To some emergency physicians, congressional hearings and political campaigns seem a world away from their everyday actions in the emergency department. But what happens in the political arena plays a much greater role in emergency medicine practice than many realize.

That’s why ACEP formed NEMPAC in 1980 – to ensure that emergency medicine interests are represented accurately to members of Congress, to promote ACEP’s legislative goals, and to help financially support the election or re-election of congressional candidates who share its commitment to emergency medicine. While only individual ACEP members can be solicited for NEMPAC contributions, ACEP realized in recent years that an increasing number of emergency physicians are part of emergency medicine groups.

“Because we can’t go directly to these groups and request PAC donations, we’ve been working with them on various ways they can facilitate donations from within their groups,” said Jeanne Slade, ACEP’s director, NEMPAC and Grassroots Advocacy. “The stronger our PAC, the more we can advocate for emergency medicine and the more legislators we will elect who truly understand our issues. In the end, that helps patients and physicians.”

CEP America, the largest democratic acute care partnership in the U.S., based in Emeryville, Calif., has practiced group-level giving for more than a decade, when it began setting aside 20 cents per emergency visit in a fund supporting both state and federal advocacy. Today, the organization presents NEMPAC with two $50,000 checks annually.

“We believe our relationship with government is just as important as our relationships with partners, our patients and with the communities we serve,” said Dr. Wesley Fields, chairman of the Emergency Medicine Action Fund, member of the NEMPAC Board of Trustees, and past chairman of the CEP America Board. “It’s crucial for emergency medical groups of all sizes and practice models to be engaged in the political process and in health policy development.”

Key to CEP America’s ability to donate consistently to NEMPAC is how its board approaches advocacy as part of its governance process. “The traditional method was to ask physicians individually for contributions, but the breakthrough was in understanding that it was much more efficient for the group to commit at a leadership level,” said Dr. Fields. “That retail process of asking individuals for contributions then became a wholesale process where we transformed advocacy into a legitimate business expense – an investment in the future of our practice.”

Dr. John Proctor, president of TeamHealth Midsouth Division, and NEMPAC Board of Trustees member, said it’s a critical time to support emergency medicine advocates on Capitol Hill. In 2010 he began organizing NEMPAC campaigns within TeamHealth, an emergency physician and provider group with partner hospitals in 48 states. This year the campaign offers emergency physicians the option of electing a one-time payroll deduction for their NEMPAC contribution and includes a group-wide financial goal that TeamHealth hopes to reach by ACEP13 this fall in Seattle.