document. many suggestions were made and adopted by the oig, leading to a close working relationship with oig and cms. our board of directors expanded to 13 members, and a number of our directors who started from 1997 to 1999 ended up becoming future presidents of hbma. they still participate in significant leadership roles within the organization. Jean Campbell President: 1999–2000 a week following the installation of the 1999/2000 board of directors, i, as president, was informed of two issues that could have brought our young and growing association to an abrupt end. first, a notice of plagiarism committed by an independent contractor serving as our Washington lobbyist, and second, an empty bank account that just a week earlier was reported to contain in excess of $500,000. the situation required a plan of action, and the sooner, the better. i contacted james Wieland, esq., the hbma attorney, and shared with him what i knew. We decided to immediately convene the board of directors at his law office in baltimore, md to disclose these issues. the meeting grew somber as the details of both issues were fully disclosed. by the time the meeting was adjourned that afternoon, the board had been organized as the executive committee of the organization and all the administrative and managerial duties of hbma were assigned to individual members. We were on our way to forge the future. let’s talk team work! each task assumed was Priority one, and working in parallel, an enormous amount of investigation, discovery, and recruiting was accomplished in the subsequent six weeks. the next board meeting was held in december 1999 in dallas/fort Worth, texas. the agenda was robust and it included a decision to contract with capitol associates (bill finerfrock, director) as our lobbyist and hbma’s representative in Washington, dc. We also interviewed three corporate candidates to replace our management company. these decisions were not easy, as the risk involved was great. the financial outlook of the association was still uncertain. by the end of the year, we chose capitol associates as our lobbyist and adler-droz as our management company. both of these choices proved to be good ones. the president’s address i delivered at the 2000 spring conference in orlando, florida was carefully reviewed by mr. Wieland, but i was able to express the true emotion of the situation 14 hbma billing • march.aPril.2013 and praise the board’s high level of involvement with the successful resolution of the crisis. i welcomed the close of the conference because i was comfortable that, during the remaining six months of my presidency, i would be privileged to implement the many additional changes that were required to safeguard hbma against any reoccurrence of similar problems. the fantastic board of directors: • Vic glorioso, Vice President • tim maher, treasurer • brian effron • david Purvis • jackie davis-Willet • madelon berger • rick conklin • charles barker • robert burleigh (consultant) Vic Glorioso President: 2000–2002 hbma was struggling through a difficult period when i took office. during this time, we filed criminal charges against our management firm and were sued for damages caused by our public relations and lobbying firm. in january 2001, we had accounts payable of $135,000 with a potential income of only $87,500, leaving us $50,000 in debt. at our board of directors meeting in the spring of 2001 in aspen, we were so poor that each member covered his or her own lunch tab. finally, hbma fired another management company – our fifth in ten years! – and began a new agreement with brad lund and his company, isam, that continues to this day. our 2001 fall annual meeting was postponed until december, 2001 due to the september 11 terrorist attacks. the american flag that has been present at our meetings ever since is the gift of bob burleigh, given to commemorate this turbulent period in our country’s existence, coincident with hbma’s survival. for some perspective, during this time, hbma had fewer than 125 members attending conferences, under 100 certified members, under 200 members attending our compliance course, and only 113 members making assessment donations. treasurer tim maher’s tireless efforts convinced our members to double their dues and pointed us toward solid financial footing. coupled with vendor generosity and affinity, position papers, an email listserv and electronic information exchange, and a membership of 500, we dared to compare our impact to organizations such (A Chronology of HBMA continued)
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