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Medical Society Management, Finance and Communications
Greg Bernica, Jason Byrd, JD, Spencer Su Li, MPA
Updated 7/16/09
Changes in the healthcare sector, including restraints on physicians’ income, decreasing hospital and practice operational margins, mergers within the pharmaceutical, insurance and hospital industries,new technologies and
new government regulations have created challenges for medical societies. In addition, potential substantial health care reform and difficult economic conditions pose enormous challenges for societies to position and prepare themselves.
Societies and their executives must demonstrate the tangible and intangible value of membership, develop new sources of non-dues income, embrace a new era of collaboration and cooperation with a variety of organizations, and effectively communicate with members in an information overload environment.
Trends:
- With increasing restraints on physicians’ income, physicians are paying members dues and purchasing medical society services based upon the perceived value of membership and those services. It is more difficult to raise dues when physicians’ fees are not increasing unless physician members are convinced of the value of their membership.
- Mergers of pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies and hospitals have increased their bargaining clout for their share of health care dollars and reduced sponsorships/advertising sources of non-dues income.
- Pharmaceutical, Office of Inspector General and Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education guidelines have become more stringent. Medical societies, such as the American College of Cardiology and the American Psychiatric Association as well as influential organizations as the Journal for the American Medical Association and the Macy Foundation have called for either the complete elimination or significant reduction in the amount of educational grant and fundraising opportunities allowed by pharmaceutical and device manufactures. Ethical questions and additional legislative restraints on industry funding of educational offerings will further erode sources of non-dues revenue for societies.
- The Internet has become a necessary tool for medical societies; though the Internet, by itself, is unlikely to be a revenue producing vehicle, it should serve as a cost-effective repository for the various revenue-producing products developed by societies.
- The internet and other technologies have the potential to create both competitors and partners from around the world.
- Email, web-based seminars, and other developing technologies provide new opportunities to communicate with members. Information overload, which has always been a problem for busy professionals, has expanded with the new technology. Societies will need to balance ease of communication with necessity.
- Public ed
ucation and communication will become a key component of medical societies with the increased emphasis on patient-centered care. Societies will develop and/or enhance portions of their web site or separate web portals to serve this purpose. This could increase the value of membership as it represents an opportunity to promote the respective professions.
- Outside companies are developing products and services to provide to society members that are in competition with products and services that are or could be provided by medical societies.
- More physicians are transitioning from private practice to being employed. These physicians rely upon their employer for services traditionally provided by medical societies and may question the value of continuing their membership in the society. With larger corporations merging and acquiring physician practices and hospitals, societies may face future competition with such corporations.
- Natural and man-made disasters have substantially impacted several medical societies and their members over the last several years.
- Accounting scandals among elite corporations have lead to more public and government scrutiny of financial information and controls. Changing tax laws may cause societies to modify their governing structure, including composition and size of their Board of Directors, to maintain their non-profit/charitable status.
- Negative economic conditions will put pressure on sponsorship and advertising revenue.
Medical societies and their executives should: Understand the unique needs of each physician segment and match resources that address those needs. Focus on needs that the medical society is uniquely qualified to meet and on resources for services that provide the most value to the most members. Develop “member only” opportunities/services/pricing so there are tangible reasons to pay dues. Evaluate opportunities for non-dues revenues and/or enhanced member services associated with advances in information technology and services. Develop or enhance public portals to educate patients, consumers and others on the profession and its value with content and/or technology to “pull” members and non-members to your website. Invest money or partner to develop a web presence to meet members’ needs and demonstrate the value of the organization, including “members only” section and personal customization for members. Educate members in seeking and obtaining sponsorships and grants. Pursue strategic partnerships/alliances as potential methods of developing new non-dues revenues or reducing costs for producing programs or services. Societies need to establish criteria for selecting partners to ensure common goals and values as well as financial stability. Develop win-win partnerships with sponsors and advertisers so the society is a priority even when advertising budgets are reduced. Evaluate dues structure to ensure value equals or exceeds dues. Identify services that can be removed from the dues structure and billed to the specific users and/or beneficiaries. Investigate means to assist group practices in exchange for paying or promoting membership. Evaluate cost effectiveness of outsourcing administrative functions that are not core competencies of the society. Implement tighter financial controls and provide total transparency on all financial transactions to the governing board. Association boards will be expected to more closely monitor business, conflicts of interest, and financial affairs of the association as part of their fiduciary responsibility. Determine how new Internal Revenue Service reporting requirements for non–profits will impact your organization. Customize communications to meet members’ specific needs and preferences. Determine how to differentiate your messages. Continue the transformation to and enhancement of digital products offerings whenever possible. Digital products are affordable to produce relative to traditional print media, and thus, afford opportunities to disseminate large amounts of information at reduced costs. However, societies will need to be mindful of ensuring they continue to reach portions of their membership who do not use the internet. Develop a disaster plan that allows the society to continue to operate and communicate with members under various disaster scenarios. Consider increasing the size and scope of their memberships by allowing for additional members related to the profession traditionally represented by the society. However, with potential increasing memberships, societies will need to personalize the member’s experience through the website (use of cookies or personalized home pages), annual meeting and educational experiences. Effectively convey association policy messages to legislative and government bodies during potential health care reform discussions. Educating and encouraging membership ownership and participation in this process will be a primary key to success. Consider webcasting of meetings and educational offerings as societies and members reduce travel costs with the struggling economy. Identify resources available in other countries that could be used to achieve the society’s global and/or domestic mission, and establish partnerships with supporters in emerging economies. |