Sarbanes-Oxley and Corporate Governance
Sarbanes-Oxley Act Compliance
Strategic Management has developed considerable experience with compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX). SOX was passed in the wake of corporate scandals, such as Enron, WorldCom and Tyco that covered up or misrepresented a variety of questionable transactions, resulting in huge losses to stakeholders and a crisis in investor confidence.
Compliance with SOX is mandatory for all covered entities, meaning publicly traded companies. All covered entities, large and small, must comply under the law. SOX introduced major changes to the regulation of financial practice and corporate governance, as well as compliance program requirement. In the health care sector there are relatively few covered entities, however many organizations and entities have moved to adopt the basic principles of SOX to their own operations.
If you would like to speak with a specialist about adopting SOX principles for your organization, please give us a call at (703) 683-9600 or fill out our online contact form. We would be happy to answer any questions you may have.
Sarbanes Oxley Regulatory Compliance
Whereas accounting firms have developed a major practice around conducting what is commonly referred to as Section 404 audits and reviews of internal controls documentation, Strategic Management has worked to integrate the myriad of compliance program requirements that are laced throughout the legislation. This has been often overlooked by organizations working to bring themselves into compliance with the standards of SOX.
Regulations resulting from SOX include many best practice standards that can be adapted and integrated within a health care organization’s existing compliance structure. Strategic Management’s approach to assessing these internal controls includes addressing major areas of corporate governance such as Board responsibilities, conflicts of interests, modification of the code, financial management issues, reporting processes, audit independence and others.
The Strategic Management Difference
Strategic Management has provided advisory service on adopting the compliance program principles of SOX to health care entities with existing programs. The firm’s CEO, Richard Kusserow, has published two books on SOX (“49 Steps to Implement Sarbanes-Oxley Best Practices”, AIS, 2006 (ISBN 1-933801-05-0); and “Sarbanes-Oxley: Best Practices for Private/Nonprofit Healthcare Entities”, AIS, 2003 (ISBN 1-931467-53-6).
Like other regulatory requirements, some sections of SOX are more pertinent to compliance than others. Strategic Management is expert in identifying these provisions and making sure that they are incorporated into the existing compliance program. Strategic Management has developed a unique protocol to assist in conducting “gap analyses” to ensure the basic compliance principles of SOX have been adopted, along with providing corrective action measures and tools.
Please contact us if you have questions or would like to discuss the ways our company can help you.
View our Health Care Compliance Program Services
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