“Our consistent support of these legislators year after year leads to ongoing relationships and dialogue about matters of importance to physicians and patients,” said Dr. Proctor. “In addition, this is a pivotal time as health care reform plays out.”

FEP, based near Orlando, Fla., employs more than 140 full-time emergency physicians and mid-level practitioners. One thing stood out to Dr. Vidor Friedman, currently an ACEP Board Member, when he considered joining the group in 1997.

“There wasn’t a lot of political involvement, and that was a vulnerability to the group,” he said. Today Dr. Friedman serves as a managing partner and FEP’s vice president of governmental affairs and strives to help his fellow emergency physicians understand that investing in the political process is really the same as investing in their profession.

“The only way we can affect the more global issues that impact emergency medicine is to be involved in the political process,” he said. After asking FEP’s Board of Directors to become annual NEMPAC “Give-a-Shift” ($1,000 annually) contributors – setting a concrete example for others to follow – Dr. Friedman presented the “Give-a-Shift” proposition to FEP’s entire group of shareholders. “Everyone wanted to contribute; they just needed a way to do it that was easy and convenient for them,” he said. “By filling out the forms and writing the checks, we’re taking the busywork away and making it possible for everyone to do what they wanted to do in the first place.

Today, 100 percent of Dr. Friedman’s physician partners are NEMPAC contributors – compared with approximately 20 percent before his initiative. “As individuals we can only do so much, but when we work collectively, the little bit that we all do will add up to significant amounts,” Dr. Friedman said. “So now this has just become part of our culture.” FEP has contributed nearly $200,000 to NEMPAC in the last six years and helps to maintain the culture of giving by providing annual updates of NEMPAC’s progress on Medicare, Medicaid, and other emergency medicine issues of importance.

Dr. L. Anthony Cirillo, director of Health Policy and Legislative Advocacy for EMP, a group of approximately 800 emergency physicians and 300 mid-level providers based in Canton, Ohio, specifically sought a group that would allow him to expand his political interests and that of his peers when he joined EMP in 2003. Six years ago he organized a formal NEMPAC “Give-a-Shift” campaign that has raised $75,000 to $100,000 annually since – most recently through the monthly payroll deduction option. “We felt it was much easier to ask for $83 a month than to ask for $1,000 at any one point in time,” said Dr. Cirillo.