Physicians are the backbone of a healthcare landscape stretched to its limits. With a growing shortage of providers and increasing administrative burdens, it’s time to confront the dysfunction payers create. This session challenges practice leaders to rethink their payer relationships and stop following outdated norms. We will examine when and how to exit silent PPOs, reject managed Medicare contracts that erode margins, and demand Gold Card authorization waivers to eliminate unnecessary delays. Attendees will learn how to push back against homegrown payer fee schedules that lack transparency, and resist lower fee schedules by line of business or provider license types, such as NPPs. Physicians must define and dictate the terms under which they will continue to see insured patients without defaulting to concierge medicine. This session will equip attendees to advocate for fair compensation, reduce administrative friction, and support sustainable independent practice. Through real-world examples and tactical strategies, participants will leave with a blueprint for renegotiating contracts, asserting control over clinical workflows, and restoring balance in a system that has long favored payers over providers.

Designing and implementing a clinical provider compensation program is complex. Leaders must balance patient access, recruitment and retention of key providers, and the financial resources to fund the program. In this session, you will learn how one academic medical center redesigned an organization-wide clinical provider compensation plan that incorporates patient access goals, aligns with financial objectives, and operates within a matrix environment that supports decentralized decision-making to recruit and retain clinical providers.

Do you feel defeated before you start the negotiation process? Do you have transparency data and still find it difficult to move the needle on rates and terms at the table with payers? Are you searching for some contracting kryptonite? Then this session is designed for you and other leaders who want to elevate their negotiation skills with practical, repeatable strategies used by real life practices to achieve fantastic outcomes. Through case studies, you will see how real organizations — including primary care practices (pediatrics and family medicine), clinics existing clinically integrated networks to direct contract, specialty groups with ambulatory surgery centers, Federally Qualified Health Centers, and behavioral health practices — achieved stronger outcomes in negotiations. Using the Listen, Solve and Change methodology, the session will highlight successful client approaches with a variety of payers in diverse markets. Attendees will leave with ready-to-use negotiation language, graphics, methodologies, and resources. You will also practice key techniques in small groups. The session will provide solid guidance that practices can use and integrate into the payer contracting strategies to improve outcomes.

Too often, leadership development is viewed as a “soft skill” rather than a financial strategy. Yet turnover, disengagement, and misaligned leadership cost healthcare organizations millions each year. This session reframes leadership development as a measurable financial investment. Attendees will learn how to calculate the cost of turnover, connect leadership effectiveness to productivity and financial metrics, and present the ROI of leadership development to stakeholders. Real examples from healthcare will illustrate how intentional leadership investment improves staff retention, patient outcomes, and overall financial health.

Artificial intelligence is reshaping healthcare, from clinical decision support to administrative automation. As vendors flood the market with AI-enabled tools, medical groups face new challenges: how to responsibly evaluate opportunities, avoid compliance missteps, and prepare for emerging regulation. This session explores the intersection of AI, compliance, and governance in healthcare organizations. Topics include the current regulatory landscape, state-level AI legislation, and evolving federal agency guidance. The speakers will address practical questions for practice leaders: What due diligence is needed before adopting an AI tool? How do you manage risk when AI is used for sensitive functions such as billing, documentation, or patient engagement? What governance structures (committees, policies, and accountability frameworks) should be in place to oversee AI adoption? Michelle Wright, EBG Advisor and former payer executive, will engage Kathleen Premo, EBG Partner and former General Counsel/Chief Legal Officer, and Rachel Snyder Good, EBG Strategic Counsel, to provide operational and legal perspectives. Attendees will leave with a roadmap to balance innovation with compliance, positioning their practices to leverage AI while protecting their organizations. 

This intensive workshop is designed help you understand and apply payer-negotiated rate data to your financial and managed care strategy, and to use those insights to draft and implement a payer contracting strategy for your organization. The session provides an overview of the Transparency in Coverage (TiC) data set for payer-negotiated rates. Instructors will guide attendees through a step-by-step process to audit credentialing files, query meaningful data, and put that information to work in payer contract negotiations. Case studies will illustrate how to use the data from start to finish, along with ancillary applications for revenue cycle staff. From gathering relevant data and evaluating contracts to refining negotiation skills and establishing a contract performance monitoring system, this bootcamp offers tactical guidance essential for financial leaders and payer contracting professionals. Access to rate transparency data is an invaluable tool for medical groups that have never had visibility into this level of information. Examples highlighting successes and challenges will equip participants with tactics and tools to elevate their managed care contracting approach. Attendees will leave with a framework for using payer-negotiated rate data to inform managed care strategy, deploy the data effectively, and understand how high-performing contracting professionals put this information to work for their clients.

Is your revenue cycle under increased attack? Are your providers working harder and collecting less? Payers are increasingly using downcoding and other subtle tactics to reduce your revenue — often without practices realizing until it’s too late. Traditional canned reports can’t keep up. This session shows practice leaders how to build targeted emails, dashboards, and spreadsheets that help busy managers spot revenue leaks before they become financial floods. Attendees will explore practical strategies to track and respond to downcoding, denial trends, and other hidden threats to your practice’s finances. Through an interactive discussion and real-world examples from practices across the country, attendees will see how to identify, fix, and follow up on current challenges in revenue cycle management. They will leave with concrete ideas and tools to monitor the right indicators at the right time, and to respond proactively to today’s revenue cycle threats and opportunities. 

Many practices are considering (or are being mandated) to transition from fee-for-service (FFS) to full-risk contracts. These contracts allow providers to share in financial rewards by managing patient care effectively, but they also expose practices to downside risks. Unlike other value-based care (VBC) models, full-risk contracting rewards practices that can manage utilization and patient outcomes while penalizing those that cannot. This session offers a step-by-step roadmap for moving from FFS to full risk while protecting financial stability and elevating care. A well-run, full-risk practice allows the physicians to spend more time with patients and practice at the top of their license: spending time on diagnosis and treatment plans, and delegating tasks to others. Spending extra time helps improve the quality of life for the patient and reduces inappropriate and avoidable utilization. This includes unnecessary ED visits and hospital admissions through better management and preventive medicine, resulting in a better quality of life for the patient. Attendees will leave with a practice approach to assess their readiness, build the necessary capabilities, and execute a transition to full-risk contracting.

As healthcare margins tighten and cost pressures increase, practice leaders can no longer rely on revenue alone to gauge financial health. True profitability lies in understanding the relationship among providers, CPT® codes/procedures, and payers. This session will explore how to use analytics and visual storytelling to uncover hidden financial inefficiencies and identify strategic opportunities across your practice. Attendees will learn how to build and apply a profitability framework that isolates margin performance at the provider, CPT®/procedure, and payer levels. Common profitability leaks include under-reimbursed services, unbalanced payer mixes, and provider-level inefficiencies; this presentation will share tools to help you identify and address these issues. The session will also cover cost allocation modeling, contribution margin analysis, and integration of operational and financial data. Attendees will leave with practical next steps to implement profitability dashboards that support better decision making and drive margin growth without sacrificing clinical quality. This session is designed for CFOs, practice administrators, and data analysts who support financial performance and want a clear path from financial reporting to strategic insight. 

With rising labor costs and burnout at an all-time high, leading revenue cycle teams requires both operational insight and people-first leadership. This session highlights staffing models, automation, and outsourcing options that enhance productivity while maintaining service quality. Attendees will explore proven techniques to improve morale, reduce turnover, and engage employees in performance improvement. The discussion will address how to align team KPIs with organizational strategy so that staff contributions directly support financial outcomes. Leaders will leave with actionable steps to build resilient, high-performing revenue cycle teams.

Whether you are an independent group or an individual physician, successfully navigating the complexities of professional services agreement (PSA) terms, renewals, and negotiations is critical to remaining profitable and independent. In this session, attendees will explore practical steps to prepare for renewal discussions, including how to interpret MGMA DataDive benchmarks, frame your value, and prioritize terms beyond just rate. Participants will leave with tips for successful negotiation.