| Course | HA400 Health Care Ethics, Law, and Governance |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 5 |
| Paper type | Compliance plan |
| Length | About 910 words, 6 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | BS in Health Care Administration |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for HA400 Unit 5
The Call a Billing Clerk Decides to Make: A Compliance Plan for a Composite Home Health Agency Built Around One Reporting Channel, From Raising a Concern to Logging, Investigating, Answering and Repaying
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
HA400: Health Care Ethics, Law, and Governance
Unit 5 Compliance Plan
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The agency, its size and every bracketed figure are composite; the plan shows the form of a compliance program document and is not legal advice.
1. Purpose and Scope
This plan applies to all employees, contractors and board members of [Riverbend Home Health], a composite Medicare-certified agency serving [600] patients a year with [85] staff. Its risk areas include homebound status, face-to-face encounter documentation, visit coding and referral relationships. Federal guidance describes a compliance program as written policies, a compliance officer and committee, training, effective lines of communication, auditing, enforcement and prompt response to problems (Office of Inspector General, 2023).
2. Governance
Our compliance officer answers to the owner and board without an intermediary, not through the administrator, because the administrator oversees billing that may be the subject of a report. A compliance committee of [five] meets monthly. The board receives a written compliance report every quarter.
3. Standards of Conduct
A two-page code of conduct states that the agency bills only for services that were needed, ordered and delivered, and that no one offers or accepts anything of value for referrals. Written policies on documentation and billing support each standard.
4. Reporting: Three Channels
1. Direct: any employee may contact the compliance officer by phone, email or in person.
2. Supervisor: supervisors who receive a concern pass it on to compliance within [one] working day and leave the inquiry to compliance.
3. Hotline: a third-party hotline, available at all hours, accepts anonymous reports and forwards them to the compliance officer within [24] hours.
A report is only useful if the person making it believes it will be taken seriously and that nothing bad will happen to them.
5. What Happens After a Report
Step 1, log: the compliance officer logs every report within [one] business day with a number, date, channel and subject. Step 2, acknowledge: the reporter receives an acknowledgment within [two] business days, through the hotline for anonymous reports. Step 3, assess: within [five] business days the compliance officer decides whether the concern needs an investigation and, if it may involve fraud, consults counsel. Step 4, investigate: interviews, record reviews and claim samples are documented in the file. Step 5, respond: the reporter is told when the matter is closed, in general terms. Step 6, correct: each finding produces a written fix naming who will carry it out and by when.
6. Non-Retaliation
No employee will be disciplined for raising a concern in good faith. Federal law protects employees from retaliation for lawful acts in furtherance of a False Claims Act action or efforts to stop violations (31 U.S.C. § 3730, 2024). Any report of retaliation goes directly to the compliance officer and the board.
7. Repayment of Overpayments
When an investigation finds that the agency received Medicare money it should not have, the overpayment must be reported and returned within the federal deadline after it is identified (42 C.F.R. § 401.305, 2024). The compliance officer tracks the date of identification for each overpayment and the date of repayment, and reports both to the board.
8. Training
All staff complete compliance training within [30] days of hire and every year after. Billing and clinical staff receive additional training on homebound status, face-to-face documentation and coding. Training includes how to use the three channels, with a short exercise on a sample concern.
9. Auditing and Monitoring
The agency audits [ten] randomly chosen episodes each quarter, checking orders, homebound documentation, face-to-face encounters, visit notes and claims. Results go to the committee and the board. An outside reviewer audits annually.
10. Discipline
Violations lead to discipline consistent with the employee handbook, applied the same way to clinicians, managers and office staff.
11. Screening
All employees and contractors are checked against federal and state exclusion lists before hire and monthly.
12. Example: A Clerk's Concern
A billing clerk notices that [six] patients have been billed for home health episodes after their visit notes describe them driving to the grocery store. She calls the hotline. The report is logged the same day and acknowledged the next. The compliance officer reviews the six charts with the clinical director and finds that [four] did not meet homebound criteria for part of the episode. The agency calculates the overpayment, repays it within the required period, retrains the intake nurses and adds homebound checks to the quarterly audit. The clerk is told the matter has been resolved and thanked.
13. Measuring the Program
The committee tracks: reports by channel; days to acknowledgment and to closure; audit error rates; training completion; overpayments identified and returned on time.
14. Common Barriers and How the Plan Answers Them
Small agencies often struggle because staff know the owner personally and fear that a report will look disloyal. The plan answers this with the outside hotline, the anonymous option and a yearly message from the owner inviting reports. Another barrier is time: clinicians document in the evening and may not report a concern they noticed during the day. The hotline's all-hours access and a short online form address this.
15. Review
The plan is reviewed every year and after any significant change in law, services or audit findings.
References
42 C.F.R. § 401.305 (2024). https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-42/section-401.305
Office of Inspector General. (2023). General compliance program guidance. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://oig.hhs.gov/compliance/general-compliance-program-guidance/
31 U.S.C. § 3730 (2024). https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/31/3730
The Purdue Global HA400 Unit 5 instructions
Unit 5 usually asks students to draft a compliance plan for a health care organization. Instructions typically list the core elements found in federal guidance, from written policies and an accountable officer to training, reporting routes, audits, discipline and corrective action. Many prompts ask students to focus on the risk areas of a particular setting, such as home health, physician practices or hospitals. Expect to cite federal compliance guidance and relevant regulations in APA style, to keep the organization composite and to present the plan as an internal program document with numbered sections. A plan that shows how a single concern moves through the system is often clearer than one that lists every element at equal length.
Inside the HA400 Unit 5 example
The sample states its purpose and the agency's risk areas, citing federal compliance guidance. Governance places the compliance officer outside the administrator's chain. Three reporting channels follow, and the highlighted sentence says a report is useful only if the reporter trusts the process. Six steps from logging to correction carry deadlines, with a margin note on auditing them. Sections cite the federal whistleblower protection and the overpayment repayment rule. Training, audits, discipline and screening follow briefly. A worked example traces a clerk's report about homebound status, with a margin note, then measures, the barriers small agencies face in getting staff to report and the yearly review schedule close the plan.
HA400 Unit 5 rubric: what earns full points
Compliance plan rubrics in HA 400 tend to award points for covering the program elements, addressing setting-specific risks, designing reporting and response, protecting reporters, planning audits and training, citing sources and presenting professionally. Element points depend on including each core element. Risk points go to issues specific to the setting. Reporting points reward clear channels and deadlines. Protection points require non-retaliation and anonymity. Audit and training points go to frequency and content. Source points need federal guidance and regulations. Presentation points cover numbered sections and readable language. Plans with a worked example showing how a report is handled often earn the top band, because they prove the steps fit together.
HA400 Unit 5 help from the desk
Plans often lose points by listing the program elements as headings with a sentence under each, so nothing shows how the program would work. Another gap is a compliance officer who reports to the person whose work may be investigated. Some plans forget repayment of overpayments or protection for people who report. Others ignore the agency's actual risks. Choose the risks that matter in your setting, design a reporting path with deadlines, protect reporters, explain repayment and walk one concern through the whole process. Then say how the committee will know the program is working, using measures such as days to acknowledge a report and audit error rates. Finally, check that the person who receives reports does not answer to anyone whose work they may need to investigate.
Get an HA400 Unit 5 example written to your instructions
Describe the organization the Unit 5 prompt sets up, and the risk areas it names, attaching the instructions and rubric. A reporting path built for that setting sits at the center of the plan, every element in operating terms, within 24-48h. It is coursework, not compliance advice, and the first sample costs nothing. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
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HA400 Unit 5 questions, answered
Where can I find a free HA400 Unit 5 sample paper?
The complete HA400 Unit 5 compliance plan is shown on this page, built around one reporting channel for a composite home health agency, with three sources. Your own organization's plan can follow the same structure.
Which risk areas does the HA400 Unit 5 plan target?
Homebound status, face-to-face encounter records, visit coding and referral relationships, the areas where home health billing most often goes wrong.
Who should a compliance officer report to?
Directly to the board or owner, so concerns about management can be raised without going through the people involved.
What happens when a home health agency finds an overpayment?
It must report and return the overpayment within the federal deadline after identifying it.
Why does the HA400 Unit 5 plan focus on reporting?
Because every other element depends on concerns reaching someone who can act on them.