I am proud to represent the Western New York Chapter as President for the 2011-2012 chapter year. One of my first official duties as Chapter President was to represent the Chapter at the HFMA Annual National Institute (ANI) in Orlando, Florida. ANI provided five full days of Healthcare Finance education on current, relevant topics and networking opportunities with vendors and peers from around the country. The HFMA Chapter Presidents award dinner was an integral part of ANI. The Western New York chapter earned 3 Yerger awards, a Gold award for Membership Growth and Retention and a Gold award for Education. These accomplishments are in no small part due to the engaged and committed Officers, Board of Directors and Committee Chairs serving the Western NY chapter. I look forward to working with this fine group of individuals and serving you all over the coming year.
As you might imagine, many of the educational sessions at ANI centered on Health Care Reform. ACO’s, Value Based Purchasing and Health Benefit exchanges were just a few of the many topics addressed. No matter what side of the political debate you are on, I am sure that we can all agree that change is rapidly approaching and that many of the specifics of that change are unknown. This year the HFMA national theme is “Believe to Achieve.” Over the coming year, HFMA locally and nationally is committed to providing the necessary educational and networking resources to help you and your organization navigate through this change.
If you are interested in membership information, please contact Membership chairs, Mary Mahaney (MMahaney@kaleidahealth.org) or Chris Eckert (Christopher.eckert@freedmaxick.com). I promise that your investment in HFMA will yield great returns.
For those interested in advancing professionally, our chapter offers Certification study groups. This group will work to help you achieve the goal of becoming an HFMA certified member by offering group study session, coaching and study materials. Please contact Certification chairs, Jeffrey Jacobs (jjacobs@ecmc.edu or Robert Levesque (blevesque2@verizon.net) for more information.
This chapter was built and continues to thrive because of our valuable members. If at any time during the year, you have suggestions on how we can improve the chapter and the services we provide, please feel free to contact me directly at jdunn@kaleidahealth.org.
This fall our chapter will celebrate its 50th anniversary. We hope to see you all at our 50th Anniversary on October 14th. Over the past 50 years, the landscape of healthcare finance has changed many times. The leaders which have come before us have experienced similar challenges which lie ahead for us. Together, we can all work to navigate the course ahead.
Jennifer Dunn, FHFMA
President, HFMA Western New York