An Evolving Healthcare Model Requires an Evolving HBMA Educational Model Interview with Phil Ellis, Education Committee Chair rior to the Fall Educational Conference – and in response to requests from some members of the board, committee chairs, and several individual members – the Education Committee began working on a redesign of HBMA's educational programming. In September, the committee submitted a proposal to the board of directors with a conceptual model of the redesigned package. Billing Editor Madelon Berger sat down with Education Chair Phil Ellis to discuss the new model. Madelon: Were there other reasons for the change? Phil: When I joined the education Committee, one of the first things I did was to read evaluations from previous events. It did not take long before I saw some repeating – yet conflicting – themes, three of which really got my attention. First, many comments were split on content, focusing on either larger companies or smaller companies with little in between. secondly, comments showed a wide gap on whether there is too much or not enough detail in the sessions. The third issue was that we need fresh topics and a variety in our presenters. Madelon: It is interesting that there was such disparity between comments. Phil: I thought so at first, but then if you consider the fact that we were offering a broad range of topics to a wide range of attendees, it is very understandable. an attending CeO is going to be far more interested in sessions that support the need for strategic planning or preparing their company for what is ahead in six months, 12 months, or 18 months. The attendee coming from an operational capacity will have far more interest in sessions that provide detail on issues they deal with in their offices today. Madelon:What do you do about some members’ concerns that our conferences are designed for large companies, while others perceive that content is geared for small companies? 14 HBma BILLINg • JaNuaRY.FeBRuaRY.2014 Phil: That was the big challenge we had to confront, and I had a lot of discussions with Jeanne gilreath about this issue. We need to separate sessions by type of attendee in order to get the right audiences. every company, big or small, has to have strategic planning, for instance, so we have designed one national event with topics limited to strategic planning-related subject matter. We are referring to this as our executive symposium. This event will focus on trends in the economic, legal/regulatory, technological, political, demographic, and competitive areas. Our presenters at the executive symposium will be challenged to take those issues to the 30,000-foot level and tell our attendees what these trends will mean to the healthcare system in the us and then how that will impact the revenue cycle management industry. The key here is for the C-suite-level attendee to gain as much knowledge as possible so that he or she can then go back home; pull out their current business and strategic plan; and edit, update, destroy, and restart – whatever they need to do. strategic planning and the resulting business plans are essential to every company, so we designed this event to be size neutral. Madelon: What about those members who feel there is too much or too little detail in the sessions? Phil: This is the same issue: our offering was to a general audience. If the session is on coding – which is a critical piece of what we offer – you must see that a CeO who has to sit in on that general session is thinking, “Way too much detail,” while the certified coders or coding specialists think that it is great. The opposite holds true as well: when the coder sits in on the session about payment reform or working with hospitals, they want to hear more details. There are no details in that session, as it is about a higher level view of trends and patterns. general topics presented to a wide, varied audience will always produce ineffective results. Madelon: so where do members go for the detail sessions? Phil: They can attend our other annual event, which we are P
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