NHIA Working for You!

State of the Association Address

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Russell Bodoff

Good afternoon to you all. Welcome to Phoenix and to the 2008 NHIA Annual Conference! We are already off to a great start, we’ve got a record breaking attendance and we have well over 200 first-timer attendees at this year’s conference—as compared to, in the past, an average of only 50 to 60! Isn’t that fantastic!? Clearly, that’s a wonderful indicator of our membership coming together so we can collaborate and transform the future of alternate-site infusion!

It has been a great honor to serve the past year as your Executive Director. When I had the opportunity to address the NHIA conference last year, I was only with the association for a couple of weeks. Over the course of the last 12 months, we have seen significant changes taking place in the alternate-site infusion field—and a great deal of transition at NHIA too. And through all the challenges and opportunities, it has ultimately been a very positive, exciting and rewarding year for both me and NHIA!

Just earlier in this general session, Chris did a wonderful job of laying out the NHIA vision for productively transforming our industry:

Leadership + Vision + Courage + Innovation + Fellowship—These are the elements and this is the strategic equation we will use to ensure we successfully achieve positive Transformation within our field!

You know, change always brings anxiety and I recognize that there is good reason for that. For all of us in alternate-site infusion field, or almost any area of healthcare, change is fast becoming the norm.

But even amid any apprehension, there is no question that our field is growing and that the market forces favor such growth:

Mergers & Acquisitions firms continually put out reports pointing to substantial growth in the size and dollar value of our industry.
We have an aging population that will demand more care—and necessitate that greater amounts of such care be shifted out of the institutional setting.
Baby Boomers, a much different older adult cohort, will also insist on having increased care and service options in their own homes.
Added to these market forces is also a rich, diverse and growing pipeline of new infusible pharmaceuticals.
And finally, it just makes better sense in terms of clinical outcomes, financial costs and patient quality of life to provide infusion in a non-institutional setting whenever possible.

All this adds up to numerous opportunities for our field to play a critical role in driving increased care to the home-based patient population—but we must be proactive and purposeful in our actions to ensure such opportunities are fully realized, in the best way for our members—and the patients they serve. As NHIA has observed and assessed the industry over this past year, we have seen a significant increase in acquisitions, mergers, new business partnerships and new business models. It is not up to me or NHIA to say whether or not that is good or bad. It is the reality of the marketplace. But while change may keep us up some nights, these same marketplace changes also bring new opportunities. It is how we respond to these changes and challenges that will define the future success of NHIA and its members.

As the trade association for the entire alternate-site infusion field, our responsibilities at NHIA are clear:

We must work to ensure that patient care meets the highest standards possible, while constantly fostering innovation…

NHIA must make certain that all key stakeholder groups in the field are fully engaged in collaborative exchanges…
We are obligated to each and every one of you, as your association, to affirm a level playing field exists for all providers—be they small, medium or large…
NHIA has got to assure that the unified voice of the NHIA membership—and the often under represented voice of the patients we serve—is effectively heard on Capital Hill. With so many associations and industry groups pushing issues on the Hill—many of them much larger than ours and much better financed—we need to be focused, creative, imaginative and, in many ways, daring in how we drive our messages. That is something you should expect from your trade association—and that is what we plan on delivering!
And lastly, NHIA’s responsibility to you as valued members, in fact my highest responsibility to you all as the Executive Director, is to speak honestly and with a constructive frankness about where we are and where we are going. That is a pledge you can count on from me and my Team!

So, with this overall vision and strategic approach in mind, I would now like to briefly provide you all with an update on the state of the association—and some of the major actions NHIA has already taken over this past year to advance our transformative work together:

First, a few things about our membership transition and engaging providers at the company level:

As part of its long-planned move to operate as a trade association, NHIA began to transition its membership base from that of individual members to company members. To be honest, it is not easy to push for a dramatic dues change during your first year leading an association. This was obviously not a pleasant topic—but it was a necessary one.
Speaking frankly, NHIA was not in the financial position to effectively serve its members—and the need for the dues increase was reviewed in detail by both the NHIA Board and the NHIA Membership Committee. We benchmarked NHIA’s structure against dozens of successful trade associations before making the decision to change our membership structure—and used that benchmark data in developing the new dues schedule.
Making this move to company-based provider memberships would improve our financial position, while simultaneously giving us a much stronger voice in Washington.
Also, instead of having companies decide which individuals can be members of NHIA, an NHIA provider membership at the company level now means that every employee of that company are considered members—and, as such, are all able to take advantage of NHIA services, products and discounts.
At this point I have to say how proud I am of our membership. Instead of a flood of negative messages that I might have expected about this change, it was a long list of notes of support!
The dues transition, which began in January and will continue throughout the entire 2008 year, has been well received—and results from the first two months are beyond our expectations.
So, instead of being the first association executive in Washington needing to get an unlisted phone number, I can stand here today and say we are an association of strong, dedicated members who have risen to provide assistance around a critical need, with a high level of support that right now leaves me with no other words than THANK YOU.
Yes, thanks to all the members whose dues renewals were up in the first two months of the year for your support. And thanks, in advance, to the other members who will be invoiced throughout the year on your anniversary date. We are changing the association and we are building a much stronger one to serve you—your responsiveness is making this transformation a reality!

Next, I’d like to share some comments about our steps to more fully engage all the critical key stakeholders in the field, while enhancing our strategic leadership capacity and vision:

To be a trade association that truly represents the field, we need to involve leaders from all key stakeholder groups—not only providers. To help accomplish this goal, NHIA has established the Future of Infusion Advisory Council that brings together outstanding manufacturing and service companies who have pledged leadership, policy and financial support to NHIA—well above beyond what they’ve already been historically contributing.
The NHIA Board and Staff Leadership Team have devised a formal strategic process that we launched yesterday here at the conference where the Council will work closely with the NHIA Board, staff and provider members to address the most critical issues and challenges we all face.
The companies, whose logos are on the screen, deserve our thanks and appreciation. These are organizations that believe in your future and understand that there own success is linked to yours—and they are all willing to make major investments of time, expertise, leadership and finances to enable NHIA and its members to achieve that success. To each of these 8 companies I say thank you!

Now, I’d like offer some feedback to you all about your NHIA Board—and about their leadership, vision and courage:

Chris introduced you to our new Board Members earlier today. With a Board of Directors that now represents the full spectrum of our provider membership—and with our Business Firm Affiliate Members stepping forward to be part of our strategic leadership team in a collaborative fashion—we are truly developing the vision, fellowship and cooperation that is needed to drive the current and future long-term success of the alternate-site infusion provider.

At this point, I would like to personally thank Chris for his outstanding leadership and vision as Board Chair. Chris helped us all have the courage to walk a difficult road over the last 12 months and was a strong partner and friend to me in my first year. Chris has learned that I am “Type A Personality” wanting to get everything done at once—Chris, thanks for your patience and support.

I also want to thank the entire NHIA Board, who I must say have been the most open minded, collegial and understanding Board that I have dealt with in my 27 years in association management. They’ve been approachable to making many very difficult decisions about changes needed to help NHIA build its future. We are a team and I say thanks to each and everyone one of you.

And again, I want to express a sincere thanks to our three outgoing Board members, Karen, Ramona and John for all their personal support during my first year.

At this point, I want share a few things about the 2008 Annual Conference & Exposition:

First, I want to echo Chris’ earlier thanks to the 2007-2008 Education Committee, under the leadership of their Co-Chairs, Melissa Leone and Nancy Kramer. This will be our best Annual Conference ever, thanks in large part to their innovative, hard work!
And speaking of fostering innovation, at our Monday General Session you are all in for a real treat—as our keynote speaker is one of the world’s foremost experts on using new, emerging technologies to help bring more and more healthcare into the home. I urge you to be here tomorrow morning to hear Eric Dishman’s presentation. It will certainly give you innovative ideas on future opportunities for providing enhanced quality infusion care for home-based patients, with lower costs. Technology will change the face of healthcare in all environments, especially in the home.
Then, during our Tuesday morning General Session, we will talk in detail about a new approach to our legislative challenges in Washington. I hate to say it—but we will realistically have many battles ahead of us in DC. As such, the increasing strength of our association could not have come at a better time.

I also want to emphasize that our high quality conference could not be possible without the wonderful support we receive from our sponsors and exhibitors. They are a valued part of the NHIA family.

We have three conference sponsorship levels, Platinum, Gold and Silver. Let’s give a round of applause for all these valued sponsors!

I urge all of you to also spend as much time in the NHIA Exposition viewing our exhibitors’ booths. These valued partners are also a huge part of what makes our conference possible. Thank you!

There is another member benefit that we’ve been hard at work on for the past three months in order to formally launch it today at the Conference:

I’d like you to turn your attention to the screens, where you will see a homepage shot of the brand new NHIA website! The site is laid out to help members and other key stakeholders better find the information they are seeking, in an easier fashion. The site will continue into grow into an even more valuable information tool for members—along with key resources for people seeking information on alternate-site infusion. We are also enriching the search capabilities and are planning new information functions on the site.
The redesign and launch of the website, and the speed with which we’ve been able to do it, would not have been possible without the very generous support and sponsorship of Innovatix. This valuable partner shares the NHIA vision for strong leadership and innovation within our field. As such, Innovatix stepped-up to the plate with the needed financial support required to make the new website possible. To our friends in New York, I say thanks!
If Jason Shelton is here can you stand up? Jason is the key person on our staff who has put the new site together and in the last few weeks I think he must have been working 24 hour days to meet our deadline. Jason, thanks so much!
Lastly, when you totally rebuild an entire website that contains hundreds of pages of information, it is not unusual to find broken links. If you are using the site and find a link that is broken, please drop us a note on the site—we’ll fix it right away!

As I conclude my remarks here today, I would like to mention one other achievement over the last year:

To start moving the NHIA strategic vision forward, we have begun to add to our staff additional key leaders to complement the existing Team.
I would like to introduce two important new staff officers at NHIA—Steve Jurich our VP Operations and COO was hired last June and John Magnuson our new VP of Legislative Affairs was just recently hired. Can I have you both stand? I hope everyone gets a chance to say hello to them during the conference, as they are both playing key roles in driving the NHIA vision and work plan. Please stay standing.
I would also like to ask all the NHIA staff that are here and not out working registration to please stand? Can we give all these hard working folks a big hand?
With your membership support, NHIA will ensure that the NHIA Staff Team can meet and exceed your expectations, both now and in the future!

Thank you all once again for letting me share these updates with you about the state of your association. We are moving in a sound, strategic direction. And together, we will all positively transform the future of alternate-site infusion. Thank you and enjoy NHIA 2008!