Resolve to Collaborate in 2019
Kevin F. Brennan
FHFMA, cpa
Chair, hfma
Innovation creates disruption. Collaboration can help.
It’s that time of year when making predictions is as popular as making resolutions. And when it comes to our industry, it’s safe to predict that nontraditional businesses will continue to move into the healthcare space in 2019, disrupting the status quo and requiring us to accelerate our innovations to build a better tomorrow. We need to embrace change, experiment, and prioritize our strategic partnership opportunities.
Disruptive innovators represent a real opportunity to collaborate. Developing both traditional and nontraditional partnerships allows us to expand knowledge, leverage resources, increase ideas, bolster skills, improve effectiveness, and minimize discomfort. It also reduces risk—something any finance professional can appreciate.
Fostering such partnerships is a strategic priority for HFMA as we work to promote collaboration at the national level among the three primary healthcare sectors—hospitals and health systems, physicians and other practitioners, and health plans. This includes our work with the American Organization of Nurse Executives to develop and present a certificate course in healthcare finance for nurse executives. HFMA has similarly collaborated on healthcare finance programs for physicians offered by the American Association for Physician Leadership and the American College of Physician Advisors. Members of all three organizations have also presented at HFMA events.
In yet another financial-clinical partnership, HFMA is working on multiple projects with the American Nursing Association and a variety of other nursing organizations. The projects center around “speaking the language” (clinical and financial) and working together to achieve patient, interprofessional, and cost outcomes.
Other organizations with which HFMA is partnering include the Alliance of Community Health Plans, the Medical Group Management Association, The Joint Commission, and the Society of Actuaries. We’re also working with multiple colleges and universities to develop the next generation of leaders by embedding HFMA content into classrooms and serving as adjunct faculty across the United States.
This is just a sampling of HFMA’s collaborations. They demonstrate how cross-professional partnerships can enhance our ability to achieve our common goals: improving the patient experience, reducing the cost of care, and improving population health. Being innovative and imagining a different tomorrow—all while addressing the disruptions of today—is clearly challenging. Doing it with like-minded partners, however, increases everyone’s chances of success.
Here’s to HFMA in 2019! May it be a year defined by imagination, collaboration, and innovation.