In the highly regulated world of healthcare, the Compliance Officer (CO) and the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) play pivotal roles in ensuring the organization operates effectively and within the bounds of the law.
While I do not advocate for a CO reporting to a CFO, I think there is value in getting your leadership team to see your role like that of a CFO.
Why?
The responsibilities for each area often mirror one another, yet for whatever reason, CFOs tend to be looked at more like a business partner, whereas CO’s are viewed like an obstacle. For example, I’ve never seen a CFO struggle to get a seat at the table, yet I can recall countless times I, and other CO’s have faced this challenge.
So if you can get your leadership team to see your role like that of a CFO, it will help you change the perception of compliance—and effectively navigate the politics of healthcare. This article will cover some of the key parallels between these two roles and how you can leverage them to demonstrate to your leadership team that you are a business partner.
(Note: For purposes of discussion, I’m generically using the term “Compliance Officer” to also includes roles such as a Chief Compliance Officer or Compliance Director depending on organizational nomenclature and how the program is set up.)
Strategic and Advisory Leadership
Both the CO and CFO are strategic leaders who guide their organizations through intricate landscapes. Each role ensures their respective areas align with the organization’s broader mission and objectives.
More specifically, the CFO ensures financial stability, while the CO ensures adherence to laws and regulations. For example, the CFO must manage budgets, revenue cycles, and investments in a way that sustains clinical operations. Similarly, the CO ensures that billing, patient privacy, and clinical practices comply with regulations such as HIPAA, the Stark Law, and the Anti-Kickback Statute. As a result, both areas support the organization’s mission by protecting it from legal, financial, and reputational risk. Both roles also advise their leaders on how to make the best business decision for the organization.
The Takeaway:
Pay attention to how your CFO interacts with your operational leaders—and more importantly, how your leaders respond to the CFO. Is there a difference? If so, why? If they’re responding to the CFO more favorably, then connect with your CFO to see if there are some insights you can apply to your own communications.
Mitigating Risk
Mitigating risk is a core function of both roles. The CFO manages financial risks—such as market fluctuations, reimbursement challenges, and operational inefficiencies. Meanwhile, CO oversees compliance risks, including audits, regulatory changes, and internal misconduct.
Inherent to this work, both roles often collaborate to identify and mitigate overlapping risks, such as billing fraud, which can have both compliance and financial repercussions. As a result, their shared goal is to protect the organization from harm, whether it’s a financial loss or a regulatory penalty.
In many cases, the CFO and CO also work together, especially on issues such as audits, internal controls, and fraud prevention. Their joint efforts ensure the organization’s financial health and compliance integrity are upheld.
The Takeaway:
The old saying—“there is safety in numbers.” If you haven’t already done so, build a strong relationship with your CFO. This can help you effectively collaborate and communicate on projects with your leadership teams to gain their buy-in.
Delivering the Good News—and the Bad
Given the CO and CFO have to manage issues involving organizational risk, both roles have to be adept at delivering good and bad news.
For the CFO, financial statements, budget discussions, and performance metrics all represent areas ripe for potentially good or bad news. For the CO, investigations, audit findings, and regulatory changes similarly have the potential to be positive or negative information depending on the circumstances.
The Takeaway:
Pay attention to how your CFO interacts with your operational leaders when delivering bad news. Are there any insights you can apply to your own communications that are real and fun, but not real fun? If this is an area you struggle with, then I invite you to check out a separate article I wrote about delivering bad news.
Balancing Proactivity and Reactivity
Both the CO and the CFO must anticipate potential challenges and respond effectively during times of true emergency. For example, the CFO might have to prepare for potential funding cuts, while the CO monitors emerging regulatory changes to preempt non-compliance. The CFO may have to navigate an unexpected loss of significant revenue, while the CO has to guide the organization through a large scale data breach.
Proactivity involves building systems that prevent little issues from becoming big ones. Internal and external audits, compliance training, monitoring, and corrective action are all examples applicable to either role in the organization. Reactivity, on the other hand, demands calm but swift action such as targeted corrective action or overcoming a financial shortfall.
The Takeaway:
In my experience, CFO’s tend to take a big picture approach and maintaining a calming presence when navigating proactivity and reactivity. These are models that can aid in the approach to your work. If these are areas that you struggle with, you can check out additional articles I wrote on taking a big picture approach and maintaining a calming presence.
Pulling it All Together
The CO and CFO share a common goal: to safeguard a healthcare organization’s ability to deliver high-quality care to the communities it serves. While they operate in distinct domains, their roles often converge in areas such as strategic advisement, risk mitigation, and cross-departmental collaboration.
Though the responsibilities for each role often mirror one another, CFOs tend to be looked at more like a business partner than a CO. Instead of viewing this a negative, see it as a positive. That is, an opportunity to gain insights that you can use to alter your approach to more effectively communicate with your leadership team. I have found that when my leadership team identified my role to be similar to that of the CFO, I was able to change their perception of compliance—and effectively navigate the politics of healthcare.
