Sharp HealthCare's continuing medical education (CME) department surveyed area CME providers via the Society for Academic Continuing Medical Education member listserv to formulate a fair market value CME activity registration fee schedule. Staff also polled other CME/continuing professional development professionals on their strategy and typical fee schedules. Of the 69 respondents, three-quarters said they charged a fee for CME activities, with various factors underpinning the fee calculation distributed across a series of fee models. The most popular model weighs the learner's affiliation and profession and the number of credit hours offered. The learner's profession is the most often used model consideration. These factors may or may not be pertinent when applying a fee for service schedule. Also affecting fee calculation is whether the activity is enduring material (online module), a webinar, a course or a conference. 85% (45 of 53) respondents said they charged different fees for different event types. The most frequent per credit hour fee rates were $15-$25 (45%) and $30-$45 (37%). According to the authors, Sharp HealthCare's Heather Clemons, MS, MBA, ATC, CHCP, and Joenathan Rodriguez, MPH, the most critical factor may ultimately be whether the provider possesses the authority and autonomy to establish per activity fees. "Many comments highlighted the impact that faculty, activity committees and clinical departments have on registration rates along with other challenges to developing a consistent system," they wrote.

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