HFMA 2015 ANI: Themes and Thought Leaders

HealthWare Systems Blog

HFMA 2015 ANI: Themes and Thought Leaders

Posted on Mon, Jun 22, 2015

It’s always tempting to try and boil an event like HFMA’s Annual National Institute Conference down to two or three core themes. Last year, some industry observers cited pricing transparency and the new era of consumerism as the overarching messages at HFMA 2014.

Of course, the strongest, most resonant points will always depend on each attendee and his or her professional aims. Patient access directors will naturally lean into the RCM/patient experience discussions, while health system CFOs bookmark sessions on business intelligence and financial performance.

More importantly, different attendees come equipped with different capacities for absorbing and processing all the data that’s packed into these four days (and it’s a lot). Most will need time to reflect on their notes, speaker presentations, and post-event summaries, before bringing actionable items back to their various stakeholders.

Still, in an effort to make so many valuable learning opportunities more manageable… Here are a few of the themes we’ll be listening for, along with some Twitter-active thought leaders worth following during HFMA 2015:

Collaboration

Collaboration is hardly a cutting-edge theme, and yet plenty of healthcare facilities still struggle to monetize the benefits of organized teamwork and coordinated goal-setting. Part of the challenge is developing a shared definition; the other is modeling and fine-tuning a process for collaboration, beyond stating what end results should look like.

On this front, we’re excited to hear from Dr. Grace Terrell (@gracet22), physician and CEO of Cornerstone Health Care.

Dr. Terrell’s session, Physician Collaborations that Drive Value in Healthcare (FS5) on Wednesday at 8:00, will highlight Cornerstone Health Care’s strategies for establishing partnerships to achieve value in healthcare. She’ll discuss methods for overcoming barriers to collaboration and integration, plus approaches for developing physician leadership, motivating clinicians, and engaging patients.

We’re also looking forward to Dr. Kent Bottles’ session, Creating Clinical and Financial Data Mining Tools to Achieve the Triple Aim (IL5), on Thursday at 11:00. Dr. Bottles (@KentBottles) is a lecturer at Thomas Jefferson University School of Population Health, and the Chief Medical Officer at PYA Analytics.

Dr. Bottles will explain how forward-thinking health systems are using population health management tools to achieve the “Triple Aim.” He’ll identify which HIT functions are required, and define which community partners are essential to the success of population health management programs. The session touches on ways to avoid common pitfalls, and the culture needed to do data mining successfully.

Clinical Integration

As the Chief Scientific Officer and Chief Medical Officer at CVS/Caremark, William Shrank, MD (@WillShrank) is leading the lineup on clinical integration at HFMA 2015. Dr. Shrank’s presentation, Health System Innovation: Expanding the Network Into the Community (FS6) kicks off the day on Wednesday. It’s an overview of how retail medicine is helping to expand primary care delivery, and how retail clinic partnerships with providers support some pretty important mutual goals.

If you’re not already following Neel Shah, MD (@neel_shah), update your HFMA 2015 list right now. Dr. Shah is an advocate for more transparency, value and rationality in the healthcare system. He’s also the founder of a nonprofit called Costs Of Care, and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.

Shah’s session, The Physicians’ Role in Protecting Patients’ Financial Well-Being (FS1), will address the ACA,  its margin and cost pressures for healthcare finance leaders, and the changing approach to decision making felt by clinicians and caregivers. In this session, Dr. Shah will help connect the dots between clinical care and cost management to reduce the cost burden on caregivers and patients— without sacrificing quality outcomes.

Revenue Cycle and the Patient Experience

No, surprise, we’re excited to attend all the sessions in this category. Leading the pack is Yvonne Chase’s Monday afternoon talk on Improving the Patient Experience from Admission to Discharge. Chase will discuss patient satisfaction measures for the revenue cycle—outlining tools and processes to impact patient experience on the front end.

In terms of RCM thought leaders you can follow during HFMA 2015, take a moment to add our team to your Twitter streams. We’ll have several people from HealthWare Systems around and about the Orange County Convention Center. Let us know if you’re up for swapping notes, or just saying hello. See you there!