HCCA Releases Compliance Officer/Staff Compensation Data

Just in time for budget season, the Health Care Compliance Association has released a report demonstrating the resources health care organizations are devoting to their compliance programs. The report summarizes results of a survey regarding compensation for chief compliance officers and compliance staff but includes related information that is equally revealing about the compliance programs as well. For example, the typical compliance budget among respondents was $220,000 but 20 percent of chief compliance officers reported having a budget of at least $1 million.

"The salary data shows that the compliance profession is strong and growing stronger every year," according to Roy Snell, HCCA's chief executive officer, in a statement announcing the survey results. "Compensation reflects the growing stature of compliance and its importance to the health industry." The survey gathered data regarding compensation, title, the organization's size—in terms of revenue and number of employees, type of organization, geographic region, scope of the compliance professional's role, certification or professional credentials of compliance staff, and other details relating to the surveyed organizations.

Chief Compliance Officers
Chief Compliance Officers (CCOs) earning the higher salaries were those at larger organizations and academic health care providers and those with compliance certification or professional compliance credentials. CCOs for organizations with annual revenue exceeding $3 billion earned an average of nearly $300,000 annually. Smaller organizations earning below $5 million in revenue averaged almost $90,000 for CCO compensation. CCOs at academic entities earned $191,423 on average, the highest average cash compensation—just beating out CCO compensation at publicly traded companies which averaged $187,832. The survey also revealed longevity is common in the CCO role—the "typical CCO" helmed their organization's compliance functions for six to ten years or more.

More than half of Compliance officers handle at least 76 percent of the organization's legal and regulatory risk. CCOs reporting that they were involved in 26-50 percent of the company's legal and regulatory risk earned more than those with higher levels of involvement and those CCOs typically worked for larger organizations, on average, than those that reported 51 percent to 100 percent involvement. Those reporting involvement in 51-75 percent of the company's legal and regulatory risk earned the lowest compensation.

Most CCOs weren't eligible for bonuses but almost 40 percent were entitled to bonuses up to 20 percent of their salary. Only 10 percent of CCOs have a contract and those that do typically earned more than those who didn't have one.

Most survey participants had some type of certification relevant to their compliance function. More than 50 percent of CCOs held the certification Certified in Healthcare Compliance and just over a quarter surveyed reported having no certification.

Compliance Staff
The survey also reported on compensation and other data regarding compliance staff including directors, managers and assistants/specialists. Average compensation for directors was just over $120,000 and $67,000 for assistants/specialists. Most of the staff respondents (nearly three quarters overall and 78 percent for directors) reported their role involved covering a broad range of compliance issues. Not surprisingly, the assistants and specialists were those most likely to have a role that focused on a particular risk area but only 28 percent of individuals surveyed had a specialized role.

Most directors were bonus-eligible and one-third of managers and about 25 percent of assistants/specialists were entitled to bonuses. Similar to CCOs, only 4 percent of managers, directors and assistants/specialists reported having a contract, however, having a contract didn't make as significant a difference in compensation here.

Among compliance staff other than CCOs, at least a third across all levels of staff reported receiving the Certified in Healthcare Compliance certification (55 percent for directors, 47 percent for managers and 34 percent for assistants/specialists). The survey report is available on HCCA's website.

Takeaway: Compliance compensation survey reveals strength of compliance programs overall and factors that that lead to higher compensation.