The Capital Medical Society office will be closed beginning

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.

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/

On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), announced the imminent distribution of approximately $9 billion in Provider Relief Fund (PRF) Phase 4 payments to healthcare providers who have experienced revenue losses and expenses related to the COVID-19 pandemic. This round of funding was open to all physicians, but applications were required in order to receive funding. Phase 4 payments will begin this week.

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.

There are over 20 known variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Many of these have been of little significance to people who are not epidemiologists. 11 of them have received labels (Greek letters) from the World Health Organization (WHO). Only 5 have been labeled as “Variants of Concern (VOC)” by the WHO. Of those 5, only 2 remain on the U.S. CDC list for variants of concern, Delta and Omicron.

As the omicron variant threatens to wipe out a mainstay of coronavirus treatment, Pfizer announced Tuesday that in a final analysis, its experimental antiviral pill sharply reduced hospitalizations and deaths among people at high risk of severe illness because of age or underlying medical conditions.

There's more mixed news about the power of vaccines to protect people against the omicron variant — this time about the Moderna vaccine.

A preliminary study made public Wednesday studied blood samples in the lab from 30 people who had gotten two Moderna shots, and it found that the antibodies in their blood are at least about 50 times less effective at neutralizing the omicron variant of the coronavirus.

Omicron is spreading lightning fast.

In the U.S., the percentage of cases caused by this new coronavirus variant jumped seven times in just a week, from 0.4% of the total cases sequenced to 2.9%, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates. And it's already causing about 13% of cases in a region that includes New York and New Jersey.

In a household, the risk of spreading the omicron variant to another member is three times higher than it is with the delta variant, U.K. health officials estimated Friday.

Pointing to the “remarkable significance” of the case, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody on Thursday asked a full federal appeals court to at least temporarily block a Biden administration rule that would require health care workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

The request came after Florida suffered blows in its fight against the vaccination mandate. Pensacola-based U.S. District Judge Casey Rodgers last month rejected the state’s request for a preliminary injunction against the rule, and a panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also refused to halt it.

The COVID-19 vaccines effectively prevent someone from developing severe illness, but the vaccines do lose effectiveness over time.

Jason Salemi, a professor of epidemiology at the University of South Florida College of Public Health in Tampa, recently co-authored a paper with Elizabeth B. Pathak, director of the COVKID Project, on why the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should make new categories of vaccination statuses and present its data consistent with the recommendations to the public regarding optimal immunization against the disease.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention accepted advice from a panel of experts to recommend the use of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines over the Johnson & Johnson jab, following growing concerns about rare blood clots.

The advisers said Thursday that vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna should be preferred by all adults, who may be at greater risk for developing severe blood clots from the J&J vaccine than those under age 18. Some committee members said the J&J vaccine should remain available for people who prefer it.

New research shows that people who are hospitalized with severe illness due to COVID-19 are more than twice as likely to die in the following year compared to people who did not contract the virus.

In this conversation, the study's lead author, Arch Mainous, a professor of medicine at the University of Florida, says the research points to the need for vaccination to prevent people from getting severe COVID-19 in the first place.

Teligent Pharma, Inc. is voluntarily recalling two lots of Lidocaine HCl Topical Solution USP 4%, 50ml in a screw cap glass bottle listed in the table below to the user level. The product is being recalled because the firms testing has found it to be super potent based on an Out of Specification (OOS) result obtained at the 9-month (Lot 16345) and 18-month (Lot 15594) stability timepoint.

Source: The Emergency Email & Wireless Network

Florida is struggling to produce enough doctors to serve its growing and aging population.

A new report by IHS Markit shows that the state could only have physicians for 76% of its population by 2035, leaving the state unable to provide for nearly 25% of its residents.

The Florida State University College of Medicine, Apalachee Center and Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare have signed an agreement to establish and operate a psychiatry residency program, addressing a critical area of need for the training of additional mental health-care providers for the region and state.

The program will be based at Apalachee Center, a Tallahassee-based organization that helps individuals recovering from emotional, psychiatric and substance abuse crises. It will provide three years of training in psychiatry for medical school graduates with the potential for adding additional fellowship opportunities in designated subspecialties. Among the subspecialties that could be offered are addiction medicine and child and adolescent psychiatry, two areas in need of additional providers locally and across the state and nation.

To view the December 2021 edition of the FSU College of Medicine's Electronic Medical Review, click here.

To view the 2021 edition of the Florida Medical Association's magazine, click here.

To view the December 2021 edition of the Florida Healthcare Law Firm newsletter, click here.

Dr. Lawrence Weaver and Dr. Alan Dransfield, both products of military families, served in the U.S. Naval Dental Corps. Today, they are partners in a Tallahassee dental practice.

According to a Morning Consult poll of 1,000 healthcare workers taken in September 2021, 18% had quit and 12% had lost their jobs during the pandemic. That’s an astounding 30% who had left their positions since March 2020. Of those who remained, 31% had thought about leaving their jobs, including 19% who mused about leaving the medical field altogether.

“You have physicians, you have nurses, dropping out, retiring early, leaving practice, changing jobs,” Dr. Dharam Kaushik, a urologist at the University of Texas Health, San Antonio, told Morning Consult. “You’re experiencing loss of manpower in a field that was already short on manpower before the pandemic hit.”

By now, we have all experienced how the electronic health record (EHR) rollout did not go as planned. If we have read Dr. Wachter’s book The Digital Doctor: Hope, Hype, and Harm at the Dawn of Medicine’s Computer Age, we may even understand why the rollout went so badly. Our success along the road to digitization will depend on what he describes as “reimagining the work.”

The 2022 AMA National Advocacy Conference will be held in person, and registration is now open. Please join us!

Attending will give you the opportunity to connect with industry experts, members of Congress and others about current federal efforts to improve health care and advocate on crucial health care issues affecting your patients. You will hear from AMA leadership, the Administration, federal lawmakers, and other physician and patient advocates. Additional agenda details are coming soon.  

The conference will begin on Monday, February 14th at 3:00 p.m. and adjourn Wednesday, February 16th after lunch. 

Hotel reservations 

Accommodations are at the Grand Hyatt Washington in Washington, D.C. Please reserve your hotel room now.  

Safety measures 

REGISTER NOW! 

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!