Meet Greg Radinsky
Senior Vice President & Chief Corporate Compliance Officer, Northwell Health, New Hyde Park, NY.
This interview with Greg Radinsky (gradinsk@northwell.edu) was conducted in October 2018 by Daniel R. Roach (daniel.roach@optum360.com), Chief Compliance Officer for Optum360, LLC in Eden Prairie, MN.
DR: Healthcare compliance was not a typical career path 20 years ago. How did you get started?
GR: I was always interested in healthcare because my father was a physician. Hearing my dad’s insights into the challenges that were faced by healthcare professionals made me realize that I could make a difference by following my own path. I also had an interest in the law, so I decided to combine these two interests. I grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, and St. Louis University had the top-ranked health law program. I decided to attend St. Louis University School of Law, where I honed in on healthcare compliance. I published an article on the Stark Law and also one of the first articles on how a healthcare organization can manage risk by creating an effective compliance program. This was at a time before there was any published OIG compliance program guidance or corporate integrity agreements.
DR: How did you land a job at the OIG after law school?
GR: I guess you could say it was some luck and some persistence. I had a job offer to work at a law firm in St. Louis, but I thought being in Washington, DC, where federal healthcare laws get vetted and signed, would provide me an invaluable experience to learn health law. So, on my own dime, I flew out to Washington, DC to interview with some law firms. Through contacting an alumnus of my law school, I learned the OIG was interviewing for some new entry-level attorney positions. While visiting DC, I was fortunate enough to schedule an impromptu interview with the OIG.
DR: You spent years at the OIG prior to moving into Compliance in the private sector. How did your experience at the OIG help you when you moved into a compliance role?
GR: My OIG experience turned out to be very helpful. In Compliance, it is difficult to be effective without building consensus within your organization to implement various compliance initiatives. Even within government agencies, a large amount of consensus and communication is needed to effectively align government interests on resolving a compliance matter. My experience at the OIG allowed me to better understand how to get various stakeholders with different views to agree on a resolution. I also received invaluable knowledge about the government’s viewpoint through working on fraud and abuse matters and negotiating corporate integrity agreements, which has allowed me to better spot what the government may view as a compliance issue.
DR: Compliance officers frequently interact with the OIG when an organization’s behavior is being scrutinized. Based on your experience, what can compliance professionals do to make those interactions more effective, or what do they most frequently get wrong?
