Navigating the Intersection of Compliance and Automation: A Path to Business Efficiency

The relentless pursuit of speed is leaving many business leaders scrambling to keep up. Companies are racing to automate processes, streamline operations, and outpace competitors—but at this breakneck pace, it’s easy to overlook compliance.

Beware: Cutting corners on regulations and privacy mandates can derail even the most ambitious automation initiatives.?

The challenge is to strike the right balance between accelerating workflows through automation and rigorous compliance adherence. Don’t be overwhelmed by what may appear a complex and time-consuming task. With an approach that emphasizes visibility and directing the right resources to the right places, automation and compliance can be powerful allies in driving efficiency.?

The stakes are too high to treat compliance as an afterthought, so here’s a quick breakdown of how to automate compliance with the appropriate level of human oversight.?

The Compliance Conundrum

As companies embrace this digital transformation, each innovative tool and automated process comes with a web of industry regulations to navigate. One of the biggest pushes for greater transparency is happening with the safeguarding of data.

By mandating disclosure of cybersecurity breaches and data mishandling incidents, regulators are ensuring there is nowhere to hide — and maintaining legacy systems is no excuse.??

Meanwhile, in the healthcare sector, HIPAA requirements dictate the stringent handling of sensitive medical data. New automated tools must be able to work with complex rules like these, or risk exposing organizations to:

• Reputational damage: A breach of safety compliance protocols can destroy public trust. For example, the crash of two of Boeing’s 737 MAX aircrafts in 2018 and 2019 were the result of flaws in the plane’s automated flight control system, which had not been adequately disclosed to pilots or regulators.
• Public relations nightmares: Mishandling environmental regulations can lead to catastrophic outcomes, as seen in the 2023 Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
• Legal and financial penalties: From fines to potential jail time, the costs are high for those who are negligent. Morgan Stanley, for instance, had to pay $35 million in 2022 to settle with the Securities and Exchange Commission after it repeatedly mishandled the personal information of millions of customers.

Issues with compliance can affect companies across all industries. Some businesses even dedicate entire teams to navigating the regulatory landscape, including reconciling sometimes conflicting regulations.

For example, U.S. Department of Labor rules on overtime can complicate hour tracking for workers employed under flexible arrangements. In healthcare, maintaining patient privacy protection while pursuing the efficiencies provided by interoperability and data sharing is a balancing act.?

Despite these challenges, avoiding automation is not the solution. Instead, businesses must strategically marry automation with compliance to optimize their operations.

Strategic Integration: The Path Forward

A well-planned approach starts with a comprehensive assessment that identifies key stakeholders and clarifies the resources needed for a successful compliance strategy. Open processes are key here. These accessible and well-documented procedures give everybody visibility into where compliance fits into the various stages of an organization’s operations or projects.

Next is enrolling employees into the modernization project. People often fear automation as a threat to their jobs, so transparent communication is crucial to ensure their support. In this sense, compliance is not just about integrating individual systems, but making sure there is adequate human oversight.

Gaining buy-in is critical for two main reasons:

• Effective implementation: Employees who understand and support automation initiatives are less likely to use the kind of workarounds ripe for producing errors, and are more likely to use new systems correctly.
• Identifying potential issues: Frontline workers are best placed to identify potential compliance risks or conflicts arising from automation before they become a problem; and refine compliance measures over time.

Finally, automation itself can be a powerful ally in maintaining compliance. Tools like AI-powered analytics and robotic process automation (RPA) software offer near-instant accuracy and consistency. They provide a foundation for both proactive risk management and continuous improvement.

Looking Ahead: Automation and Compliance in Tandem

Creating a verifiable trail of compliance activities is perhaps the greatest antidote to the fear of having your processes audited for compliance breaches. In healthcare, frequent updates to coding classifications like ICD and CPT make manual coding error-prone. But automated tools like LexiCode’s Computer Assisted Coding provide real-time error checking, thus reducing mistakes in such a highly regulated sector.

To sum up, integrating automation and compliance has many benefits, both immediate and downstream, such as:?

• Cost-efficiency: Reduced long-term expenses associated with manual compliance processes.
• Rapid regulatory adaptation: Swift updates ensure timely compliance with new regulations.
• Predictive compliance: Use of data analytics to prevent potential compliance issues.
• Scalability: Easier adaptation to increased volume or complexity of compliance requirements as businesses grow.

As the relationship between automation and compliance continues to evolve, the next decade promises even more sophisticated tools designed to manage compliance in real time.

AI-driven decision-making will become the norm, ensuring that no regulation is overlooked.

In the meantime, the synergy between people and machines will streamline compliance tasks, reducing the risk of human error and setting up businesses for trouble-free growth.

The rewards for companies that embrace automation today are clear: A robust compliance regime that gives leaders confidence to forge ahead toward their goals safe in the knowledge they will have regulators on their side.

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