I am two days behind, I admit, but the comments were live. Last year, I gave a little ’shout out’ to all the folks I’d seen and I am going to abandon that concept now, as the list would be over 100, easy.  “You know who you are.”

So, from Saturday:

I am sitting in the back of the packed SOAPM meeting.  Ironically, this reminds me of our NYC coding event from last year: squished like sardines, sauna-esque, but great content.  Plus, it’s a little like a PCC Users’ Conference given all our friends in the room.

Dr. Rappo is a pro.  There are few people who can really use humor to make a point, and he does - though I have to track him down how his EHR cut his billing hours by 25%.  [Later, I did.  And he confirmed something I expected: previously, the communication between the docs and the billing staff there was so bad and their coding was so bad and the EHR forced them to fix the problem. Hope I didn't misstate that.]

Dr. Cavens was wonderful.  In fact, I could devote an episode or two here to her talk - the idea of starting a 501-C-3 is a fascinating one. I’m sure she’ll let me steal a slide or two.

The speakers after the break were both good (really, I’d say otherwise if they weren’t) but I am a little concerned with their topicality. OK, sure, it’s important to know about the employer view of purchasing insurance and I thought Dr. Pletcher’s data was interesting…but this is the first time the SOAPM room has been packed (a lot of new faces) and I think it would be better to have a few more nitty-gritty discussions: how _can_ you turn patient educational materials into revenue generators or cost savings?  Show me a _real_ example of a chronic disease management program in an office.  Heck, why not have me review pediatric compensation models? :-)  Don’t get me wrong, the talks were very good, but I think SOAPM needs to stick closer to the stuff that gets people in the door for the first time.

No need for the play-by-play from the Buzzy Award except to say that a) Dr. Suchyta was distinctively brief in his acceptance (a habit I wish I had) and b) we had almost *two full tables* of PCC clients in the room.

More later about my opinion of the vultures on the exhibit hall floor.

For those keeping score, two great meals so far: LaLa Rokh and Elephant Walk.