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James Bryant, JD, joined BWH last month as the first chief compliance officer for the hospital and the Brigham and Women’s Physicians Organization.
“As we face an ever-growing number of external regulatory mandates, we are strengthening our commitment to develop the safest and most compliant environment of care,” said BWH President Gary Gottlieb, MD, MBA. “Jim will build on an already strong compliance foundation to make ours a top-notch program, and we welcome him to this new role.”
As chief compliance officer, Bryant is responsible for billing compliance, conflicts of interest, clinical trials billing compliance and the compliance hotline. He plans to work with his team to create an overall work plan for compliance throughout the hospital and to help BWH move towards a better coordinated, enterprise-wide compliance program. Bryant also will serve as a resource to assist departments that billing and coding compliance staff issues.
“The Brigham is an incredible institution, and I’m extremely excited to be here,” Bryant said. “I look forward to working with the multitude of smart and creative people of this organization to augment its compliance efforts. The fact that BWH has created this new position reflects the hospital’s commitment to maintaining the highest level of ethics and good citizenship, paralleling BWH’s commitment to provide the highest quality of care possible.”
Bryant added that compliance encompasses more than auditing records and reporting the results. “It’s about identifying risks to the hospital and working with departments to manage those risks and educate people about changes in the law,” he said.
Bryant’s background in law and regulations is extensive. He joins BWH from the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS), where he spent the last nine years. As a regulator for CMS, he focused on helping providers understand the ever-changing Medicare regulations and working with them on reimbursements and fraud abuse. He most recently served as associate regional administrator of CMS. One of his biggest projects there was the initiation of a compliance effectiveness pilot. “The pilot looked at the outcomes and benefits of having compliance plans in place at hospitals,” he said.
A graduate of Yale University and the University of California at Berkeley School of Law, Bryant also worked within the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office under Scott Harshbarger and began his legal career in private practice.