Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Kaiser Foundation Health Plan has named Vanessa Benavides as senior vice president and chief compliance and privacy officer, effective Nov. 9. She will work in transition with Daniel Garcia, who will retire as chief compliance and privacy officer later this year.

"Benavides will oversee the organization's commitment to ethics and compliance, including the safeguarding of personal and health information of Kaiser Permanente's more than 10 million members and approximately 180,000 employees," the company stated. "She will also be responsible for maintaining a culture within the organization in which employees do the right thing and feel comfortable speaking up when they encounter actions or activities that do not align with Kaiser Permanente's mission, principles or policies."

In her new position, Benavides will direct planning, oversight and coordination of activities to ensure compliance with regulatory mandates, laws, accreditation and licensure requirements, as well as Kaiser Permanente policies. She also will provide key leadership in identifying, evaluating and prioritizing enterprise risks, and coordinating activities with other internal risk-management units.

Benavides currently works at Tenet Healthcare, where she serves as vice president and chief compliance officer and manages ethics and compliance programs across the company. Before joining Tenet, she served as legal counsel for Caremark Rx and was an associate attorney at Locke, Liddell & Sapp, where she specialized in health care, employee benefits and corporate law.

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