Privacy and Compliance Policy

UMass Medical School’s Commonwealth Medicine division is committed to ensuring that all its employees — from the Executive Leadership Team to part-time student interns — comply with all relevant laws, regulations, policies, and contract provisions as they perform their day-to-day activities.

Our Office of Compliance and Review supports employee compliance in providing services to various state agencies. Through education, training, monitoring, and consultation, employees learn how compliance issues affect them and their work.

Our compliance goals include the following:

  • Increase employee awareness of compliance issues
  • Minimize instances of non-compliance
  • Ensure proper actions are taken in the event that non-compliant behavior occurs

We have a compliance program that focuses on four areas:

  • Issues inherent in the rapidly changing health care industry
  • Laws designed to protect public monies and the integrity of public employees
  • University-specific employment policies and procedures
  • Applicable contract provisions governing individual projects on which employees work

 

Laws and Regulations

The Commonwealth Medicine division’s Office of Compliance and Review ensures that all UMass Medical School employees are familiar with several important laws and regulations.

  • The Conflict of Interest Law, Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 268A, regulating public employee conduct
  • Mass. Gen. Laws chapters 7, 30, and 30B of the Procurement Law, which guides employees’ actions when purchasing goods or services for the commonwealth
  • Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 55, relating to public employee political activity
  • Massachusetts Public Records Law, ensuring the public’s right to access documents and files
  • Fair Information Practices Act, Mass. Gen. Laws dh. 66A, protecting the data confidentiality of personal information
  • The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), protecting medical privacy as it relates to contractual provisions with public agency clients
  • Federal and university rules regarding research done on behalf of public agency clients
  • University employee policies