There is no shortage of interesting education sessions for hospital finance professionals at the HFMA’s 2009 ANI conference. Choosing from among them will be the challenge for attendees.
As consumer-directed health plans become an increasingly common feature of the healthcare landscape, hospital CFOs and revenue cycle executives need to know how CDHPs will impact front-end collections, bad debt and cash flow.
Scott Hawig, divisional CFO at Duke University Health System’s Patient Revenue Management Organization, is leading an ANI session entitled “Front-End Payment and Collections in a CDH World.”
Hawig said he plans to present a case study from his university to explain the tools, technology and processes being utilized to facilitate patient payment.
“Takeaways for this session include a thorough understanding of the financial and operational impacts of consumer directed healthcare on providers,” he said.
Accurate reporting of Community Benefits is also a profound concern for hospital finance officials.
Hospitals need to be able to assess their compliance with the guidelines for Community Benefits reporting and their readiness for completion of IRS Form 990 Schedule H.
Jeff Ladenburger, chief audit executive at CHAN Healthcare Auditors, said his education session “Community Benefit Audits: A Provider Perspective” would give hospital officials practical insight into the steps they can take to proactively prepare for the reporting of Community Benefits.
“We’ll share lessons learned from the Community Benefit audits we recently performed so attendees can use this information at their organizations,” Ladenburger said.
Hospitals could also use more insight into how best to respond to the tighting of the capital markets since the global financial crisis hit last fall.
A team from Kaufman, Hall & Associates are presenting on that very topic at ANI, and will explain how the capital markets continue to impact hospitals’ circumstances and the strategic choices they make.
“The goal is to facilitate how healthcare financial leaders address the strategic implications of the latest capital markets developments and how they go about selecting and pursuing the best response strategy based on their hospitals’ unique market, strategic, financial, and risk conditions,” said Andrew Majka, chief operating officer at Kaufman Hall.