It didn’t take very long to figure out that the mood at this year’s MGMA Conference is extremely different from that of last year, when the industry (and the country) was shell-shocked by the economic downturn. In 2009, the vibe is optimistic — almost frighteningly, in some cases — and the word of the day is HITECH.

Here are some snippets of what I’m hearing so far.

Jeff Kendall of NCR says the company’s more forward thinking customers are leveraging kiosks to collect payments upfront, which can help reduce bad debt and improve revenue cycle management. He says when CFOs hear about this, “their eyes pop.” Kendall expects to see this trend takeoff, especially among larger systems.

Evan Steele, CEO of SRSsoft, says that having multiple certifying bodies is definitely a good idea, as “you never want to have a monopoly.” Recently, the company started the “Voice of the Physician Petition” that was circulated across the country and presented to HIT policy members in person. Steele feels that it is critical that the needs of physicians are represented, and the best way to do that is to get comments from those in the trenches.

Donna Little of Nuance says the company is “riding the EHR wave.” Nuance was one of three companies voted as a Most Interesting Vendor in the June issue of HCI, and she feels a key factor in growing interest is use of dictation and speech recognition to drive EHR adoption.