A quick quiz on enterprise membership:
Enterprise membership involves:
- A ticket to fly to outerspace with the StarTrek crew
- An online shopping tool
- A better way to get great HFMA benefits for your entire organization!
If you picked C, you are correct! Enterprise membership is an option newly created by HFMA for organizations that have many potential employees who could become members but the cost per employee was too cost-prohibitive. The national HFMA association has created a program where organizations can purchase an employer or “enterprise” level membership, which allows their departments, teams or whole organization to experience the membership benefits of HFMA in a cost-effective manner. Enterprise membership allows an organization to:
Put real-time tools and insights into action to help navigate the pace and complexity of healthcare finance.
- Curated content in education, publications and hfma.org
- Customizable career pathways to align with team and enterprise goals
- Access to thought leaders and peers through local and national events
- Performance benchmarking for continuous improvement
Elevate individual and team knowledge with a portfolio of online education and certification programs.
- Over 40 webinars per year, delivered live or on demand
- Diverse online courseware to build competencies
- Multiple certification programs to valid expertise
- Opportunities to earn CPE credits through education programs and live events
Provider and Business Partner + members gain access to powerful discussions to help solve complex issues and connect with like-minded professionals. Create your own community or participate in HFMA’s:
- Legal & Regulatory Community
- Payment & Reimbursement Community
- Revenue Cycle Community
- CFO Community
HFMA is a partner in your success and provides tools to manage your progress towards your unique goals.
- Exclusive portal to access employee engagement data and on-demand reports
- Customer support team with knowledge of your organization’s requirements
- Cost containment strategies with a member model that scales to fit your budget
The HFMA website has much more information on this topic (https://www.hfma.org/membership/enterprise.html), but hearing about the program directly from an organization participating in an enterprise membership is so much more informative! Here is William Wyman, MS, FACHE, FHFMA, Senior Vice President of Finance, Circle Health and Lowell General Hospital in Lowell, MA answering questions about what drove Lowell General to become an enterprise membership member.
Interviewer: Bill, what was the driving force behind the decision to consider an enterprise membership?
Wyman: There were a couple of driving forces behind our decision. First, this represents an investment in our employees. It was important to us to provide a connection to HFMA as our professional organization, giving access to news updates and opportunities for professional growth through certification programs and other educational offerings. With growing staff turnover we are working to re-position certain positions, especially in Patient Access, as long-term professional career positions and not entry level positions. The duties of these roles have advanced significantly in the past decade. Secondly, we have had a difficult time making a robust investment in education and the enterprise membership instantly provides access to a great deal of e-learning that could be incorporated into our overall learning plans.
Interviewer: Your organization has been a member for about a year now. What benefits have your employees used the most, or had the most immediate effect?
Wyman: I would say that our most highly engaged employees that are looking for growth opportunities have engaged to the highest level with pursuit of certifications. There is a great appreciation from those employees and employees who always wanted to be members but did not want to personally pay for it. I would say those with lesser drive to engage still have benefited, even if more passively by increased exposure to industry news and the use of the learning management modules for our core competency trainings.
Interviewer: What advice would you give to an organization that is considering signing up for an enterprise membership?
Wyman: If an organization were to consider signing up for an enterprise membership I would first suggest they think about the value that the organization is trying to derive from it. They most likely will not have enough paid individual memberships in their organization to suggest a 1 for 1 switch to enterprise membership. This is truly an investment in your employees. Secondly, think if you have the organizational structure to really make the enterprise membership effective in your organization by taking advantage of as many of the offerings as possible to achieve your goals. An out of the box example might include every leader as part of their ongoing leadership development becoming members and engaging in some fundamental educational offerings to better understand the finances of healthcare. There are limitless possibilities – it all comes down to actively engaging to take advantage of them.
The educational and financial benefits of an enterprise membership will be felt across your organization. Go to the HFMA website to learn more about what an enterprise membership can do for your organization.
