CFPC membership

[medisforme]

For those family docs on this forum who have completed residency.  Have you all continued to maintain membership in the CFPC?  I am struggling to find what the benefits of maintaining membership is?  What the $500-$1000/year gets you (depending on how far out of residency you are) aside from something you can claim on tax day.  I am from BC and emailed the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC and certainly maintaining CFPC membership is not a requirement for licensure.  Maybe you don't get to keep the CCFP behind your name? But who really cares as hardly any patients know what that is anyway.  Any input would be appreciated.

[rmorelan]

6 hours ago, medisforme said:

For those family docs on this forum who have completed residency.  Have you all continued to maintain membership in the CFPC?  I am struggling to find what the benefits of maintaining membership is?  What the $500-$1000/year gets you (depending on how far out of residency you are) aside from something you can claim on tax day.  I am from BC and emailed the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC and certainly maintaining CFPC membership is not a requirement for licensure.  Maybe you don't get to keep the CCFP behind your name? But who really cares as hardly any patients know what that is anyway.  Any input would be appreciated.

what about all that continuing professional development stuff? Are you required for maintaining your medical insurance to have that up to date. I am actually curious as I just got my similar in nature FRCPSC and now have to figure out what that means - particularly as I am out of country for a while ha. 

[LittleDaisy]

8 hours ago, medisforme said:

For those family docs on this forum who have completed residency.  Have you all continued to maintain membership in the CFPC?  I am struggling to find what the benefits of maintaining membership is?  What the $500-$1000/year gets you (depending on how far out of residency you are) aside from something you can claim on tax day.  I am from BC and emailed the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC and certainly maintaining CFPC membership is not a requirement for licensure.  Maybe you don't get to keep the CCFP behind your name? But who really cares as hardly any patients know what that is anyway.  Any input would be appreciated.

I think that you need to keep the membership for CFPC, as family physician, you need to keep up with the Mainpro CME credits annually to keep the CCFP title (some people find it a big deal)

I would personally keep the CFPC membership even if it is not required in BC. If you want to move around provinces, it is required in Ontario for example.

But if you are not that into CCFP titles, then it is not much a big deal then for your day-to-day practice, as patient barely cares anyway. 

I am paying 102$ as PGY2, the only perk is the reduced rate for FMF, but otherwise, it is not that helpful to me beside the monthly CFPC magazines?!

[rmorelan]

2 hours ago, LittleDaisy said:

I think that you need to keep the membership for CFPC, as family physician, you need to keep up with the Mainpro CME credits annually to keep the CCFP title (some people find it a big deal)

I would personally keep the CFPC membership even if it is not required in BC. If you want to move around provinces, it is required in Ontario for example.

But if you are not that into CCFP titles, then it is not much a big deal then for your day-to-day practice, as patient barely cares anyway. 

I am paying 102$ as PGY2, the only perk is the reduced rate for FMF, but otherwise, it is not that helpful to me beside the monthly CFPC magazines?!

It really starts to look a lot more like a cash grab later on ha - over a thousand dollars and you are kind of left wondering what for - particularly with the 3 other organizations also trying to take money out of your pocket. 

[The Bunny]

There is a way to sign up only to use mainpro (the CFPC cme system) without being a full fledged member. It is less expensive but I cannot remember by how much. If you choose to go that route, you cannot use the CCFP designation. That might seem unimportant but some hospitals want you to have that designation in order to obtain hospital practicing privileges. 

[rmorelan]

1 hour ago, The Bunny said:

There is a way to sign up only to use mainpro (the CFPC cme system) without being a full fledged member. It is less expensive but I cannot remember by how much. If you choose to go that route, you cannot use the CCFP designation. That might seem unimportant but some hospitals want you to have that designation in order to obtain hospital practicing privileges. 

that's interesting - would you happen to know if you don't take it can you get it later without a hassle? They don't make that easy for FRCPSC 

 

[blacktowel]

Yes it costs ~$1000/yr, but if you can claim it for taxes, what difference does that payment make? Better to just pay it and maintain the benefits listed here no?

[medisforme]

9 hours ago, The Bunny said:

There is a way to sign up only to use mainpro (the CFPC cme system) without being a full fledged member. It is less expensive but I cannot remember by how much. If you choose to go that route, you cannot use the CCFP designation. That might seem unimportant but some hospitals want you to have that designation in order to obtain hospital practicing privileges. 

I think it's around $650, and I guess this would be mandatory given you have to report your credits.  for an extra $350/year I guess it makes sense to just pay it.  I still think it's a massive cash grab.  It's a little sad to think that in some jurisdictions obtaining hospital privileges is dependant on paying for the CCFP designation.

[Wachaa]

8 hours ago, blacktowel said:

Yes it costs ~$1000/yr, but if you can claim it for taxes, what difference does that payment make? Better to just pay it and maintain the benefits listed here no?

It's a tax deduction, not a tax credit. So you only "write off" ~15% if you're incorporated, or X% depending on your marginal tax bracket. Eg. $1000 x 0.85 =  $850 post-overhead money for incorporated folks, which is equal to ~$1200 gross billings (~30% overhead), or a full day's work for most GPs.