AAEM Vision Statement

Blueprint for Securing Emergency Medicine's Future

Preamble
Recent declarations in support of the practice rights of emergency physicians are a welcome affirmation of the AAEM Mission statement. The Academy, however, believes such talk falls short of the mark. Specifically, emergency medicine must realize that the widespread lack of due process, the standard use of restrictive covenants, and routinely closed books are the symptoms and not the disease. Instead, the cancer in our specialty is our lack of control of our practice. High quality patient care will be enhanced by arrangements in which emergency physicians control their practice.

Vision Statement
The welfare of our patients and the brightest future for emergency medicine depend on restoring control of our practice to emergency physicians.

The Principles
Our motto is "for patients, by physicians." We therefore dedicate the Academy's efforts to the principles listed below. We invite other emergency medicine societies and individual emergency physicians to take up this cause.

1. The ideal practice situation in emergency medicine affords each physician an equitable ownership stake in the practice. Such ownership entails substantive responsibility to the practice beyond clinical services.

2. Emergency physicians should have control over their professional fees, as federal statutes and regulations assign liability to physicians and other providers for improper billing for their services.

3. The role of emergency medicine management companies should be to help physicians manage their practice. The practice should be owned by and controlled by the physicians and not by a management company.

4. Emergency medicine state and national professional societies should actively encourage enforcement of existing corporate practice of medicine statutes, and should seek such legislation in other states.

5. Consistent with federal statutes and professional ethical guidelines, emergency medicine state and national professional societies should condemn and actively oppose forced fee-splitting whereby the emergency physicians are required to give up more than fair market value of their fees in return for the right to practice in an emergency department. Physicians who force other physicians into such activities should be reported to state medical boards for review.

6. Specialty organizations commit an ethical breach when they accept financial support from medical corporations that do not adhere to the above ethical guidelines. Specialty organizations should cleanse themselves of the influence of medical corporations not adherent to the above principles, by not accepting financial support from these organizations including award sponsorship, research sponsorship, exhibit and advertising fees.

5/16/04