RMDs from IRAs were suspended for 2020, due to the pandemic. The requirement has been reinstated for 2021. The December 2019, Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act modified certain aspects of the way IRAs work. In prior years, individuals who had attained the age of 70 1/2 and older could transfer tax free up to $100,000 from their IRAs, in any given year, to a qualified public charity, such as the Capital Medical Society Foundation. The QCD could be applied, in whole or in part, toward the donor's annual RMD. Now, the SECURE Act has changed the age when individuals must start taking RMDs from age 70 1/2 to age 72. Individuals can still make QCDs starting at age 70 1/2 even if they are not taking RMDs at that time. However, that is affected by another change the SECURE Act made relative to IRA contributions and the QCD. Under prior law, those age 70 1/2 and older could not make new contributions to an IRA. Now, IRA owners at any age may make contributions to their accounts, the amounts of which may be tax-deductible. Such contributions, though, will REDUCE the tax-free $100,000 QCD limit. For example, if a donor makes a QCD of $10,000 to the Capital Medical Society Foundation in 2021 and also contributes $7,000 to their IRA, the Foundation will receive the full $10,000, but the tax-free portion of the QCD will be reduced to $3,000. The remaining $7,000 will be taxable income to the donor.  

Thanks to the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA), 2021 it is possible to reduce your federal income tax to zero.

The CAA extended the charitable tax benefits, which became law in March of 2020 as the CARES Act. As a result of this law, the Adjusted Gross Income for cash gifts by individuals is 100% deductible again in 2021. Additional information is available on the IRS website.

Miccosukee Greenway Park Website: https://cms.leoncountyfl.gov/Portals/0/publicworks/parksandrecreation/ParkMaps/MiccosukeeGW_EdenfieldThornton.pdf

J.R. Alford Greenway Trail Website: https://visittallahassee.com/trails/j-r-alford-greenway-trail/

The FMA is continuing its advocacy to prevent an almost 10% Medicare physician payment cut from taking effect on Jan. 1, 2022. We have joined other physician organizations nationwide in supporting a bipartisan effort spearheaded by U.S. Reps. Ami Bera, MD (D-CA) and Larry Bucshon, MD (R-IN).

With time quickly running out, we ask that physicians use this link and send an editable form letter urging their congressional representatives to sign on as additional co-sponsors. We would greatly appreciate your help with this issue by sending a call to action to your members.

Your members can use this link to find the contact information for their U.S. House representatives.

As urged by the AHA, the Senate today in a 59-35 bipartisan vote passed legislation that would stop Medicare cuts to hospitals, physicians and other providers from going into effect early next year. The House passed the bill on Tuesday, and President Biden is expected to sign it into law soon.

Specifically, the bill would extend the moratorium on the 2% Medicare sequester cuts until April 1, 2022, and reduce the cuts from 2% to 1% from April 1 through June 30, 2022. The package also would stop the 4% statutory Pay-As-You-Go sequester from taking effect early next year.

Other provisions in the package would mitigate a separate Medicare payment cut to physicians; delay payment cuts and private payer data reporting requirements for certain hospital laboratories; delay the implementation of the radiation oncology model; and set up a fast-track process in the Senate to allow for a vote to increase the debt limit.

More details about the package as well as a statement AHA shared with the media follow.

America’s hospitals, strained by nearly two years of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, are now scrounging for basic medical supplies.

In another consequence of the global supply chain crisis, hospitals managing holiday COVID surges and all their other patients are running short of many necessities of care: crutches, syringes, needles, tubing, gloves, catheters, drapes for surgery, suction canisters for medical waste and even urine cups.

After the difficulties that health care workers faced in securing personal protective equipment in 2020, supply chain managers and other experts say shortages and delays of other common supplies escalated this year.

Accuracy issues raise red flags because the data is used to plan and direct resources in the nation’s continuing response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

For nearly a month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s online vaccine tracker has shown that virtually everyone 65 and older in the United States — 99.9% — has received at least one COVID vaccine dose.

That would be remarkable — if true.

But health experts and state officials say it’s certainly not.

In recent months, CVS Health has hinted at expanding its healthcare services beyond its current minute clinics and pharmacy services. The company’s new CEO, Karen Lynch, had dropped morsels of information about offering more comprehensive services, including opening up brick-and-mortar primary care clinics.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is alerting people who use Philips Respironics ventilators, BiPAP, and CPAP machines and their health care providers that Philips Respironics has recalled certain devices due to potential health risks. The polyester-based polyurethane (PE-PUR) sound abatement foam, which is used to reduce sound and vibration in these affected devices, may break down and potentially enter the device’s air pathway. If this occurs, black debris from the foam or certain chemicals released into the device’s air pathway may be inhaled or swallowed by the person using the device.

New Article: “Healthcare’s Digital Revolution: Are We Ready to Reimagine the Work?”

Description: It is now a time for optimism in the digitization of healthcare, but our success along the road to digitization will depend on how we “reimagine the work.”

Why are general surgeons sued? Clinical judgment and communication remain among the top contributing factors involved in medical malpractice claims that allege diagnostic error. Find additional insights from @doctorscompany study of malpractice claims: https://www.thedoctors.com/articles/diagnostic-error-in-general-surgery-cognitive-bias-and-systems-issues-in-medical-malpractice-claims-abstract/

Why do so many claims against plastic surgeons involve breast surgery? Learn more from @doctorscompany in their study of medical malpractice claims: https://www.thedoctors.com/articles/plastic-surgery-closed-claims-study-reveals-most-common-case-types-abstract/

Do the environmental improvements we make in our clinics and offices really impact the big picture? This month, the Capital Medical Society’s My Green Doctor answers this question and shares ideas for your practice (Reading time: 5 minutes): https://mygreendoctor.org/the-environment-healthcare-do-our-choices-matter-2/

Register at My Green Doctor and save $60 by using discount code, MGDCMS, making My Green Doctor a free membership benefit from the CMS. My Green Doctor adds just five minutes of environmental sustainability business to each office staff meeting. Everything you need is in the “Meeting-by-Meeting Guide” so there’s nothing for the office manager or you to study. You will also be helping to prepare your patients for the health threats of climate change.Please register today and ask your manager to register as well: https://www.MyGreenDoctor.org/  or https://www.MyGreenDoctor.es (en espanol). That discount code is MGDCMS. You can do this!

My Green Doctor can now mail you free waiting room patient brochures about wise environmental & climate choices. Available in English & Spanish. Email [email protected] & please put “Brochures” in the title.

The AMA has released four new practice guides that equip physician practices and health systems with practical strategies for overcoming obstacles to accessible and equitable treatment for patients’ behavioral, mental, and physical health needs. These guides focus on four key areas of effective integrated care: practice workflow design, pharmacological treatment, substance use disorder, and suicide prevention. Additionally, the BHI Compendium, which serves as a tool to help provide a proven pathway for delivering integrated behavioral care, has also been enhanced with additional resources and practice case studies ensuring physician practices and health systems have the most recent, actionable information at their disposal.

Electronic Prescribing Requirements (Florida Board of Medicine)

Florida ePrescribing Clearinghouse (Agency for Healthcare Administration)

The purpose of the Florida ePrescribing Clearinghouse is to provide information that contributes to the promotion and implementation of electronic prescribing by health care practitioners, health care facilities, and pharmacies in order to prevent prescription drug abuse, improve patient safety, and reduce unnecessary prescriptions. This Clearinghouse contains information on the advantages, processes, products, rules, and laws of ePrescribing as well as Florida ePrescribing reports.

To view Physician Wellness resources, click here.

The Elephant in the Doctors' Lounge - With roughly 156 million Americans fully vaccinated for COVID-19, physicians are seeing signs of relief on the horizon. That relief can't come soon enough. The initial energy and adrenaline that drove physicians to treat their acutely ill patients in the early months of the pandemic have been replaced by fatigue, burnout, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It's time to talk -- and to act -- so these feelings of struggle don't drive more of our colleagues into a mental health emergency.

Wolfson Children’s Hospital is proud to provide Continuing Medical Education opportunities to our partners and referring providers by offering monthly virtual CME sessions at no cost. If you have missed any of our previously offered live webinars and still wish to obtain CME credit for them, we have provided 4 recorded webinars for a total of 5.5 CME credits possible. Please follow the instructions below in order to take advantage of this opportunity!

1.      Open the flyer and choose which education session you would like to watch.

2.      Click the link in the attachment for the desired education session.

4.      Follow the instructions included in the video description to complete the required survey and input the associated activity code.

*Please note, if you are licensed outside of the state of Florida, you must contact the CME office at [email protected] to request an official transcript of your participation.

FreeCME.com 

Diagnostic error continues to be a top patient safety concern, a global burden, and cause patient harm from treatment delay, testing, or misdiagnosis. “Prevention of Diagnostic Error in Primary Care” is an on-demand CME activity that features patient safety expert Jeffrey A. Gold, MD, professor of medicine, vice chair for quality and safety, for the department of medicine at the Oregon Health and Science University. This program highlights major contributing factors of diagnostic error along with the diagnostic process of care framework with additional focus on strategies to mitigate risk of patient harm in the primary care setting.

TMH has a library of past CME courses for viewing on their MDnews page: https://www.tmh.org/mdnews/education. The recent CMEs cohosted by CMS and TMH may be found there or by opening: https://youtu.be/HJ50ZsIe2fc, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjgnCn77HSc&t=5s, and https://youtu.be/aD9Mn6NvXyk.

The Capital Medical Society will publish its 2022 Membership Directory early next year. It will be distributed to all members. We have once again contracted with a company called E&M Consulting to produce the directory. E&M will be contacting our members over the next few months about advertising opportunities in the directory. E&M will manage all the ad sales, creative design, and formatting of the publication for us. This is a very professional group with experience in publishing association directories. Information on the available advertising opportunities can be viewed online at https://www.emconsultinginc.com/adreservation/cms/. Please be responsive and help support this directory. Remember, it will include our entire medical community.  

Board-certified physicians are getting another extension on the deadline to maintain their internal medicine credentials.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) once again extended the Maintenance of Certification (MOC) requirements through December 2022.

Maguire Medical Library - Florida State University College of Medicine: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): Basic & Current Information

The State-Level COVID-19 profile for Florida. This data is collected from medical facilities in one of two system HHS protect or National Healthcare Safety Network  

The New England Journal of Medicine - A collection of articles and other resources on the Coronavirus outbreak, including clinical reports, management guidelines, and commentary

From the American Medical Association: COVID-19 (2019 Novel Coronavirus) Resource Center for Physicians

From the Florida Medical Association: Coronavirus Educational Resource Center

Selected Adverse Events Reported after COVID-19 Vaccination (CDC)

FMA's Step-by-Step Guide to COVID-19 vaccine enrollment for Florida physicians (FMA) 

See the latest state Department of Health data summarizing the number of people in Florida who have either received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine or completed the vaccine series (FMA) 

Florida Department of Health's COVID Vaccines in Florida 

COVID-19 Pandemic Planning FAQ (dated 11/19/2020) includes important information regarding procurement and handling of costs for vaccine administration. (FEMA) 

What Happens Once There is a COVID-19 Vaccine? Key Challenges to Vaccinating America (12/3/2020) - VIDEO or SLIDES (Kaiser Family Foundation) 

Mandatory Reporting of COVID-19 Laboratory Test Results: Reporting of Cycle Threshold Values (December 3, 2020)

Notable recent additions to CDC guidance include more detailed infection prevention and control recommendations for health care settings: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/hcp/infection-control.html.

Please continue to closely monitor the CDC novel coronavirus website for situation and guidance updates. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html.

See Flyer 

Brochure & To Register 

Machine donations can be dropped off at Capital Medical Society Foundation's office at 1204 Miccosukee Road, Tallahassee, FL 32308. Donations to Capital Medical Society Foundation are tax-deductible within IRS guidelines Federal Tax I.D. #: 59-2104510. For additional information, please call 942-5215 or email [email protected].

Click here to access AmazonSmile and support the CMS Foundation today!