http://www.odwire.org/petition/petition.php?pt=5

If you haven't already heard, organized optometry (AOA) is wanting to make 'voluntary' board certification a reality. Please read the following petition to decide for yourself. Do you want to pay for more testing?

http://www.odwire.org/petition/petition.php?pt=5

If you haven't already heard, organized optometry (AOA) is wanting to make 'voluntary' board certification a reality. Please read the following petition to decide for yourself. Do you want to pay for more testing?For the record, this was not initiated by the AOA. I would seriously be careful taking the word of the many disgruntled OD's on ODWire.

Board Certification will become a reality, which is upsetting to me. The senate has made the recommendation that all medicare providers be board certified. This is not mandatory yet, but the government is looking for a way to save medicare from bankruptcy, and it appears that the way to do that is reduce the amount of providers. Based on that recommendation, ARBO decided it would push forward with board certification. ARBO has the ability to work directly with the states to make that happen. In my opinion, ARBO only cares about the extra revenue board certification will generate. The AOA stepped in because it felt that if ARBO was going to push this on us, the profession better have a voice and the original proposal by ARBO was ridiculous.

The bottom line is that even if the AOA membership votes against this, as I expect they will, ARBO still can force the issue and they do not answer to a membership. If ARBO doesn't go forward with this, and the government ends up dropping all non-board certified providers from medicare, OD's are screwed.

To relay something to all students who may come across this petition, please read the below letter from the current AOSA National President.

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April 24, 2008
Dear Optometry Student,
Within optometry, board certification is an exciting and controversial topic. The profession has developed the Joint Board Certification Project Team (JBCPT) to answer the question: “If optometry had a board certification process, what would it look like?” Many articles have been written to keep the profession updated on the progress of the JBCPT. Please read these and inform yourself about this topic. It is important to understand that at this point the American Optometric Student Association neither supports
nor opposes board certification, however it DOES support the JBCPT and their process of evaluating this topic.

On various optometric blog sites, petitions have been posted attempting to stop the JBCPT from answering the above question. These petitions are targeting students in the hope that we will be less informed. Please do not be hasty into signing them without researching the topic thoroughly. I would request that each student gather all the facts and allow the process to continue. By signing one of these petitions we will only cause a divide
within the profession.

Thanks again for your confidence in our association. Please feel free to contact your AOSA Trustee or Trustee-Elect if you have any further questions.

Sincerely,

President
American Optometric Student Association

What puzzles me is the fact that you can still be a practicing Ophthalmologist and not be board certified. I see it all the time in their classifieds, hiring for a Board cert or Board eligible oMD.

They should concentrate more on getting equal TPA rights in all 50 states and having some injectables and laser procedures done. To me this is still falls under the umberlla of primary care.

http://www.odwire.org/petition/petition.php?pt=5

If you haven't already heard, organized optometry (AOA) is wanting to make 'voluntary' board certification a reality. Please read the following petition to decide for yourself. Do you want to pay for more testing?

It is really a bad idea

EVERY other doctorate level independent profession (medicine, dentistry, podiatry, etc...) has Board Certification. Most health care professionals recognize this as being a level of advanced certification (past entry level licensure.) Congress may make it "mandatory" to be board certified to recieve rembursement from Medicare and Medicaid. Optometrists need to step up to the plate and create a national board certification instead of worrying about paying another $500.00 a year or whatever it may be. OD's are the ONLY profession (among independent.doctorate level prescribers) that dont have it.......COME ON!




note: NBEO is NOT Board certification. Board certification is advanced competency BEYOND entry level licensure. IT DOES MEAN SOMETHING!

EVERY other doctorate level independent profession (medicine, dentistry, podiatry, etc...) has Board Certification. Most health care professionals recognize this as being a level of advanced certification (past entry level licensure.) Congress may make it "mandatory" to be board certified to recieve rembursement from Medicare and Medicaid. Optometrists need to step up to the plate and create a national board certification instead of worrying about paying another $500.00 a year or whatever it may be. OD's are the ONLY profession (among independent.doctorate level prescribers) that dont have it.......COME ON!




note: NBEO is NOT Board certification. Board certification is advanced competency BEYOND entry level licensure. IT DOES MEAN SOMETHING!

Many people do not want the extra hassle of doing this certification.

There was one excellent article written in Review of Optometry, where a well seasoned OD wrote how we as a profession do not really need any new certification, and that it only is a way to give more money to various entities.

AGAIN,


In a world where perception is reality.....EVERY OTHER Independent Doctorate level health care provider HAS a Board Certification process!!!! This is what other medical practitioners use as a measuring stick and what the public understands. Eventually the insurers and medicare/medicaid with require it for reimbursement. Optometry needs to "fit in" in this regard. When I tell other practitioners that we don't have it they think that is ridiculous.

AGAIN,


In a world where perception is reality.....EVERY OTHER Independent Doctorate level health care provider HAS a Board Certification process!!!! This is what other medical practitioners use as a measuring stick and what the public understands. Eventually the insurers and medicare/medicaid with require it for reimbursement. Optometry needs to "fit in" in this regard. When I tell other practitioners that we don't have it they think that is ridiculous.

I strongly disagree with this.

1) Board Certification will almost certainly NOT get us any more access to medical plans and will almost certainly NOT get us any more reimbursement from the plans we DO have access to. The net result is yet another expensive, time consuming hoop for ODs to jump through that will result in us making the same money, with the same limited access. At BEST, it will do nothing. At WORST, it will be just another thing for VSP or Eyemed to require ODs to do so that they can continue to reimburse us $40 an exam. I have never ever ONCE in my almost 10 years in this business been denied access to any medical plan, hospital, nursing home, etc. etc. because I wasn't board certified or board eligible.

2) Optometric board certification as it is being discussed will not be comparable in any way, shape or form to medical, dental, or podiatric board certification. That will pretty much guarantee that we get absolutely no more respect or deference from our medical colleagues. If anything, it will draw more of their ire. I can here the chorus of MDs now..."Oh look....how cute....they think they're board certified. Kitchy Kitchy koo."

3) Board certification will almost certainly not garner us any more respect or deference from the general public. BC or not, we will still be widely regarded as the eyeglass guys who work in the mall.

4) In THEORY, board certification SHOULD allow for more licensure portability but even those in power who are proponents of BC have pretty much all but admitted that that won't happen.

5) There is already a mechanism in place to show competency beyond initial licensure and that is fellowship in the AAO. The AAO has different sections that practitioners can obtain expertise in and the culmination of that process is a difficult examination. Why are we trying to reinvent the wheel here?

6) A study by the Kaiser foundation found NO DIFFERENCE in practice patterns, or malpractice rates between those doctors who are board certified and those who aren't.

So again.....someone tell me the upside please??

KHE,


I have talked several times with folks at the AOA about this and it (Board Certification) is very likely going to happen....So we have to discuss ways of making it the best we can.

Actually plenty of OD's in Florida have Florida Board Certification next to their names and the ones I have talked to said it is a positive thing for them.....

I actually have every intention of doing FAAO in the future.....

KHE,


I have talked several times with folks at the AOA about this and it (Board Certification) is very likely going to happen....So we have to discuss ways of making it the best we can.

Actually plenty of OD's in Florida have Florida Board Certification next to their names and the ones I have talked to said it is a positive thing for them.....

Great...

So even though a recent poll of practicing optometrists showed ODs to be opposed to board certifcation at a rate of about 5:1, the AOA still intends to ram it down our throats.

And I still have yet to have anyone respond to my list of reasons why we should not have it. What is the upside? Can anyone tell me the upside?