Group Recruiting Tools  Chapter Group Referral Program  Forms for Groups Group Referral Form This allows your chapter to claim the referral fee. (Word document)

100% Club & Circle of Distinction Benefits

Year-round recognition via ACEP Web site, ACEP News and ACEP Reference and Resource Guide, and at Scientific Assembly

This allows groups to brand and promote themselves to ACEP members and non-member emergency physicians (32,000), which supports their goal to recruit high-quality emergency physicians. Groups also receive a recognition plaque for their support.

100% Club & Circle of Distinction adds value to an emergency medicine group’s benefits

By paying for their physicians’ membership, groups may contribute strongly to their physicians’ professional development and standing in emergency medicine. If their physicians have greater access to quality professional development, then the group provides better, more educated physicians to the emergency departments and hospitals they staff.

Use of the ACEP 100% Club & Circle of Distinction Logo

Participants may use these distinguishing logos to promote in their communications and publications that they support ACEP and emergency medicine. ACEP is the leading professional society for emergency medicine (with 25,000 members), and this designation enables groups to link their professional support to ACEP.

Group Billing Benefits

• Ease and convenience for paying for their physicians’ membership
• Groups may opt to receive a "master" group bill, listing all of its emergency physicians, instead of processing dues individually. In addition, groups may opt to receive their one bill in a specific month or they can select a quarterly or biannual payment plan.
• Ensures that physicians’ valuable ACEP membership benefits do not lapse
• Group billing allows groups to avoid lapsed ACEP membership from unpaid or unprocessed membership dues.
• Offers greater ease for their physicians
• By having a group bill, the group’s physicians do not have to worry about sending in their payment and then trying to get reimbursed (if the group reimburses. Note: some groups do not reimburse for membership dues.)

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Contacting Groups

Who to Ask for When Contacting Groups

(Possible entry points to physician groups) - *Asterisk indicates most common primary decision-maker titles in order of priority based on decision-making authority.

• Emergency Medical Director* (MD) – in charge of group – key decision maker
• Chief Medical Officer* (MD) – in charge of group – key decision maker
• Vice President of Group* (MD)
• Director of Marketing and/or Sales
• Director of Business Development and Marketing
• Director of Hospital Operations and Emergency Medicine (larger group contact title)

Other Helpful Contacts

Administrator, Office Manager, Emergency Physician Coordinator, Controller These are the individuals that have responded back on behalf of their medical directors when we did our mailing announcing the group billing and recognition programs – not key decision-maker but have access to medical director in charge. They often handle bill payment, payroll, benefits or financial issues.

Director of Physician Recruitment, Lead Physician Recruiter and Director of Physician Resources - can be strong recommender to decision maker or connect you to decision maker – oversees physician recruitment effort within group.

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Talking Points For Calls To Groups

• Introduce yourself.
• State the Purpose of the call.
• Ask for contact person’s title or name if you have it.
• If you reach a decision maker, introduce yourself and let them know why you are calling. Make it clear you are with ACEP.
• Provide a brief overview of the programs, while outlining and emphasizing the benefits to the group.
• Identify Interest.
• Verify and record Key Contact Information for Group on Call Form.
• Clarify Next Steps before completing call

ACEP 100% Club – recognizes groups with 100% Eligible membership in ACEP.

Group Billing Program – offers convenient way for groups to pay for all of their physicians’ membership dues on one bill – offers convenience and ease for the group and their physicians.

Circle of Distinction – recognizes groups that help recruit new members to ACEP.

Sample Script

Operator: I’m Dr. Jones with the American College of Emergency Physicians. May I speak with your Medical Director? Operator: What’s the purpose of your call?

Dr. Jones: I am calling to discuss ACEP’s new group recognition program and billing service. (Operator forwards you to Medical Director, Dr. Smith. If you get a voice mail, leave a brief message explaining the purpose of your call, your name and call back number.)

Hello, Dr. Smith. I am Dr. Jones and a member of the American College of Emergency Physicians. I’m calling to  to tell you about ACEP’s new Group Recognition and Billing Program. I would like to share with you some information about this opportunity and the benefits to your group in participating.     Is this a good time for you?  (If he says yes, proceed with the pitch, if they say no, ask for a time when you can schedule to call him back.  Be respectful of the person’s time. They will be more receptive.)

The ACEP 100% Club recognizes groups with 100% eligible membership in ACEP year round, and includes recognition on the ACEP national Web site, in ACEP News (ACEP’s national publication) and in the ACEP Reference and Resource Guide distributed to 32,000 emergency physicians, and at ACEP Conferences.  You can also use the ACEP 100% Club logo in your communications to promote your commitment and support of the College. 

The ACEP Group Billing Program offers a convenient way for groups to pay for all of their physicians’ membership dues on one bill making it more convenient for your physicians and reducing administrative time processing or reimbursing individual membership invoices.

The Circle of Distinction recognizes groups that help recruit new members to ACEP and provides the same level of recognition and rewards as the ACEP 100% Club.  The number of members you have to recruit is based on the size of your group.

Would your group be interested in participating in a program like this?

If your contact is interested, let him know the next steps!

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Next Steps

100% Club

Note to Committee: If you would prefer to have a staff person handle the below details, simply note that on your Call Report Form and an ACEP membership staff person will follow up. Be sure to capture and record all contact information on the Call Report Form.

Complete the Participation Form

Provide their list of emergency physicians in an Excel format (sample Excel format) to verify that 100% of their eligible physicians are members in ACEP. We can e-mail them the group list requirements and the participation form. Find out who on their staff they want you to coordinate with to get the participation form and list requirements.

ACEP will verify their emergency physician list against our member database to determine 100% eligibility. ACEP will provide a report back to the physician group indicating which of their physicians needs to join for them to achieve 100% eligible membership in ACEP.

Group Bill Service

Note to Committee: If you would prefer to have a staff person handle the below details, simply note that on your Call Report Form and an ACEP membership staff person will follow up. Be sure to capture and record all contact information on the Call Report Form.

All we need to know is:

• Yes, they want to do a group bill
• The month they want their group bill to be issued
• The contact name, address, phone, fax, and e-mail for where they want the group bill sent
• Whether they want their group bill sent via e-mail, fax or mailed. Note: I do not mention that we offer every six month billing and quarterly group billing, but if they want this we can do this. However, we do still need to know what month they want their group bill to start.

Important Note: Groups do not have to participate in the 100% Club or the Circle of Distinction to do a Group Bill. All groups are eligible for the Group Billing Service.

Circle of Distinction

Note to Committee: If you would prefer to have a staff person handle the below details, simply note that an ACEP staff person from Membership will be contacting them to follow-up.  Be sure to capture and record all contact information on the Call Report Form.

Complete the Participation Form

• Indicate to us how many members they plan to recruit based on their group size (per the program requirements)
• Find out how they plan to promote membership
• Discuss ways that we can support their promotion efforts (provide membership recruitment brochures/applications to their physicians, draft copy for a recruitment e-mail, ACEP recruitment advertisement for their publication, inclusion of information about ACEP in their payroll check distribution to their physicians, other ideas they might have for promoting membership)
• All applications from their efforts must have the Group’s name in the referred by area and be submitted to Peggy Brock at ACEP with their applicable payment(s) so that we may track their promotion efforts and results. If their prospects sign up online, the group would need to provide Peggy Brock with those names so that we can provide credit for their new members who joined online at the ACEP Web site.

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Common Objections

We simply are not interested in the 100% Club or Group Billing because we do not pay for our physicians’ ACEP memberships. Our doctors belong to many different membership groups including AAEM and SAEM, and we leave it to them to decide which of these membership groups they belong to.

Often, groups do not pay for their physicians’ memberships or they provide them with a stipend benefit (set amount of funds) to use at their discretion for meetings, publications or memberships.

Suggested Responses

Response 1: If you reimburse your physicians already for their membership in ACEP, you could save a lot of time by paying for their membership upfront on one group bill and this would provide your physicians with an important benefit that you provide to them as a group. Would you consider paying for all of their memberships on one group bill?

Response 2: We recognize that the 100% Club and group billing are not something every group can use. We also offer another option for the same level of year-round recognition: The Circle of Distinction Program. This program recognizes groups for their efforts in helping ACEP recruit new members based on the size of their group. Share with the decision maker the Circle of Distinction details.

Then ask: Would you be willing to consider helping us recruit new members through promoting ACEP through your group? We would support your recruitment efforts by providing you with membership recruitment materials, ads for your publications, e-mail copy for an email announcement, or in other ways to help you promote ACEP to your physicians.

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