JO - Health Care Compliance Association

September 2006
14
feature
Editor’s note: Lea Cobb, RN, MBA,
CHC, CPHQ, CPHRM, CLNC; Director
of Compliance and Policy, HIPAA
Privacy Officer at Erickson Retirement
Communities was interviewed in July by
HCCA Board Member Jennifer O’Brien.
Lea may be reached by telephone at
443/883-4607.
JO: Tell us about your background and
the journey that brought you to your current
role.
LC: I have worked in health care for over
20 years. I began my career and eventual
track to compliance as a home health staff
nurse working in the acute care hospital setting.
After completing my MBA, I started
my career in health care management with
responsibilities for areas such as quality/peer
review, utilization review/case management,
patient safety, JCAHO 1 accreditation, and
risk management in various health care settings.
These settings included rural health
clinics, physician practices, home health services,
and hospitals.
My first compliance position began in
1998, when I became the corporate compliance
officer for a hospital in West Virginia.
In 2000, I moved from West Virginia to
Maryland where I began working in a hospital
as the director of risk management and
performance improvement, and eventually
obtained the corporate compliance officer
responsibilities as well. I had the opportunity
to begin working for Erickson Retirement
Communities, LLC (a continuing care
community management and development
company) in the Risk Management department
with responsibilities for risk management
and compliance. This eventually led
article
Meet Lea Cobb
Director of Compliance and Policy, HIPAA Privacy Officer
Erickson Retirement Communities
to my current position as the Director of
Compliance and Policy and HIPAA Privacy
Officer. I saw the career move to Erickson
Retirement Communities as an exciting challenge,
since I had many years of experience
in a variety of other health care settings.
JO: What are some of your responsibilities
as Director of Compliance and Policy?
LC: Simply stated, I oversee all on-going
compliance and ethics activities throughout
the organization. These activities are
related to the development, implementation,
maintenance of, and adherence to the organization’s
policies and procedures governing
compliance. The privacy of and access to
protected health information and compliance
with federal and state laws also falls
within the scope of my responsibilities. This
includes: conducting an organizational compliance
risk assessment; ensuring on-going
compliance monitoring activities; reporting
compliance activities to the Erickson and
community boards and Compliance and
Ethics committee; ensuring compliance education
and training for all employees, board
members, management and professional
staff; conducting compliance investigations;
and maintaining the organization’s values
line. I work closely with the HIPAA security
officer to ensure alignment between security
and privacy practices, policies and procedures.
Health Care Compliance Association • 888-580-8373 • www.hcca-info.org
JO: What is your reporting structure?
LC: The chief compliance officer reports
to our four boards of directors. As the director
of compliance and policy and HIPAA
privacy officer, I report to the chief compliance
officer. Each of the Continuing
Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs)
has a community compliance liaison who
manages compliance responsibilities at the
community level. Community management
and corporate line of business management
also play a roll in the reporting structure of
compliance. There is also a HIPAA security
officer in the Information Technology
department with whom I work on HIPAA
initiatives. The Compliance and Ethics committee
consists of representatives from legal,
health services, finance, compliance, senior
campus physicians, information technol-