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Clarification Regarding Lifetime Boards and Education Benefits

March 9, 2015 by School of Medicine Webmaster

From Anne Kromkowski to Department Faculty:

My understanding is that many of you have been successfully utilizing the University Education benefits for the classes and CME activities required as part of Maintenance of Certification. If you have not yet utilized these benefits, I encourage you to explore them for any CME activity where you are issued CME credit hours such as attending a conference, training or seminar.

It is important to note that we recently received clarification from University Human Resources (“UHR”) that these funds cannot be utilized for the several hundred dollar fee that is paid to the various boards annually. This board fee is typically called a certificate fee or maintenance fee, but because it is not tied to specific CME hours or live training, UHR has begun denying payment through the university education benefits system.

This change is recent, but we want to bring it to your attention immediately as it impacts many clinical faculty. While it is possible that you could have requested support from the university’s education benefits plan for this fee and have had it paid in the past, it will not be approved going forward. Additionally, if you have received funding for this fee from the University since January 2015, you should reach out to UHR to coordinate a repayment as all University education benefits are subject to an audit review. UHR has determined that payments for this fee prior to 2015 will not be revisited.

Please continue to utilize the benefits for continuing education classes, as appropriate. As with other education and professional development expense, payment of the certification/maintenance fee is subject to the specific policies and processes established by each department.

For more information on education benefits, please visit http://hr.virginia.edu/hr-for-you/faculty/fac-benefits/education-benefits/. In addition, the School of Medicine has coordinated an education benefits training session for March 27 at 10AM in the Riggs Auditorium. Administrators and financial staff will be invited to attend to gain a better understanding of the education benefits restrictions, and help guide faculty and other staff on how to best utilize the benefits consistent with the policy.

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