July 2023 Ebrief

Hello everyone!

The FRS/FRBMA annual meeting will be in a couple of days! There is still time to register, although the hotel block at the Ritz is full and nearby hotels are filling up, so act fast! We look forward to another stellar meeting at the Ritz Carlton Sarasota July 14-16. Some highlights for the program are:

• • The Philip S. Cook Strategic Issues Lecture by Rich Duszak on workforce planning, Saturday July 15th 10:45-11:30 am.

• • The Charles D. Williams Legacy Lecture by Anthony Mancuso on modernizing radiology education, Sunday Jul 16th 8:00-8:45 am.

• • Job Fair, Sunday July 16th 11:15 am-2:00 pm.

• • Clinical updates to keep you abreast of our field.

• • Discussions on radiology practices and the future of our profession.

• • Tailored contents/tracks for business managers, trainees, and radiation oncology

• • Reconnecting and networking with FRS/FRBMA members.

The full program can be found here: Click Here

Radiology is often buffeted by external forces beyond our immediate control, but we can provide some constancy with our unity as a profession and our strength as a society. The annual meeting and the day-in, day-out work of the FRS contribute to that, and we welcome your membership and participation. 

As this is the last E-brief I write as FRS Secretary, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the rest of the FRS Executive Committee for their hard work and dedication this year. In particular, I would like to acknowledge our president, Chintan Desai, who will finish his term at the annual meeting. Thank you, Chintan, for your leadership, vision, and involvement!

Looking forward to seeing you all in Sarasota!

Thank you for letting me serve as your President for the last 12 months. It has been an honor and a great experience. 

We have to continue to push forward regardless of the challenges we face. I urge you to get involved to help secure our specialties’ future. So far 80% of our amazing members have renewed their FRS/ACR memberships but, that leaves us way behind compared to other states which have over 90% renewal rates. We ask for your continued support to help us get back to the top. As Dr. William T. Thorwarth calls it:

“PROFESSION INSURANCE WITH A GREAT ROI”

Go recruit your non-member friends as they are benefiting from our collective efforts.

I hope to see you all at our 2023 Annual Meeting in July. It is a great opportunity to make new friends and network. This year’s program will be exceptional and you don’t want to miss it.

July is annual meeting time and this year’s combined FRS/FRBMA meeting will not disappoint!  The meeting is taking place at the Ritz-Carlton in Sarasota, Florida July 14-16th 2023. Our theme for the meeting this year is “Radiology: A Synergy of Technology and Patient Care” and will provide a wide array of presentations covering a myriad of topics.

Our focused FRBMA meeting on Friday kicks off with Keynote Radiology Practice Management Lecture at 2:15 from Dr. Richard L. Duszak, MD, FACR, FSIR, FRBMA, followed by Dr. Lawrence R. Muroff, MD, FACR “Good to Great: Applying Corporate Principles to Radiology Practices”, and Ted Burnes, MPA “Legislative Initiatives Affecting the Practice of Radiology and Patient Care”.  This year, we are also honored to have a local healthcare executive provide his perspective on the current healthcare and hospital climate. David Verinder, CEO of Sarasota Memorial Healthcare System will be capping off our management session with his lecture “Where will Florida hospitals position themselves over the next 5 years with the elimination of hospital Certificate of Need?”

As always, our Saturday sessions are blended with the FRS and the agenda is rich with discussions of interest and benefit to both radiologists and executives. Our speakers are all known nationally and include Drs. Frank J. Lexa, MD, MBA, FACR, Jacqueline Bello, MD, FACR, Chair of the ACR Board of Chancellors, Rich Duszak, MD, FACR, FSIR, FRBMA, Lori Deitte, MD, FACR, FAUR, Eliot L. Siegel, MD, FACR, FSIIM, Barbara Rubel, MSN and Ron Howrigon, Fulcrum Strategies.

For those of you who are new to this meeting, we have always had strong support from our exhibitors and this year is no exception. We encourage everyone to spend time in the exhibit hall, as well as, during the meet and greet opportunities beginning with the wine and cheese reception on Friday night.  Saturday night provides us the opportunity to recognize outstanding contributions to our organizations during the Gold Medal Reception.  This year we are excited to be presenting one of our members with the LaDonna Nichols Lifetime Achievement Award for the Florida Chapter of RBMA. Please make sure to join us for that special event. 

Part of our business meeting prior to the keynote address on Friday will be discussing our FRBMA winter meeting 2024. Bring your ideas for format, speakers and networking to the session so we can tailor future meetings to you, our member. 

See you in a couple of weeks! 

July has arrived and the Governor finally received the $117 billion dollar budget on June 15 and acted on it the same day by signing the bill in Port St Lucie. He vetoed a little over $500 million in projects. The budget goes into effect on July 1. In the budget, an additional $61.5 million was appropriated for a statewide graduate medical education effort aimed at increasing the number of physician residency slots at Florida hospitals.

During the Session, 1,873 bills and proposed committee bills were filed, as well as, 2,674 amendments. Only 356 bills passed both chambers to head to the Governor for final action.

The final tally of Governor’s vetoes is not yet available; but, to date he has vetoed 6 bills out of the 347 he has received.

One of the bills that was vetoed was SB 230 by Senator Harrell that would have clarified health care titles and advertising rules for practitioners in law. The legislation would have applied the title or designation of “physician” only to medical doctors and osteopathic physicians for advertising or when dealing with patients. This was a bill supported by the Senate President Kathleen Passidomo whose father is an ophthalmologist. An amendment was adopted that allowed optometrists to be designated as doctors and the House would not agree to pass the bill without this language. Additionally, nearly 50 occupations were approved to refer to themselves as “physicians“ including dentists, podiatrists, and chiropractic physicians. The Senate President was aware that the governor was going to veto the bill. The veto was welcome due to all the amendments to the bill. 

The bills relating to coverage for diagnostic and supplemental breast examinations did not pass this session.

This next session starts in January; so, I anticipate seeing these bills filed again.

Campaign season is underway again and any financial support of the FRS PAC is greatly appreciated.

I look forward to seeing everyone at the annual meeting in Sarasota. 

Thanks, 

We look forward to seeing you in July.

FRS Meeting Registration

FRBMA Meeting Registration

It is critical that we support both our Florida PAC and RADPAC in order to bolster our voice in Tallahassee and Washington, respectively. Please join FRS lobbyist Alison Dudley in her special appeal for all Florida radiologists to become Florida PAC members. If you would like to help FRS defend radiology against untoward legislation and introduce bills that have a positive impact on our practices, we need your financial support to re-elect our friends in the state House and Senate. The FRS can also show you simplified ways on how to sign up your radiology group. Contact Lorraine Roger or contact Alison Dudley at for more information.