Compliance Today | Best Practices for a Compliant, Aligned Professional Services Agreement
Understanding professional services agreements in an ever-changing marketplace
Featured in the October 2019 issue of the Health Care Compliance Association’s Compliance Today publication, SullivanCotter Principals Stan Stephen, Dina Unrath and Tom Johnston discuss how a systematic review of professional services agreements can help health systems better assess regulatory and financial risk, standardize contracting terms, and refine processes and oversight for contracting with providers.
This comprehensive process includes the following five steps:
- Form a central contract authority team that comprises a cross-section of key representatives to develop key assessment criteria and processes to evaluate PSAs.
- Inventory current PSAs to create a central database tracking key contractual terms.
- Review agreements for compliance with regulatory guidelines and to identify opportunities for economies of scale.
- Evaluate agreements for strategic need and overall performance requirements, including a review of needed support for desired services from employed and/or independent providers.
- Renegotiate when appropriate to address changing markets and regulatory guidelines.