A Message from the President
Welcome to the website for the WI Chapter of HealthCare Financial Management Association. We are celebrating our 60th year of existence in 2010/11.
I’ve been associated with the Chapter for 23 years. I’m very proud and honored to be serving as the president of Chapter this year. I wanted to share with you some thoughts on why the Chapter is important to me. I entered healthcare finance 23 years ago under the guidance of Dave Bolen (also a former WI Chapter president). The ink was still wet on my MBA diploma when Dave hired me. He saw obvious talent in me but knew that he had to invest some time and resources to bring my industry knowledge up to speed. (There is no way my diplomas or CPA license could prepare me to complete my first Medicare Cost report). The first place Dave turned to launch my education was to get me signed up as a member of HFMA. My healthcare financial management career officially started. I think my evolutionary story is very similar to many of yours or will be for those of you just getting started.
HFMA provides three of the main staples of my past, present and future education: HFMA-WI and HFMA National seminars, HFM magazine, and the opportunity to network with my peers. While the way we get access to timely and relevant information to help us help our organizations may change with the continued development of e-commerce, its hard to imagine that anything can replace the educational opportunity that talking face to face with your peers can bring. Developing those relationships takes years, but they pay off in minutes when you can pick up a phone, dialogue with a colleague about a particular problem, or have someone share a valuable tool they used to solve a similar challenge.
The Chapter today is what those before us setup and subsequent leaders tweaked along the way. Your Chapter will be what you make of it. I strongly encourage all to get involved and help make this Chapter be all that it can for yourself and help prepare the next generation of HealthCare Financial Leaders.
Respectfully,
Jim Nelson
2010/11 HFMA-WI Chapter President
