ACP opens affiliate membership to PAs

There are about 50,000 physician assistants, and the number has been growing.

By Damon Adams, AMNews staff. Dec. 20, 2004.

For the first time, the American College of Physicians is offering memberships to nonphysicians, opening the door to physician assistants. ACP leaders say the move is a step toward further developing a team approach to practicing medicine.

"This isn't really a matter of increasing membership. It's a matter of improving care," said ACP Executive Vice President and CEO John Tooker, MD.

The ACP announced in mid-November that it is offering affiliate memberships to physician assistants who are non-student members of the American Academy of Physician Assistants, which has about 40,000 members. PAs pay $215 annual member fees to the AAPA. They would pay an additional $239 to be an ACP affiliate member. Regular ACP dues for a U.S. internist are $399 a year.

AAPA Executive Vice President and CEO Stephen Crane, PhD, said physician assistants are offered affiliate memberships in several state medical societies, and affiliate or associate memberships are offered by some national organizations such as the American College of Surgeons and American College of Cardiology. The AMA does not offer affiliate memberships to PAs. Crane said the ACP membership is a logical extension of the collegial working relationship between internists and PAs.