next year.” It will not be. It will be different, and the association will have to continue to be decisively different, as well. Strategic Thinking HBma has been involved in strategic planning for many years, working with some very talented volunteers, a management team, and paid facilitators. still, strategic planning in a business model that is evolving as rapidly and as fiercely as ours will require strategic thinking not just once a year but in everything we do and on an ongoing basis. strategic planning has served HBma well for many years. What is required of us now, as leaders of the association, as members of the association, and as leaders of our businesses, is strategic thinking. There is an old saying, “You cannot control the wind, but you can adjust your sails.” The wind does not wait for strategic planning but requires immediate attention if we are going to adjust to the changes forced upon us in order to successfully reach our destination. as you head into the summer months, I challenge you to consider your own leadership characteristics and ask if they are serving you well. as president, I ask for your feedback as you consider how HBma represents a position of leadership for our industry. Jeanne A gilreath, CHBME, HBMA President jgilreath@ahsrcm.com In the january-February edition of Billing, you ran an article about offshoring entitled “Be aware of the risks,” by robert liles. The article made it appear that there are more risks than benefits associated with offshoring and that there are still regulatory concerns over this aspect of our industry. I have highlighted a few statements from his article to help bring these concerns to the attention of your readers. regarding protected health information (PHI) and Health Insurance Portability and accountability act (HIPaa) compliance, liles’ article states: “Despite assurances to the contrary, once a patient’s medical and financial information has been transferred outside of the united states, the billing company transmitting this data has effectively lost control of the information.” actually, the offshoring vendor’s use of a secure VPN, or private cloud technologies, ensures that PHI data does not leave the us. It also ensures that the offshore vendor is updating and accessing the PHI data in the us over a secure, private network and not transmitting or storing PHI data in their overseas location. This best practice manages PHI and HIPaa risk and leverages technology to enforce access rights and data access within PHI and HIPaa. In addition to the technology layer, the offshore vendors also have strong third-party audit controls that are tested annually to ensure the offshore vendor is fully compliant with these guidelines. In fairness to the author, he did include an accurate reference to the current Centers for medicare & medicaid systems (Cms) guidelines that restrict Cms contractors from offshoring. However, this refers to Cms and does not apply to providers or payors within the medical billing industry. so, in my opinion, including this reference in the article can mislead the billing company readers by taking this point out of context. Thanks in advance for taking the time to listen to my comments. sincerely, Craig Haskin, access Healthcare (President’s Message continued) THe jOurNal OF THe HealTHCare BIllINg aND maNagemeNT assOCIaTION 7 (Sound Off! continued) I actually bought my business in 2004 and there were six clients at the time. after I proved that we were doing a better job than the previous owner, clients referred their peers to me. – Emily M. Osetek, CHBME, President, Sourcenet Medical Billing Associates, LLC my first client was an anesthesiologist friend who asked me to do him a “favor” and do his billing. That was 13 years ago and my whole business started from there! my last client googled “billing services” and my name came up first. my, how times have changed! – Lisa M. Clifford, CPC, President, Clifford Medical Billing Letter to the Editor
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