Connect

Nov. 2-8, 2025 is Healthcare Compliance and Ethics Week (share with your teams: University Medical Center flyer or UVA Community Health flyer)! Connect is taking a closer look at  Krista Barnes, JD — marking her second anniversary as UVA Health Chief Compliance and Privacy Officer.

It may have been kismet that Barnes landed in a key healthcare role. After all, she was brought up in a family immersed in medical careers — and as you'll read more about in a candid Q&A below, she even "grew up" in a hospital. 

Barnes earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Rice University and her juris doctor degree from Duke University School of Law. Among her roles prior to arriving at UVA Health in 2023: Senior Legal Officer and Director overseeing Privacy and Information Security Compliance and Billing and Reimbursement Compliance programs, then Associate Vice President and Deputy Chief Compliance Officer at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. 

In her spare time, this "regulatory superhero" — not super buster (explanation below) — also has traveled around the world in 90 days, played soccer for decades and aims to catch 2026 World Cup games, discovered half a dozen half-siblings, and more: 

ROOTED IN HEALTHCARE

What brought you into compliance and healthcare?

In law school, I thought about becoming a public defender but ended up going to an expensive law school and found I needed a big firm job to help pay off my loans. I rotated through multiple sections at a firm in Houston, and when it came time to choose where I wanted to work permanently, I chose the health group because the people in that group were the nicest.

The lawyers who did a lot of Medicare reimbursement litigation and billing compliance work needed an associate, so that’s what I learned to do. It all sounds very random and unromantic, I know. Though to be fair — my dad was a doctor, my mom was a nurse, and my grandpa was a medical school professor, so maybe landing in healthcare is not as random as it sounds. I literally grew up in the little hospital where my dad worked. Hospitals are kind of my happy place.

Can you tell us a little about the origin of healthcare compliance in the United States — and your role as UVA Health Chief Compliance and Privacy Officer?

In the 1990s, the federal government published some guidance urging hospitals to implement “compliance programs” — primarily to help make sure hospitals were not overbilling the Medicare and Medicaid programs. One of the "7 Elements of an Effective Compliance Program" is having a chief compliance officer. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) came along around that same time and required hospitals to designate privacy officers. It’s pretty normal for the chief compliance officer to serve as the organization’s privacy officer, too.

Although we’re all responsible for following healthcare regulations, I’m the person at our organization who ultimately is responsible for making sure we're aware of and following all the government’s rules — particularly the rules enforced by the various agencies of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services like Medicare billing rules and the HIPAA privacy and security rule.

We have a small but mighty team of compliance analysts led by Annette Norton, JM, CPC, CHC, CHP, CHRC, Director, Compliance and Privacy, University Medical Center; and Nicolette Meister, Director, Compliance and Privacy, UVA Community Health.

We create training, receive hotline reports, work on policies, conduct investigations, give compliance guidance, conduct risk assessments and billing and privacy audits, help with conflict of interest management, and handle privacy breaches.

FACT V. FICTION

What do you enjoy most about your work at UVA Health?

Administrative law can be a little dry — I’m not going to lie. I used to fall asleep on my desk while reading the Federal Register! I definitely prefer working in the hospital setting and Compliance is interesting, particularly because of the investigations. I like being part of a team, and some of the privacy issues I’ve encountered over the years have been pretty wild! Also, it’s easy to get behind the mission of a hospital and feel good about where you work.

If you have one message for UVA Health team members this Healthcare Compliance and Privacy Week, what would it be?

Call us early and often! Healthcare is a heavily regulated environment, with more rules than a person can ever know. We are here year-round to help you figure it all out to try to do things correctly!

What’s a myth about compliance you’d like to bust?

I know that when some people think of "compliance," they think we're here to "bust people" or add another layer of annoying bureaucracy. I’d like to suggest that you think of us more like your "regulatory protectors" (dare I say, "regulatory superheroes?!").

It’s impossible to follow every rule perfectly all of the time and we know that. We want to identify and fix issues from within, rather than finding out about them from a government enforcement agency. Our ultimate goal is to protect UVA Health’s resources and reputation, so we can spend our resources on our mission.

SPARE TIME

Outside of work, what’s something team members might be surprised to learn about you?

I can’t share just one!

I love to travel and once took a 90-day trip around the world with my husband. If you ask, I’ll tell you about the time I caught a piranha in the Amazon, walked barefoot in a temple full of very healthy rats, and rode a camel for about two-and-a-half days longer than a person ought to! And then there were the sled dogs in Alaska ....

I played soccer for 40 years and have reserved the coming summer for (hopefully) attending World Cup games. I coached both of my daughters (now ages 9 and 15) when they were little, but now the youngest is the only one still playing and lucky for her, she has real coaches now. :)

And last but not least: four years ago I discovered I am the product of a sperm donation and have six, new half-siblings. Yay, science!  For the last three summers, I’ve run a 36-hour relay race with them back home in Oregon, so we can hang out and get to know each other. It’s been the most surprisingly delightful experience of my life!