The core group consisted of leaders from the major healthcare organizations in the area who sought the support of the group as a foundation for networking with compliance professionals facing similar challenges.

I have been involved with the group for several years, first as Privacy and Security Program Director during the implementation stages of the HIPAA regulations, then Secretary of the group, and now president.  Most of the founders are no longer active but the kinships have endured the various stages of compliance as well as advances each has made in their professional careers.    

Not being around in the early years puts me at a bit of a disadvantage in including some of the history that I feel strongly about. It is for this reason that I interviewed Elaine Anderson, Kristin Jenkins, David Lancaster and Ken Zeko, each of whom played a major role in contributing to NTHCPA during the formative years and laying the groundwork for where we are today.  I am sure you will find their comments as motivating as I did the interviews. 

We are never at a loss for volunteers as NTHCPA takes on a new life form every year with changes in leadership and active membership. One notable development is the formation of the website which came to life only because of the hard work and dedication of Cathy Johnson, Program Director and Sr. Compliance Analyst, Texas Health Resources.

We now have  more than 100 members of our informal group and I am constantly receiving emails from compliance professionals both new and seasoned to be added to the distribution list for communications and meeting notices.   We have gone from an email distribution list to a Yahoo group back to an Outlook distribution because of the size of some of the attachments provided from the presentations we have seen.  The members have also joined other groups through their association with NTHCPA such as the North Texas Health Care Fraud Task Force in Dallas.  Special Agent Larry Guerin spoke at a meeting earlier this year and was such a dynamic presenter several  of our members  are  now on the list of attendees for the task force meetings.  Not a minor undertaking considering they had to go through background screenings to get approval to enter the FBI building where the meetings are held. 

NTHCPA has survived because of the commitment, interest and needs of our membership.  Because we are not a formal organization and have no plans to formalize, we have no money.  Without the support of our respective employers we would not have come this far and it is to the CEO’s, CFO’s, COO’s, VP’s and others we report to in our diverse professional relationships that we owe a deep sense of gratitude.

If you are ever in doubt as to why NTHCPA continues to thrive, attend a meeting.  We meet on the second Tuesday of each month at 2 p.m. at a hosting facility the same way they did it 10 years ago. Many of the issues facing health care compliance are the same - most with new twists as developments in the healthcare industry flourish - and the group continues to seek the guidance and approval of HCCA.  I think Roy Snell said it best in the history page on the HCCA site, "Compliance professionals face huge challenges and we are always looking for an avenue to network, learn and share our stories."