Hundreds of attendees joined day one of ACA’s virtual conference, which kicked off with an inspirational keynote from Kelli Masters and election insights.
11/4/2020 14:30
ACA International’s Virtual Fall Forum & Expo started on an inspirational note with a presentation by Kelli Masters during the Women in Collections Resource Council (WICRC) special session, followed by a day of interactive education and networking among attendees and vendors.
Don’t let fear control you, take action, find your purpose and move forward, Masters, an attorney, an NFL sports agent and founder and president of KMM Sports, encouraged during her presentation “From Pushover to Pioneer,” sponsored by PayScout and Account Management Resources.
Masters engaged with attendees, answering questions on how to find a mentor and overcome career obstacles while sharing her successes, battles and failures along the way.
“The opposite of fear is action,” Masters said, encouraging attendees to identify where their fear is and make the switch to move forward and overcome it.
Following the keynote, attendees heard from ACA’s leadership and advocacy team on the election results and what they mean for our industry and businesses. Members can read more on the session here.
Fall Forum also featured education tracks, including health care, continuing legal education for members, new My Forum peer-to-peer sessions, and operations webinars.
Starting the breakout sessions on health care, Dempsey met with members of the ACA/Healthcare Financial Management (HFMA) Association Medical Accounts Resolution Task Force for a discussion of best practices in medical debt collections that were updated this year.
Chad Mulvany, director, health care financial practices, perspectives and analysis, at HFMA said the task force updated the best practices in part to provide a framework of steps to take prior to using an “extraordinary collection actions” (ECAs).
A year ago, Tim Haag, a member of the task force and president of State Collection Service Inc., said updating the best practices helped provide a checklist for ECAs and making sure guidelines are clear.
The practices also provide an overview of what collectors can discuss with consumers.
“I think it’s more important now than ever to have this dialogue with our clients so we can help fill the gaps,” added George Buck, former president emeritus of Frost-Arnett Company and an accounts receivable management industry consultant specializing in health care, during the Q&A.
The task force was in the middle of working on the best practices when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, causing a pivot in addressing patient communications, Dempsey said. The group also discussed the health care collections and credit reporting landscape going forward and challenges that could occur down the line.
Read more on the ACA/HFMA best practices report here.
At the My Forum peer-to-peer discussion on IT management, moderated by Courtney Reynaud, president of Creditors Bureau USA, attendees chatted about a variety of tech-focused topics. Their conversations covered data security investments they’ve made, how they keep work-from-home employees compliant, business continuity plan tweaks implemented this year and how they approach text messaging. Attendees shared challenges, solutions and even recommendations as the dialogue flowed from topic to topic.
Wednesday’s sessions concluded with continuing legal education for members on the Telephone Consumer Protection Act; maximizing recoveries in health care; operations insights on understanding and adapting to new environments; technology; situations that challenge our way of doing business and more. If you missed a breakout session in the healthcare or operations track, they are available on demand.
Connecting on a social level to end the day of learning and networking, the WICRC hosted a virtual happy hour to discuss how role models have shaped women’s leadership experiences yesterday, today and tomorrow and ACA’s Political Action Committee hosted a fall hangout online to chat about the election and advocacy.
On Thursday, join My Forum sessions on finance and sales or brush up on operations, health care and legal education during the remainder of ACA’s Virtual Fall Forum & Expo. Take an interactive tour of the virtual platform here.
Don’t forget to interact with your fellow attendees in the Social Lounge, visit the sponsor showcase, and check out ACA’s resource tab on the virtual platform with information on compliance, state government affairs, publications, risk management services, and more.
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Thank you to Fall Forum sponsors FICO, Interactions, Observe.AI, Renkim Corporation, Solutions by Text, Applied Innovation Inc., RevSpring, DAKCS, Clear Payment Solutions LLC, Debt$Net Collection Software, KG Hawes, Payscout LLC, The Intelitech Group, Attunely Inc., Roydan Enterprises Ltd., WebRecon LLC, American Business Communication Inc., VoApps Direct Drop Voicemail, NobelBiz., Pay N Seconds, ExpertSource Global Services Private Ltd., Provana LLC, Repay Realtime Electronic Payments, Prodigal, Interprose, Paymentus and Collectors Insurance Agency.