Frequently Asked Questions

Questions from compliance officers, general counsel, and procurement teams, including the hard ones about data, privacy, and discoverability. If you don't find what you're looking for, email us at support@ruleresource.com.

About RuleResource

What is RuleResource?

RuleResource is a healthcare compliance intelligence platform built for in-house compliance officers, general counsel, and risk managers at health systems and provider organizations. It combines federal statutes, regulations, OIG advisory opinions, enforcement actions, and state guidance into one platform, synthesizes them into a structured plain-language analysis, and delivers a citeable, exportable research record for your compliance file.

Who is this for?

Chief Compliance Officers, General Counsel, compliance analysts, and risk managers at hospitals, health systems, physician practices, behavioral health organizations, FQHCs, and other healthcare providers. If your team regularly asks "what does the regulation say" and needs a documented, citeable answer — RuleResource is built for you.

How is this different from asking a general-purpose tool?

General-purpose tools generate answers from their training data. They cannot tell you which official source a statement comes from, cannot verify that the source is current, and frequently produce confident-sounding but incorrect regulatory statements. RuleResource only synthesizes information from indexed official government sources. Every statement is tied to a specific cited document. You can click through and verify every authority cited. We will never produce a statement that is not grounded in an indexed official source.

How is this different from Westlaw or LexisNexis?

Westlaw and LexisNexis are general-purpose legal research databases priced for law firms — typically $6,000–$10,000 per seat per year. Most in-house compliance teams don't have them. RuleResource is purpose-built for healthcare compliance: it covers the specific regulatory areas that matter (CMS, HHS, OIG, DEA, HIPAA, Stark, AKS, EMTALA, CLIA), produces a structured 12-section deliverable instead of raw search results, includes automated regulatory change monitoring, and is priced as an organizational subscription rather than per attorney seat.

Sources & Accuracy

What sources does RuleResource use?

Only official government sources: federal statutes via the eCFR and Congress.gov, federal regulations (42 CFR, 45 CFR, 21 CFR, and others), Federal Register notices and final rules, federal court opinions from all circuits and the U.S. Supreme Court, OIG Advisory Opinions, HHS Departmental Appeals Board decisions, and state statutes and agency guidance for covered states. We never use secondary sources, commentary, or third-party summaries.

Does it include case law?

Yes. Every research query includes a dynamic search of federal court opinions, which covers all federal appellate courts and the U.S. Supreme Court. For fraud and abuse topics, we also include OIG Advisory Opinions — the most authoritative guidance available on specific Anti-Kickback Statute arrangements. The case law citations are synthesized into the analysis alongside the regulatory text, so you get both the rule and the judicial interpretation.

How current are the sources?

Every source record displays a 'last verified' date. Our system re-fetches and hash-checks all indexed sources nightly. When content changes, the source is flagged and a significance assessment is generated. The confidence badge on every research result tells you how recently the underlying sources were verified: Verified (within 7 days), Review (7–30 days), or Stale (over 30 days).

What if RuleResource doesn't have indexed sources for my question?

We will tell you explicitly. If no indexed sources match your topic and jurisdiction combination, the response will say so clearly — we will never generate content from general knowledge to fill a gap. This is a feature, not a bug: a "no indexed sources" result is an accurate answer, not a failure.

What states are covered?

Currently: California, Texas, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina, and Michigan — plus Federal. Federal coverage is comprehensive across all 15 topic areas. State coverage is being expanded continuously. Enterprise clients may request prioritized coverage for additional states.

The Research Report

What does a research report include?

Every report has twelve sections: (1) the research question in professional language, (2) a summary of applicable standards, (3) federal standards, (4) state standards by jurisdiction, (5) how federal and state standards interact, (6) relevant case law and agency guidance, (7) common compliance pitfalls, (8) an audit-ready checklist, (9) documentation requirements, (10) a risk watch flag when applicable, (11) related requirements to review, and (12) recommended next steps.

Can I export my research?

Yes. Every completed research report can be exported to PDF (formatted, with a locked disclaimer footer) or Word (.docx) for your compliance file. The PDF includes the full 12-section report with all authorities cited and linked. You can also copy the full text to your clipboard.

Does it provide legal advice?

No. RuleResource provides informational research — the same kind of research a paralegal or compliance analyst would produce to support a legal decision. It tells you what the law says, what courts have held, and what OIG has opined. It does not tell you what your organization should do, does not create an attorney-client relationship, and does not substitute for qualified legal counsel. The research record is designed to support your counsel's analysis, not replace it.

Can I refine a research result with follow-up questions?

Yes. After receiving a result, you will see suggested follow-up questions that could sharpen the research — for example, whether an LCSW is in a private practice vs. agency setting, or whether the arrangement involves a telehealth component. You can answer those questions and re-run the analysis with the additional context.

Your Data & Privacy — The Honest Answers

Does the platform train on our data? Does it learn from what we ask?

No. RuleResource's analysis engine is configured for zero data retention. Your queries and org data are never used to train any external model, by anyone. Each request is processed and discarded. The system has no memory of what you asked yesterday, last week, or last year. Your questions do not improve any service that any other organization uses. This is a core architectural commitment, not a setting you have to remember to turn on.

Where does my data actually live?

Your data lives in RuleResource's private database, hosted in a SOC 2-compliant cloud environment in the United States. It is row-level isolated, so no other organization can access your queries, history, or profile. The analysis engine processes your queries in transit but does not store them. Your data is not indexed, not shared, and not visible to other RuleResource users or customers.

Does the platform know who we are? Does our org's name leave our account?

No. This is deliberate. When we inject your organization's profile into an analysis to personalize it, we strip your organization's name and any identifying details before it reaches the analysis engine. The system receives categorical context, such as "medium-sized behavioral health organization operating in Texas and Florida with Medicare/Medicaid payer mix," not your org's name. Your organization's name stays in your private account database only.

What does the platform use when I submit a query?

The text of the research question you type. Official source content retrieved from government databases. An anonymized profile of your organization's type, size, states, and compliance risk areas (no name, no identifying info). That's it. The analysis engine receives enough context to produce a tailored, relevant result, but not enough to identify your organization.

Can we use this for sensitive compliance investigations?

RuleResource is best suited for regulatory research and proactive compliance work. For sensitive investigations — potential fraud, specific individual conduct, whistleblower matters — you should work directly with qualified legal counsel. The platform's query history is a business record, and for sensitive investigations you want to manage privilege and discoverability carefully from the start. We provide research infrastructure, not legal strategy.

What about HIPAA? Does RuleResource process any PHI?

RuleResource does not process, store, or transmit Protected Health Information (PHI). The platform handles regulatory research, billing pattern analysis using publicly available CMS data, and compliance assessment — none of which involves individual patient records. Do not submit PHI in your research queries. The NPI and billing analysis tools use public CMS datasets that do not contain individual patient information.

Platform Learning & Getting Smarter

Does the platform get better the more we use it?

Yes, in two ways. First, your Organization Intelligence Profile improves with use — the more your team interacts with the platform, the richer the profile of your organization's risk profile, service lines, and compliance focus areas. Second, the relevance feedback you give (marking results as helpful or not) is used to understand what kinds of analyses your team finds most valuable, and future responses are shaped by that history.

What is the Organization Intelligence Profile?

The Intelligence Profile is a structured description of your organization built from your website, public enforcement records, and operational data you provide. When you run a research query, this profile is used (in anonymized form) to tailor the analysis to your specific context — your provider type, your payer mix, your risk areas, your enforcement history if any. A hospital's research result looks different from a physician practice's, even on the same question. The profile is what makes that personalization possible.

How does feedback improve results?

When you mark a research result as helpful or unhelpful, that signal is stored against your account. Over time, patterns in your feedback tell the platform which types of analysis, which source types, and which levels of detail your compliance team finds most useful. Future responses are calibrated against those patterns. This learning is local to your account — it never leaves your database or improves anyone else's experience.

Is there a way to speed up the learning?

Yes. Build your Intelligence Profile first (Settings → Build Intelligence Profile), then use the platform for the regulatory questions your team actually has. The more queries you run in your actual practice areas, the faster the platform understands your risk profile. High-quality feedback — marking what's useful and what isn't — accelerates the calibration.

Change Monitoring

What is regulatory change monitoring?

When you run a research query, you can click 'Monitor' to add that query to your watch list. When any of the regulatory sources underlying that query change, you will receive an alert via your weekly digest email. Changes are classified as Significant or Minor — you can configure your account to receive alerts only for significant changes.

How does the change detection work?

Our system re-fetches all indexed sources nightly and compares a cryptographic hash of the content to the previous version. If the content has changed, the platform analyzes the new content and classifies the change as significant (a substantive change to requirements, enforcement, or coverage) or minor (formatting, cross-references, or clerical). Significant changes are flagged immediately in your next digest.

How often do I receive digest emails?

Weekly, on Monday mornings, if you have active monitors and there are changes to report. You can configure your frequency to monthly or never in your account settings. We only send the digest when there is something to report — we do not send blank digests.

Still have questions?

We will answer them on a demo call — using your own compliance questions as examples.

Request a Demo