It's the second day of our 2009 Medicare Provider Enrollment Workshop and the hotel conference room is packed. Dennis Grindle, our speaker, cracks a joke about how frustrated practices are with CMS's unforgiving and sometimes unclear enrollment rules.
"As you can see, I'm not affiliated with CMS," he says. "That's why there's no bullet-proof screens up here around my podium."
The crowd -- mostly practice administrators and credentialing staff like those in your office right now -- roars. Dennis keeps them laughing for a few more minutes, then gets serious.
"Buckle up and hang on," he says. "I'm going to try and make this stuff as exciting as possible."
There's a reason why Dennis has been one of our most highly rated speakers for the last eight years. That's how long we've been running this conference, one of the most successful in the industry.
This year the conference is in Denver, Colorado, at the pyramid-shaped Renaissance Denver Hotel. It's an elegant place, with muted decor and warm lighting; the lobby swells with the sound of clinking glasses and murmuring water fountains.
It's hard to imagine more soothing surroundings for a discussion about CMS-855 forms.
I hope you'll join us next year. Later today, I'l be uploading a streaming video clip of Dennis in action here.
Stay tuned!