Groundbreaking Certification Program Keeps Students up to Date with Evolving Health Care Regulations

CLEVELAND – Cleveland State University's Cleveland-Marshall College of Law is offering a groundbreaking educational opportunity with its new Health Care Compliance Certificate program, a post-professional certification that trains students for sought-after skills in today's evolving health care industry. This program, one of just five currently offered in the country, will appeal to health care compliance officers, practicing attorneys and health professionals – including doctors, nurses, social workers and health care administrators – as well as current law students.

As the health care compliance industry continues to grow and regulations become more advanced, many compliance officers need to further their legal knowledge or obtain education specialized to the industry. This 18-credit compliance certificate program has been made available by C|M|LAW to fill that gap.

"About 60 percent of the health care compliance officers are non-lawyers," explained Browne C. Lewis, director of the Center for Health Law & Policy at C|M|LAW. "With the number of laws and regulations in the health care industry increasing and getting more complicated, it is now necessary for persons in those positions to have more legal knowledge."

Students will take courses focusing on the areas of Health Care Law, Health Care Compliance, Health Care Finance, Health Care Fraud & Abuse, Health Law & Ethics, HIPAA & Privacy and Health Care Compliance Skills. After completion of the 18 credits, students take an examination administered by the Compliance Certification Board (CCB) to become certified as a compliance specialist.

Those non-J.D. students pursuing a Health Care Compliance Certificate will interact and sit in the courses with traditional J.D. students, although they will be graded separately from the J.D. curve. This meets the demands of current working professionals looking to further their education and career in the health care field.

"We realize someone working as a compliance officer or as a health professional may not want or be able to attend law school full-time for three years," said Lewis. "Our certificate program enables them to gain the legal knowledge that they need specific to their field while attending classes part-time for a year or two."