Due to an increase in AMA membership, the Colorado Medical Society has been awarded a fifth AMA Delegate and a fifth AMA Alternate Delegate. As a result, the nomination period for the positions of AMA Delegate and Alternate Delegate has been extended through April 30, 2017, to seek candidates to fill the two additional positions. All CMS members are encouraged to consider nominating a colleague or self-nominating for one of the open leadership positions in our AMA delegation. Overall, there will be four Delegate and four Alternate Delegate positions elected in an all-member election this August. The term of the positions will begin Jan. 1, 2018 and continue for two years through Dec. 31, 2019.

Read more about these positions in the the election guide, available here. This guide provides all the information a potential candidate needs about the duties, eligibility, terms of office and honorarium for each open position, as well as candidate requirements, campaign guidelines and the election process. The position descriptions and qualifications for office are available starting on page three of the election guide and the candidate requirements on page five of the election guide. Questions? Contact dean_holzkamp@cms.org.

Earn up to 3.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ at the next program in the CMS Physician Leadership Skills Series, exclusive and free for CMS members. It will be held in Denver on Saturday, April 22, 8 a.m. - 12 p.m.  Register here.

The topic of the April program is multi-generational leadership. Health care requires teamwork, and for physicians that often means leading and working with people of different ages and generational attributes. Understanding what that means for patients is important, but increasingly it is becoming essential to know what that means for those that you, as a physician, work with daily.

Today four generations are working side by side in most organizations. A fifth is not far behind. The multi-generational workplace presents the unique challenge to achieve maximum productivity, efficiency and employee engagement while avoiding generational culture clash. This workshop focuses on practical strategies for capitalizing on all of the assets each generation brings.

Find more information on the full series, including the CME accreditation statements, and access registration here.

The Colorado Health Institute, a nonpartisan health policy research organization, analyzed the American Health Care Act (AHCA) under consideration in Congress and found that it would lead to a $14 billion funding cut for Colorado during the first decade of its implementation.

According to the analysis, which focuses only on proposed changes to Medicaid, the AHCA would likely cause nearly 600,000 Coloradans to lose eligibility for Medicaid by 2030.

The bill makes two major changes to Medicaid: It limits federal funding for people who joined Medicaid under the expansion authorized by the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and it converts federal funding for Medicaid to a per capita allotment system. Funding under per capita allotments is expected to grow slower than funding under the current system.

Under the ACA, Colorado achieved an uninsured rate of 6.7 percent, less than half the 14.3 percent uninsured rate in 2013, and CHI attributes almost all of the drop in the state's uninsured rate to the ACA's Medicaid expansion.

Click here to read the analysis.

Telligen, the Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization (QIN-QIO) for Colorado, is launching a new initiative called the Telligen Outpatient Antibiotic Stewardship and is currently recruiting outpatient healthcare settings (including physician offices) to implement an antibiotic stewardship (AS) program. The goal of an antibiotic stewardship program is to monitor, reduce and prevent misuse and overuse of antibiotics in health care settings. As always, there is no cost. Access the application and more information here.

The CDC released the Core Elements of Outpatient Antibiotic Stewardship on Nov. 11, 2017. The core elements focus on Commitment, Action, Tracking and Reporting and Education and Expertise.

It's time to focus on antibiotic stewardship and reduce antibiotic resistance, which has been identified as a fundamental aspect of global health security and is a priority across federal, state, academic, public and private entities. Each year in the United States at least 2 million people become infected with bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics and at least 23,000 people die each year as a direct result of these infections. The National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria includes reduction of inappropriate antibiotic use by 50 percent in outpatient settings and by 20 percent in inpatient settings by 2020.

Telligen will offer two 30-minute webinars in April to provide an overview of the Outpatient Antibiotic Stewardship Initiative for physician offices. They will be held April 6 at 1 p.m. and April 18 at 9 a.m. Click the dates to register for one fo the webinars.

• View the Cohort 2 handout
• Sign up for the SIM distribution list
• Explore the SIM cohort 2 website