Your financial prep guide for ACEP Scientific Assembly 2026
ACEP26 runs October 5-8 in Chicago. EM practice economics have shifted hard with the No Surprises Act, hospital contracting consolidation, and ongoing PE turbulence. Knowing your group's numbers cold has never mattered more. Sorso is not an exhibitor, sponsor, or speaker at this event. This is an independent prep guide for EM physicians and group leaders.
Why this matters for your bottom line
EM groups face structural pressure from the No Surprises Act, payer rate cuts, and hospital contract consolidation. Groups without disciplined financial reporting are losing margin without knowing exactly where.
RVU productivity is the foundation of EM compensation. Groups with stale RVU benchmarks often have compensation models that no longer align with current productivity or market rates.
Hospital contract terms (subsidies, exclusivity, performance metrics) materially affect group viability. Contracts negotiated 5+ years ago often need to be revisited with current data.
Independent EM groups continue to lose share to large national platforms. Independence requires operational excellence and financial transparency that many small groups have not built.
What to look for
Practice management sessions on EM group financial structure and partnership models
Hospital contracting workshops covering subsidy negotiation, performance metrics, and exclusivity terms
RVU benchmarking and compensation model sessions with current market data
No Surprises Act implementation and its ongoing impact on collections and out-of-network billing
Sessions on EM workforce trends, especially APP integration and physician retention
Practice consolidation, PE activity, and what it means for independent EM groups
Financial prep checklist
Review these before you go.
Run RVU per shift, RVU per hour, and the variance across your physicians
Map collections per RVU and per visit, segmented by payer mix
Inventory your hospital contract terms: subsidy structure, performance metrics, and renewal date
Audit billing and coding accuracy: clean claim rate and denial rate by reason code
Walk through APP utilization and the contribution of mid-levels to total group revenue
Compare your group's compensation and overhead against ACEP and other EM industry data
From our CFO
EM groups that survived the last five years did so by getting disciplined about contracts and collections. The groups that are still struggling are typically running on legacy hospital contracts and outdated RVU compensation models that no one has had time to revisit. Before Chicago, pull your collections per RVU trend over the last 36 months. If it has declined and you have not adjusted comp or hospital subsidy negotiations accordingly, that is the strategic conversation to have when you get back.
Get a financial checkup before ACEP Scientific Assembly 2026
Take the 4-minute financial assessment. Know your numbers before you attend, so you can ask better questions and make better decisions.