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welcome everyone uh today to today's maryland hfma webinar how to become hfma certified and for free thank you all so much for joining we would typically do today's session and early morning of uh fall conference uh but given our circumstances this year and doing uh fall conference virtually um we're doing it virtually today to talk about certifications um with that with you today is myself i am lauren shea some of you might know me as lauren rose i was recently married and we also have uh danielle lohan our information on us is in the very back of the presentation if you are curious about our bios i work with kohler healthcare consulting danielle as with berkeley research group and our resource group and how we're going to handle today is i'm going to give some basic information on certification some of them are technical details and then danielle will be joining us later at the end of the presentation to share her own experience and the reason we're both here today as danielle and i are co-chairs of the certification committee for maryland hfma so danielle i'm going to let you sign off for a little bit and we'll see you later all right so with that let's go ahead and get started um before we dive into the material just a few reminders all of our attendees today are purposefully in listen only and view only mode but that does not mean that we do not want you to ask questions if you have a question at any time during the presentation there is a q a feature and feel free to use it and we'll try to answer the questions as you submit them all right our objectives for today so we're going to talk about the different types of certifications that are available we're going to talk about requirements for those certifications not only how to obtain them but also how to maintain them and last but certainly not least how you can prepare yourself for the certifications so the cf chfp which is certified healthcare financial professional kind of the cornerstone certification for hfma many of you may be familiar with the certification so we're going to start with this one when it comes to the chfp first of all if this reassures you everything that you need for the chfp is online there are two modules again both online and the first module is more academic oriented kind of like a college course with your different chapters and um learning checks at the end of each chapter and an exam at the end of the module itself and then the second module helps you to apply everything that you just learned in the first module so it's more practical real life case studies the great news about certifications with hfma is if you're an hfma member they are free and you also get cpes with doing these courses so as you can notice from this slide the chfp is actually worth 14 cpes another great thing about the chfp certification is anyone can take this course whether you just started in healthcare or you've been in healthcare for decades it is a great broad education that helps an environment such as health care that is so complex it helps the individual see that big picture and and learn or even reinforce things that they have already learned so it really is a good option for anybody whether you're new to health care or have been in it for a long time so we're going to walk through that module one that i was just referring to it's it's entitled the business of health care and i think you know for individuals coming in new to the health care industry it's important to know it is a business um you know many individuals have opinions on health care but it is very much a business and this course is super important to understand those different components so the first module is broken down into six components like i said they're kind of like each one is its own chapter different sections within and we're gonna walk through those sections um won't spend a ton of time on each one um but just so you kind of know what you're getting yourself into if you sign up for this course so thankfully the first section and of course on purpose the big picture this section sort of lays the foundation for all of the other sections within this first module it's good it lays some groundwork gives you that sort of 10 000 foot view so that as you start digging into details you can kind of understand how the details fit in with each other so you can see the different topics on the screen right now but you know healthcare reform is mentioned in this very first section so while it's high level it also starts really providing some great information and is definitely worth the time going through this first section then um the course starts to dig in a little bit deeper so financial accounting concepts section two what's great about this particular part of the course is not every person working in healthcare finance majored in accounting myself i did i'm a cpa i took all the courses in accounting but many of my co-workers through my career did not have those courses and for those of us that even did major in accounting and took those courses that was a long time ago so it's great information accounting type information you know financial statements reinforcing what you might already know or teaching people that aren't very familiar with financial statements and that type of information similarly section three takes a deeper dive into cost analysis and same thought here i mean i had a cost accounting class back in college but it wasn't about health care cost accounting classes typically focus on manufacturing and other industries and so the beauty of this is it's focused on health care and how cost analysis principles are applied so super helpful whether you have cost accounting experience or not section 4 starts to take a turn away from some of the basics and more mechanics of accounting and finance and look at strategy i know when i was brand new to my career which was way back in the mid 90s um i didn't hear a ton about strategy i'm sure strategy was was occurring in healthcare back then but strategic focus for for finance and health care is huge so this um this particular section provides a lot of great information um budgeting is not what it used to be it used to be you kind of could predict and do your budget and know what the next year might have in store but if 2020 has taught us anything um it's really hard to plan and know what's going to happen and even before 2020 you were just seeing such a rapidly changing environment in healthcare that makes you know budgeting far from simple and but there's a lot of techniques and strategies that can be used section five talks about managing resources this is um this particular section also starts to dive in a little bit to revenue cycle in health care so even if you're taking this course and say you don't have experience with billing or any of the components in the revenue cycle this is going to give you a great foundation with that information and again this is unique to health care so even if you went to school for accounting or finance you probably did not have courses that talked about a lot of the components that are in a healthcare revenue cycle the final section of the first module is a glimpse into the future which keeps changing constantly but it's a um it's a great wrap-up of the module and looks at a lot of the trends that are going on um business intelligence that's a huge buzzword and all kinds of industries and healthcare is no exception um population health has been such a focus on you know quality and the health of individuals versus just going through the motions and providing health care without an overall plan so that last section of the module is again just a great way to understand some of the innovations and other other things impacting health care so once you make it through all of those sections you will come to the exam and the exam is 75 questions they are multiple choice and you have 90 minutes to complete if you should happen to not pass the exam do not worry because you can retake it again in 30 days and again there's no fee it's still free and and this exam completely online and that the course really does prepare you for the exam having um i myself tub so even though i've been a member of hma since the mid 90s i became a chfp and then an fhfma in um 2019 so very recently and again i felt like the exam was very fair compared to all the material that they had provided that the hfma had provided so still talking about the chfp let's take a little turn and talk about module two so module two this is not different information from module one but what this does is um uses actual case studies to help you apply what you learned in module one because again module one very academic lots of facts lots of technical information uh but for working in healthcare itself you're gonna wanna know how do i use this information so in this case this exam will be eight case studies each case study has seven questions so there's 56 total questions and you have three hours to complete the case studies so that um that concludes the chfp section of our presentation um again if you have any questions we are more than happy to answer those questions or try to answer and we can get back to you if you have a question that we don't know off the top of our heads um but the other component of the chfp is it is a stepping stone for those that are interested in becoming um an fhfma fellow a fellow of the hfma um so for this it requires that you are a chfp and that you have been a member for five years you can you do not have to be an advanced hfma member and an advanced hfma member just means that you have earned at least 20 founders points awards so you don't have to have that you can see the bachelor degree or 120 semester hour requirement on the screen and then you do need to show that you have some volunteer activity in healthcare finance um within three years of your application and yet again this is free as well to become an fhfma so obtaining the certification that is step one but as was mentioned at the very beginning of the presentation you also do need to maintain your certification the maintenance requirements are on the screen right now 60 hours of continuing education every three years and 20 of those hours um must be hfma hours could be local regional or national there is on the hfma website where you can put your activity in there to maintain uh your certification and you're definitely going to want to do that as you're going along as you're attending hfma events or other educational events keep that updated so it's not a scramble at the end of three years or worse that you forget to do it national does send out some reminders danielle and i you know will try to help with that with some of our new newly certified individuals too just reminding you of the maintenance requirements but it's important to to do that obviously all right so that was the chfp and the fh fma and how to obtain them and stay certified there are also five specialist certifications that hfma offers these are also free and you can see the certifications on the screen and see how they're kind of taking now deeper dives into healthcare so the first one is accounting and finance focused the second one revenue cycle focus there's business intelligence physician practice management and managed care you can see the different cpes that you're eligible for for each one now these work very differently than what we were just discussing the test itself similar to chfp 75 questions 90 minutes online you can retake in 30 days if you're unsuccessful with your initial attempt but to maintain them you actually retest every two years it's a smaller exam it's 50 questions but you do need to do that every two years to maintain your certification okay so this um this brings us to the end of the technical material that we wanted to share um really what we're trying to make sure everyone is aware of is that you know certification i think in the beginning i know when i first started in healthcare and when i was initially a member of hfma i was a little bit afraid of it a little intimidated um but it's not meant to be that at all it's actually easier than it used to be it's supposed to just help you further your career expand your knowledge base it's a great opportunity if you're in leadership and have new staff joining your team that are brand new to health care it's a great great tool to use because there's no way you could possibly tell them everything that they need to know so this course really helps lay that foundation because remember experience helps but it is not necessary um all the material is there and you know danielle and i are just thrilled to be involved with certification and bring you this information our contact information is on the screen right now do not hesitate to reach out to us if you have a question um the other tool that we're bringing up this year is a cohort where individuals that are seeking certification can get together periodically we'll just do like a quick virtual meeting and um you know just kind of encourage each other danielle and i can answer any questions um you know our goal is just to make sure people know you're not alone working on the certification there's people here to support you and it's really worth your time so danielle if you wouldn't mind uh showing your uh face again there she is daniel's gonna share a little bit about her experience thanks danielle thanks lauren so my name is danielle and i work at berkeley research group and i've been working with lauren for the past few months on really trying to enhance the availability and accessibility of the certifications for maryland okay so to give a context about my background i came from unlike lauren um almost no finance at all exclusively public health and i learned more about science through through healthcare policy and management which is what my degrees are in and immediately after i got my master's i started working at the maryland department of health in the office of medicaid finance so it gives me a really good idea of how finance on the government side worked and the nature of maryland fall payer model but i really didn't feel like i had a strong command of how a provider whether it's a hospital or an individual office actually provides services any implications of both new cycle management so i started at berkeley research group earlier this year and i became an hfma member when i got there and i noticed that there were several free certification options and i kind of put them in the back of my head and as i was starting to get my feet under me in this new job i started on the certified healthcare finance professional the chfp modules to really kind of get a little bit more uh confident in the in my command of the finance side of especially the hospital industry and of course during the early days of copenhagen i found myself with a lot more availability to devote strong time to getting a good command of these issues and i started and finished modules one and two and i ultimately earned my chsp on april 3rd and getting that certification gave me um first more letters after my name which let's be honest it's kind of fun to see but it also really allowed me to understand concepts of healthcare finance that i hadn't personally worked in before such as those private provider offices and implications of supply chain management and it made me feel a lot more confident in my job because the notes that i took from those modules are just a really great resource to have when i need to check my understanding of a task that does come across my desk after earning my certification i encouraged one of my colleagues actually to devote a lot more time to it as well and she ended up earning her chfp a few weeks later and i think it was a lot of her 20 plus years in the industry that gave her a particularly strong footing but i'm really glad that we had the shared experience because we're both on our way to becoming fellows of the hfma which as we talked about before you must have a chfsp to earn your fellowship so overall i'm really happy that i prioritize my professional development during covet especially and now i just have that more solid understanding of different aspects of the industry that i hadn't worked in be ore plus i also had that networking relationship with my colleagues and i'm looking forward to pursuing additional certifications in the future and personally i would highly recommend anyone especially you in the industry in industry for a few years to just take the chfc course either you are able to learn something new or you get a different view of things you haven't thought of before but whatever your motivations are it's a well-designed course that is straightforward and it's practical use of your time and you can take something away from it no matter what you're looking for um so yeah i am happy to answer any questions lauren um i'm also uh don't see anything coming up yeah i don't see any q and a's yet but we have a q a for our audience um and you can be honest we have a polling question that we're going to put up on the screen right now because we're curious for those on the phone if you will be pursuing certification we're hoping we've been very convincing but [Laughter] uh lauren while we're waiting for a few more people to put their answers in we do have a question the question is if you pass module one and fail module two do you have to complete both module one and two to earn your chsp i don't think so i think once you pass module one that's good that's you're done and then you um module two you could retake we can double check that but i do not danielle do you know the answer to that i don't think you have to go back and retake one no if i believe if you fail to you do not have to retake one but you will have to pass module two yep all right well i am happy to report that 88 of those of you on the phone are going to pursue certification which is awesome and 13 of you are still considering and no one has ruled it out yet so that's good um we vote danielle and i both had such a positive experience uh from it very different backgrounds um situations but both feel like it is definitely worth the time i think we have another question or maybe that's the one uh yeah oh we have a we have a question would you recommend starting with crcr then working towards chfp so this is a good question um i think it's really up to up to the individual chsp is such a great foundation that i think it's a great first step for certification but if you are already working heavily in revenue cycle and really want to get that specialist certification and do that deeper dive into revenue cycle i don't think there's anything wrong with doing that either but i think what's good about the chfp is it will end up helping you and your revenue cycle roll because of giving you that foundation and you can kind of see where revcycle fits in um that's that's only the reason i think i would recommend starting with the chsp but really it's it's up to the individual i mean obviously these certifications do take a little bit of time so if you're kind of chomping at the bit to really dig in and see what's in that crcr certification um that's one that i actually myself am considering i haven't done that yet but my background is in charge master i've always worked very closely with patient financial services so i do i do want to kind of dig into that one too i see a question about volunteer too um that you know the volunteer activity is required can you elaborate on the types of activities and particular criteria um i think the criteria itself is probably pretty broad but what we find there are so many opportunities to serve in maryland hfma or whichever hfma chapter that you're a member of so that's a great way to volunteer because not only will you be volunteering but once you start to work with your peers whether you're planning an event or whatever you're doing with hfma you'll find you're learning from the volunteer experience too so it's kind of like a win-win um to volunteer with the local chapter so and again if you're not sure how to get involved just contact the board anyone on the board we'll be thrilled to hear from you and definitely have ways that you can help even with the pandemic where we stopped being able to have face-to-face events there's still so much going on behind the scenes that you might not be aware of so it's a great way to to interview or to volunteer event speaking of interviewing though but that was not on purpose i was going to share some of our upcoming events that we have with maryland hfma in october 28th so that's really soon and that's next week we have some mock interviews that are happening for some of our newer members of hfma and then in november november 11th we have a healthcare career day panel then eleven oh i see we have another question um let me just finish uh running through these events and then we'll go back to the q a uh friday november 13th there is uh the first part of our charge master coding and challenges workshop and that will be focusing on january 1 updates so getting folks ready for 2021 and then on december 4th there will be a part 2 to that for a deeper dive into some of the maryland specific issues associated with the 2021 updates um later on in december december 11th we have an entrepreneurship and innovation and healthcare event coming up and i think that's probably enough to throw at you for right now but we do have other events um once we get into 2021 as well that are on our website but i want to get to our questions so um we have another question that came in this individual is a grant accountant for a health care company and interested in chfp how would this certification help me get noticed by employers in the healthcare field are healthcare employers interested in this certification and how could it impact salary so that's a great question first of all um i think this certification does help employers to know a little bit more about your background and you know danielle as you shared kind of how you became interested in the course it really helped to round you know your experience out i think and show that you do have you know financial knowledge with health care so yes i would say that healthcare employers do look at the certification it does help you get noticed um regarding salary that's a hard question to answer um because i think it depends on the position depends on the organization that you're going to work for but it's a credential like danielle said it's fun to get more initials behind your knees but but it is a credential and it shows that you took the time um you know because being a grant account there's probably a lot that you're seeing in the healthcare company that you work for but there's a lot you might not be seeing and this shows that um you know how you have more background than perhaps your current position shows so that's a great question are there any other uh questions from the group before i learn we have uh oh okay you want to tackle this one uh i see two more questions yeah yeah we have one asking is the online course self-paced uh the answer is yes absolutely is self-paced um and that's really very helpful if you want to jump in while you have a you know half hour hour before something else going on you're able to get as far or just be as deliberate with a section as you'd like to be i would say if i had to give my best estimate it maybe took me about 18 or so hours to from start to finish to do my chfp it's hard to remember because i did do it over a period about four months i have a personal story to share too on that question whether the course is self-paced or not so it definitely is and i believe they give you a year to complete it um so personal story i signed up for the certification again i've been working in healthcare since the mid-90s so this wasn't a decision i rushed into and um within a week of me signing up had very devastating news uh regarding the health of my husband and um still ended up completing the certification within the year time frame um but i actually had to um do what danielle was saying just kind of okay i can work on a half an hour here i can work an hour here i had to be very strategic with my time but it did offer that flexibility so that's what's good about it too i mean we don't know what life has in store whether it's at our home or at our work but this course does offer that flexibility so i think that's helpful too danielle it sounds like you kind of powered right through it and that was probably my initial intentions but life had other plans so for any of you kind of worried about that well what if you know suddenly i start having to work massive amounts of hours and i can't devote time to it it's there when you're ready to pick it back up you know as long as you're taking great notes you know and you know exactly where you actually the system keeps track of where you stopped so when you log back in um so it's great for that too so hopefully that eases some of your minds if that was a concern you can work on it two in the morning too no one no one cares and then another question i see is the exam proctored remotely or in person it is all remote 100 is online and i do not believe that you have the supervision that maybe you do for some other credentials so you do not have to schedule the exam you can take it at your leisure but it must be taken in one period of time yep um agree because they're um i definitely you have other certifications and credentials that required what danielle just mentioned scheduling it in person but this one's much more flexible any other um any other questions oh okay prior to covid were the exams administered at prometric sites just curious because oh that was the question you were just i think answering but yeah no you don't have to go to a site and it was like that even before covent because danielle or you took your course during but i took mine in um 2019 back when life was a different version of normal i guess and just to clarify you don't when i say proctored you don't need to purchase or have an external camera so there isn't someone watching you take an exam other exams i know do do that but this one is not like that right all right someone another question came in do we know anyone that's completed the csppm and is this geared toward independent physician practices versus affiliated physician groups um first of all i believe we do have members with the certification so we can look those individuals up and get back to you on who has done that certification but i believe we do have some we'll double check that and i have not taken this course but i would assume it's the course is probably geared towards either situation whether the practice is independent or affiliated i'm wondering if it's leaning more towards the affiliated practices um just i don't know i we can ask the individuals that have taken the course if they feel like it kind of covers both but considering the environment and the fact that you have both in existence hopefully it does speak to both settings all right how do i register for the class okay that's all online on the hfma website if you um there's a whole section on the website geared towards certification and it will walk you through the steps to sign up for the course let's see what happens if internet connectivity is not stable while you're taking the exam and it knocks you out are you able to get back in to finish that might have to be a case by case basis on i said that didn't happen to me fortunately that's a good question what do you think daniel yeah i'm trying to remember because i remember taking it in my basement which is not um the most you know the connections if i had my if i had a guess of what happened to me because i probably did lose connection they probably refreshed and i had to enter again um but my time kept running i believe it's i believe that's what happened okay the 90 minutes yep which danielle did you have any trouble finishing in 90 minutes i don't remember it being an issue yeah no personally um i think i i got through the first half the first module one relatively quickly and i think maybe the second module which she said it says three hours total um i think i got through that in a little bit longer than i did the first one because the second module is the case studies and you have to read a little bit more um and think a little bit um in a more liberal arts thinking way right agree someone asked a question i was kind of expecting so is it an open book exam so it's not meant to be the time constraints are meant to that you would have studied and you would know the material um well enough that you can pretty much kind of cruise through the questions um so i i took copious notes during the whole course because that's how i remember information by reading it and looking at it and writing it um but yeah it's meant to be your typical exam like you would do for a for a course let's see for module one will the questions be similar to the questions we see through the module uh so like the practice questions versus the exam itself i think they were similar um the you know there might have been a few like some tricky questions on the exam but i think for the most part they didn't throw you too many curveballs like you would have read the information had practice questions on the material i felt like it was a fair course in exam they weren't trying to um trip you up too much what did you think daniel you know personally i think that the questions during the module one were honestly i thought they were a little bit easier than the exam um just because of the exam you have to pull in a little bit more knowledge um to kind of synthesize everything um so that was my personal experience um yeah and i also um unless you have anything else to add lauren i do um i see one question asking a little bit more for clarification on the first bit of the session um to give a quick recap of what happened for anyone who maybe joined us a little bit later the chfp exam consists of two modules module one and module two they um they are exams and that will determine your understanding of the course topic which is the certified healthcare finance professional exam and there are resources that are free available as part of the chfp certification process that you're able to read and use and you're also obviously encouraged to take your own notes but there is no textbook that you have to purchase and any materials that would be supporting you during the exam are just like the exam free to take and we have a question is there an opportunity to take a sample exam while there again there's some sample kind of study questions throughout the course remember that when you take that exam if you happen to not pass it you can retake in 30 days so really there's no risk um you shouldn't be stressing yourself out because you do have that opportunity to retake if if it was a little too much for you and you know you're well i wasn't prepared for this or that um you do have the opportunity to retake the test so hopefully that eases your mind if you were concerned that you know that initial time it just might be too much so they really are trying to work with everyone um to support certification national hfma has really put together some great materials okay um anything else any other questions oh i like this question should we expect the questions to be hard like the cpa exam no i haven't survived both i can assure you no hopefully that is for mine i blocked out most of the cpa exam because that was a long time ago um i do see one last question on my end um lauren if we have any tips on taking the exam or if there's a section that requires a little bit more focused studying so i think that's going to be individual if there's a particular area that you know you haven't had a lot of experience in and you know you really want to pay close attention to those particular areas but i don't remember any particular error maybe some of the formulas i think i really tried to memorize formulas that i i really hadn't um because of the way the direction my career has taken me i hadn't used some of those formulas for quite some time um so so that's something but i i think that's gonna be individual if it's a particular area again that you're pretty new to would you agree danielle yeah yeah i would definitely agree um i felt you know obviously because of my background i felt pretty secure with the policy questions and the sour e of payer questions but i didn't feel i feel like i needed a little bit more attention devoted to any of the basic financial cash flows you know supply management those aspects were for me what i needed to focus on great and we have a question will this broadcast be shared later we are happy to report that today's session has been recorded will be on the maryland hfma website for individuals that maybe you think are interested in certification you can refer them to that site to view or if you missed a portion of today it will be out there and thank you all again so much for joining i think we're going to close down right now but feel free to reach out to danielle and i at any time we're happy to help thank you thanks everybody you