CME Expense Reimbursement Guidelines and Procedures
Community Hospital Emergency Physicians
(Does Not Apply to Tertiary ED Physicians)
(Effective April 1, 2007)
(Revised April 3/12)
The new collective agreement for Community Hospital Emergency Physicians signed July 1,
2007 has the following wording in paragraphs 20:01 & 20:02
“Upon the completion of twelve (12) months of service with the WRHA, the WRHA
shall, on an annual basis, grant an educational leave to each physician of five (5) days (40
hours) with pay at the non-clinical hourly rate as set out in Schedule “1”.
The WRHA shall, upon presentation of receipts, reimburse each physician for CME
expenses (including conference costs, travel and accommodation expenses, educational
materials, journals, etc.) up to a maximum of $3,200.00 per year.”
The following guidelines and procedures indicate how reimbursement will be applied:
1. If a CME event is being held on a day(s) that the ED Physician is scheduled to work, then
that ED Physician must ensure that appropriate alternate medical coverage is arranged with
his / her Medical Director before attendance can be approved.
2. A maximum of $3,200 for reimbursement of CME expenses will be available for each
salaried physician for each fiscal year starting April 1, if that physician has committed to at
least 0.25 EFT (350 worked hours per year).
2.1. A newly hired physician is eligible for reimbursement of the $3200 pro-rata to the
amount of time in the emergency program, relative to the 12 months prior to the
educational events or purchases. Example: If the physician started his/her commitment
to the Emergency Program on November 1, 2006 and attended an Emergency Medicine
conference on September 1, 2007, then he/she would be entitled to 10 / 12 x $3200 =
$2667 of reimbursed expenses for that event. (If the event occurred November 1, 2007,
then he/she would be entitled to the full $3200, which would use up all of the entitlement
for Apr 1/07 to Mar 31/08. Also, if the event occurred on September 1, 2007 and then,
after November 1, 2007 but before April 1, 2008 he/she had other CME expenses, those
additional expenses would eligible for reimbursement up to $3200 - $2667 = $533).
2.2. An unpaid leave of absence will not reduce the $3,200 available, unless this is for a
physician who has not yet worked for a full 12 months in the Emergency Program at the
time the LOA starts.
2.3. Unused portions of the eligible amount as at March 31 of any given fiscal year cannot be
carried forward into the next fiscal year.
2.4. Any expense related to an educational event / conference will be included in the fiscal
year in which the event actually took place. If the event started at the end of March and
finished in the beginning of April, the physician has the option of including the full
amount in either fiscal year or it can be allocated to both years pro rata to actual days.
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3. Expenses are only eligible for reimbursement by the Emergency Program if they are incurred
directly by the physician and will not be reimbursed by any other party AND if they relate to
CME associated with the practice of Emergency Medicine. If there is any doubt as to
whether or not an educational event would be considered as relevant to the practice of
Emergency Medicine, then the physician should apply to have CME expenses reimbursed in
advance of committing to attend an educational event or make an educational purchase.
If the CME event/expense clearly relates to Emergency Medicine, then advance approval is
not necessary.
3.1. When obtaining advance approval, the Physician should complete a "Travel Request
Form" (copy attached) with total cost estimates prior to committing to an educational
event or purchase
3.2. The “Travel Request Form” should be signed by the physician’s site Emergency
Department Medical Director to indicate that the educational event or purchase is
relevant to the work in the Emergency Department.
3.3. The completed form should be sent to the Laurie Perkins, Admin Assistant, WRHA
Emergency Program, c/o St. Boniface Hospital, Room L1019, 409 Tache Avenue,
Winnipeg, R2H 2A6.
4. After the educational event or purchase is complete, original receipts totaling the amount of
reimbursement (excluding the per diem meal allowances) must be sent to the Laurie Perkins
(see address in 3.3 above) with a signed “Expense Claim Form”.
4.1. Note that if the purchase is made over the internet and an e-mail receipt is received, the
Finance Department requires that the original credit card statement be submitted as proof
of payment, otherwise they will not reimburse the expense. This credit card statement
will be returned by Finance, if such a request accompanies the Expense Claim Form.
5. Reasonable expenses include:
5.1. Registration fees / tuition / examination fees to courses, seminars or conferences that are
relevant to the work of an Emergency Physician.
5.2. Economy airfare and ground transportation to attend an approved event. (A physician
may use their automobile for travel when other transportation in unavailable or if the per
kilometer allowance of $0.41 per kilometer (starting Apr 1/12 and previously $0.40 per
kilometer effective Jan 1/11) is less expensive than commercial carrier – reimbursement
will not exceed the amount that would have been paid for travel with a commercial
carrier at economy fares).
5.3. Single-occupancy, standard room hotel accommodation for the days of the event plus the
night before (at the lowest conference discount rates advertised),
5.4. Per diem meal allowance (no receipts required) for the days of the event (if at least one
over-night stay is required) as per the table below.
Prior to January 1, 2011:
Per Diem
Day of Travel to Event (if the day before the event)
$22
Day(s) of Event
$45 minus the following for any
meals provided by the event:
-breakfast $7
-lunch $10
-dinner $20
Day of Travel Returning from Event (if the day after the event) $22
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Per Diem Rates Effective January 1, 2011 (no receipts required)
Hours
Canada
Canada
(Claim only if
traveling during
(Below 53rd
(Above 53rd
noted times)
Parallel)
Parallel)
U.S. (U.S.$)
Meals
7 – 9 a.m.
$10
$12
$10
Lunch
11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
$13
$14
$13
Dinner
5 – 7 p.m.
$27
$29
$27
Incidentals
For every 24 hour
period away
$10
$10
$10
Per Diem
Total for 24 hours
$60
$65
$60
Breakfast
Notes:
minus above amounts for meals provided by event
Meals - Traveling time (+ 1 hour before departure & after arrival) must
include all of the Hours noted above in order to claim the corresponding
meal.
Incidentals - Travelers must be away for the entire 24-hours in order to
claim for that day
5.5. Prior to January 1, 2011 the per diem rate does not apply to one-day trips outside of
Winnipeg where actual expenses with original receipts will be reimbursed up to the
following maximums:
Breakfast
$7
Lunch
$10
Dinner
$20
Effective January 1, 2011 where the Traveler is away for less than 24 hours the per diem
allowance shall only be paid for meals worked through, as set out in the January 1, 2011
table above.
5.6. Educational material including books, journals, PDA’s with medical software, initial
cost of Blackberry (or equivalent hand held devices including electronic tablets) for
accessing on-line medical reference web-sites and / or medical software (but not
monthly operating costs of Blackberry/equivalents), on-line subscriptions for journals or
medical reference web-sites, or medical computer software to run on a PC (but does not
include the cost of a PC or laptop computer nor the cost of an internet connection).
CME Questions Answered:
1. Is a percentage of home/office internet access costs considered allowable as a CME
reimbursement cost? NO.
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2. If an online subscription to a CME website is purchased in one fiscal year but is more
than two years in duration, can we include half the subscription cost as a reimbursement
cost for the subsequent year? YES – WE COULD EITHER INCLUDE THE FULL 2
YEAR COST IN THE YEAR THAT YOU MADE THE PAYMENT, OR WE COULD
SPLIT IT OVER THE 2 (OR MORE) YEARS PRO RATA TO THE NUMBER OF
DAYS THAT THE SUBSCRIPTION FALLS INTO EACH FISCAL YEAR –
WHICHEVER YOU CHOOSE.
3. If we did not use the CME program in a prior fiscal year, how long can we go back to
submit the unused expenses? ie: I did not use any CME reimbursement for 2009-2010,
can I still submit costs for that year? YES – YOU CAN GO BACK AND CLAIM
COSTS INCURRED IN PRIOR YEARS – WE DON’T HAVE A TIME LIMIT, BUT
WOULD STILL REQUIRE ORIGINAL RECEIPTS.
4. The CME payments that I have submitted for 2010 and for which you reimbursed me, in
which box do they appear on the T4 slip, Box 14 or 40? Revenue Canada requested more
info and wanted to know if I am eligible to deduct those payments? – ANSWER: As we
require you to send us the original receipts, we do not include the reimbursement in your
T4 at all. Since the reimbursement is not included in taxable income, you cannot claim
the original (reimbursed) CME cost as an expense against your taxable professional
income.
5. Can we include part of our CAEP membership dues as educational expenses under
journals for the emergency medicine journal CAEP publishes much in the same way
Doctors Manitoba allows CMA deduction for the CMAJ? – NO (SAME FOR CCFP
DUES AND FRCP DUES) AS THIS IS CONSIDERED PRIMAMILY A
MEMBERSHIP DUE AS OPPOSED TO THE COST OF A JOURNAL.
6. A number of practice eligible physicians will need to obtain the CCFP family practice
designation prior to challenging the CCFP (EM) exam. There is currently an Alternate
Route to Certification (ARC) available for the CCFP. This route exempts physicians from
sitting the Family Practice exam, and instead offers a self-directed computer base CME
program, completion of which results in CCFP certification (see:
http://www.cfpc.ca/ARC/). It must be completed within an 18-month period and in
addition to certification, results in 15 Mainpro-C and 15 Mainpro M1 CME credits. I was
wondering if community emergency physicians could use there WRHA CME stipend to
cover the registration fee (~$2228.00)? – YES (SINCE THIS IS A FIXED 18-MONTH
PERIOD, THE PHYSICIAN COULD OPT TO HAVE THE FULL AMOUNT
CLAIMED IN ANY FISCAL YEAR IN WHICH THE 18-MONTH PERIOD FALLS,
OR TO HAVE IT PRO RATED TO FISCAL YEARS BASED ON THE NUMBER OF
DAYS IN EACH FISCAL YEAR FOR THAT 18-MONTH PERIOD)
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7. Is the CCFP (E.M.) exam itself (registration fee $2422.00) eligible for reimbursement
since studying for the exam is felt to be a CME exercise in and of itself, and 25 MainproC CME credits are awarded upon completion. In addition to the registration fee, there are
travel costs, as the exam is only held in Toronto. So, would community emergency
physician be able to use there WRHA CME fund to off-set the cost of the registration
and/or travel expenses for this examination? – ANSWER: YES; however, the physicians
should be careful to ensure that the payment for the on-line course (and at least some of
the course’s duration) falls in one fiscal year (ending March 31) and the exam date falls
in a subsequent fiscal year. This is because we use the date of the educational event to
determine which year’s $3200 CME allowance gets charged (but if a single educational
event falls over 2 fiscal years, the physician can choose either of the 2 fiscal year’s to
make the claim or allocate the cost over all of the affected fiscal years pro rata to the
actual days of the educational event).
8. A group of ER docs from our site are interested in starting a "practice based small group"
for CME and in particular to earn Mainpro C credits to maintain our CCFP(EM) status. I
have attached the registration form for the Foundation for Medical Practice Education,
which describes the process. This organization exists solely to provide CME. In return
for membership you get access to their CME materials and recognition of your CME
activities as qualifying for Mainpro C credits required for maintenance of qualification
with the College of Family Physicians (including the maintenance of one's CCFP(EM)
status) providing you meet their criteria and follow their process. The fee is $310 per
member and $305 for the facilitator. Plus the facilitator must travel to one of the training
sites for initial training. Can our group get reimbursed for both registration fees and for
travel expenses for the facilitator? ANSWER: YES – since the ongoing membership fee
provides access to on-going training material that isn’t otherwise available.
9. The airline that I flew charges extra for each checked bag – is that claimable? IF THE
AIRLINE CHARGES FOR THE 1ST CHECKED BAG, WE WILL REIMBURSE FOR
THE 1ST BAG. HOWEVER, WE WON’T REIMBURSE FOR ANY CHARGES RE A
2ND BAG (EVEN IF THE 1ST BAG WAS CHECKED FOR FREE).
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