Monday, May 15, 2017

A message from AOA President Andrea Thau, O.D.

Dear Colleague, 

As a practicing doctor myself, I know firsthand the challenges and frustrations that come with keeping up with ever-changing Medicare program requirements. As the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) begins the new Quality Payment Program (QPP) this year, the AOA is working to support our doctors to protect future reimbursement and maximize incentives.

Just last month, CMS began sending out letters to all Medicare doctors to indicate whether the doctor has qualified for one of the exclusions under the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). CMS also developed an online NPI look up to check participation status. With this information, doctors can now best prepare themselves for MIPS participation. To equip doctors of optometry with the information needed to successfully participate in the program, we’ve developed a number of resources, including:


While these are all great resources, we know that many of our doctors are still unsure of the path forward when it comes to these program changes. The AOA wants to do more to support you. Please join us on June 12 at 9 p.m. Eastern time for a webinar that will offer the opportunity to ask your specific MIPS questions. The webinar will be presented by Dr. Zachary McCarty, chair of the AOA’s Quality Improvement and Registries Committee, and Dr. Jeff Michaels, immediate past chair of the AOA’s Quality Improvement and Registries Committee. Register here. If you have a specific question you would like addressed on the webinar, please email Kara Webb, the AOA’s associate director of coding & regulatory policy, at kcwebb@aoa.org.

If there are additional MIPS tools and resources that would be useful to you in your practice, please email me at president@aoa.org.

Sincerely, 
Andrea P. Thau, O.D.
AOA President

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

PCO Quiz Bowl 2017

The PCO Quiz Bowl was held Friday, March 17 at Salus University. Congratulations to PCO second-year (and my former employee) Celeste Gomez for winning the opportunity to represent the school in Denver next summer. Congratulations also to Colleen Gibson for winning the travel grant to Optometry's Meeting in D.C. this summer. Special thanks to Drs. Shana Barrett Zeitlin, Steve Hess and Ben Foreman for helping to represent the POA.
- Dr. Steven Eiss, POA President