NHIA Working for You!
NHIA Opens 2010 Annual Conference and Exposition in Dallas
(April 12-13, 2010)
Association leaders take stock in solid foundation, prepare to construct new frontiers for industry
Alternate-site infusion professionals are gathering in Dallas this week to address the many changes in health care and leverage the field’s strong foundation in order to construct new frontiers for their businesses and for the field as a whole.
“With the uncertainty of health care reform, almost unimaginable budget deficits, and the aging demographics of the American population all converging, it would be both foolish and irresponsible for any of us to assume that things will not change in our industry,” said NHIA’s Chair Lynn Giglione, R.N., B.S.N. Giglione, who is beginning the second year of her tenure as Chair, discussed the association’s core building blocks in two General Sessions, held on Monday night and Tuesday morning.
“The theme of this year’s conference, ‘Constructing New Frontiers’ is all about leveraging the solid foundation we have built together to strengthen our alternate-site business opportunities, while continuing to improve the quality of care to patients,” she continued. “It is about making a commitment to embrace the power of collaboration and imagination to create innovative, positive changes within our field.”
NHIA is taking the steps required to construct new frontiers in a number of crucial areas—including:
- Collecting meaningful industry-wide data
- Utilizing that data to generate field-specific best practices and benchmarking
- Creating a code of ethical practices for the entire alternate-site infusion arena
- Achieving a true fix to the Medicare home infusion coverage gap
“We are also being self aware and purposeful in advancing the primary building blocks needed to get us there,” asserted Giglione. “Your Board of Directors, the nine leadership companies on the FIAC, and the NHIA Senior Team all have done a great deal of work in developing a leading-edge strategic plan that is driving your association. It is collaborative, it is imaginative, it is focused, and it will foster transformational change in our field.” For more on the details of NHIA’s Strategic Plan, click here.
Creating Positive Health Care Change
These building blocks will create positive change for our industry’s future, added NHIA’s President Russ Bodoff. “What each of you offers is so valuable, not only to your patients, but to our ability as a nation to manage health care spending, particularly Medicare dollars.
Alternate-site infusion is a small segment of the entire health care industry, but it represents a very important potential cost savings to the Medicare program, and is an example of the power of care in the home. “Without question we are part of the solution, not part of the problem,” Bodoff asserted. “We can no longer remain a secret.”
Bodoff explained that NHIA is creating a future that will allow the industry to operate successfully in a changing health care environment and strengthen its members’ ability to provide the highest quality of care to home-based infusion patients and their families.
“We have the opportunity to create positive change. Creating a successful future will involve using our imaginations to find a new and creative way to achieve our goals. It will take a commitment to genuine collaboration. It will also take a shared focus on the priorities we need to address.”