Physicians are now more likely employed than in private practice, and AMA membership has correspondingly declined

 Medpage Today has the story:

Medical Societies Are Facing an Existential Crisis
— It's time to adapt to the employed physician era
by Hemant Kalia MD, MPH, Mark Adams, MD, MBA, and David Jakubowicz, MD 

 

"According to the American Medical Association (AMA), 2020 marked the first time that fewer than half (49.1%) of physicians worked in doctor-owned practices since their tracking began. By 2022, that number had fallen further to 46.7%, down from 60% a decade earlier. Meanwhile, the share of physicians employed by hospitals and health systems has expanded sharply -- from about 29% of physicians in 2012 to more than 40% in 2022. Private equity ownership, virtually absent in previous decades, now accounts for roughly 5% of physician employment. 

...

" this employment transformation has disrupted the very institutions meant to represent physicians. Nationally, AMA membership has plunged from about 75% of U.S. physicians in the 1950s to just 15% today. State and county medical societies mirror this pattern, facing shrinking memberships, aging leadership, and limited engagement among younger doctors.

"Specialty societies have filled much of that vacuum. Groups like the American College of Physicians, the American College of Surgeons, and the American Academy of Family Physicians have seen significant growth over the past few decades.