Specialty Organization Finances and Membership: A Closer Look

Background United States students and physicians face massive financial hurdles including student loan repayments, board certification fees, and other expenses. This project investigates an infrequently discussed topic, the costs to join and the finances of national specialty organizations. Purpose We hope our findings encourage resident physicians and newly minted attendings to take interest in the handling of the fees they may pay to join a national organization. Methods Publicly available IRS 990 filings and specialty organization websites were examined to compile data regarding membership fees, organization revenue, expenses, and top earner salaries for 29 total specialty organizations. Descriptive and inferential statistics including Pearson correlation coefficients were used to investigate the above data. Results The average annual revenue and net assets for the organizations studied were $50,762,279 and $66,444,291, respectively. The average annual membership fee was $542. The largest ratios of membership fee to physician salary were in pediatrics (0.31%) and ophthalmology (0.26%). The average salary of the top three earners at specialty organizations was $429,758. Conclusions There is wide variability in the costs of joining medical specialty organizations in the United States that does not correlate with the average earning potential of individual specialties. As a whole, medical specialty organizations should consider greater financial transparency.