Purpose

ABAS employees make decisions every day about client assignment, hiring, supervision, purchasing, and referrals. This policy exists so those decisions are made in the interest of ABAS and the members it serves, not for personal benefit. It establishes every employee's duty to identify and disclose conflicts of interest and the process ABAS uses to review and manage them.

Scope

This policy applies to all ABAS employees, including the Executive Director, Director of Operations, BCBA Team, Employee Relations Specialist, Billing & Recovery Specialist, Behavior Technician Team, and Compliance Officer. It covers outside employment and private ABA work, financial interests in vendors and referral sources, family and personal relationships that affect employment or client decisions, and gifts.

Three related areas are governed by existing policies and are not restated here: recusal of Compliance Committee members is governed by POL-002, Section 5.6; conflicts involving compliance investigations are governed by POL-003, Section 5.5; and the independence of the Compliance Officer is protected by POL-001, Section 5.4. This policy provides the general disclosure and management framework that supports those provisions.

Definitions

Policy Statement

5.1 General Standard

Employees must act in the interest of ABAS and the members it serves when carrying out their duties. Having a conflict of interest is not itself a violation of this policy; many conflicts are unavoidable in a small organization and can be managed. Failing to disclose a conflict, or acting on a conflicted matter without an approved management plan, is a violation.

5.2 Duty to Disclose

Employees must disclose actual, potential, and perceived conflicts of interest in writing to the Compliance Officer at three points: at hire, annually, and within 10 business days of any change in circumstances that creates a new conflict. When in doubt, employees must disclose and let the Compliance Officer make the determination. Disclosures involving the Compliance Officer go to the Executive Director. Disclosures involving the Executive Director go to the Compliance Committee.

5.3 Outside Employment and Private ABA Work

Employees must disclose all outside employment, including private ABA or related clinical work. ABAS prohibits the following:

1. Providing private ABA or related services to current ABAS clients or their immediate family members.
2. Soliciting or diverting ABAS clients, referrals, or prospective clients to a private practice or another provider.
3. Using ABAS time, facilities, materials, client records, or systems for outside work.
4. Outside work that prevents an employee from meeting their scheduled ABAS duties.

Outside employment that does not involve these elements is permitted but must still be disclosed.

5.4 Financial Interests in Vendors and Referral Sources

Employees must disclose any financial interest they or their immediate family hold in a vendor, referral source, or competing provider. An employee with such an interest may not select, negotiate with, approve, or manage ABAS's relationship with that entity. Any arrangement involving a referral source may also implicate the federal Anti-Kickback Statute and applicable state kickback law; the Compliance Officer must review such arrangements before ABAS enters into them, consistent with POL-004, Section 5.4.

5.5 Family and Personal Relationships

An employee may not hire, supervise, evaluate, discipline, set compensation for, or assign clients to an immediate family member or a person with whom they have a close personal relationship, unless the relationship has been disclosed and the Compliance Officer has approved a management plan. When such a relationship exists or develops, the affected decisions are reassigned to another qualified employee. Relationships that place one party in the other's supervisory chain must be disclosed at hire or as soon as the relationship begins.

5.6 Gifts

Employees may not solicit gifts from clients, families, vendors, or referral sources. Employees may accept an unsolicited gift from a client or family only if it is of nominal value, as set in STD-001 (Gift and Courtesy Standard), and never cash or a cash equivalent. A gift that exceeds the limit must be declined or returned, and the offer reported to the Compliance Officer. Gifts or courtesies involving a vendor or referral source carry anti-kickback risk and are governed by POL-005 (Anti-Kickback Statutes) and STD-001: ABAS sets no fixed threshold for them, and an employee must ask the Compliance Officer before giving or accepting anything of value. ABAS prohibits giving anything of value to referral sources to induce or reward referrals, as stated in POL-004, Section 5.4.

5.7 Conflicts in Compliance Functions

Conflicts that arise in compliance oversight and investigations are governed by the existing provisions for those bodies: Compliance Committee members must disclose and recuse under POL-002, Section 5.6; individuals involved in investigations must disclose and recuse under POL-003, Section 5.5; and the Compliance Officer's independence is protected under POL-001, Section 5.4. Disclosures made under this policy inform those determinations.

Procedures

Responsibilities

Steps

1. At hire, the Employee Relations Specialist provides the new employee with a conflict of interest disclosure form maintained by the Compliance Officer. The completed form goes to the Compliance Officer.
2. Annually, all employees again complete a conflict of interest disclosure form maintained by the Compliance Officer, even if they have nothing to disclose. A signed "no conflicts" response is recorded.
3. When circumstances change, the employee submits an updated disclosure to the Compliance Officer within 10 business days.
4. The Compliance Officer reviews each disclosure and determines whether a conflict exists. Routine determinations are documented in the disclosure log.
5. Where a conflict exists, the Compliance Officer documents a written management plan stating the restriction applied, such as recusal, reassignment of the decision, divestiture, or limits on outside work. The employee and their supervisor sign the plan.
6. The Compliance Officer retains disclosures and management plans in the compliance program files and reports a summary to the Compliance Committee at least annually.
7. Suspected undisclosed conflicts are reported and investigated under POL-003 and its Compliance Ticket Management SOP.

Training Requirements

All ABAS employees must complete training on this policy during onboarding and as part of annual compliance refresher training, timed to coincide with the annual disclosure cycle. Employees with hiring, purchasing, scheduling, or supervisory authority receive role-specific guidance on the situations in Sections 5.3 through 5.6. The Compliance Officer tracks completion and reports completion rates to the Compliance Committee as part of regular compliance reporting.

Reporting and Enforcement

Employees who become aware of an undisclosed conflict of interest, or of conduct that violates this policy, must report it through the channels described in POL-003 (Compliance Reporting, Investigation, and Resolution), including the anonymous web form and the compliance ticketing system. Reports are investigated under POL-003 and its Compliance Ticket Management SOP. Confirmed violations, including failure to disclose a known conflict, may result in corrective action up to and including termination. ABAS will not retaliate against any person who reports a concern in good faith.

Forms Reference

The forms and templates supporting this policy are maintained by the Compliance Officer:

Employees complete the disclosure form (CFM-002) at hire, annually, and within 10 business days of a change. Where the Compliance Officer determines that a conflict exists, the employee and their supervisor complete a management plan (CFM-003). The Compliance Officer records every disclosure and determination in the disclosure log (CFM-004), which feeds the at-least-annual summary report to the Compliance Committee.