President's Message - July 2011

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It’s summertime and I hope each and every one of you have some great vacation plans ahead. This is the perfect opportunity for you to take a break, recharge the energy batteries, and re-focus on the future of your organization and health care human resources. It is a very challenging time with our economic issues, severe Medicare and Medicaid cutbacks, doing much more with much less and of course, budgets. I know you have heard it all before, but there is no better time to effect positive change than in periods of chaos and uncertainty. We need to be the leaders and example for our organizations in looking at process and cost savings. We are too often criticized for being overstaffed, under-utilized, and not strategic. Time to shine!

I am watching, with great interest, the latest developments in the ongoing news on the OFCCP front. There was some welcomed news this week as the markup of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2012 excludes TRICARE institutional, professional, and pharmacy network providers from being considered subcontractors for the purposes of the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) or any other law, in order to maintain adequate TRICARE provider networks. The U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services unanimously approved the markup on June 16 and the bill now goes to the full Senate for consideration. Many thanks to Lawrence Hughes, Assistant General Counsel from our AHA Washington D.C. office, for keeping us well informed on all of these developments.

I don’t know if you noticed the recent email blasts from ASHHRA, but our upcoming national conference in Phoenix offers a tremendous opportunity to gain 18.5 Recertification Credit Hours, which includes 17.0 Strategic Business Credit Hours and 1.5 California Specific Credit Hours. What a great opportunity for PHR, SPHR, and GPHR certification holders to meet their recertification needs through the Human Resources Certification Institute! I hope to see you all there!

In closing, be sure to get involved and support your chapters and regions. We know that professional development budgets are very tight now, but the price is right for membership, educational seminars, and conferences at the chapter and regional level. So, please get involved and lend your support to their initiatives! They are truly the "pulse" of ASHHRA. Have a great month.

Robert Walters, SPHR
Corporate Director, HR Operations
Health First, Inc.
3550 North Harbor City Blvd.
Melbourne, FL 32932-0069
(321) 434-1957
bob.walters@health-first.org