professional societies? yea or nay

[q-school]

are you a member of professional society?  how many?

for about the first ten years of career, I more reflexively than anything joined and paid several hundo a year each.

I'm not sure what I got for it.  I got a journal, which I have online access to through work anyways.

supposedly I got some lobbying, but all I saw was declining reimbursements.  they claim it would have been worse without them.

I got phone numbers I could call for guidance with specialty related issues, but the people I talked to didn't offer any real substantive help.

I hadn't been to national meeting for several years.

so I quit.

now I get emails every year telling me how much they are doing for me and why I should rejoin.

once a year I get a lovely email from a np telling me how important it is to be a member.

 

what do you get for your several hundred bucks?  I know we can't all be free loaders, but the issues that I want addressed that might bring me back:

1)end MOC

2)less rigorous registry and documentation crap

3)movements to constrain the influx of nonclinical activities

4)reimbursement and coding support

 

 

[Kamban]

Never joined AMA or ACP, though  the AMA sends official dues statement every couple of months.

I joined 2 professional societies of my specialties. When the membership for one went > $600 I quit. It was more interested in improving reimbursement of large groups than solo people like me.

I was with the other one for a long time. But the dues approached $500. All I got was journal that used to be monthly but became weekly. Yikes. Most of it was bench research that nobody in clinical practice read. There was no option to stop receiving it and hoping dues might decrease. Every 12 months all journals went into recycling container nearby. But it did impress the patients while they were walking to the exam rooms, who saw the big stack piled sky high. 

I will only join them if they help small guys like me and give an option to not receive journals but get something useful that can help me stay current, like giving me free MKSAP every 2-3 years.

 

[Peds]

after the AMA supported tom price, i was out.

[CM]

q-school wrote:

are you a member of professional society?  how many?

Click to expand...

.

[MPMD]

paid by my job.

ACEP is good, good lobbying, love annual meeting.
CORD is for residency people in EM, great meeting and networking

[Lithium]

Employer sponsored, but would drop these as soon as I left.  I don't get much apart from the journals I skim through.  Do not attend conferences any more.  Not too impressed with their advocacy, but there are simply other things I would rather spend $1,000 a year on.

[Hatton]

Just my speciality association.  State AMA to get health insurance.  Not worth the price however.

[VagabondMD]

At my peak, I was in five. Now, down to two (and falling).

[SValleyMD]

I'm struggling to decide on whether to pay my acc dues (1k as detailed above)..

I still hate the spin they are putting on the abim mess. I still feel they're absolutely clueless on the real world issues in cardiology and sick of hearing the academic blowhards -- but I might be naive on what goes on behind the scenes too and I admit that. But between appropriate use, different quality metrics, bundled payments, macra, abim, general mess within cardiology with 8 different types of boards, I kind of think nothing they do is really helping the cause

[Jaqen Haghar MD]

I guess the national organizations might give some sort of lobbying or representation as a specialty, but in the case of EM/ACEP, I doubt I'll be paying the $1,000+ yearly dues next year.

I no longer feel that they represent the physician's best interests and have just become another arm of the large corporate groups that are monopolizing the specialty.

[Rando]

AAFP has not represented FP's very well, so no.

 

I actually rejoined the AMA a few years back.  I was complaining about the AMA and someone said to put my money where my mouth is, join them and try to change them.  Found out I couldn't change them.  Unless you have been a member for some time and have attained a position of power, it doesn't seem that you have much of a voice.

[startupdoc]

In one word: yay

I understand why people are dropping out of professional societies. Problem is, doctors have no collective voice. This is a primary reason why we are such relatively weak political forces. It's amazing how less educated health care providers (i.e. APNs/CRNAs) are so much more organized and garner almost unilateral support from their profession. That is one of the main reasons they have been able to make the kind of headway in the past decade. Meanwhile, our meager professional societies have crappy support and lack the backbone to fight for our values. It's been a recipe for disaster for our field and will continue to be so.

On the flip side, merely supporting our societies is not going to magically change things (though it is a start). Our societies need to be fighting for our true values, which, unfortunately, is complicated and often disjointed between specialties. Our lack of a unified voice has cost us dearly.

[janettebournes]

q-school wrote:

are you a member of professional society?  how many?

for about the first ten years of career, I more reflexively than anything joined and paid several hundo a year each.

I’m not sure what I got for it.  I got a journal, which I have online access to through work anyways.

supposedly I got some lobbying, but all I saw was declining reimbursements.  they claim it would have been worse without them.

I got phone numbers I could call for guidance with specialty related issues, but the people I talked to didn’t offer any real substantive help.

I hadn’t been to national meeting for several years.

so I quit.

now I get emails every year telling me how much they are doing for me and why I should rejoin.

once a year I get a lovely email from a np telling me how important it is to be a member.

 

what do you get for your several hundred bucks?  I know we can’t all be free loaders, but the issues that I want addressed that might bring me back:

1)end MOC

2)less rigorous registry and documentation crap

3)movements to constrain the influx of nonclinical activities

4)reimbursement and coding support

 

 

Click to expand...

Even though my hospital pays for it, I've started to end my membership at numerous professional societies.

Not listening to members' desires about MOC is probably #1 on my list of why I no longer choose to support the main professional society in my specialty.

Accidentally publishing my private information in their member handbook is another reason why I chose to end up my support of another professional society. Hard to reward that kind of stupidity...

[Zaphod]

What I hate about these societies and the boards in general is these organizations, many of which are made up of our own, have become useless rent seeking entities.

In addition to all the very true above mentioned stuff it seems their primary goal is dipping into your pocket and enriching themselves, and it usually means inventing things for you to do that are zero value added.