Ohio State joins AMMP as founding institutional partner

The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center has become a Founding Institutional Partner of the Association of Membership Medicine Professionals, a move aimed at advancing membership-based care and building out the field’s research, education and advocacy infrastructure. The partnership links a major academic medical center to a growing national trade group focused on relationship-centered primary care models.

Why it matters: - The partnership gives AMMP added credibility as it tries to define and expand membership medicine across healthcare systems, independent practices and newer hybrid models. - Ohio State’s involvement could help shape standards, research and benchmarking for a care model that aims to improve patient experience, provider sustainability and financial stability. - The move highlights growing interest in relationship-centered primary care as health systems look for alternatives to volume-driven care.

What happened: - The Association of Membership Medicine Professionals announced that The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center has joined AMMP as a Founding Institutional Partner. - AMMP said the relationship makes Ohio State one of several leading healthcare institutions helping shape the association in its foundational year. - The announcement was made Sept. 22, 2026.

The details: - AMMP is a national nonprofit trade association serving the membership medicine field. - AMMP describes itself as a “big tent” professional home for concierge medicine, direct primary care, system-based programs and emerging middle-ground membership models. - Founding Institutional Partners help fund and shape early work in best practices, benchmarking, research, education, advocacy and professional development. - James Lawlor, DO, MBA, founder and board chair of AMMP, also serves as medical director of executive health at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. - Lawlor leads a program that uses a middle-ground membership model called Semi-Concierge Medicine®. - Lawlor said that model showed how diversified primary care delivery can support the Quadruple Aim by improving patient experience, provider experience, workforce sustainability, health outcomes and financial sustainability. - Lawlor said Ohio State’s participation will help inform AMMP’s work in research, benchmarking, education and shared resources for health systems and membership medicine programs nationally. - Ohio State’s participation reflects a shared interest in advancing thoughtful innovation in primary care and building a stronger professional infrastructure for the membership medicine field. - AMMP is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit trade association dedicated to education, collaboration, research, advocacy and professional development. - AMMP says it is model agnostic and welcomes clinicians, practices, health systems and other stakeholders regardless of size, setting or structure. - AMMP’s stated work includes advancing best practices, improving public understanding of membership medicine, supporting primary care sustainability and making relationship-centered practice models more accessible to physicians. - AMMP included a LinkedIn link for more information: the association’s social media page.

Between the lines: - Ohio State’s decision signals that academic medical centers are willing to engage with membership-based care instead of treating it as a niche model. - AMMP appears to be positioning itself as a neutral convening group rather than an advocate for only one version of membership medicine. - Lawlor’s dual role ties the association’s leadership directly to a real-world membership program, which may help AMMP ground its work in operating experience.

What's next: - AMMP said Founding Institutional Partners will help guide its early research, benchmarking, education and advocacy agenda. - The association is likely to use institutional participation to build shared standards and resources as the membership medicine field grows. - The partnership may also help expand awareness of membership-based primary care among health systems and physicians considering new practice models.