Greetings again from Boston,
We went through about half of the 'breakout' sessions today. The hard part for me about these is that I can never decide which session to go to. I guess that's why all the materials are available afterwards at the end of the conference. (If you haven't done so already, go to "My Profile", then "My Communities", then scroll down to the MGMA 2009 FMS-PCS Conference section, then click on the library link. The first three handouts show up, and click on "more" to access all of the handouts (PDF's, spreadsheets, etc.).
I enjoyed all of the breakout sessions but I have to say that Penny Noyes gave a presentation on how to monitor payer agreements that completely blew my mind. She was a 75 minute nonstop fountain of information nuggets that made you go "A-HA!!!" and sent you scrambling to write down every word. If you haven't done so already, download her Powerpoint slides (session #302) and read them 150 days before your next contract is up for renewal.
-Greg