As a condition of my employment I’m required to maintain active ACLS certification, a state medical license, DEA registration, and active MOCA participation through the American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA).
ACLS is $75 per year, my state medical license is $220 per year, I currently have $250 per year budgeted for DEA registration based on the cost a few years back, and the ABA charges me $210 per year to be a participant in their MOCA program.
The main tangible benefit I get from these memberships is subscriptions to professional journals, which I can use to satisfy CME hours without spending any additional funds to attend meetings.
Throw in the cost of membership with my state medical society, which lobbies the state legislature on behalf of the state’s physicians and I’m up to $3,095 per year, officially having exceeded my CME fund.
I suspect many physicians eschew these memberships because of the cost and the perception that these professional societies have been inadequate in addressing concerns important to physicians.
These numerous memberships are basically costing me $95 per year over my $3,000 CME fund, which isn’t too bad from a personal finance standpoint, but $0 would be better.