Accidental Non-Compliance: An Unnecessary Risk |
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In a regulated industry, the consequences of producing non-compliant documents can be severe. Fines and law suits can be financially damaging. Poor publicity can result in lost business, and those responsible can lose their jobs. Do the documents produced by your company comply with the laws and regulations that apply to your industry? How can you be sure? If you answered, "Because we checked the documents when they were designed," you might be in for a surprise. Content that was perfectly fine when the documents were first developed may no longer meet the letter of the law—for lots of different reasons. In some industries, the number of regulations has recently increased or will soon increase (as the result of regulations, such as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act), as have enforcement activities. Making sure documents are fulfilling all the current requirements for disclosure, language and readability is becoming increasingly more difficult, and the trend is toward more regulation—not less. Here are just a few ways to generate non-compliant documents by accident:
A complex problem Failing to comply with regulatory requirements in some industries carries significant penalties. In other cases, the financial risk may be lower, but generating inaccurate documents has a negative impact whenever it happens. Whether it is a direct financial fine, increased calls to customer service, reprinting and re-mailing or a blow to the company's reputation, there is a price to be paid. Fortunately, document producers today have the ability to minimize their risk. Making the necessary investments to do so seems to be a prudent move. While I'd like to tell you that software alone can make regulatory compliance errors obsolete, it just isn't possible. Automated solutions can be an extremely effective first line of defense, but reducing your exposure to accidental non-compliance must still involve some manual procedures as well. JOE PIGEON is the sales and marketing director at Paloma Print Products, a company the helps organizations lower their risk, create accurate customer correspondence and save money by automatically testing their documents. For more ideas about how to generate accurate documents, visit www.palomaprintproducts.com.
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