HBMA Board of Directors

HBMA Board of Directors Minutes September 6, 2007

Present:

Sherri Dumford, President Patrick Lukacs, Director Ken Goodin, President Elect Holly Louie, Director Randy Roat, Secretary Rich Papperman, Director Scott Everson, Treasurer Barry Reiter, Director Bing Herald, Past President Brad Lund, Executive Director Julie Demerath, Director Michelle Botana, Membership Services Andy Kokosa, Director

Minutes:

1. Approval of August minutes was deferred to the next BOD call.

2. Financial Report Scott gave an overview of the finances through July 31, 2007. There are no significant issues and HBMA should finish the year on budget. HBMA is over budget in accounting and the finance committee is evaluating relationship changes, for example, automating payments through the website, to reduce cost. Scott informed the committee of HBMA’s financial audit, which were positive. HBMA follows the appropriate protocol and no discrepancies were found. ACTION: Policies and Procedures will be reviewed by Finance Committee. They will also review the draft of the 2008 budget. ACTION: Brad and Scott will look into QuickBooks online.

3. First draft of 2008 Budget A preliminary copy of the budget was provided to the board. Brad and the Finance Committee recognized that this budget was not ready for board action but noted that work was in process and preliminary results suggest a shrinking profit margin. Discussion was held regarding opportunities to reduce expenses or increase revenues. BOD will review the budget. There will be a tab added to reflect the information for key conferences to easily see the comparisons between years. Anything not in the 2008 budget will require BOD approval. ACTION: BOD will review the budget and bring any items they feel are red flags to the Finance Committees attention.

4. Dues Revenue Discussion of New Member Categories – Should HBMA expand its membership beyond 3rd Party Medical Billers? Patrick informed the board that the membership Committee has been discussing this alternative but ultimately decided against recommending it to the board. It would require a change of

1 the bylaws. Given the preliminary financial projections, the board felt that this topic should be put back on the table for review. HBMA cannot be dependent upon vendors and education forever.

2 Revenue Enhancement Opportunities  Dues Increase - HBMA has not increased dues in years. Discussion was held regarding a dues increase. Should we rethink our formula for deciding dues and entertain the idea of a 1-5 FTE for a lower price for our smaller companies?  Speaker Fees - Discussions were held about speaker payments.  Complimentary Board Registration – Discussion was held about the comp board registration policy and financial triggers that allow this policy to take effect.  National Meeting - Should HBMA have only one national conference a year, are vendors priced correctly and should the criteria to brand an event for sponsorship opportunities be changed. Perhaps a modest increase all around including dues, exhibitors, distance learning, etc. should be considered. Discussion was held about these topics:  The increased need for more participation in education distance learning.  How to market our services and education at rates that are attractive to non members.  Co – Branding our education with other associations.  Pricing for conferences i.e. food and beverage cost per person has increased.  Should the BOD be comped registration for the conference? Do we continue to have the BOD dinner?  The travel and entertainment policy has been overlooked. ACTION: A decision needs to be made with regards to the BOD before 2008. ACTION: Finance Committee will review the travel and entertainment policy and make a recommendation to the BOD. ACTION: Finance Committee will review considering a modest increase with Rich P., Julie D., Patrick L., and Andy K. and they will make a proposal/recommendation to the BOD ideally by the November Board Meeting.

5. Organizational Effectiveness Committee Report Bing gave a presentation from the OE Committee which included a history of HBMA from 1993-2007. Scott explained the strategic grid and how the OE Committee went through each goal at the meeting in Dallas. The green items were recommendations made by the OE Committee. The strategic grid was intended to track the most important goals of HBMA that were decided by the Strategic Planning Session in 2006. MOTION: Randy motioned that the Committee Status Report form with color coding and with the addition of a column for the strategy number to correlate to the strategic grid and to be used to report at regular BOD meetings. Julie seconded. PASSED

3 Discussion of the strategic grid with regards to the Committee work was held. ACTION: Committee Chairs will take both the strategic grid and their own Committee status report back to their respective Committees. The Committees will then go over the goals and make recommendations to BOD on whether it should be amended or approved.

Discussion of HBMA’s Policies and Procedures was held ACTION: OE Committee will divide up the policies and procedures to the BOD members for review and feedback. There were no objections to review. They are to be approved by December 2007 and implemented by 2008.

6. HBMA Educational Programs Discussion of Speaker fees was held  The development of guidelines and flexibility was discussed ACTION: Speaker compensation worksheet to be reviewed by the BOD and approved at the next meeting.

Discussion of the Owners and Managers Conferences was held.  Do we decide to only do 2 a year?  Some points brought up by members are that the same material is presented every year. Bob and Dave are aware and working on it.

4 Compliance Workshop ACTION: If the November Workshop is approved, Education and Compliance are to corroborate on the curriculum and discuss the issues regarding the templates.

MOTION: Bing motioned to approve recommendation for the November Compliance Workshop. Scott seconded. PASSED – Ken, Jackie, Holly voted no and Andy abstained.

6. Proposal for an HBMA Academic Membership - Patrick spoke about an individual who teaches coding courses for an institution who is interested in joining HBMA. MOTION: Patrick motioned to recommend approval of an academic membership. Bing seconded. PASSED ACTION: Sherri asked that the Committee come up with a budget and some numbers with regards to the new category.

7. Technology Task Force – White Paper Mark Anderson will have a draft for the BOD to look at in October.

8. Illinois law prohibiting percentage billing Brad gave an update stating the HBMA member involved is asking for HBMA’s support. Discussion was held and the BOD decided HBMA should not get involved.

9. Annual Auction Donation MOTION: Bing motioned for 1/3 of the auction net proceeds to TAPS. Julie seconded. PASSED

10. HBMA Board of Directors nominations process Ken wanted to make the BOD aware that there was some discontent among the members who were upset that the Nominations Committee had the recommended amount of people for the number of spots open on the BOD. They were upset that it was not really an election as there would be no losers. Bing discussed the current nominating process and how he and the Committee went about deciding who to recommend.