7:45 AM - 4:30 PM

Add to your Fall Forum experience by registering for ACA's Visionaries conference! Those registered for Fall Forum will receive the special discounted rates of $499 for members and $795 for nonmembers. Seats are limited.

Visionaries is a goal-centered, engaging experience for women at every level of an organization. The two-day event offers incredible opportunities for business networking, career empowerment, and personal growth. All are welcome.

Each person who attends the conference is a visionary. Each attendee is there to:  

• Discover that they are a visionary if they didn’t think they were when they walked into the room.
• Share their knowledge and experiences to help others define what success in the industry looks like.
• Create or add to a vision for their own professional and personal development through content learned in sessions and through connecting with other women in the industry.

Visionaries Agenda:

• Tuesday, November 1: 6:30 - 8:30 PM
• Wednesday, November 2: 7:45 AM - 4:30 PM

Visit the Visionaries event page to see the full slate of sessions offered and detailed schedule.

3:00 PM - 4:30 PM

3:00 PM - 6:30 PM

Sponsored by: 

5:00 PM - 7:00 PM

5:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Sponsored by: 

7:45 AM - 8:15 AM

Sponsored by: 

7:45 AM - 4:00 PM

Sponsored by: 

8:15 AM - 9:15 AM

Join Washington insiders Nadeam Elshami and Brian Wild as they provide bipartisan and bicameral based predictions about the election, which falls less than one week after Fall Forum.

Elshami, who served for 25 years in Congress departing as chief of staff to House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Wild, who worked in the White House in the Bush Administration and as Patrick Toomey’s (R-PA) chief of staff, among many other roles as a congressional staffer, will base their election prediction on their unique insights on both sides of the aisle and experiences with campaigns. As Washington, DC comes to Chicago, this discussion is a must see for all interested in what the future political environment holds, which will have major implications for the ARM Industry.

9:15 AM - 10:00 AM

Sponsored by: 

10:00 AM - 11:00 AM

Want the secret sauce to staying in business? Our agencies and our healthcare clients are facing the same pressures of changing laws that affect our viability. The key for all of us to weather the storm is good advocacy!  Come find out everything you always wanted to know about building and participating in a grassroots advocacy program with your Healthcare clients. This session will focus on the how what, why, and when of building and promoting advocacy relationships on a local and state level.

10:00 AM - 11:00 AM

This session will dive into the management, monitoring, and engagement of work-from-home (WFH) agents. WFH is here to stay, and we’ll shed light on why it should be embraced. If set up correctly, your WFH agents will bring in more revenue, reduce your overall costs, decrease complaints and increase morale. You’ll hear practical insight from the speakers’ experiences to give you actionable ideas, methods, and takeaways to bring back to your organization.

10:00 AM - 11:00 AM

Attorneys face a wide range of stressors in their daily work lives that may pose unique mental health challenges. Normalizing the discussion of these health concerns and managing them is crucial for sustaining well-performing client services. In this session, you will learn:

·      How litigation and collection practices may trigger mental health concerns.

·      Common warning signs to help you monitor your colleagues, employees, and yourself for signs of distress.

·      Resources to help when you or your coworkers are struggling.

·      Steps lawyers can take to develop resilience and self-care techniques.

11:10 AM - 12:10 PM

It is common for many of us to hire collectors without prior collection experience. We often expect our collectors to be naturally great conversationalists. Our bottom line relies on these conversationalists to talk effectively and intelligently about money all day. What are your employees’ abilities to actually do this and what is their overall financial literacy level—or lack of? In this session, you’ll learn how you can ensure your front-line debt collectors are set up for success throughout their training and development to have a well-rounded sense of financial literacy.  In this session, you will learn:

·      Which tools and systems you should have in place during onboarding to set your new hire up for financial literacy success.

·      Resources you can provide to your staff to continuously support them.  For example, ACA’s Know My Debt website: www.knowmydebt.com) 

·      How to address this topic throughout the year.

You’ll also learn how to support your staff in their financial literacy journey from a personal perspective, not just what serves your business. You will walk away with concrete solutions that can be implemented right away!

11:10 AM - 12:10 PM

Unintended consequences abound.  Surprises everywhere.  How can an Act intended to “resolve” billing issues and treatment costs at the “front end” (before and when the patient/consumer receives treatment) be used to negatively impact collections that place at the “back end” of the billing cycle?  The No Surprise Act was enacted to give consumers “up front” information on what their treatment will cost them out-of-pocket.  But somehow the Act has been interpreted to ensnare collection professionals long after the Act’s intended popping of all “surprise” bubbles was supposed to have taken place.

We will explore the CFPB’s Bulletin on this topic that reads, in part: “The Bureau reminds debt collectors about [the] FDCPA prohibition . . . on misrepresentations [which] includes misrepresenting that a consumer must pay a debt stemming from a charge that exceeds the amount permitted by the No Surprises Act.  Thus, for example, a debt collector who represents that a consumer owes a debt arising from out-of-network charges for emergency services may violate the prohibition on misrepresentations if those charges exceed the amount permitted by the No Surprises Act.”

Come and hear how this tortured path impacting collectors came to be.  More important, come learn about some processes and procedures that you might consider implementing to help lessen your risks associated with yet another regulation (intended for others), is being interpreted as applicable to the collections of that debt.

11:10 AM - 12:10 PM

The new administrations at the CFPB and FTC are not only aggressive in terms of content, they are also changing the process and ways in which they are conducting investigations and audits. They are truly acting as prosecutors, not regulators. This new dynamic is causing companies to revisit the “best practices” playbook for responding to governmental investigations, inquiries and audits. Attend this interactive and workshop-style session to learn the ways in which they are changing the way they operate and some strategies for your success.

In this session, you will learn:

·      New techniques and protocols used by the agencies, including current best practice trends.

·      Subjects of interest to the agencies that impact our industry, including high-level compliance initiatives that companies should consider to minimize regulatory and enforcement risks.

·      Risk management strategies being implemented by major stakeholders in the industry.

·      Emergency action plan strategies and tasks to be considered.

12:10 PM - 1:20 PM

Let’s take a break from sessions and learn about each other. If you could make a holiday, what would it be? Have you ever met a celebrity? Would you rather? Pick from 23 table topics and enjoy fun conversations during lunch.

Sponsored by:

1:20 PM - 2:20 PM

Months after Rohit Chopra was seated as the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), he announced his plans to approach regulation. He explained the CFPB will move away from “highly complicated rules that have long been a staple of consumer financial regulation” and toward formulating simpler rules and issuing significantly more guidance. These words have sent shock waves through the ARM industry because they mark a new kind of CFPB—one that abandons the administrative rigor required for rulemaking for its more informal stepsister, guidance.

Between January 2022 and October 2023, the bureau released over eight guidance bulletins and advisory opinions and initiated as many enforcement actions. This session will give you a fast-paced look at the CFPB’s new rules for debt collection—not the ones we know as Reg F, but new, stringent rules dressed as helpful guidance.

1:20 PM - 2:20 PM

Getting Healthcare collectors to be stars takes a lot of monitoring auditing and coaching.  They can be trained and still not use their knowledge where they need to, allowing them to be the most effective.  In this session, two healthcare collection experts will share ways to use analytics and other data and tools to know where to help your healthcare collectors improve continuously from the cradle to the grave.  You should be able to accurately assess if they are using the education and tools, you gave them to understand the patient and the most efficient ways to handle healthcare accounts.  Are they responding appropriately, looking for all your healthcare client expects them to be? You will find this session helpful to leaders monitoring their collectors so they can achieve the best results while collecting healthcare debt.

1:20 PM - 2:20 PM

An omnichannel communication strategy can introduce both benefits and risks. In this session, you will learn:

·      What communication channels are available, the risks associated with each and the best way to implement those that fit within your company’s risk tolerance and within the confines of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA).

·       Recommendations provided by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under Regulation F.

·      The trials and tribulations of the carrier and aggregators attempts to block debt collection text messages.

2:20 PM - 3:00 PM

Sponsored by: 

3:00 PM - 4:00 PM

This is Not the End of Healthcare Collections:Utilization of Technology and Strategies to Maintain the Bottom Line

The new and restrictive state and Federal rules keep piling on, clients continue to put downward pressure on contingency fees, and finding and retaining staff is still a significant challenge – how does an agency continue to collect on healthcare debt while maintaining at least a modicum of bottom-line profitability?

In this session, you will learn how to regain control of your revenue through strategies and technology utilization.

The panel discussions will be focused around:

a. Account scoring and segmentation

b. Account scrubbing and data enrichment

c. Communication through text and email

d. Self service and chat

3:00 PM - 4:00 PM

Just when you thought “lazy” and “unprofessional” were among the worst employee characteristics, it turns out that the “middle-of-the-roaders" are even worse. Why? Because the middle-of-the-road employee is the semi-disengaged employee who shows up every day and does just enough to get by and stay employed because being mediocre isn’t a fireable offense.  

In this session, you will learn:

• How to understand the engagement level of your workforce.
• How to transform the middle-of-the-road employee to a highly engaged employee.
• How to stop the middle-of-the-roader from recruiting your highly engaged employees to their side of the fence.  

3:00 PM - 4:00 PM

Enterprising consumer counsel have learned to weaponize consumer contracts containing an arbitration provision with a class-action waiver. Now, when an action may be best addressed through a class action, consumers' counsel find hundreds of consumers to bring individual claims with the American Arbitration Association, regardless of merits. Each action costs the defending company $3,400 in filing fees, such that consumers' counsel attempt to extort a settlement for less than that amount for each claimant This session will: 

·      Provide in-house legal counsel with an early strategy for reduction in arbitration fees.

·      Provide strategies to shift financial risk away from the company and onto the consumers' counsel.

·      Provide suggestions for arbitration provisions that may avoid the filing of mass-volume arbitrations in the future.

4:00 PM - 5:00 PM

5:00 PM - 6:30 PM

Benefitting the ACPAC Administrative Fund. Additional fees apply.

Join in on a round of America’s favorite wheel game while supporting the ACPAC Administrative Fund. This event will be held at the hotel. Tickets are $65 and include hosted bar, snacks and the game. Limited space – buy your ticket today!

Sponsored by: Applied Innovation, Connect International, Martin Lyons Watts Morgan & Carlson & Messer. 

8:00 AM - 8:30 AM

8:00 AM - 10:00 AM

Sponsored by: 

8:30 AM - 9:30 AM

If you don’t tell our politicians what you want them to do, you have no right to complain or be surprised when they make poor choices that harm us, our businesses and our country. 

So often, we attend conferences, hear about ACA’s advocacy efforts, get excited about participating, and then fail to follow through. Many of us get bogged down in the ambiguity of what we could do, and the time it would take. A lot of us are also intimidated by the thought of talking to our government officials, not knowing exactly what to say or do.

  This session will provide specific steps to help you take immediate action while respecting your daily time constraints. We will not waste time trying to convince you to advocate—most of you want to do that already. “Why” is the not the hang-up;  “how” is the hang-up.

In this session, you will learn:

·      How to use ACA’s materials in your advocacy efforts.

·      Practical ways you can immediately and effectively participate in the advocacy process.

·      What some members (including the speakers) are doing on their own.

·      Simple tips on how to effectively advocate within your already busy day.

8:30 AM - 9:30 AM

Due to the way the CFPB has messaged medical debt credit reporting, even agencies who don’t currently credit report medical debt are negatively impacted by patients’ responses to this national change. 

In this healthy debate, Jeffrey S. Berenholz, Esq.,Chief Legal and Compliance Officer

Annuity Health will depress us all by discussing the numerous reasons NOT to report healthcare debt, while Paul Sachtleben, President, Frost-Arnett Company holds the unenviable position of defending the practice.

Scott Purcell, Chief Executive Officer, ACA International, will wrap up the session by providing the key elements of conversations you should be having with your Provider clients about how these changes will negatively impact their recovery.

Expect to walk away with a clear understanding of the risks, costs, and benefits associated with reporting healthcare debt so you and your provider you can more confidently make educated credit reporting decisions.

8:30 AM - 9:30 PM

This fun-filled session will cover the pending FTC Safeguards Rule requirements going into effect on Dec. 9.   Learn how to meet the requirements that are coming and hear an overview of how these requirements are mapped to current data security frameworks your businesses may be already adhering to. In addition, we will look at state regulators' new information security inspection guidelines and use them to accomplish these objectives:

·      Help you develop a gap assessment you can perform regarding your written information security policies

·      Identify key areas where training and awareness would be an essential preventive strategy.

·      Provide some practical suggestions on updating your WISP (written information security policy).

9:40 AM - 10:40 AM

This presentation will discuss the recently enacted No Surprises Act as well as recent State laws and regulations targeting medical debt collections and the CFPB's position on medical debt collection and credit reporting.  We also will discuss how the CRAs have modified their policies in response to the CFPB's guidance. We will finish with a discussion of how this all may affect an agency's ability to stay compliant with collections and reporting of medical debt.

Three objectives:

1.  Understanding the No Surprises Act and other State Laws Affecting Medical Debt Collections

2.  Understanding the CFPB guidance in the Area of Medical Debt Collections and Credit Reporting

3. Understanding Areas of Concern in Maintaining Compliance

9:40 AM - 10:40 AM

Procrastinators, beware! The new FTC Safeguards Rule is coming. In this session, you will learn:

·      What do agencies and law firms need to do to be prepared and compliant before Dec. 9, 2022.

·      The expectations for small businesses under the FTC Safeguards Rules including agencies and collection law firms.

·      How to build on what your law firm already has in place.

·      What vendors can help you jump-start compliance steps.

9:40 AM - 10:40 AM

Grasping Defeat From The Jaws Of Victory: Don't Let Your Defensible Consumer Claim Go Sideways Through Initial Pleadings And Discovery (ETHICS)

Dealing with initial pleadings and the discovery process in technical, low or no-damage consumer claims can be a frustrating distraction for defendants, who may be tempted to follow a basic playbook of removal and immediate motions while placing discovery matters on the back-burner and hoping the case goes away.  However, if the initial phases and discovery in consumer litigation are not handled with care, a seemingly innocuous or even frivolous case can suddenly go sideways.  Discuss and learn about examples of mistakes in removal, initial pleadings, and discovery that can put you in a bad light with the Court, give rise to attorney ethics issues concerning fairness to opposing parties and candor toward the tribunal, and ultimately make a consumer claim more difficult to defend or efficiently resolve. 

10:50 AM - 11:50 AM

A Conversation with the Better Business Bureau: Can the ARM Industry and the BBB See Eye-to-Eye on Consumer Protection?

The Better Business Bureau and the accounts receivable management industry have not always seen eye to eye with each other. Many in the industry see the BBB as an adversary. However, in many cases, there is more that unites us than divides us. Both groups care about consumer protection and consumer trust. Attend this session to hear from two industry experts and an executive with the Better Business Bureau on how we can work with each other to build a relationship that, first and foremost, helps the consumer. In this session, you will learn:

·      How the BBB can help companies in the ARM industry manage and improve their brand and reputation.

·      Why you should respond to BBB complaints and how to properly do so.

·      How the BBB rating system works and how you can improve your rating.

·      The process for which the BBB verifies and publishes reviews.

·      The relationship between the BBB and state AGs, state consumer protection agencies, the FTC and the CFPB.

10:50 AM - 11:50 AM

Join our panel of seasoned collection compliance attorneys for a fast-paced collections compliance trek across all 50 states. During our trip, attendees will refresh on various state collection requirements, as well as best practice recommendations to reduce and manage related operational risk.  At each stop, we will discuss notable state requirements and other developments relating to consumer contact strategies, consumer-facing communications, fair treatment, collection litigation, medical and student loan collections, licensing, and more. We also will anticipate what is coming around the bend as we drive into 2023.  Fasten your seatbelts!