December 2000
Volume 64 |
Number 12
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ASA NEWS
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2001 Membership Dues
Increased
After 10 years without any dues increase,
the ASA House of Delegates in October approved an increase in
the 2001 membership dues to maintain current levels of activities
as well as to support new programs in the near future. The membership
dues for 2001 will be as follows:
| Active |
$450 |
| Affiliate |
$225 |
| Resident |
$25 |
| Medical student |
$10 |
As in the past, this information is being provided for those who
wish to pay their membership dues in December. In addition, the
2001 dues statement reflecting the above will be mailed to the
ASA membership in December 2000. Dues payments should be deductible
by members as ordinary and necessary business expenses; in the
case of membership dues paid to a section 501(c)(6) organization
such as ASA, this means the business expense deduction will be
denied to the extent membership dues are spent by the organization
on lobbying.
At the time of distributing dues notices
for the coming year, ASA is required (in order to avoid paying
a proxy tax) to provide members with an estimate of what the nondeductible
lobbying percentage will be for that year. ASA estimates that
56 percent of 2001 membership dues will be used for lobbying.
The nondeductible lobbying percentage will be included in the
2001 dues notice. You should thus deduct only 44 percent of the
respective dues amount shown above as a business expense; e.g.,
in the case of an active member, $198 will be deductible. The
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has advised that this is true whether
you pay your 2001 dues before or after January 1.
Anesthesiology groups paying association
membership dues on behalf of an employee (e.g., nurse anesthetist)
should bear in mind that they must include in the employee's taxable
income on Form W-2 that portion of the association's dues that
the association reports to the IRS as attributable to lobbying
expenses.
The dues increase was supported by a unanimous
vote of the ASA Board of Directors in August and the ASA House
of Delegates in October during the ASA Annual Meeting in San Francisco,
California. The revised dues structure, which does not exceed
cost-of-living increases accrued over the last decade, will allow
ASA to support its mission of fostering education, patient safety,
research and scientific progress in anesthesiology. This includes
continuing ASA's proactive efforts to advocate for safe patient
care, enhancing Web-based capabilities for member communications
and education, and promoting the medical specialty of anesthesiology
to the public, media and lawmakers on the federal and state levels.
Other benefits of membership included in
the annual dues are:
- Subscriptions to the journal Anesthesiology,
ASA NEWSLETTER, ASA Directory of Members and ASA Calendars
for Meetings
- Free registration to the ASA Annual
Meeting (45 CME hours)
- Updates on ASA standards, guidelines,
statements and practice parameters
- Representation and updates on federal
and state legislative and regulatory issues
- Physician booklets and practice management
materials
- Patient education support
- Library services and literature searches.
2001 PBLD Program
– Call for Case Submissions
Meg A. Rosenblatt, M.D., Chair
Committee on Problem-Based Learning Discussions
At the 2000 ASA Annual Meeting 118 Problem-Based
Learning Discussions (PBLDs) were offered, many of which were
chosen from among those submitted for review by the Committee
on Problem-Based Learning Discussions. The 2001 committee is again
conducting an open selection process to choose new cases for next
year’s program.
Any member of ASA is invited to submit
a PBLD case to the committee for review and possible selection.
We are seeking fresh topics, controversial issues and compelling
true cases.
All submissions must conform to the guidelines
for PBLD cases that appear on page 7 of the 2000 PBLD Case Book
and on the ASA
Web site. These include: title, objectives, case, model case
discussion and references. The case should not exceed five pages,
and for the first time, we are requesting that submissions be
made both on disk and hard copy. Cases will be evaluated for relevance,
enigma, content, conformity to guidelines and clarity of presentation.
Please send cases to Frank W. Connell at
the ASA Executive Office and include a telephone number or e-mail
address so that the receipt can be confirmed. Deadline for submission
of PBLD cases is January 31, 2001.
Component Society
News:
Ban on General Anesthesia in Doctors’
Offices Lifted; Florida State Agency Orders Adoption of ASA Standards
Florida doctors can once again use general
anesthesia for office-based surgical procedures following the
expiration of a three-month moratorium imposed by that state's
medical board. Replacing that moratorium, however, are some new
rules that, among other things, ban certain complex procedures
in the office and mandate that offices adhere to patient safety
monitoring standards developed by ASA.
According to published news accounts by
the Sun-Sentinel newspaper in Florida, 24 cosmetic surgery patients
have died since January 1997. Seven of those deaths occurred in
hospitals, the rest were in doctors' offices throughout Florida.
Last August, the Florida Board of Medicine
(BoM) imposed the moratorium on the use of general anesthesia
for all office-based surgical procedures. The BoM took this step
following the deaths of four patients just two months after cosmetic
surgery standards were adopted by the medical board. Those standards
required doctors' offices to be accredited or inspected by the
state. Within weeks of the moratorium, the BoM asked Florida’s
Secretary of the Department of Health to establish a commission
to collect information and make recommendations to increase patient
safety before the expiration of the office general anesthesia
moratorium on November 8.
Among the new rules adopted by the BoM
from the commission’s recommendations are:
- The requirement that offices follow
the ASA Standards for Basic Anesthetic Monitoring;
- Mandatory and detailed reporting of
office-based surgeries and their outcomes for one year;
- Prohibit combining certain procedures
such as liposuction and breast enhancement because it increases
the time needed for the surgeries and the time the patient will
be anesthetized.
- A full medical evaluation prior to cosmetic
surgery must be performed on any patient at high risk of complications
because of untreated medical conditions.
The BoM requirement for anesthesiologist
involvement in all level III office surgeries (using general anesthesia,
deep sedation or major conduction blocks) remains under legal
challenge by a consortium of plastic and cosmetic surgeons, the
Florida Nursing Association and the Florida Association of Nurse
Anesthetists. A ruling by the administrative law judge hearing
the case is expected within the next several weeks.
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