Affiliate Society Council

The Affiliate Society Council a subcommittee of the ACR Committee on Rheumatologic Care, exists to strengthen state and local societies and communication between the ACR and local rheumatologists. State/local societies wishing to affiliate with the ACR should complete the following Afilliate Society Council application.

View the ACR State/Regional Affiliates

Purpose:

Enhance communication between the ACR and individual physicians
Work in conjunction with state and local societies on practice advocacy issues
Create best practices by state/local societies sharing information
Learn more about issues affecting physicians at the local level

Benefits:

Yearly presentation from the ACR Certified Professional Coder
Yearly presentation from an ACR Board member providing an ACR update
Policy analysis from the Health Policy department
Information on Federal legislation
Access to the ACR’s Certified Professional Coder regarding reimbursement and insurance issues
Assistance in model bylaws for associations that are being established,
List serve for the society
State or local specific mailing labels once per year
Web site development using the ACR designed template

Affiliate Society Council:

State and local societies that affiliate with the ACR will have an opportunity to send one member to the Affiliate Society Council. The ASC will discuss policy issues affecting rheumatologists in local areas. The ASC will have an opportunity to present issues and ideas to the Committee on Rheumatologic Care for further discussion and action by the CORC and Health Policy staff. Council members must be ACR members in good standing.

The ACR will have two council meetings each year. The first meeting will be held in conjunction with the Advocates for Arthritis meeting, typically held in February or March each year. The ACR will set-up the meeting, hold hotel rooms and supply the name of the ACR travel agency so the council member can make plans to attend the meeting. The ACR will pay reasonable travel and hotel costs (attendee must stay at the ACR host hotel). The second meeting will be held in conjunction with the ACR annual meeting. The council member will be required to pay all costs associated with traveling and housing at the annual meeting.
Affiliate societies may select an alternate if the council member is unable to attend. The alternate must also be an ACR member in good standing. The ACR must be notified at least one month in advance if an alternate will attend the meeting.

Applications:

State/local societies wishing to affiliate with the ACR should complete the following Afilliate Society Council application.

Policy Development and Committee Relationships:

Affiliates will have an opportunity to influence national policy by submitting resolutions to the CORC. Once national policy has been established, the ACR expects that affiliate societies will support the national priorities and policies. If an affiliate takes a contrary position, all communication regarding the contrary position should include a clear statement regarding the differences of ACR policy. ACR encourages the affiliates to copy ACR staff on correspondence to officials at insurance companies or legislative officials.

The Affiliate Society Council is a subcommittee of the CORC. Questions, concerns, and policy requests generated by the Affiliate Society Council will be sent to the CORC for review. The requests will be sent via email or discussed via conference call to prevent undue delay in review of the request.

Termination:

Either party may terminate the Affiliate relationship at any time. The ACR will terminate the Affiliate relationship if the Affiliate fails to adhere to ACR policies, procedures, and standards. ACR will give the Affiliate written notice and a reasonable amount of time to fix the problem.

If an Affiliate chooses to terminate the affiliation relationship, the president of the society must send a letter requesting termination by certified mail to the ACR Executive Offices.

Once the affiliation relationship is terminated for any reason, both parties must remove any language identifying the society as an affiliate. If a society chooses to re-affiliate, the society must re-apply.

Staff Contact:

Antanya Chung, CPC , CCP
(404) 633-3777 ext 818