Saving lives in the community Sandra Avila

Saving lives in the community. I t’s part of our mission: Huntington Hospital reaches out to help local residents who would otherwise not have access to care. Thoughtful contributions from donors like Brenda Berg and Armando Gonzalez, FAIA, ensure we can continue to offer essential services like medical pop-up clinics for underserved community members. Sandra Avila appreciated the opportunity to visit one of our pop-up medical clinics at her kids’ school. She could get the health check-up she needed — and it was free and convenient. She had no way of knowing that it would also save her life. Our community outreach team measured Sandra’s blood pressure, checked her blood glucose levels and ran various other essential tests. During the consultation, Sandra mentioned that her sister had

Graves’ disease — a genetic disorder that causes an overactive thyroid. In response, a physician staffing the clinic performed an additional examination. Though

Sandra did not have symptoms indicating a thyroid problem, the doctor found a small lump on her thyroid gland. He referred her for additional care that she could access despite not having private health insurance.

A biopsy revealed that Sandra had thyroid cancer — a condition that would likely have gone undiagnosed for much longer had she not visited our pop-up clinic that day. After surgery to remove her thyroid gland, she continues to receive follow-up care and is today cancer free.

“I’m so grateful to Huntington Hospital’s pop-up clinic program,” she says. “I want to tell the doctor I saw there that I’m alive because of him.”

Until recently, individuals age 70½ or older were required by the IRS to take required minimum distributions (RMDs) from their tax-deferred retirement accounts each year. If you reached the age of 70½ in 2019, this rule still applies to you. You must take your first RMD by April 1, 2020.

For those who reach age 70½ after 2019, a new rule is now in effect, thanks to passage of the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act, which became law on December 20, 2019. In this case, you must take your first RMD by April 1 of the year after you reach age 72.

As in the past, arranging for funds to be conveyed directly from your retirement account to a nonprofit organization like Huntington Hospital reduces or completely eliminates the impact of RMD income on your income taxes. Please feel free to contact our office ofphilanthropyat (626) 397-3241 if you are interested in learning more about how you can maximize your gift impact through an RMD distribution.

The SECURE Act included other changes regarding retirement plan distributions. We encourage you to work with a financial advisor to determine how these changes could impact you.