How Revenue is Spent at the American Medical Association (AMA) 2023
The American Medical Association (AMA) is a non-profit 501 (c) (6) – a professional association and the largest association of physicians – whose primary purpose is to:
- publish the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) – a peer reviewed medical journal that includes original research, reviews, and editorials of medicine;
- maintain a code of medical ethics,
- create and maintain physician data which is sometimes referred to as master files; and
- update and maintain medical classification codes (referred to as CPT codes) used by the government, medical practices, hospitals, and insurance companies in return for royalty fees.
Understanding the American Medical Association (AMA)
The American Medical Association is a non-profit 501 (c) (6) – a professional association – based in Chicago, Illinois with about 215,000 members who pay about $400 annually (although medical students and residents are exempt from annual fees).
The AMA raises about $300 million annually and spends half its revenue on staff compensation for the nearly 1,100 employees. With a $560 million net fund balance (or what some people refer to as an endowment), the AMA is in a strong financial position.
Although the AMA publishes the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the primary income stream is from royalties the organization receives for establishing, maintaining, and allowing doctors, practices, groups, hospitals, and payers (i.e. insurance companies, Medicare, Medicaid, etc) to use it’s CPT (Current Procedural Terminology) Codes system. Membership dues only provide about 12% of revenue annually. Read more 
How Revenue is Spent at the American Medical Association (AMA)
The American Medical Association (AMA) is a non-profit 501 (c) (6) – a professional association and the largest association of physicians – whose primary purpose is to:
- publish the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) – a peer reviewed medical journal that includes original research, reviews, and editorials of medicine;
- maintain a code of medical ethics,
- create and maintain physician data which is sometimes referred to as master files; and
- update and maintain medical classification codes (referred to as CPT codes) used by the government, medical practices, hospitals, and insurance companies in return for royalty fees.
Although the AMA is a professional association, membership dues are surprisingly not a large source of revenue for the organization. There are about 1 million physicians in the US, but only about 215,000 belong to the AMA. Members pay about $400 annually although medical students and residents do not pay the annual fee. As such, dues account for a very small portion (about 12%) of the revenue stream for the AMA. Read more
Executive Compensation at the American Medical Association (AMA)
The American Medical Association (AMA) is a non-profit 501 (c) (6) – a professional association and the largest association of physicians – whose mission is to “promote the art and science of medicine and the betterment of public health.” They do this by publishing JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) – a peer reviewed medical journal that publishes original research, reviews, and editorials of medicine, maintaining a code of medical ethics, collecting and maintaining physician data which is sometimes referred to as master files, and maintaining medical codes (referred to as CPT codes) used by the government, medical practices, hospitals, and insurance companies in return for royalty fees. Read more
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