Staying on the Cutting Edge of Healthcare with the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA)

With the growing world of healthcare and rapidly changing federal, national, and local regulations, it’s a priority that healthcare professionals and facilities stay up-to-date on current industry trends, particularly as it pertains to finances. That is the fundamental purpose of the Healthcare Financial Management Association, or HFMA.

How can the HFMA assist healthcare facilities in better managing their current processes for receiving payments and managing finances?

In a new episode of the podcast “Closing the Books,” host Gabrielle Bejarano interviewed Mary Prendergast, a VP of Business Development at IC System, who is also the president of the Virginia-Washington, D.C., Chapter of HFMA. The two talked about what the HFMA does, how the pandemic impacted healthcare costs, and why the HFMA is a beneficial organization to the healthcare industry.

Bejarano and Prendergast also discussed:

1. Educational opportunities the HFMA offers to help healthcare professionals better understand changes in the industry
2. Why the HFMA is a driving force in shaping healthcare systems today
3. How the HFMA benefits individual member’s careers

“What the HFMA does, it really sets an industry standard for healthcare today—really more so in reimbursement and finance. What’s going on today in healthcare is very difficult with labor costs, labor shortages, and staffing. What’s really hot today is value-based care and price transparency and then technology,” said Prendergast.

In addition to helping members keeping up-to-date, applying changing rules and regulations to revenue collection efforts is key. Continues Prendergast “In order to survive and get reimbursed and keep your lights on and a roof over your head, you have to be reimbursed, whether from the patient or the payers, which are the insurance companies. They have to pay you, and it takes a team of experts to make sure that they’re coding and getting reimbursed for all of this. They also use, again, a lot of technology partners to make sure they’re getting real-time estimation on cost and reimbursement.”

Mary Prendergast is the VP of Business Development at IC System. For the past two years, she has served as president of the HFMA Virginia-Washington DC Chapter, which has approximately 3,000 members out of the national 90,000. She is also a graduate of Radford University.