Since this zombie has been revived.
It is absolutely customary and usual that hospital medical staffs have credentialing fees, and annual membership dues.
I am currently the President of our medical staff. Our dues are $500/yr (MD/PA/NP). Telemedicine has a separate deal. This is actually very competitive vis-a-vis other local hospitals (we've checked). We are trying diligently to decrease them, and may if our switch to a new system-wide credentialing software saves money as expected. It is important to remember the medical staff is separate from the hospital proper, and there must be a firewall.
What do these fees cover?
(1) There is a person, or more likely a large company, that goes through your credentialling packet, ensures it is true, collects it, runs background checks, etc etc. While annoying, this is important to avoid as many Doctor Deaths as possible. This costs money.
(2) There is likely a medical staff office (ours has two people working in it). They are the boots-on-the-ground to handle credentialing. They also handle 100 other little things like meetings, minutes, chief-of-service searches, figuring out so-and-so's address to send flowers when their spouse dies, etc. Often the medical staff pays for all or part of their salary, and the hospital supports the rest. They can be your best friends.
(3) There are medical staff meetings (annual, quarterly, med exec monthly). Some of these may have some food / drink. Perhaps even a social or two.
(4) Most medical staffs make some charitable contributions, both to hospital and other community-related fundraisers. Again, this money comes from somewhere.
(5) Medical staff officer positions should be compensated. Not millions, but if you take 4-6hr a month to review applicants and interview them and vote for them to join the staff, sure has hell you deserve money for that. Again, said money comes from somewhere.
Now, if you are doing locums, or part of a large corporate group working at many sites, I COMPLETELY agree said corporation should pay the fee. But realize it is coming out of the overhead they are charging you. In our group, the "group" pays, which means it is paid with pre-tax dollars, but it is OUR money which is being used. No free lunches.