Her Story
About Tamara
Tamara Cotter serves as Compliance Manager, a role she has held for almost 10 years. She oversees compliance for the on-demand side of her organization, handling collaborative practice agreements, monitoring and auditing, workflow creation, quarterly audit findings presentations, risk assessments, and development of corrective action plans. Cotter earned her MBA in Business Administration and a Healthcare Compliance Certificate from Seton Hall in New Jersey. She previously worked in finance and leveraged her prior healthcare experience developing a patient navigation model to transition into compliance, where she was promoted to manager within two years. One of her notable achievements includes receiving an award for collaboration from the field team at her previous job. Cotter approaches her work with an open mind, listening to all perspectives to build relationships and find solutions, and she advises others not to let fear hold them back from pursuing opportunities in the field.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Tamara
01What do you attribute your success to?
I keep things with an open mind. If someone comes with a question or a problem, I don't automatically assume that they're wrong, or that I'm right, or that the situation requires further investigation. The way that I approach AIC is I listen to all sides. And then I try to find a path forward if there is a way that we can help. Building good relationships with team members, and making sure that there's an open communication for any questions or problems, so we can find a solution.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Don't be afraid to take the job. I had no experience in compliance. They wanted someone with a healthcare experience, and I did not know if I would be able to do the job, but I went for it anyways. Sometimes I think fear holds us back from making a decision that could lead us in the right path, so my advice would be take a job. Don't be afraid to go after it.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
There's a lot of misconception that we are kind of roadblockers. We prevent people from doing what they want to do. Compliance, you have to make sure everyone's following guidelines, policies and such, and when we audit works, we have to make recommendations based on our findings, and so there's a lot of misconception that we're the Department of No. But in actuality, our job is not to say no, it's not to put up red flags or anything like that, it's more so to assist you in making sure that everything's done accordingly.
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