The World of Compliance: An Interns Perspective

Der Yang is a compliance intern at Gravie. She will be a sophomore this fall at The College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minn. where she is majoring in health information management and minoring in computer information systems. In her free time, Der enjoys swimming, shopping, traveling, and watching YouTube videos. Der has enjoyed her internship at Gravie where she has learned valuable professional skills and made life-long connections. 

A new job can be nerve wracking at first; especially if you have little to no knowledge of its respective field. As an intern arriving at Gravie, I was overwhelmed for many reasons. The world of health insurance was new to me, making it difficult to grasp Gravie’s vision and mission. Like most people, I didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about health insurance or about the security measures required to keep health information private. Working at Gravie has changed that.

Selling health insurance and providing consultative services requires Gravie to comply with many rules and regulations. Like many businesses in the health care industry, at Gravie there is a compliance team that is responsible for ensuring that Gravie is following the rules and regulations accordingly. For example, one rule the compliance team works hard to fulfill falls under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and is called the Minimum Necessary rule.

The Minimum Necessary rule states that when disclosing or requesting Protected Health Information (PHI), you should aim to share the minimum amount necessary to complete the task. Even between departments at Gravie, we are not allowed to share member information unless it is absolutely required. This is just one example of the many rules in place that keep Gravie members PHI safe.

Gravie’s compliance department is never dull. There is always something to do. As an intern new to the world of health insurance, my insight of member security has greatly widened. I knew companies needed to keep customer’s information private and unexposed, however, I was not aware of the many steps and on-going training that was involved. Without a compliance team, it would be impossible for Gravie to function as a business.

If you would like to join the Gravie team, check out our open positions here.