November in Michigan – Boats and golf clubs have been sent to storage & cottages have been closed for the winter.  For HFMA, November means we have just completed the 58^th annual Fall Conference which was once again a huge success.  For the nearly 200 of us that attended, I want to thank Debby Seiradski, Shelley Lake, Jaqueline Ciolek and the rest of the Fall Conference committee for coordinating a great event.

It’s a busy and scary time in healthcare finance.  We are faced with trying to understand and prepare for Healthcare Reform, ACO’s, ICD-10, Value Based Purchasing, Bundled Payments, Deficit Reduction, FASB 954, EMR’s, HIM & Insurance Exchanges, etc. (I think you get the point) which makes it very difficult for many of us to get out of the office.

On Thursday, October 27^th I was able to get out of the office and attend the Chapter’s annual retiree luncheon.  It was a privilege to attend and listen to the experiences of the 15 retirees that attended. I saw this as an opportunity for some free education, so as we did our introductions, I asked each of the retirees to share one piece of advice they would give as a key to successful career management. I thought I would share some of the feedback:

 “Get out of the office, expand your knowledge beyond your department, and communicate with physicians and other clinicians”.

 “Stay healthy – take care of yourself.”

 “Keep your nose clean…be honest and use integrity.”

 “Build a good team.  Surround yourself with people smarter than you that you can trust.”

 “Hire good people and be willing to listen to them.  Keep an open door policy and make sure to show your team appreciation for their efforts”.

 “Cash is king!”

 And finally, “Don’t buy a boat.”

For those of you willing to take the advice and get out of the office, we have some great education & networking opportunities coming up:

The November 18^th member meeting at St. John Providence – Southfield will be a Mock Managed Care Contract Negotiation.

January 19^th will be our Annual Compliance update at Andiamo’s in West Bloomfield and will once again be hosted by the Dykema staff.

Your committee chairs are also hard at work arranging educational meetings.  Watch your email for announcements of these meetings or check the calendar at www.hfmaemc.org for details of these committee meetings.

Finally, if I still haven’t convinced you to get out of the office and attend an HFMA event, the National Virtual Healthcare Conference will be held on December 13^th & 14^th.  This is a free educational opportunity for HFMA members that can be done right from the comfort of your office.  Details can be found on www.hfma.org or our chapter website www.hfmaemc.org

This will be the final HealthCents issue for 2011, so I would like to finish by wishing everyone a happy, healthy and safe holiday season and best wishes for a great new year. 

Mark