This week was the HFMA Annual conference in Denver. It brings together a great community of healthcare financial professionals with a lot of healthcare CFOs and revenue cycle management pros. HFMA events are always interesting because it gives you a view into the heart of how we pay for healthcare and the incredible complexities associated with it.
I’d say the hottest topic at the conference was the lack of workforce available and the impact that is having on organizations. This has led to a real need to use technology to do more with less and to outsource many functions since many organizations just can’t find the people to do the work.
Rod Nicholls from Knowtion Health really hit home on this point in this video we did together. I think this is a glimpse at the future of health IT.
Staffing & resources are hot topics at #HFMAAnnual says Rod Nicholls, Chief Growth Officer at @KnowtionHealth
He suggests combining the staff you have with technology, analytics & Machine Learning to combat low balance recovery. Find them at booth #633 or https://t.co/Hzo5BEP5yz pic.twitter.com/jgLRJnFgpM
— John Lynn (@techguy) June 27, 2022
It was also interesting to see how every vendor at the event was a data analytics company. Dan Frietze from Texicana, Inc pointed this out to me. Every company had some angle on the data they have and how they were using that data to help healthcare organizations. Although, he pointed out that it takes good data governance and an effort to drive action from the data. The data has to be actionable and measurable in order for the effort to be sustainable for an organization. The reality is that not everyone was doing all of those things to make the data useful.
Here’s a look at some of the short interviews I did with a number of people at HFMA.
Zeev Neurwirth, MD had a great keynote that I heard one attendee describe as great, but also unsettling. He did a great job of describing the reframe that healthcare is seeing today as he described himself more as a medical historian than a futurist. He’s right about the changes happening that many don’t realize.
“We need to connect clinical innovation with business transformation for patients and families”@ZeevNeuwirth‘s comments on what’s needed to reframe healthcare so organizations are ready for a more consumer-oriented value-based healthcare market@KnowtionHealth #HFMAAnnual pic.twitter.com/5rdFUXPjyu
— John Lynn (@techguy) June 29, 2022
I didn’t expect to see a healthcare interoperability session at HFMA, but Diane Mchalec from UPMC was there doing just that. What I like most about this is that interoperability is actually impacting a healthcare organization’s finances in a good way. Check out more about Diane’s message and UPMC’s use of direct messaging and Secure Exchange Solutions in the video below.
Check out this preview of Diane Michalec’s (Director, Interoperability @UPMC) session tomorrow at #HFMAAnnual The session is at 2:20 PM at Pikes Peak Stage HFMA Central and shows the benefits of working with #TeamInterop partners like @Secure_Exchange to reduce costs #HITsm pic.twitter.com/i8NrPo0c4D
— John Lynn (@techguy) June 27, 2022
Joel Selanikio, MD offered some really amazing insights on what’s happening with the shift of the point of care. This is going to make a big impact of many healthcare organization’s bottom line.
We spoke with @jselanikio about why quality goes up and financial costs go down when you shift from having all of your healthcare services under one roof to more focused institutions like urgent care & surgeon centres.#HFMAAnnual @KnowtionHealthhttps://t.co/9inz1YZGmc pic.twitter.com/SgSymd0t9n
— John Lynn (@techguy) June 29, 2022
One of the surprising announcements at HFMA was Change Healthcare’s collaboration with Luma Health on patient engagement. The reality is that a patient’s financial experience in healthcare has a massive impact on their experience. So, it makes sense for Change Healthcare and Luma to work together to make it an amazing experience for patients. Check out our video with Stacy Mountain, VP Patient Engagement at Change Healthcare to learn more about the collaboration.
Check out my discussion with Stacy Mountain, VP Patient Engagement at @Change_HC about their collaboration with @lumahealthhq
Learn more details of the collaboration: https://t.co/ubVmte9kSV #HFMAAnnual #HITsm pic.twitter.com/pTahmQRA26
— John Lynn (@techguy) June 27, 2022
My favorite keynote of the event was DJ Vanas who talked about the warrior mindset and ideas from a new book he has coming out called The Warrior Mindset. He’s not talking about the Hollywood version of Warrior, but the Native American version of warrior. Check out our interview with him below to get a flavor of what he shared. I live tweeted his keynote on @techguy and @KnowtionHealth if you want to see a lot more from what he and the other keynotes and speakers shared.
Best selling author & speaker @DJVanas chats about his new book The Warrior Within which details how native american warriors dealt with resiliency & change – concepts the #HFM industry can glean from.
Find his book here: https://t.co/V3JJyPOrBQ @KnowtionHealth #HFMAAnnual pic.twitter.com/mZ6NkYxpCM
— John Lynn (@techguy) June 28, 2022
Finally, I talked with Jeff Becker from FinThrive to learn about what he thought were important topics at the conference.
Catching up with Jeff Becker from @Fin_Thrive at #HFMAAnnual to hear what he thinks is trending at the conference. pic.twitter.com/6BRAuXlBqK
— John Lynn (@techguy) June 28, 2022
No doubt a jam packed event full of great content and discussions. If you were at the event, what were your big takeaways?
Thank you for covering #HFMAAnnual!