Standing at the crossroads

Looking back on 30 years of optometric practice, I see that our profession has undergone some major changes. There was a time when optometry was known as “the drugless profession.” Thank goodness those days are in the past. I would not be able to practice the way I do today if I could not prescribe topical antibiotics, steroids or pressure-lowering agents. Without the volunteer structure of the POA and its members, none of this would have been achieved. However, we cannot stop now. We must plan to secure our future. To do this, I need your help in growing our membership.

Our profession is facing many challenges today. There are online contact sellers, online eyeglass retailers, companies that want to provide at-home refractions, HIPAA regulations, reduced reimbursements, vision plan policies that are not favorable to our practices, and so on. These challenges and more can be overcome if we have strong state and national associations. 

As a famous commercial once said, “Membership has its privileges,” and the POA is no exception to this. Please allow me to explain just a few benefits of POA membership.

Advocacy — Many organizations exist today that want to help the independent optometrist. However, the POA and AOA are the only organizations that can actually protect and advance our profession. There are no other organizations in optometry that will lobby on your behalf and represent the profession both in Harrisburg and Washington, D.C. These benefits often seem intangible because it takes persistent effort over many years to achieve certain goals. I can assure you, however, that good things come to those who wait.

The POA is currently supporting the Eye Care Freedom of Choice legislation introduced by Senator Kim Ward. This piece of legislation attempts to restore a “level playing field” in the eye care industry and ensure both patient freedom of choice when selecting a provider and providers’ freedom of choice to choose materials, fabrication and source of products, and also ensure a uniform provider contract. 

The Pennsylvania Diabetic Eye Health Alliance (PDEHA) — Only POA members can become PDEHA members. Over 500 member doctors have signed on to this initiative so far and insurers are taking notice. As a direct result of this initiative, Geisinger Health Plan and the POA are working jointly to support the care of diabetic patients.
Electronic Claims Service — The POA is the only state affiliate with an electronic claims service with on-staff coding and billing experts. 

C&E Vision Buying Group — This benefit program provides members with substantial savings on the purchase of frames, contact lenses, ophthalmic equipment, and more, while at the same time giving you the opportunity to have your POA/AOA dues paid for you as a percentage of your purchases through the buying group. To join, simply call C&E’s Member Service Department at (800) 346-2626.

Free Marketing Materials — Kids Welcome Here® brochures and posters are available at no charge to POA members. Members of the PDEHA are also entitled to a free poster promoting yearly eye exams for diabetic patients.

Discounted Continuing Education — POA offers discounted continuing education programs for members; non-members pay nearly double for the same programs. Upcoming events include a continuing education weekend from March 12 to 13 in State College, POA’s Annual Congress from May 13 to 15 in Camp Hill, a continuing education cruise from July 2 to 7, and free (for members) online webinars available for one credit each on the POA website. 

Keystoner & Emails — Members may place classified advertisements for free in up to three consecutive issues. Other advertising opportunities are also available for members at a discounted price. The POA also sends out informative emails regarding upcoming events, local society meetings, legislative issues, and more. These means of communication are an exclusive member benefit aimed at keeping the association’s members up-to-date and informed.

The above are but a few benefits of membership. There are many other advantages to membership that I hope to highlight in future editorials. As members, we need to communicate these benefits to our unaffiliated colleagues and urge them to join. The POA can only be as strong as our membership will allow it to be. 

As I stand at the crossroads, I am honored and humbled to serve as your 2016 POA president. With the help of the 2016 Board of Directors, our committee chairs, and volunteers, together we can advance our profession and take it to the next level. I look forward to working with all of you so that we can make this profession stronger. Thank you for allowing me to be of service.

The POA Board of Directors and I want to wish all of you a very successful 2016!

Mark Margolies, O.D.
POA President

Thank you all

As this is my last editorial as president, I want to take the opportunity to say thank you. While I will continue on the Board for one more year as the immediate past president, and I will continue to be involved with the POA for as long as I’m practicing optometry, this experience has been unique and one I will certainly never forget. 
I would like to start by thanking the POA membership first and foremost. Thank you for putting your trust in me to serve as your president. It is truly an honor and a humbling experience. I appreciate the trust you put in me, and I have striven to always make decisions with the needs of all Pennsylvania optometrists in mind. With a little over two months to go in my presidency as I am writing this, I feel like it has been a successful year. Hopefully, if all goes well in the next several weeks, we will achieve at least some of our legislative goals before the year is over. 
To my fellow Board members, both the current Board and those I’ve served with over the last seven years, thank you. Despite all the time away from my family and office, and all the hard work and debate, I’ve always looked forward to the time spent working with each of you. I’ve learned a lot from you and made some great lifetime friends. As I approach the end of my service and I’m asked by the nominating committee to suggest members who should be considered for the Board, I am sorely tempted to suggest myself as a candidate for trustee in 2017. I have really enjoyed it that much. However, I also really enjoy being married, and I don’t think my wife would put up with another eight years, so I’m not actually going to do it. As a member of the association, I know we are in good hands moving forward and I’m excited to see where this terrific group of leaders takes us over the next few years.
Another dedicated group that deserves thanks is the volunteer members who have put in so much time and effort on behalf of optometry in Pennsylvania. My first presidential task was to ask a large number of colleagues to volunteer their time to serve on the various committees and task forces that implement the programs and achieve the goals that the Board sets. They give their time and talents willingly and without compensation, taking time away from business and family commitments while their efforts go largely unnoticed in many cases. Thank you all for your service.
Next, I really want to thank our POA staff. We all have dedicated staff members in our offices who go above and beyond their job descriptions to help our practices grow and thrive. Well, you all also have a great, dedicated staff working for you every day in Harrisburg. When I say every day, I mean it. It seems like they never stop working — even when they are not at the office, they are still working. I can’t count how many times I have sent an email after-hours or on a weekend, expecting to receive an answer on the next business day, only to hear back from the staff within an hour. They are truly dedicated to your profession, and exceed expectations every day. Deb, Ilene, Kelsey, and Charlie, words are not enough to express my thanks. Your ability to complete multiple special projects on time and beyond expectations, while still getting the everyday tasks of running the association done, amazes me regularly. I also want to give a special thanks to Joyce, who although she has been “retired” for almost two years, seems to answer the phone about half the time when I call the office, and is seemingly always there when I visit.
Lastly, thank you to those members who have taken the time to contact their senators in regard to the pending bills that will affect your practices for years to come. If you haven’t yet, please go to the POA website now, look at the legislation and talking points, and write, email, call, or visit your senator to express your support for SB 1012 and SB 978. 
Thanks again everyone,

Richard Christoph, O.D.

POA President

We are...POA!

I didn’t grow up in Pennsylvania, and I’ve never been a big college football fan, so when I moved to Reading and started to hear “We are...Penn State,” it was new to me. As an outsider, it really strikes me as a great chant because it stresses that the strength of the university is its community of students, alumni, and supporters. 
During my time as a volunteer leader with the POA, I often hear members asking, “What is the POA doing about this issue?” I think it’s much more positive if we develop a culture within our optometric association where we say, “What are we doing about this issue?”
I realize that every member can’t possibly be up to date on all the issues facing our profession. In reality, even the POA’s Board members and staff can’t be completely knowledgeable about every issue. It is always okay – even encouraged – to ask questions about how we are addressing issues and meeting challenges. But I would also like every member to see themselves as a contributing and involved part of the POA (and the AOA), even if just in a small way, like a Penn State alum who only makes it to one game a year and sits at the top of the stadium. It still feels like they are invested. 
We currently have three legislative initiatives that we are addressing in the Pennsylvania legislature. The first is Senator Ward’s bill to address inequities in the policies of third party vision plans. Hopefully you have heard the details of this bill before. The second is a bill sponsored by Senator Gordner to remove outdated restrictions from our practice act. There is also a bill introduced by Senator Argall and supported by the PA Academy of Ophthalmology that seeks to restrict our profession by placing a definition of ophthalmic surgery in the medical practice act. If we are going to be victorious in advancing two positive pieces of legislation, and defend against an attempt to set us back, it is going to take contributions from every member. These contributions need to be in both time and donations. 
Firstly, we need every member to be involved in the grass roots effort to meet with legislators. We have a keyperson assigned to each Senator and House member. That doctor is expected to maintain a relationship with their assigned legislator and to meet with the legislator when there is a bill that would affect optometry in order to provide input. Ideally every other member of the POA would support their fellow member who is acting as a keyperson. When the legislator has a local fundraiser, we would like to have all the optometrists in the district attend, instead of just the keyperson. When the keyperson goes in to the legislator’s office to discuss a bill that is important to optometry, having a few other members go along increases the impact significantly. We do have paid lobbyists who work every day in Harrisburg to form relationships with legislators and try to influence them to vote favorably for optometry. However, the PA Academy of Ophthalmology, the insurance companies, and other groups that hold positions opposed to ours also have lobbyists. When a legislator hears from both lobbyists and constituents on an issue, it has a much greater impact. If you don’t know who your legislators are, you can easily look it up online. Google “Who is my PA legislator?” Follow the link to the State Senate and House of Representatives. If you don’t know who the POA keyperson is for your legislators, you can email Ilene@poaeyes.org and ask Ilene at the POA office.
Secondly, we need financial support. Hopefully everyone reading this editorial has heard of POPAC and realizes the importance of it. This money is used to make contributions to fundraisers for Pennsylvania legislators. Our lobbyists in Harrisburg attend many fundraisers on our behalf in Harrisburg, and it is our POPAC funds that allow them to do that. POPAC funds are also available (on a matching basis) for members to attend local fundraisers. We have made great strides in increasing our POPAC funds over the last two years. For that, I’d like to send a big thanks to Dr. Greg Caldwell and his POPAC Committee, along with all the members who have made contributions. If you have not made a contribution, please go the website or call the POA office to do that right now. A $500 yearly contribution qualifies for the POA’s incentive program, which returns the $500 in the form of eyeglass lenses and monetary credit toward POA continuing education programs. 
I realize this hasn’t been the inspirational half-time speech of a great college football coach, but hopefully you get the message and are inspired to think of yourself as part of our team of optometrists, working together to advance our profession.
We are...POA!

Rich Christoph, O.D.
POA President

The POA’s organizational structure – a primer

After talking with many members at the POA’s Annual Congress last month, I realized that a number of our members – including some who are fairly involved – don’t completely understand the organizational structure of our association. So, for those who don’t know, here is a brief explanation.

Within the structure of the POA, we have 14 local societies throughout the state, with an additional local society for students at the Pennsylvania College of Optometry (PCO) at Salus University. Each is an independent entity with its own by-laws, officers, treasury, and policies. We also have several affiliated organizations, including the Pennsylvania Paraoptometric Association (PPA), the Vision Conservation Institute (VCI) and the Pennsylvania Optometric Political Action Committee (POPAC).

The POA is ultimately governed by its members via the House of Delegates (HOD). The HOD normally meets once per year at our Annual Congress in the spring. When a vote is called for in the HOD, each local society (except the student society) has a voting strength based on the number of members in good standing within the society. In addition, the student society has one vote, the PCO representative has one vote, and all past POA presidents in attendance collectively have one vote. The HOD elects the POA Board of Directors (BOD), approves the budget, sets policy, and approves all expenditures from the reserve fund. Any member in good standing is eligible to attend the House of Delegates meeting and sit with the delegation from their local society. 

The POA Board of Directors consists of eight elected officers: immediate past president, president, president-elect, secretary-treasurer, and four trustees. Each of these offices is a one-year term. Once a member is elected as president-elect, he or she will serve one year in that office, one year as president, and one year as immediate past-president, without additional election – he or she automatically assumes each office. The trustees and secretary-treasurer are up for re-election each year. Most members of the Board will serve four years as a trustee and one year as secretary-treasurer before being nominated and serving as president-elect. 

Each member of the BOD has responsibility for one of the eight divisions of the volunteer structure, which is comprised of: Budget and Finance, Communications, Professional Services, State and National Affairs, Administration and Planning, Clinical Care, President, and Health Care. Each BOD officer is an optometrist and member of the association. They are volunteers, and are not compensated for their Board service. They are reimbursed for certain travel expenses. (e.g. Board meetings and, in the case of the president and president-elect, Optometry’s Meeting and President’s Council). The Nominating and Evaluating Committee nominates a slate of officers each year, based on their evaluation of the current Board and interviews with prospective Board members. Members may also be nominated from the floor at the HOD meeting after they have served as local society leaders and/or on POA committees.

The POA volunteer structure is extensive. Some committees involve multiple in-person meetings throughout the year in addition to regular email communication and individual committee assignments to complete by formal deadlines. Others involve much less time commitment and conduct most, or all, of their business via email or phone with flexible deadlines. Volunteers are unpaid for their time and work, typically not reimbursed for travel, and are appointed by the president.

The POA staff work from the association’s office in Harrisburg. They are responsible for completing the day-to-day tasks of running the association as directed by the Board and the HOD. They also assist the committees with certain tasks. The Board hires the executive director; he or she is responsible for the staff. Our current staff consists of:

Charlie Stuckey, O.D., F.A.A.O.
Executive Director

Deb Blanchard
Chief Operating Officer

Ilene Sauertieg
Director of Education and Conferences

Kelsey Rodkey
Communications Coordinator

Joanne Cope, Joyce Tesoriero
(and part-time data entry staff)
Electronic Claims Service

Joyce Reiner, CAE (retired)
Special Assignments

The POA also uses various paid consultants for certain tasks. These are generally contracted professionals, such as legal counsel, lobbyists, and investment advisers. Our current consultants are: 
Greg Knight, Esq.
Legal Counsel
Ted Mowatt, Mike Long, Amy Long
Lobbyists
Fischer Financial Services
Investments

Hopefully this overview gives you a better understanding of the POA structure.

Richard Christoph, O.D.
POA President

Advocating for all of us

To start this editorial, I want to thank several POA members for taking two days away from their offices to travel to Washington, D.C. and advocate on behalf of all POA members at the AOA Congressional Advocacy Conference. Drs. Mark Margolies, Steven Eiss, Lori Gray, David Evans, Paul Lobby, James Deom, Michael Mittleman and Mark Dalton spent Monday learning the details of the current issues facing optometry in Washington, and Tuesday visiting legislators and their staff on Capitol Hill to make sure optometry’s voice is heard. This was no small sacrifice from a group of doctors who are already giving significant time to advance our profession, and protect optometry from losing access and privileges. We were accompanied by a diverse and enthusiastic group of 12 students from PCO and SUNY College of Optometry, who took time away from their classes and studies to advocate on your behalf, and on behalf of the future of optometry.

Many of you may not be aware of all the issues facing optometry on the federal level. Even those of us who have participated in the last few conferences needed to be updated on the issues. I apologize for the length of this article, but there are several issues, and some are complex. I hope you can take a few minutes to get yourself up to date on these important national issues. 

One of the bills we were discussing with legislators was HR2. This bill addresses Medicare payment reform and the flawed sustainable growth rate formula. As you may have already heard, our timing couldn’t have been better. This bill passed the House before we went to Washington, and passed the Senate on the evening of the day we were on Capitol Hill. This is the bill that has resulted from the threat of significant reductions in the Medicare Fee Schedule for many years, and has required a large number of temporary patches that kept pushing the issue off without solving the underlying problem. The AOA has been working tirelessly during the process of getting to this point to ensure that optometry is treated fairly in the new law. You can expect small increases in the Medicare Fee Schedule over the next few years, followed by the potential for significant increases if you meet certain quality measures. Thanks to the AOA, you have the opportunity to participate in those incentive programs. Also thanks to the AOA, you will be able participate in a more streamlined fashion with less administrative effort.

This bill will combine the current PQRS, EMR Meaningful Use, and Value-Based Modifiers into a new program called MIPS (Merit-Based Incentive Payment System). Each provider will get a MIPS score, which will determine their bonus (or penalty) versus the standard Medicare Fee Schedule. One of the ways you can meet these requirements is to be connected to a registry. With a registry you will get instant feedback about your practice. You will be able to see, for example, how many of your glaucoma patients have had a visual field done in the last year. You will also be able to compare your performance against benchmarks and other practices. This functionality will enable you to meet many of the MIPS requirements seamlessly, without additional tracking or reporting. The AOA has developed an eye care registry for optometry that will be rolled out at Optometry’s Meeting in Seattle. This will be a free member benefit for all members. The registry will also enable AOA to collect aggregate data that will be very useful in evidence-based research and advocacy efforts, just like other medical professions using registries to track things like childhood immunizations. Expect to hear a lot more about the registry and MIPS over the next few years. The AOA will be your source for information and guidance on these programs.

Another bill that we lobbied for addresses Health Service Corps inclusion for optometry. This bill has been reintroduced for a few years and hasn’t passed mainly due to congressional gridlock. It would allow optometrists to practice at community health centers and have access to scholarships for students who commit to providing service after graduation, as well as loan forgiveness for recent graduates who decide to work there. This bill has significant support among legislators, and hopefully with the SGR fix finally behind them, and the progress they made by cooperating and comprising on that issue still fresh in their minds, we have a chance to move forward on this issue as well.

The third piece of legislation that we addressed is the Expanded Veterans Access to Primary Eye Health and Vision Care Act. As part of the recent VA reform legislation, additional residency slots have been created within the VA system. This bill would set aside 20 of those new slots for optometry. The students who accompanied us to Washington were very enthusiastic about this bill, as selection for VA residencies can be quite competitive. Adding more slots gives them additional opportunities to gain valuable experience. This bill does not limit optometry to only 20 additional slots, it only sets that as a minimum number of additional slots above the current level. It will also help to reduce wait times for needed eye health and vision care for our nation’s veterans.

There is also a new effort on the federal level to pass legislation to combat some of the abuses by vision benefit plans. This would be a complementary bill to our state effort, and would ensure that plans couldn’t use exceptions like ERISA to circumvent the state rules. This legislation is still in early discussions and hasn’t reached the point where we were ready to talk to legislators about it, but our leaders at AOA are certainly aware of the issue and working on your behalf to strengthen our state efforts.

As you all undoubtedly encounter every day, there are many people who don’t really understand what an optometrist is and does. Not surprisingly, this is also true of legislators and their staff. We took time during our visits to educate them about optometry, our scope of practice, optometric education, and AOA programs like InfantSEE.

We also learned that Congress will be in session for significantly more days in 2015 than it was in 2014. This, combined with an increasing impetus to take action and a slightly more cooperative atmosphere, will likely result in more laws being passed. This is a positive thing for us in our efforts to move favorable legislation, but it is also a challenge, in that we have to be vigilant for any legislation that would result in a negative impact. This could come as the result of a purposeful attack on our profession, or as a result of an unintentional oversight. On a positive note, the efforts to repeal the Harken Amendment to the Affordable Care Act received almost no support in the last session, and that legislation appears to be dead for the short term. The other attack on optometry that has been losing steam over the last few years was formerly known as the Sullivan Bill. This was an effort to undermine optometry’s scope of practice and confuse the public about our abilities and training. It has been repeatedly defeated, and also looks like it will not to be reintroduced thanks to efforts over the last few years. Our leaders, staff and lobbyists are also acutely aware of the actions of 1-800-CONTACTS in state legislatures over the last few months. Fortunately those efforts have been stymied for the most part. The AOA is vigilant in watching for any similar legislation being introduced on a national level, and will take appropriate action if that should occur.

Of course, a day of discussing legislative priorities at the federal level wouldn’t be complete without an AOA-PAC update. The good news is that Pennsylvania has moved from the last place in giving compared to other states, to the second to last place. While this is a move in the right direction, we still have a long way to go. Nationwide AOA-PAC donations for 2014 were just under $1,000,000. This was an increase versus 2013, but still short of the AOA’s goal of $1.25 million. That means that our leadership has to be very selective about which candidates they support because the funds to support every one of the desired candidates are non-existent. They have established a new website, www.aoapac.org, just for AOA-PAC to make the process of giving very simple. You can make a donation using a credit card very easily. You can also see who in Congress the donations were able to support in the last cycle.

Some of the money is also spent to pay for telemarketers to call AOA members to ask for donations. This is necessary since the telemarketers generate a large percentage of the donations that are received. I encourage you to go to the website now and make a donation, or set up recurring donations, so the AOA can save the cost of calling you and you can avoid receiving the calls.

As additional motivation, ophthalmology has two PACs. One is a basic PAC to address all issues that affect their members, and the second is an “Ophthalmic Surgery Containment Fund,” which, as the name implies, is a fund specifically designed to limit optometric scope of practice. That first PAC raises more money than AOA-PAC, and the second one is almost as large as AOA-PAC. If we are going to maintain our current scope and participation with insurance plans, we need to maintain our strong relationships with legislators. Whether you like it or not, part of that is supporting their campaigns. AOA-PAC is currently receiving the vast majority of its funding from a very small number of older doctors, who are each giving a large yearly donation. We would have a more sustainable PAC if the AOA received a small donation from every member. For your own sake, and for the sake of the next generation of optometrists, if you aren’t already donating to AOA-PAC, go right now and make either a one-time or recurring donation. If we all do a little, no one has to do a lot.

Richard Christoph, O.D.
POA President

Think About Think About Your Eyes

Recently, you may have heard or seen some advertising sponsored by the AOA with the message “It is important to get your eyes examined.” I’ve heard a few of them, and several of my friends who are not optometrists have mentioned to me that they heard them, too. These ads are paid for by the Think About Your Eyes (TAYE) campaign. This isn’t exclusively an AOA program, but the AOA is a contributing sponsor, and inclusion of the AOA name and logo was part of the sponsorship agreement. 

TAYE is a subsidiary of the Vision Council and its sole function is to promote the need for eye examinations. Who among us hasn’t thought for many years that “someone” should do something about the fact that most people don’t understand the need for regular exams? Well, “someone” has stepped up to make that happen. TAYE has received major funding from industry leaders; Alcon, Vistakon, Essilor and Luxottica, among others, have made large commitments to the campaign. Now those companies want someone else to also contribute to this effort; someone who also benefits from increased public awareness of eye care and the need for exams. That someone is you.

I’m sure many of you, much like myself, buy advertising in community bulletins and sports programs, knowing that you probably won’t get any direct benefit from it, but hope that having your name positively associated with community activities may benefit you in the long run. The TAYE website features a doctor locator, and offers a tracking function for doctors that reports how many patients were directly referred to you by the site. I recommend thinking of TAYE as a public relations effort, like those local ads. You may not see a direct benefit that justifies the investment in the short term, but over time, by reinforcing that message of regular eye exams and the importance of eye health, we will see an increase in the entire industry, which will benefit everyone. Your participation in TAYE serves multiple benefits. Firstly, the money you pay goes toward additional advertising. Secondly, the industry sponsors have indicated that if they see doctors participating, they will continue and increase their sponsorships.

You will likely see that the advertising will come in waves. TAYE has some marketing experts who determine where, when and how the money is spent. As with any advertising, it is more effective to have someone hear your message multiple times over a short period than to spread it out. If you think about it, you will realize most advertising campaigns work this way. You keep seeing or hearing the same commercial over and over, and then you don’t hear it for a while, and then they come back with a slightly different message some time later. So if you haven’t heard or seen the ads yet, keep looking and listening. If you heard them and thought they stopped, know that they will likely increase and decrease throughout the year based on what is most effective.

How much is it to support this massive national advertising program? Well, they have two plans, but the basic plan is only $200 for AOA members, and you can use a credit card to make monthly payments (only $16.67 a month!). I encourage you all to go to www.thinkaboutyoureyes.com and check it out. You can sign up and also watch the TV commercials if you haven’t seen them yet.

Richard Christoph, O.D.

POA President

Looking forward to 2015

As this is my first editorial as POA President, I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you, the POA members, for putting your trust in me to serve as your president. I also want to thank all of you for you membership and for your involvement. There are too many optometrists who sit back and complain that “somebody should do something,” but won’t step up to do anything themselves. Simply by joining, you have already taken the most important step toward improving your profession. 

In late 2014, your POA board, staff and committee volunteers recently spent a day in Hershey making plans for the next year, as we have done annually for many years. With 25 committees and over 75 individual volunteers, it is impossible to outline all the initiatives and goals we have set forth. However, I do want to give you some highlights.

Our Student Membership Task Force has expanded their focus to include doctors who graduated within the last five years. We have made great inroads with the students in terms of educating them about the importance of professional association membership, but we still find we are only retaining about 50% of them as members beyond the fourth year after graduation. They have already started developing programs to get our newest members engaged and active so that they understand the benefits of membership right from the beginning of their careers.

The Pediatric Vision Care Committee has been tasked with evaluating the requirements for children to have eye examinations prior to starting school. As you are all undoubtedly aware children in Pennsylvania are required to have a dental exam before beginning school, but the only requirement for vision is a screening performed by the school nurse. In the past, we have made great progress in improving the quality and effectiveness of those screenings by working directly with school nurses, but now we are going to take a fresh look at requiring a comprehensive exam by an eye doctor. 

The Third Party Center, in addition to their ongoing work ensuring that optometry is treated fairly by third party payers, has been studying the legislative initiatives in other states to limit requirements placed by vision plans. Working closely with the AOA legislative team and other state associations they have developed a legislative initiative that you will be hearing much more about in the near future.

The Legislative Affairs Committee has also been working with the AOA legislative team to keep appraised of action in other states. One of the issues that has been popping up in other states is refractive kiosks and online “examinations.” Obviously there is no eye health component to these “exams,” which puts the public at risk. We are evaluating our current statues to determine if additional legislation is required to regulate this practice. The committee is, of course, continuing to work to protect our current scope of practice and to remove the outdated restrictions that exist in our current Optometric Practice Act. Expect to hear more details about these efforts in the near future.

I’m very proud to announce that our committee chairs and volunteers raised over $10,000 in POPAC donations at our planning meeting. The Board of Directors and most of the committees have committed to a minimum of $500 per year in ongoing support for POPAC. If we want to pass legislation it will require that same level of commitment from the rest of you. If you aren’t already giving on a monthly or quarterly basis, please call the POA office and make the pledge. 

I’m looking forward to a very active year as the POA President. With an ambitious agenda, and an energized committee structure, I’m confident we will make great strides in advancing our profession. I hope to see all of you at a POA function, or local society meeting this year, but if you have any questions or concerns feel free to contact me any time via email at DrChristoph@verizon.net.

Richard Christoph, O.D.

POA President