A Chronology of HBMA From the Eyes of Past Presidents the journal of the healthcare billing and management association 13 James Robertson President: 1992–1996 i was the first president of the association and served in that capacity for four years. this was a time of getting a fledging association off the ground, and we successfully did that through the efforts of a lot of people. the organization was born in chicago and was originally the brainchild of j. dennis mock, who still means a great deal to the organization. We organized the first meeting in chicago, not knowing if anyone would show up, and ended up with over 100 people, as i recall, from all over the country. out of this meeting, the association was born, its first board of directors was elected, and we were off and running. those early years were not easy, but with so many people behind it, we were able to make it through the ups and downs. the rest is history. Doug Jones President: 1996–1997 i brought the idea of forming a billing association to john johnson, executive director of the american collectors association, in the spring of 1991. on october 16, 1991, i attended the aca’s billing services committee in minneapolis where, after much discussion, i made a motion, seconded by bob burleigh and unanimously passed, that “the billing services committee recommends to aca’s executive committee that aca form a new association to be a wholly owned subsidiary of aca.” the name suggested and approved was the international billing association (iba). this name was changed to the healthcare billing and management association (hbma) in september 1998. early in 1992, i bought a mailing list from centron data services of some 6,000 billing services. i subsequently trimmed this list down to medical billing services, then mailed out a questionnaire. in response, i received hundreds of phone calls. later, i participated in the iba organizational meeting at the omni hotel in chicago, thinking that there may be 50 attendees – there were over 100. While trying to get the fledgling iba a foothold in Washington, i negotiated the first contract with a lobbyist for our association and signed it without having the funds to pay for it. i went on to establish our fund raising auctions with the help of steve hixson, member and auctioneer, as well as the rest of the members, who all brought something to auction off. We raised over $30,000 from our first two auctions to pay for our public relations program. i established the j. dennis mock award for outstanding service, hbma’s most prestigious honor. dennis was the vice president of aca and served as chairman of the aca billing services committee. ultimately, dennis’ support was invaluable in the formation of our association. he and the first president, james robertson, were the “fathers” of hbma. Dave Jakielo President: 1997–1998 i was the first hbma president whose full term included addressing the new hiPaa regulations. We were faced with teaching our employees about the new security and privacy standards relating to patient health data. thankfully, hbma was there with educational programs that made compliance with the new rules easier to swallow. the best part of hiPaa was the administrative simplification Provision. What happened to that provision? things sure aren’t simpler. Well, it has been an interesting journey and more challenges lie ahead for us. that is why medical billing companies need to become or remain members of hbma: to ensure they remain viable and revelant. Chuck Barker President: 1998–1999 my presidency started at the 1998 annual meeting in new orleans. it was a great meeting, but a hurricane forced many attendees to leave early. about 15 ended up not getting out and were stranded for about four days. despite this, we had a great auction on the last night and the meeting overall was very successful. one of the biggest hbma accomplishments during my presidency was the development of our working relationships with the office of inspector general (oig) and cms. our government relations committee spent many hours reviewing the draft of the “compliance Program guidance for third-Party billing companies”
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