First Illinois Chapter

The First Illinois Chapter is the premier membership organization in the Chicagoland area for healthcare finance leaders. We were chartered as the first chapter of the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) on October 15, 1948.

With more than 1600 members, including healthcare finance leaders and professionals from hospitals and health systems, provider organizations, physician practices, business partners and payer markets, we are one of the largest metropolitan chapters of HFMA.

President’s Welcome

My Vision

I’ve been asked many times over the past year: “What’s your vision for the chapter when you become president on June 1, 2022?”

Naturally, my response has evolved over the past 12 months as I’ve had the opportunity to listen to providers and

partners across the First Illinois region. Whether through discussions with healthcare executives, meetings with provider boards, working with chapter volunteers, collaborating with hospital associations, strategizing with reimbursement departments, or coaching fellow employees, one theme has remained constant: It’s time to look past COVID-19 and the impact of the public health emergency and focus on the future. And while the whole industry could use a break (and deserves one!), there’s simply too much to do. The future of healthcare is here, and the First Illinois HFMA chapter needs to focus on the road ahead, including these critical issues:

Health Equities: Most providers in the area have at least one of the following words in their mission when referring to healthcare:

“advance”

“quality”

“improve”

“excellence”

It’s clear from terms like these that the missions of our provider organizations cannot be achieved without providing quality healthcare. In turn, quality healthcare cannot be achieved without being equitable.

We know that equitable healthcare cannot be achieved without assessing and addressing a patient’s full needs. This means healthcare providers must address access to education, access to affordable healthy food, access to safe places to exercise and socialize, access to affordable housing, and access to quality healthcare providers. Providers may choose to tackle these issues head-on or partner with others to enhance the patient’s environment.

First Illinois HFMA can help by continuing to educate its membership on the issues, hosting safe environments for dialogue and setting goals to help our providers tackle the challenge.

Financial Acumen: Addressing the full needs of the patient is complicated, and let’s be frank…. It’s expensive! This means funding to our healthcare providers must continue and be enhanced. Programs like 340B, expanded Medicaid, Section 330 grant funding, and other resources must continue. At the same time, healthcare organizations need to continue pursuing every dollar to which they are entitled, whether through renewed focus on reimbursement opportunities (wage index, SSI alignment, medical education funding, etc.) or enhanced controls over vendor management, purchasing, and other spending. Every dollar matters.

First Illinois HFMA can help by continuing to bring innovative speakers, case studies, panels, and ideas to our providers to help them seize opportunities.

Workforce Matters: There is a renewed focus on our teams, including creating work environments that are flexible, inclusive, and engaging. Further, employees throughout healthcare need additional support to do their jobs and do them well. Whether skills to help work with physicians and other operational leaders, networking opportunities to collaborate with other organizations, additional education about the industry as a whole, or simply opportunities to have fun with colleagues, First Illinois HFMA can definitely help here!

And so with that, my vision for the 2022-2023 chapter year is to show you we’ve listened. We’ll enhance opportunities to: