Region 8 Mid America Summer Institute

SAVE THE DATE

2024 Mid America Summer Institute recap

The 11th annual 2024 HFMA Region 8 Mid-America Summer institute was held in Omaha, NE this year for the first time ever. We were fortunate to bring together 300 members, with approximately 130 attendees from the provider community, and over 25 of those attendees were first time scholarship recipients! The theme for this year’s MASI was “It’s Time,” and it was time for us to gather, collaborate, share best practices and ideas, challenge ourselves, and celebrate being together again as the Midwest Nice HFMA Region 8.

To start things off, we were beyond fortunate to have as our first keynote speaker John Cook, Nebraska Head Volleyball Coach whose presentation was “Dream Like a Champion.” It was a packed house, and his message was both relevant and inspiring. He spoke about how he has had to transform his coaching style over the years to connect with his team members as the generations changed, remembering his “why,” and finding his outlet away from coaching. His three daily questions resonated with so many at the conference and are good reminders for those that manage or coach others:

Who needs me today?
Would I be chosen again today?
Would I want to be coached by me today?

It will be virtually impossible to top John Cook as our keynote speaker for next year’s MASI in 2025, but the team is already working on it, so stay tuned… The remainder of the first day included some of our Spark sessions, Day Egusquiza’s presentation on “Payer’s Still Going Wild” and a panel presentation on Healthcare Strategic Initiatives from Eide Bailly.

We would like to thank our sponsors for their generous support of MASI! Through their support, they helped fund over 50 providers to attend MASI and stay overnight for free this year. They also helped to support an awesome event on Monday night at Let it Fly, which featured singer Kaylyn Sahs and a cornhole tournament that David Cartier and Chad Tysdahl won, congratulations! The food and drinks were delicious, the tunes kept everyone moving, and the conversations were bountiful.

Tuesday flew by with special guest and keynote HFMA President & CEO, Ann Jordan, who presented on “Leading the Change” and also served as our moderator for the CFO panel that directly followed her presentation. We also loved having Ann join us Monday night for our social and again on Tuesday to present and mingle with attendees. Her presentation was both thoughtful and shared an openness for feedback and change that was very well received. The CFO panel included panelists Mike Dewerff, Austin Willuweit, Jana Cook, and Sandra Christensen. Each panelist had a different background and was also in a different wave of their career, which allowed for a diverse discussion that attendees noted real takeaways. Thank you to Ann, Mike, Austin, Jana & Sandra for giving up your time to be at MASI this year and being so supportive of HFMA! The rest of Tuesday’s meeting was filled with more Spark sessions, a fantastic and dynamic session from Seth Katz on “Manage Through Getting Hacked” and finishing up with a “Best Practices Roundtable” discussion moderated by Matt Ellis, EnableComp, and Courtney McNamee, Altru. This was immediately followed by our social hour, which featured our annual awards banquet and charity, P4K, helping get 200 kiddos ready for school by providing backpacks and other essentials.

Day three, Wednesday, was more of a bootcamp day this year with special guests Baird Holm providing their “Legal and Regulatory Update” and then a focused program from Ed Norwood titled “5 Things Medicare Advantage Plans,” which provided detailed instructions on how to challenge denials in today’s environment. Several individuals stated Ed’s presentation was unique and the best of the whole conference!

We hope all those that attended MASI year had a great time, and we truly appreciate everyone taking time out of their busy summer to attend. I personally want to say thank you to the Region 8 Core team – Geoff Knobloch, Abbey Stangl, Jana Cook, Jess Paisley, Sheila Augustine, Courtney McNamee, Andrea Lindsay, Jennifer Ogden, Lauren Beard, Shelly Soupir, Chad Tysdahl, Jeremy Behrens, Jill Nelson, Liz Murphy, Brittany Roth, Stacy DeMarse, Meghan Lunetto, Ashley Talley and several others who we called in favors to (you know who you are), they are the best group – Region 8 Rocks!

Mark your calendars, save the date, and plan not to miss August 3-5, 2025, back at the Downtown Omaha Marriott. This will be the last year in Omaha when MASI moves to Des Moines for 2026 and 2027!

Jean Nyberg
Regional Executive 2023-2024 HFMA Region 8

Exhibit and Sponsorship Opportunities

Exhibit & Sponsorship Opportunities for the 2025 Mid America Summer Institute! Serving over 8,000 healthcare professionals across seven chapters, your organization will receive recognition and gain exposure for an entire year.

Questions? Contact [email protected]