Betsy Wade (bwade@signaturehealthcarellc.com) is the Chief Compliance and Ethics Officer at Signature Healthcare in Louisville, KY.

As healthcare providers continue to outsource functions such as health information management, information technology, revenue cycle, and others, it is important for compliance officers not only to be involved in the due diligence process but also the ongoing compliance effectiveness assessment of third parties that contract with their healthcare providers.

The Office of Inspector General (OIG), in conjunction with the Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA) recognized the importance of third-party risk management in 2017 when it published Measuring Compliance Program Effectiveness: A Resource Guide.^[1] The Department of Justice (DOJ) Criminal Division followed suit three years later with updates to its Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs that focused extensively on third-party oversight.^[2]