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The 2024 HFMA Annual Conference returned to Las Vegas this year…and man was it HOT! Not only did we have triple-digit temps all week, the conference also had some exciting content as well. The event kicked off with the Rat Pack of all things, Den-O, old blue eyes and Sammy belting out favorites for the opening session to get you in that “viva Las Vegas” spirit.
Anne Jordan, the CEO of HFMA, opened the conference by recognizing Richard Pollock, CEO of the American Hospital Association, with the Richard Clarke Board of Directors Award—HFMA’s highest honor – recognizing Pollock for 40-plus years of leadership and his contributions to healthcare. Dennis Dahlen, CFO of Mayo Clinic and outgoing chair of HFMA, also shared his thoughts on healthcare and the coming year.
The conference’s second day started with Marc Scher, the 2024-2025 HFMA Chair, sharing his theme of “Sempre Avanti” or “always forward.” He drew inspiration from a visit to the Ski Museum in Colorado and the Colorado Army’s 10th mountain division, highlighting their spirit of progress despite challenges. Scher urged healthcare financial leaders to keep moving ahead, comparing it to the shift from paper charts to EHRs. This meshed nicely with FinThrive’s themes of “embracing disruption” and “advancing the healthcare economy” and it was nice to see the new chair amplify some of things our company is doing to help the healthcare industry as well.
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The CEO of FinThrive, Hemant Goel, introduced Suneel Gupta, during the conference’s first keynote session. Gupta, author of the book, “Everyday Dharma,” and a Harvard Medical School alum, shared insights on staying fully dedicated to avoiding burnout. During the session, attendees were asked to write down their burdens on index cards, swapping them to seek assistance. Many cards were filled with names offering help, creating an emotional experience. Gupta emphasized the importance of self-care, encouraging breaks in work and highlighting his work at Rise Health.
The sessions broke out from there, and I decided this year to focus on three areas: revenue cycle management (RCM), GenerativeAI, and cybersecurity. I sat in on many sessions with leaders from Banner Health, Henry Ford, Optum, Fitch and many others. FinThrive also had a few sessions at the conference, one on the Revenue Cycle Technology Adoption Model (RMCTAM) with Mike Vigo, from UC San Diego, and our Chief Solution Officer, Mark Janiszewski. They shared how the vendor-agnostic model can be applied at any organization to assess the breadth and value of RCM technologies and help set RCM strategic planning. Brian Urban, FinThrive’s Director of Innovation, shared the stage with Ryan Riddle, the VP of Patient Access at Christus Health. They spoke on the data humanity lab, a collaboration with HFMA, in which organizations can share socio-economic data and gain insights on risks and correlations as they relate to overall health and utilization.
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Both of these sessions were very insightful, and I took several pages of notes on how FinThrive is helping providers in healthcare with capturing revenue and managing population risk.
Other themes from the conference were the “usual suspects” of labor disruption, AI, profitability, denials, and payer relations. I heard the term “labor-demic” for the first time, which certainly will catch on in my opinion. The experts that spoke at this year’s conference were stellar and all shared insights on how to tackle these challenging topics. Reach out to me and I am happy to share my notes on their insights.
HFMA Annual ended as quickly as it arrived – which is not necessarily a bad thing in Vegas. I’m not sure about you, but a week there drains my tank, as it’s not often I get to learn, laugh, and linger that long (or hard) in one place with so many engaging and brilliant people. Until next year in my home city of Denver, see you at HFMA annual or on the road in between. Reach out for anything at all, and above all – be well.
About the Author
Jonathan G. Wiik, MSHA, MBA, CHFP
Vice President, Health Insights
Jonathan Wiik, VP of Health Insights at FinThrive, has over 25 years of healthcare experience in acute care, health IT and insurance settings. He started his career as a hospital transporter and served in clinical operations, patient access, billing, case management and many other roles at a large not-for-profit acute care hospital and prominent commercial payer before serving as Chief Revenue Officer. Wiik works closely with the market and hospitals on industry best practices for revenue management. He is considered an expert in the industry for healthcare finance, legislation, revenue management and strategic transformation.
