{"id":1375,"date":"2013-11-11T13:33:28","date_gmt":"2013-11-11T13:33:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.billingparadise.com\/blog\/?p=1375"},"modified":"2018-01-04T08:40:18","modified_gmt":"2018-01-04T13:40:18","slug":"stephen-dickens-new-mgma-chair-poised-cheer-healthcare-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.billingparadise.com\/blog\/stephen-dickens-new-mgma-chair-poised-cheer-healthcare-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Dickens – the New MGMA Chair Poised to Cheer the Healthcare System"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cheering Moment of BillingParadise @ MGMA \u00a0!<\/span><\/h2>\n

At MGMA Conference 2013, our CEO, S. Shiva Kumar met Stephen Dickens<\/strong>, the incumbent Chair of MGMA. Our CEO was much impressed with Dickens\u2019 dynamism and herein we are presenting the extract of Dickens\u2019 interview, which has been given for the eminent healthcare delegates<\/span> of the massive gathering.<\/p>\n

Stephen Dickens<\/strong>, a dynamic professional who specializes in healthcare and regulatory issues, has been appointed as the incumbent chair of Medical Group Management Association (MGMA)<\/strong> Board. This appointment is a forerunner of a bright future for the US medical fraternity with promises of innovative and revolutionary changes.<\/p>\n

Dickens\u2019 basic qualifications include Juris Doctor (JD)<\/strong>, Fellow of the American College of Medical Practice Executives (FACMPE)<\/strong>, and Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE)<\/strong>.\u00a0 Dickens is an energetic risk management specialist with multi-facet capabilities.<\/p>\n

He is determined to start his new tenure with a big bang. Dickens has ambitiously planned a wide range of development activities that would benefit healthcare providers, patients, and insurance payers. He underscored the role that MGMA would play to empower the American healthcare industry during a recent one-on-one interview conducted at the MGMA 2013 Annual meet<\/strong>. Excerpts of the interview are highlighted as under:<\/p>\n

How Dickens was motivated to join MGMA Board of Directors ?<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b>The medical fraternity as a whole would be delighted to know that Dickens has been actively involved with experienced mentors and experts of the healthcare industry, ever since he joined the MGMA Board in 2009. In such an august gathering he gained exposure to salient features of advanced leadership training. In fact, leadership was dealt in-depth in his ACMPE paper.<\/p>\n

He owes his career development to sophisticated training in leadership. His association with elite members of the medical fraternity motivated him to volunteer for the MGMA Board. By joining as a Board member, he wanted to avail of an opportunity to actively contribute to the development of MGMA.<\/p>\n

Any significant contributions ever since he joined the Board ?<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b>He was actively involved in the merger of MGMA and ACMPE<\/strong>. This leveraged the strengths of both associations, resulting in stronger and more efficient organization. Healthcare organizations stand to gain by preeminent alliance of administrative professionals and leaders of medical group practices.<\/p>\n

Earlier Dickens held a number of appointments for various boards.\u00a0 These included fruitful tenures as president of the Tennessee MGMA and the Association for Home Care<\/strong>. This MGMA Board has greater resources and many staff members. Its level of professionalism is very high.<\/p>\n

Early Association with the MGMA broadens Dickens\u2019 outlook<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 His long-standing association with MGMA has enhanced his perspective beyond the frontiers of the medical industry. The members of the MGMA board hail from divergent education, practice, accomplishments, and goals. Despite such background variations, these members focus on common core characteristics. All of them adopt a unitary approach in serving patients, physicians, and hospital\u2019s\/clinic\u2019s staff. They focus on achieving outcomes that offer win-win situations for all the three groups.<\/p>\n

Clocking back to early days, why did Dickens opt for a healthcare career ?<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

It would be of interest to medical degree aspirants to know that a chief financial officer (CFO) at a local hospital convinced and encouraged Dickens to join him and make his career debut in the noble healthcare profession. Dickens at that juncture had graduated with a Masters\u2019 degree. He took a fulfilled job before 20 years.<\/p>\n

Who were his role models and how did they chart out his career ?<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b>Dickens is indebted mainly to Tom Stearns, FACMPE and Barbara Davis<\/strong>, Registered Nurse (RN)<\/strong>, though there are many others who were involved. Barbara Davis initiated Dickens into MGMA<\/strong> at an early phase of his hospital tenure.\u00a0 He is full of praises for Stearns who divides his responsibilities equally among fellow physicians, family, and the church.<\/p>\n

What were his major achievements in the healthcare domain ?<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He evinced keen interest to open health clinics in rural areas. These clinics provided him on-the-job opportunities to learn clinical work starting from basics upwards. Subsequently, he was promoted as the chief executive officer (CEO) of a multi-speciality practice.<\/p>\n

Besides healthcare operations, his new responsibility as CEO helped him to broaden his experience and knowledge into new fields. These fields encompassed contracting and human resources. During this tenure, he enhanced his educational qualifications by acquiring a law degree.<\/p>\n

How did Dickens justify his initiative for opting for law degree ?<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b>After earning his law degree, Dickens joined a liability company that was owned by physicians. This job helped him to gain useful insight into aspects relating to legal consultancy for physician-held medical practices.<\/p>\n

Will such varied healthcare experience help him in his new MGMA assignment ?<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Positively Yes ! Such a varied background experience and expertise in healthcare operations and healthcare legal consultancy will empower Dickens to communicate effectively and reach out to a broader group of MGMA members. These members belong to multiple backgrounds.<\/p>\n

Priority of implementations for the coming year<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dickens felt to focus on further improvements in MGMA\u2019s professional development program. He envisages creation of additional resources to provide functional tools for staff members of MGMA and strengthen the organizational structure of the merged entity.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He considers 2014 as a decisive year for group practice managers. He is confident that the merged association will play a key role to help solve the problems faced by the healthcare industry, so that it emerges economically and operationally viable.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He advises practice managers to be thoroughly conversant with the intricacies of the healthcare industry. He wants them to analyze, change and react to fast changing situations in the industry.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He further emphasizes that there are so many issues that dictate how a medical practice should be run these days. It involves much more than merely knowing the process to submit a medical reimbursement claim. The thought processes of payers as well as patients have undergone radical changes.<\/p>\n

Now insurance reimbursement payers anticipate improved outcomes. Not to be outdone, patients expect additional values for dollars spent on healthcare and customer service. Moreover, generational shifts that occur in the population (increasing younger population and more elderly patients to care for) have resulted in marked changes in societies\u2019 outlook on healthcare.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0A rejuvenated and confident Dickens assures that under his stewardship, the healthcare industry will overcome present and futuristic uncertainties to emerge as prosperous business entities in the near future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Cheering Moment of BillingParadise @ MGMA \u00a0! At MGMA Conference 2013, our CEO, S. Shiva Kumar met Stephen Dickens, the incumbent Chair of MGMA. Our CEO was much impressed with Dickens\u2019 dynamism and herein we are presenting the extract of Dickens\u2019 interview, which has been given for the eminent healthcare delegates of the massive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[743,744],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-practice-management","category-rcm"],"modified_by":"Erika Regulsky","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billingparadise.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billingparadise.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billingparadise.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billingparadise.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billingparadise.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.billingparadise.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billingparadise.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billingparadise.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billingparadise.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billingparadise.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}