SEATTLE – As healthcare finance professionals gather here for the Healthcare Financial Management Association’s 2009 ANI conference, they are faced with the worst economic environment in a generation, perhaps since the Great Depression.

Healthcare organizations, once considered recession-proof, have seen their investments go bad, charity care and bad debt increase, and have even had to stall construction projects and lay off staff.

People come to ANI to share experiences with their colleagues and learn new, more efficient ways to do business. For those who can afford to attend this year’s conference, the need to acquire new management techniques is likely greater than ever before.

Speakers at the diverse education sessions are well aware of the challenges conference attendees face back home, and are gearing their presentations to the vagaries of the new economy.

“I will discuss how the equity markets have affected the University of Pennsylvania Health System’s short-term investments,” said David Honma, director of finance and systems at the University of Pennsylvania Health System, who is leading an education session with Joseph Kozlowski of the Bank of New York Mellon. They recognize that ANI attendees want to know how the current liquidity crisis is affecting money market funds and treasury investing generally.

Honma said he would explain how federal programs have influenced UPHS investment strategies and how his office has used a Web-based portal to maintain a diverse portfolio.

The upcoming transition to the ICD-10 coding classification system is on the minds of many healthcare finance pros, as the change has major implications for reimbursement and data reporting.

Daniel Rode, vice president for policy and government relations at the American Health Information Management Association, indicated that his ICD-10 education session would focus not only on ICD-10 implementation, but examine the impact of the change on third party reimbursement as well as the implications of the recent ARRA legislation.

“We’ll address what can be done from a practical perspective in any environment,” Rode said. “Each provider varies by payer mix, size, system differences and other factors.”

Healthcare reform efforts at the federal level will affect every healthcare facility in the United States. ANI registrants can get a clearer sense of the practical implications of reform by attending a session on “State and National Reform Trends” offered by Jerry Vitti, president of Boston-based Healthcare Financial, Inc.

“Attendees will get a thorough overview of the Massachusetts healthcare reform model balanced against the current national landscape of reform initiatives,” Vitti said. He suggested that, by examining the Massachusetts model, healthcare finance professionals could learn lessons about the impact of reform on eligibility practices, private pay and billing collections and the role of consumer directed health plans.