Membership renewals Please don't go! 

2014 Membership Cancellations are just weeks away!  We want you to stay!

• Members who have not reported the required number of CME for re-election year 2011-2013 will be cancelled May 1^st.   
• Members who have not either paid their 2014 dues or signed up for the installation program will be cancelled May 2.   
• Members that fall into either or both of these categories will be receiving notices.  At any time before May members can either pay dues or report their CME hours to the AAFP Contact center at contactcenter@aafp.org or 800-274-2237. 

Nominate a deserving FP of the Year-Nominations are due June 1 and must have a support letter included.  Link to the form here with more details. 

Baseball season is here!  

  Here's a Match statistic for you:  of the 33 M4s who attended the 2013 Family Medicine Midwest conference whose Match results we've been able to confirm - 27 of them matched into family medicine.  That's an 82 percent success rate! Let's build on that momentum.

Contribute to our region's premiere family medicine collaborative event - Family Medicine Midwest 2014 - October 10-12 in Minneapolis, MN.

Submit an Abstract.  All submissions must be entered through the online form.  The deadline for presentation abstracts is May 19.  Prior to submitting, please review the following documents:

2014 FMM Call for Abstracts  Information

2014 FMM Poster Presentation Guide

Donate to the scholarship fund:

Student scholarships are available with free registration and a stipend to help fund travel expenses and hotel stay.  Scholarships will be limited by the total funds available.  Help send more Illinois students to this conference.  You can support students from the school of your choosing.  Link to a donation form here.

AAFP CareerLink Virtual Career Fair: No suit required 
Participate in the FREE career fair, April 16 from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. CT, and get directly connected to employers from the comfort of your home or office.

-Gain direct access to physician employers looking to hire.

-Make new connections and broaden your network.

-Explore career opportunities available to you.

-During the career fair, you can browse opportunities from participating employers and choose which ones to interact with in one-on-one chats. Share your personal background, work experience, and ask questions.

Register today 

Rush-Copley Family Medicine Residency

Opening for faculty physician at this program in Aurora

PCC Wellness Center

PCC has openings for physicians at their clinics on the Near West Side and in Oak Park

Family Medicine Osteopathic Full Time Faculty Member 

Adventist Hinsdale Hospital Family Medicine Residency is seeking a full time osteopathic faculty member for our dually accredited ACGME/AOA program.

Family Medicine Residency Program Director

The Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford is seeking an Assistant / Associate Professor of Clinical Family Medicine for the Program Director for the core family medicine program in Rockford along with its two affiliated rural programs. 

Site Medical Director-Waukegan

Opening July 2014 - Apply at www.eriefamilyhealth.org. 

Statehouse Update

Smoke Free College Campuses SB2202 has passed both houses.  The House passed the bill on April 2^nd and the Senate concurred with the amendments.  The bill goes to the governor for his signature and all Illinois campuses will be smoke-free.

ACTION ALERT Dentists are lobbying to provide vaccinations: Senate Bill 3409 (Sen. Manar) and House Bill 5574 (Rep. Fine) would allow dentists to administer flu vaccines to individuals eighteen years or older.  As family physicians, we encourage patients to have access to a medical home but this legislation threatens to further fracture the medical home and obstruct care coordination. Among many other concerns, how will dentists retain documentation and communicate with the patient's medical home and primary care provider? The attached fact sheet provides an expansive list of concerns.

Please contact your Senator to voice opposition on Monday, April 7 as the bill will likely be heard next week on the Senate floor.  Please go to www.ilga.gov and find your state senator's contact information under "legislator lookup" in the lower right quadrant. 

Federal Update

SGR Saga Continues

What can we say?  Once again Congress has grasped defeat from the jaws of victory - and physicians are looking at another year of an outdated, ineffective Medicare payment system.  Last week the House passed a 12-month patch, along with a similar delay in the ICD-10 requirement in an unprecedented "voice vote."  The Senate passed the bill on March 31.  To get some clarity on the situation, AAFP interviewed Kavita Patel, MD of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, a leading authority on finance reform and clinical innovation.

Link to the full article here

Open Payments Webinar - the Sunshine Act

Wednesday, April 16, 2014, from 12:00-1:00pm CDT

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)

Open Payments (Physician Payments Sunshine Act) is a program that increases public awareness of financial relationships between drug and device manufacturers and certain health care providers.  This webinar will provide an overview of the final rule, information on your role in the program, resources available to you as a health care provider, and key program dates.  The presentation will be followed by a question and answer session with staff from the Center for Program Integrity's Data Sharing and Partnership Group.

This call is intended for association/medical society staff, physicians, practitioners, and practice managers located in CMS Regions 5, 6, 7, and 8.  Associations/medical societies are encouraged to invite member providers.

CMS Speaker:   Anne Carey, Nurse Consultant, Atlanta Regional Office

Webinar link:  https://webinar.cms.hhs.gov/openpaymentsro5-8/

Telephone dial-in number:  (877) 267-1577

Meeting ID number:  994 370 464 This meeting does not require a password

Access all our FREE self-study CME that meets your needs! Log on at with www.iafp.com/education

JUST ADDED

Medical Marijuana: Implications for the Clinician in Light of Upcoming Legislation
Presented by: Leslie Mendoza Temple, MD, Medical Director, Integrative Medicine Program, Clinical Assistant Professor, Family Medicine Department, University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine
Monday, April 14, 2014, 12:00-1:00pmCST - LIMITED to 100 attendees!

1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 credit

Learning Objectives:
At the end of the session, participants will be able to: 

• List the different strains of Cannabis
• Understand cannabinoid receptors and physiology
• Discuss medical marijuana safety
• Specify forms of consumption
• Review the law and national landscape
• Describe medical conditions eligible for medical marijuana

Register Online For FREE CME!

April Lunch and Learn Webinar - Diabetes Group Visits   Presented by: Alvia Siddiqi, MD, FAAFP, Illinois Health Connect PCCM, Automated Health Systems and IAFP Vice President
Thursday, April 24, 2014 12:00-1:00pm CST  The Illinois Academy of Family Physicians and Illinois Health Connect (IHC) are pleased to co-host April's Lunch and Learn Webinar on Diabetes Group Visits.

Learning Objectives
At the end of this session, participants will:

Understand how to promote and improve awareness of diabetes group visits as an innovative method to improve diabetes patient care.  Attendees will

Learn the steps needed and resources available for how to conduct successful diabetes group visits. 

Discuss the strengths and limitations of diabetes group visits.

Register Online

More Upcoming Illinois Health connect CME webinars for providers

Use this link to view the full schedule and register for any of the free webinars

04/08/14 at noon - Food Allergies

05/29/14 at noon -  HPV Screening

05/22/14 at noon -   Lead Screening

E-cigarette Webinar on Talking with Patients

E-cigarettes are a hot topic.  So you may be interested in this free webinar, "E-cigarettes: Challenges for Clinicians" on Wednesday, April 23, 2014 at Noon Central Time (90 minutes).  

This webinar gets to the nitty gritty of what healthcare providers can do when their patient brings up the subject of e-cigarettes. The presenters will offer up various clinical scenarios. Participants who join the LIVE session, on April 23, 2014, can claim CME/CEU credit for $35 per certificate

REGISTER HERE

IAFP Seeks FP's to serve as speakers for upcoming DOT medical examiners training programs 

The IAFP will be holding training courses throughout Illinois in the spring (Chicago western suburbs, Peoria or Springfield, Rockford, & Carbondale) and are looking for 2-3 physicians per site that could serve as speakers.  The training course is already developed.  If you have already completed a DOT training course and/ or are part of the National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners and are interested in teaching please contact Kate Valentine at kvalentine@iafp.com

Need to complete a training course to become a Certified Medical Examiner?  Watch for upcoming training dates! 

MEMBER BENEFIT

Fluzone Prebook extended - Join Atlantic Health Partners and Prebook by April 30th 

IAFP members that join Atlantic Health Partners and order Sanofi's Fluzone by April 30 and/or Medimmune's Flumist by April 18th will receive the lowest prices and best terms.  Atlantic also offers the most favorable prices and terms on the entire portfolio of Sanofi and Merck vaccines.

Participation with Atlantic will help you better prepare for flu season, save you money on vaccines throughout the year, and enhance patient satisfaction with your practice. 

Join the thousands of physicians that are saving dollars and receiving high quality customer service from Atlantic.   Contact Cindy or Jeff at 800-741-2044 or info@atlantichealthpartners.com to see how Atlantic Health Partners (www.atlantichealthpartners.com) can benefit your practice.

Be a Force for Family Medicine through the AAFP Foundation Annual Fund

The AAFP Foundation-the philanthropic arm of the AAFP-and its Annual Fund serve as a vital force for Family Medicine. Stand together with your colleagues and help us deploy the resources desperately needed to improve the health of all people.

The Annual Fund supports multiple humanitarian, educational, and scientific initiatives, including:

Family Medicine Cares, which addresses the health care needs of underserved populations, both domestically and internationally.

National Conference Scholarships, which enable students and residents to explore Family Medicine at National Conference through clinical sessions, procedural workshops, and networking with national Family Medicine leaders.

Joint Grant Awards Program, which provides annual grants of up to $50,000 to help investigators research clinical questions in Family Medicine.

Let's work together to be a force for Family Medicine.

Donate to the AAFP Foundation Annual Fund(www.aafpfoundation.org).

If you have a news item to share, email it to Ginnie Flynn at gflynn@iafp.com.

It was a happy Match Day for Chicago Medical School student Henry Del Rosario, when he matched into his first choice, West Suburban Family Medicine Residency Program in Oak Park.  He was featured in the March 22 Lake County News Sun. His goal is to work in the Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago after completing his training.

Presence Medical Group is closing the only physician practice in St. Joseph, displacing IAFP member Alina Paul, MD - saddening both Dr. Paul and her thousands of patients.  The story was covered twice by the Champaign News-Gazette - March 28^th and April 1.  The office will close June 20.

Vinayak Dongre, MD authored a column about managing the tough allergy season in the April 2 Naperville Sun. 

Our report to you!

Active members should have received the IAFP Annual Report to the Membership in the mail.  If you loved and want to share it with colleagues and friends, please use this link!

Get a Pocket Card for ACA conversations with your patients

IAFP member Kohar Jones, MD helped fuel the creation and dissemination of a pocketcard on Screening for Health Insurance Status designed and implemented by medical students!  Check it out, and use it in your practice to help uninsured and under-insured patients.

Baseball season is here!  

IPHCA Call for Speaker Proposals

The Illinois Primary Health Care Association (IPHCA) will be hosting its 2014 Annual Conference at The Ritz-Carlton Resort in St. Louis, Missouri. Attached, please find the 2014 Speaker Request for Proposals and Proposal Submission Form. Conference sessions will be held Wednesday, October 1 through Friday, October 3, 2014. Download documents: Call for proposals, Topics to consider and Speaker Application

Transforming Care: From Volume to Value

Presented by Health Management Associates

April 11, 2014 from 8:30-4:00 p.m.
Mt. Sinai Hospital | Glasser Auditorium | 1500 S. Fairchild Ave., Chicago, IL 60608 
This event is ideal for provider organizations, FQHCs, clinicians, and community-based social service partners seeking to transform care and develop accountable care structures.

The event is free but space is limited and will be on a first-come, first-served basis.

Please register here.