have spent the better part of the last two years helping to build University Health's Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) Enterprise Membership program alongside founder and HFMA colleague Daisy Noguera, FHFMA, EHRC. Today, we have more than 250 active members, 80-plus certifications, and we earned an inaugural 2025 HFMA Enterprise Impact Award, one of seven awarded nationally. Daisy is largely responsible for that achievement, and I accepted that recognition in her honor.
What I learned in that process is not complicated. But it is worth sharing with every health system leader who has written a check for HFMA Enterprise Membership and then wondered why engagement stays flat.
The Problem Is Not the Membership. It Is the Model.
HFMA Enterprise Membership is genuinely one of the best investments a health system can make in the professional development of its people. The access it provides, complimentary certifications, eLearning, chapter connections, national conferences, peer networks, regulatory intelligence, is the kind of professional development infrastructure that used to require significant individual out-of-pocket investment. Now it comes with the badge.
But most organizations treat HFMA Enterprise Membership like a gym membership. They pay for it. They tell people it exists. And then they wonder why utilization is low and the value is hard to measure.
The gym membership model fails for the same reason it fails with actual gyms: access without activation is not a benefit. It's only an expense line item.
What Activation Actually Looks Like
At University Health, we built activation around three things.
A structured front door. Every new member now receives a welcome, a benefit summary, and, now, an invitation to our new quarterly New Member Orientation, a standing one-hour virtual session. The orientation demystifies the portal, explains certification pathways, connects members to the HFMA South Texas Chapter, and gives them a human point of contact for the organization. It takes sixty minutes and changes the trajectory of how new members engage.
Visible leadership sponsorship. Our CFO, Reed Hurley, our CFO for Clinical Opearations, Travis L. Smith, FHFMA, and our CRO, Awoala Banigo, are active champions of the program. That visibility matters. When the executive team signals that professional development is valued, other senior leaders and department directors pay attention and team members take it seriously. Institutional backing helps to convert passive members into active ones.
Metrics and recognition. We track certifications, eLearning utilization, chapter event attendance, and (soon) chapter committee participation. We recognize members when they earn credentials through specific communication to their supervisors and employee newsletter features and photos. When members see that their engagement is noticed and celebrated, they engage more.
What Is Available That Most Teams Are Not Using
For any health system leader reading this who wants to close the gap between enrollment and engagement, here is a shortlist of what HFMA Enterprise Membership actually includes:
Certifications at no additional cost. The Patient Access Essentials, CRCR, CHFP, CSPR, CSBI, FHFMA, and many other specialist tracks are among the most respected credentials in healthcare finance. They are available to your people through Enterprise Membership. Most teams have a fraction of eligible employees pursuing them.
The eLearning library. Hundreds of on-demand modules covering managed care, revenue cycle, regulatory compliance, payment policy, and leadership. Most health systems have a utilization rate that is embarrassingly low relative to what is available.
Chapter engagement. The local chapter is where relationships are built and leadership is developed. Committee service, event participation, and chapter leadership roles give your people visibility in the regional healthcare finance community that no amount of internal professional development can replicate.
National programming and conferences. ANI, regional events, virtual programming, and access to the national conversation about where healthcare finance is heading. This is where your team hears what peer organizations are doing before it becomes an industry standard.
If You Lead Your Organization's HFMA Enterprise Membership and Are Not Seeing the Return
Start here:
Pull your utilization data from the administrator portal. Find out how many of your enrolled members have logged in, how many have completed eLearning modules, and how many are pursuing or have completed certifications. That baseline will tell you everything about the gap between what you are paying for and what you are getting.
Build a front door. An informational intranet page. A welcome email. An orientation. A recognition moment when someone earns a credential. Visibility at the department leader level. Those four things, done consistently, will change your numbers within one program year.
If you want to compare notes, I am always glad to talk. That is what this community is for.
By the way, if you're not familiar with HFMA Enterprise Membership for organizations, here are the details: https://www.hfma.org/membership/enterprise/
About the Author
Kevin W. Barron, MBA, FHFMA, FACHE is a nationally recognized healthcare contracting and payer relations executive with over 30 years of experience in healthcare finance. He is an author, speaker, and mentor to emerging leaders in healthcare finance. Follow Kevin on LinkedIn or subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://www.KevinWatsonBarron.com
Disclaimer: This article is provided for general informational and educational purposes only. It reflects my personal views and observations based on professional experience in healthcare finance, managed care, payer relations, and revenue cycle operations. It should not be interpreted as legal, financial, regulatory, actuarial, or reimbursement advice. The content is not intended to represent the official position of my employer, any payer, provider, professional association, or other organization with which I may be affiliated. Readers should consult their own legal, financial, compliance, actuarial, or operational advisors before making decisions based on the issues discussed. Any references to payers, providers, regulations, market trends, or reimbursement practices are intended for discussion and education only and should not be construed as a statement about any specific contract, negotiation, patient matter, or confidential business arrangement.