HC Comply will become a new division of the
company focused specifically on compliance. Effective May 16, the
move follows the departure of HC Comply founder Clay Stribling, who
leaves to become president and CEO of the Amarillo Area Foundation,
a regional charitable organization. 

“Clay has been a tireless advocate and compliance pioneer within
the HME industry. I’ve been proud to work alongside him as we’ve
both sought to help companies navigate through new and often
complicated federal requirements and rigorous enforcement,” said
van Halem Group founder and President Wayne van Halem.

Begun in 2006, the company has helped clients navigate Medicare
and Medicaid issues related to audits, investigations, medical
review, appeals, enrollment, coding, education and training. The
new HC Comply division adds compliance program design and training,
compliance audit services, monitoring, risk assessment and privacy
services.

Having a suite of compliance offerings “will help ensure our
clients have the best counsel before, during and following any
potential oversight action by the federal government,” said van
Halem, a former Medicare fraud investigator.

According to van Halem, simply having a compliance handbook
sitting on a file cabinet will no longer cut it in the industry’s
current environment.

“First,” he said, “health reform is going to make it mandatory
that companies have a valid compliance program.” While no deadline
has yet been set, van Halem said, “I’m guessing that by the end of
2013 it will be mandatory for DME. Not only that, but much like
accreditation, there will be certain requirements that have to be
met in order for a compliance program to be considered a ‘valid’
program.

“The second piece is,” he continued, “the government and audit
contractors have never been more aggressive with their auditing
techniques than they are now. Funding has been increased for
audits, and they are not going to go away.”

An effective compliance program, van Halem contends, can point
up an HME company’s vulnerabilities so any issues can be identified
and corrected in advance of an audit, which, at some point, is
certain to come.

“Having an effective compliance program in place is just a good
business decision,” van Halem said. “It protects the Medicare trust
fund and protects providers as well by keeping little issues from
turning into big issues in case of an audit.”

Stribling, a health care attorney with Brown & Fortunato
before founding
HC Comply, agreed. “At this point, compliance programs are
vital for HME providers because they are the best defense a company
has against the new onslaught of government audits, from the ZPICs
and the RACs to other audit sources. An effective internal
compliance program can significantly decrease the error rate you
have when facing these external audits,” he said.

With compliance requirements under the Affordable Care Act in
play, Stribling said, if HME providers wait too long to begin
adopting and implementing compliance programs, “a lot of companies
are going to suffer the same growing pains they did when they
waited too long to get accredited.”

Advised Stribling, “The companies that are going to be the most
successful will be the ones that get out ahead of this and get a
compliance program in place that makes them a better company
today.”