Compliance Glossary

Compliance Glossary

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. It affords similar protections against discrimination to people with disabilities as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which made discrimination based on race, religion, sex, national origin, and other characteristics illegal, and later included discrimination based on sexual orientation. 

Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS): Prohibits the solicitation, receiving, offering, or paying of any remuneration directly or indirectly in cash or in kind in exchange.

anti-money laundering: Money laundering is the process of changing large amounts of money obtained from crimes, such as drug trafficking, into origination from a legitimate source.

attestation: The affirmation by signature, usually on a printed form, that the action outlined has been accomplished by the individual signing (e.g., the individual has read the code of conduct and agreed to adhere to its principles).

attorney-client privilege: A legally accepted policy that communication between a client and attorney is confidential in the course of the professional relationship and that such communication cannot be disclosed without the consent of the client. Its purpose is to encourage full and frank communication between attorneys and their clients.

audit, baseline: A systematic inspection of records, policies, and procedures with the goal to establish a set of benchmarks for comparison for future inspections.

audit, concurrent: An ongoing inspection of records, policies, and procedures at a given point in time in which identified potential problems are investigated as they arise (e.g., prepublished financial statements).

audit, retrospective: A comprehensive inspection of records, policies, and procedures done usually in anticipation of launching a compliance program. All potential problems are identified and then investigated (e.g., published financial statements, historical audit).

benchmarking: The measurement of performance against “best practice” standards.

best practices: Generally recognized superior performance by organizations in operational and/or financial processes.

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