Help Steer AAFP’s Work for Next Year and Beyond

All Active and Resident members of the AAFP can look for a link to the 2021 Member Satisfaction Survey in their email around March 6. Those who have opted out of receiving survey and focus group emails can opt back in through the AAFP Email Preference Center or watch for a postcard with more information.

Members have plenty of ways to give the Academy feedback — introducing resolutions, contacting Board members and much more — but the annual Member Satisfaction Survey is a simple, comprehensive way to guide the organization’s strategic decisions. The survey takes only about 10 minutes to complete and is completely anonymous. This year, it will end with a link to a separate short survey that asks members to anonymously assess the AAFP’s strengths and opportunities related to diversity, equity and inclusion.

Responses to the Member Satisfaction Survey shape the Academy’s work for the coming year and further into the future. The most recent survey showed that family medicine’s most important goals were to reduce administrative complexity, increase overall payment and protect family physicians from scope encroachment by nonphysicians.

AAFP staff and leaders immediately took action.

For instance, HHS recently took a step in the right direction on administrative complexity with a proposal that would force payers to streamline and automate responses to prior authorization requests. But the AAFP, backed by member input, told the government that it needed to go much further with mandates such as 24- or 48-hour prior authorization responses and other improvements.

On the payment front, Congress passed a funding bill on Dec. 21 — following strong lobbying from the AAFP — that brought family physicians several wins, including increased payment for most office-based evaluation and management services.

And early this year, the Academy heeded members’ calls and joined more than 100 other medical societies to warn the Department of Veterans Affairs about the dangers of allowing nonphysicians to practice outside the scope of state licensure.

The last Member Satisfaction Survey also showed other important data:

• 84% of respondents said Academy membership is important,
• 80% recommend membership and
• 78% are satisfied with membership.

Active and Resident members can ensure their AAFP membership maintains and increases that high value by telling the Academy what matters to them in the 2021 Member Satisfaction Survey.