Membership Benefits

AAFP/NCAFP resident membership represents an important step in your career. It signifies your decision to identify and associate with the most knowledgeable physicians in an organization dedicated to advancing and representing the specialty of family physicians worldwide. You get the benefits both across North Carolina and throughout the country.

Networking

Academy membership offers not only an opportunity to build lifetime relationships but also to network with colleagues and others involved in family practice. Through Academy membership, residents discover a mechanism for idea exchanges among members worldwide, as well as opportunities to meet with family practice administrators and recruiters. Now more than ever, resident membership in the AAFP provides exceptional personal and career growth advantages.

Career Planning

AAFP Placement Services is an interactive program accessible 24 hours a day that matches family physicians with clinical and faculty career opportunities. This service is free to all AAFP resident members!

Residency to Reality is a series of monographs designed to help residents understand and access immediate practice options such as solo practice, group practice or a managed care organization; to provide a broader perspective that includes values, priorities and future career planning; and to walk family physicians through the details of running a practice.

The AAFP Web Site

With access to the member’s side of the AAFP Web site -- http://www.aafp.org -- you have access to information and on-line databases and library search services providing everything you need to keep pace with the latest issues affecting your career. It also provides online publications, patient education, Academy news and policies. For information related specifically to residents, go to www.aafp.org/residents.

Visit FP Assist at www.aafp.org/fpassist for information on consultants and attorneys who can support you by reviewing contracts, starting a new practice, joining an existing practice and much more.

Connect to fellow family physicians across the country through the AAFP members only E-mail Discussion lists. The listservs allow you to exchange information on such topics as practice tips, PDA’s and wireless technologies, clinical procedures, rural health, emergency medicine, new physicians, minorities, and much more. Visit http://www.aafp.org/members.shtml for more information.

Advocacy

The AAFP is a strong advocate for the family physician and their patients. The Academy monitors and represents your views to the CDC, National Institutes of Health, and, most importantly, to government lawmakers. The Academy’s “Speak Out Legislative Action Center” alerts you to current legislative issues affecting family medicine, as well as gives you a guide to Congress and allows you to write to Congress on issues important to family medicine. Through aggressive legislative efforts, the Academy fights for fair reimbursement and to reduce the hassle factors of practicing medicine. AAFP also directs strong efforts towards the social, economic and political factors that shape the environment in which you practice.

Practice Management

An important aspect of success as a physician is becoming a successful business manager. The AAFP can lend the support you’ll need. With the resources the Academy offers you’ll have access to information, seminars, and staff support on all aspects of managing a practice, from recruiting physicians and choosing office computer systems, to marketing your practice and more. A few of the services we provide you include:

• Cost-effective practice management strategies
• Medical records documentation
• Patient reminder systems
• Patient satisfaction analysis software
• MOM Care, a prenatal program to help you deliver healthy babies
• Proficiency Testing Program
• Practical Guide to Medicare’s Documentation Guidelines to help you gain clear explanations to E/M documentation.

Member Only Services

As a member of the Academy, many of our services are available exclusively to members only. They include:

Retirement Program – The AAFP Retirement Program gives you access to retirement plans that are customarily only offered to large organizations, a broad assortment of investment options, more competitive pricing, and efficient service.

Merchant Processing Program – Offer convenience to your patients and reduce your billing expenses with our tailored MasterCard and Visa processing program.

Credit Cards and Car Rentals – Credit cards with exceptional rates and discounted car rentals are available to our valued members only.

Family Physician Insurance Program – The program takes care of both your family and medical practice insurance. Insurance services were developed specifically for physicians and their specialized needs.