Archive for: Residency News
Court ruling on salaries could cost teaching hospitals, residents
The Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals found that residents’ salaries may be subject to Social Security taxes, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal.
Although most U.S. employees must pay Social Security taxes, students whose work is part of their studies have been excluded. Residents fell into this group, but over the past decade, medical schools and the IRS have been fighting over this exclusion, says The WSJ.
The appellate court’s ruling overturned those of two district courts, which had sided with the medical schools. The judges said medical residents are subject to payroll taxes, but says the tax law does not define whether residents are students or employees. According to the WSJ, this means the IRS can adopt its own guidelines around resident tax collection.
What do you think about this latest ruling? Leave your comments in the box below.
For more information on the resident tax issue, also see:
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Residency graduations make the news
Everyday, I spend at least 5-10 minutes trolling the Web for residency-related news. Over the past few days, I’ve seen several articles about various institution’s residency program graduations.
Show your support for the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2009
There has been a flurry of activity on Capitol Hill regarding GME funding. Most notably, is the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2009, which would increase the number of residency slots by 15,000 positions.
A look into the future: ACGME release internal medicine milestones
As I reported from the ACGME conference back in March, the accrediting agency is working with the American Board of Internal Medicine to develop specific behavioral milestones for each competency.
The ACGME and ABIM have posted a draft milestone framework for comment by program directors, faculty, residents, coordinators, and other interested parties.
The expectation is that residency programs will integrate the defined milestones into their curriculum and measure and evaluate residents performance against the standards.
Even if you’re not involved in internal medicine, take a look at this framework. The ACGME is developing milestones first in internal medicine, surgery, and pediatrics. I assume the goal is to eventually have milestones for all specialities, and what happens now will inform those future projects.
What do you think of the milestones framework? Leave a comment in the box below.
Look for more coverage of the Milestone Project on Residency Manager Blog and in Residency Program Alert.
ACGME releases RC Notable Practices
Several program directors and coordinators have told me that their ACGME site visitors have praised their evaluations, pieces of their curriculum, annual review templates, etc and asked for copies of the documents to take with them.
ACGME CEO honored as one of the most influential physician executives
ACGME CEO Thomas J. Nasca was named one of 2009’s 50 most powerful physicians by Modern Physician and Modern Healthcare.
AAMC sends ACGME response to IOM duty hour recommendations
The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) is the latest organization to send the ACGME a letter responding to the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) duty hour recommendations.
The AAMC said it does not believe that duty hours and schedules are the biggest problem, according to a Apr. 21 letter to ACGME. Instead, the AAMC said efforts should focus more on identifying and managing fatigue, resident supervision, trainee workload, and handoffs.
The AAMC’s letter also outlines its positions regarding the following:
- Support of the 80-hour rule, but the AAMC says that scheduling should recognize the needs of patient care delivery and education of various specialties.
- Moonlighting activities should count toward the 80-hour limit or prohibited all together.
- The ACGME should maintain responsibility to monitor and enforce duty hour rules.
- ACGME review committees should examine and determine appropriate workloads for residents.
- ACGME review committees should establish new, enhanced supervision guidelines. The AAMC said supervision rules may include specific guidelines for when residents should consult with attending physicians or senior residents, or a requirement for the supervising physician to contact and check in with residents, rather than waiting to be contacted by trainees.
- Institutions should develop specific handoff policies that meet the needs of the institutions and various specialties.
From APDIM: Subspecialty survival
I have just returned from a week in Dallas, TX attending our medicine conference, and I’m experiencing the buzz that results from the wonderful information sharing that always happens at these events. (Never mind that this is followed by the crashing paralysis that happens NEXT week when I realize my newly revised “TO DO” list is 85 pages long!)
My fellowship administrator and I presented a workshop on “Subspecialty Survival” during which we shared some of the organizational tips we use to keep track of the numerous years’ worth of requirements that occur in subspecialty training. We also did a lot of “comparing” with other attendees about how they run their subspecialty programs.
It appears as if the exercise we endured this year, consolidating the coordination of our programs, which I wrote about in an earlier post, is indeed the wave of the future. Inserting a fellowship administrator at either the department or even the GME level is the most logical and manageable way manage the new accountability requirement.
The “hows” of this varied significantly, and because our fellowship administrator is also the blogger for Residency Manager’s Fellowship Forum, I won’t steal her thunder.
This is just to say that if you’re interested keep an eye out for her report on this as well!
GME and The Joint Commission Site Visit
While at the AHME conference two weeks ago, I sat in on a session that gave an update on The Joint Commission and GME.
Luckily for GME leaders, speaker Carolyn C. Snipe, MA director of GME at North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System, explained that there are no new standards regarding GME.
Whew!
Although there are no new requirements, GME is still an integral part of The Joint Commission site survey.
ACGME seeking proposals for duty hour literature review
The ACGME took another step forward in its duty hour review/reform process today with a letter from the organization’s CEO, Thomas Nasca, MD, MACP, requesting proposals for A Comprehensive Literature Review and Analysis of Residency Training and Duty Hours Experience.
Individuals interested in performing the review are encouraged to submit a proposal describing their plans and procedures by May 22, and the final report is due by the end of August. The final report will be the ACGME Duty Hours Task Force as they make their decisions regarding new resident work hours, the letter said.
The ACGME asks applicants to review national and international literature of peer reviewed articles regarding:
- Resident duty hours
- Supervision
- Working conditions
- Sleep needs, patterns, and deprivation
- Fatigue
- Well-being
- Education
- Learning environment
- Moonlighting
- Medical errors
- Effects of the 2003 resident duty hour standards
- Other studies about resident training in teaching and non teaching settings
The ACGME will inform any and all accepted proposals by May 27,2009.
-
-
Categories
-
Archives
-
Feeds
