Gain your organization’s support to attend the 2019 Revenue Integrity Symposium

After looking over the agenda for the 2019 Revenue Integrity Symposium, to be held October 15–16 in Orlando, you may be checking your calendar and calculating travel and attendance costs for yourself—and maybe your team. But it can be tricky if you want or need your organization’s approval to attend. How can you craft a perfect pitch and demonstrate a clear return on investment?

First, carefully review the agenda (click here to view the full agenda). Make a list of your must-attend sessions, those that you think will arm you with the most important knowledge and will have the biggest impact on your job. Jot down a few bullet points that explain why you want to attend these specific sessions and how they will help you do your job better. Sort the remainder of the sessions in order of which will have the most relevance and value to your job. Then, create an ideal agenda for yourself and any members of your team who may also wish to attend. And don’t forget the pre- and post-conferences. NAHRI is offering the Medicare Boot Camp®—Utilization Review Version as a pre-conference and the Medicare Boot Camp® — Audits, Appeals, and Denials Version and the Medicare Boot Camp—Provider-Based Departments Version as post-conferences. Make sure to reach out to your colleagues in other departments to see if they are interested in attending the main conference or any of the pre- and post-conferences.

Next, calculate your costs. Register before August 17 to get our early bird discount of $100. And, NAHRI members get a $100 discount. So, if you’re a NAHRI member and register before August 17, you would get a combined discount of $200. Going with your team? Send a group of five for the cost of four with our special group pricing. Don’t forget that this year NAHRI is partnering with the Association for Medicare Billing and Reimbursement (AMBR) for Long-Term Care to offer a special track geared toward the unique billing and reimbursement challenges in the long-term care setting. Including staff from various departments and settings can help you make the case for attending by showing value across the health system.

Along with your registration, calculate the costs of flights, accommodations, and food. The conference will be hosted at the Renaissance Sea World Orlando, and the room rate is $219 per night. Make sure that you note the cut-off date for the room rate is September 20.

Now that you have the data, it’s time to present it to your program administrators. But finding the right words, and the time, to craft a justification letter is difficult. Use NAHRI’s justification letter proposal as a template to help make a clear, concise case for attendance.