AOA dues

[leelee]

Any ODs here think AOA dues and state optometric association dues are way too pricey? I just received notice for this year's dues, and it will be about a 30% increase for me. 30%! I've been practicing for about 5 years so have not been part of a "ladder" or reduced fees system this year or last year either.

I guess I just want to know am I wrong to complain, or do others feels it's expensive too?

I seriously struggle with deciding whether or not to pay my dues every year but end up doing it at the "last minute". The organizations will probably lose me if these types of increases remain... I know the associations lobby for importance issues and rights for optometrists, so that's why I have remained a member for the past few years. But I can't help but feel I'm paying high fees for a giant glossy magazine every once in a while.

What do you think?

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Members don't see this ad.

 

[Tippytoe]

Any ODs here think AOA dues and state optometric association dues are way too pricey? I just received notice for this year's dues, and it will be about a 30% increase for me. 30%! I've been practicing for about 5 years so have not been part of a "ladder" or reduced fees system this year or last year either.

I guess I just want to know am I wrong to complain, or do others feels it's expensive too?

I seriously struggle with deciding whether or not to pay my dues every year but end up doing it at the "last minute". The organizations will probably lose me if these types of increases remain... I know the associations lobby for importance issues and rights for optometrists, so that's why I have remained a member for the past few years. But I can't help but feel I'm paying high fees for a giant glossy magazine every once in a while.

What do you think?

Many ODs dropped out of the AOA due to their fake "board certification" program. I left after 10 years and never looked back. The AOA does nothing for us. Your state associations needs your support however since Optometry is a state-regulated profession.

 

[20DOC20]

I'm not an AOA member for a lot of reasons. I dropped out years ago -- like about 15 years ago.

They AOA has betrayed us:

- THEY allowed commercial optometry to take root. They could have stopped it like the dental field did! Now, the very word optometry is immediately associated with Wal-Mart, the servant of poor, white-trash worldwide.
- THEY pushed optometrists into medical optometry and in doing so we lost the very roots of our profession such as vision therapy and pissed off the MD's! Our profession has no identity now and everyone in the medical field hates us. The irony is that VT is lucrative!
- THEY allowed more optometry schools to come into existence and ruined our profession through over-saturation. All they care about is dues and more OD's = more dues.
- THEY allowed the "Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act" to pass, allowing patients to order contacts online. Patients don't even need a valid rx to do so because if the OD fails to respond to the rx verification, the order is mailed to the patient anyway. Shortly following this law were online frame and lens sales. Glasses and contacts are orthotic devices that should only be dispensed in person by someone licensed to do so because patients don't know how to take pd's or size frames or seg heights! The result is patients walking around with eyewear that simply doesn't fit! Why has the AOA allowed this?
- The AOA was a powerful organization that has ruined optometry! They are no longer powerful mostly because of the fake board certification. In my state, you can get board certified through the AOA, but it's illegal to advertise yourself as being superior to an OD who lacks board certification. That means, you can't advertise "board certified." So why do it?

The TMOD isn't comprehensive enough a test of competency? Come on!

From a personal standpoint, I dropped out of the AOA because I got sick, had a TON of medical tests run to diagnose my "Chronic Fatigue" problem. Had health insurance but deducible was very high, so all out of pocket. Also had student loans to pay. Rent. Food. I got a bill from AOA for like $800 dollars and I couldn't pay it. The AOA steps up membership fees and by the third yr out of school it was around 800. I think it maxes out at around $1500. Anyway, I called my state association and asked for financial hardship discount and they refused! I begged them! I explained that I was on sick leave. They still refused to work with me. I was so pissed that I dropped my membership. Here I was, sick and bedridden because a patient had coughed in my face (patient had been overseas and had some exotic bug), and was swamped with medical bills. I mean, I even got tested for Cat Scratch Fever! I was on leave of absence from work and the AOA lacked the COMPASSION to give me a discount on that membership fee. Can you imagine? I mean, the AOA left me with the choice of paying their due or paying my rent. Yeah, I was THAT broke. I chose rent. Duh!

If they had worked with me ... like given me a payment plan or a discount ... I wouldn't have dropped out. They insisted on having the full fee by the due date and wouldn't compromise.

It was then that I realized that the AOA was only a political action organization who cared NOTHING about the well-being of individual optometrists. That's the real AOA. I'm glad I saw them for their true nature 15 years ago.

Some of my AOA friends tried talking me back into membership and I tried explaining the situation and they just didn't get it. In fact, I don't think they believed me.

I really hope this posts gets back to the AOA because the silent majority of OD's regards them as an organization equally useless as the American congress!

The AOA did nothing for me. I'm glad their ship is sinking.

 

[20DOC20]

The AOA has always, since I was a student, had the goal of making Optometry equally respected as Medicine.

The irony is that this goal was lost the moment the AOA allowed Optometry into Walmart and other commercial locations because those locations are associated with the words "cheap" "convenient" and "fast" -- things diametrically opposed to the manner in which a professional doctor conducts an eye exam. Eye exams are supposed to be careful, meticulous and inconvenient (dilation). It matters to ME that my spec and cl rx's are as perfect as possible because it affects patients quality of life. If I screw up, the patient must live with the consequenses for 1-2 years until their vision coverage renews. Why should my services be cheap? My time and effort has value.

The same organization that allowed Optometry to become a profession of sloppy quasi-professional Wal-Mart doctors is now doing a "Hail Mary" with their Board Certification program. Why are you surprised that most OD's aren't buying into your propaganda?

The respectability ship has sailed because of the AOA's past actions. Now, optometry as a profession will NEVER have respect equaling Medicine because we're the sloppy, cheap, fast doctors who practice in Walmart and Costco. I mean, the locations alone ruin any credibility we have as professionals. Who's going to take the doctor who works in a GROCERY STORE seriously? We're a total joke in the healthcare field because of YOU.

Good job AOA for making optometry into the profession it is today!

Oh ... did I mention VSP ... one of the worst vision insurances out there ... one that makes a lot of $$$ from billing errors because it's deliberately designed to be virtually impossible to bill properly. I had 8 hours of VSP training before I could even begin to charge proper copays! Ridiculous! That's not even mentioning deep discounts for proprietary products and surprise chargebacks for any brand not owned by them --- destroying your net. The insurance advertised as "by optometrists for optometrists," endorsed by the AOA ... is also another example of "optometrists betrayed by other optometrists."

Just priceless.

I really hope this gets around. Thank goodness for the universality of the Internet (well, except for China).

 

[20DOC20]

My point is ... in case I was unclear ... is to simply not join the AOA in the first place. Don't bother. Don't waste your time or money.

They need a total and complete overhaul ... just like congress! They need to EARN back the respect they have lost by being "optometrists SERVING other optometrists" and not "optometrists BETRAYING other optometrists."

Can you tell I don't like them???

 

[hello07]

Let me add my 2 cents here after reading the aforementioned. I was a AOA member for 18 years paying anywhere $700 a year when I first got out up to $1700 plus a year for membership which included my state association dues. I gave the AOA approximately $30,000 US dollars for being a AOA member. Two years ago I dropped out and decided I no longer wanted to be part of the AOA. Why? It took me a while to realize this but I came to the conclusion that the AOA no longer cares for its 38,000 practitioners. Let me restate it: NO LONGER CARES as opposed to it once did. They made great strides for our wonderful profession but no longer is the case. Why? IMO, greed got the best of them. When I graduated there were only 16 US Optometry schools including PR in the country. Competition for admission was fierce. Back when I was admitted on my first try there were 2500 applications for slightly over 100 seats. And this was the norm across the board for all OD admissions. As of 2013, 5 new schools have opened during the past 5-6 years with another one in Virginia opening up next year bringing the total to 22 Optometry schools. Applications to OD schools have decreased IMO the past 5 plus years along with more students being admitted-bigger class sizes across many private as well as public schools. Why? It's a business more students more money for them.

Secondly, and very importantly; board certification has greatly divided our wonderful profession. I do not want to mention any names in our profession (no need to) but a few of our elite academic educators who also happen to be astute clinicians elevating our profession decided to form the ABO with the support of the AOA to form board certification even though the majority of ODs in the country went against it. Why?

Thirdly, what healthcare profession do you know of that has no monthly journal? The AOA journal no longer exists. This is a disgrace to our profession. Why?

Optometry is a wonderful profession. A truly caring profession where we help people see clearer, better and treat any ophthalmic problem they might have just short of surgery. I'm disappointed in our leaders because they have taken this profession to the wrong side. Again, IMO.

Ask yourself from what I know, why thousands of ODs have dropped out of the AOA? Can it just be coincidental? Our AOA leaders the past few years have failed us.
How can you be board certified in Optometry when Optometry is a state legislated profession from state to state? Two states in the union still can not prescribe orals?

Love my profession but our leaders have failed us!

 

[hello07]

Got caught up with the above, to answer your question leelee do not join the AOA. Save your money. They are NO LONGER looking out for us. They have the audacity to charge 1500 bucks to take their board certification exam plus 300 for initial application and add another 700 for the review course. That adds up to 2500 per applicant. Someone is making a lot of $$$$. You want to guess who?

 

[RadixLuminogen]

Why? IMO, greed got the best of them. When I graduated there were only 16 US Optometry schools including PR in the country. Competition for admission was fierce. Back when I was admitted on my first try there were 2500 applications for slightly over 100 seats. And this was the norm across the board for all OD admissions. As of 2013, 5 new schools have opened during the past 5-6 years with another one in Virginia opening up next year bringing the total to 22 Optometry schools. Applications to OD schools have decreased IMO the past 5 plus years along with more students being admitted-bigger class sizes across many private as well as public schools. Why? It's a business more students more money for them.

Just wanted to clarify that this is the case throughout the U.S.A. right now. People keep voting Democrat, the taxes go up, the public assistance goes up and the government keeps getting stronger and stronger.

Student loans went federal and they are given out like candy to anyone that wants to go to school. The schools see free money and raise their tuition because of simple economics: supply and demand.

Here's a good video to explain it. Its not really the AOA's fault as their hands are tied to too many government regulations.

 

[20DOC20]

I disagree that it's not the AOA's fault.

The AOA is still one of the most powerful lobby groups in DC. If they had the political power to TRANSFORM optometry from an profession that measured eyes (the latin meaning of optometry) into one that is, on a regular day-to-day basis outside the surgery center, virtually indistinguishable from ophthalmology, then they certainly had and have the power to influence the number of people in the american side of the profession!

That is, they could have stopped the formation of new optometry schools and influenced the admissions departments of existing schoolsto limit X% of entering graduates to foreign students. That way, we can export optometry to third world, under-served regions of the world where optometrists are desperately needed. But no! They have to be Americans because the AOA needs dues! So they did nothing.

The AOA is not an optometric organization anymore, but a political action group bent on making OD's into a combination of ... I don't know ... nurse and ophthalmologist?

There are OD's in Washington associated with AOA-PAC who are pushing to make optometrists primary care practitioners because a LOT of primary care MD's are now quitting the medical profession because of Obamacare. There simply aren't enough primary care doctors to serve the huge influx of new Medicaid patients (Obamacare) and to fill the gap the AOA is now pushing for optometrists (along with nurse practitioners and physician assistants) to be primary care docs in states that will allow it. They're talking about launching a new education program to teach OD's how to treat Diabetes and Hypertension -- not just the ocular sequellae of DM and HTN, but the systemic disease itself!

I NEVER signed up for that! And I won't pay for it either. Neither should you.

Just wait! That's they're next step after board certification. They have no intention of stopping the advancement of optometry into what???? When will it end? How far can a profession advance?

The AOA has applied Capitalism to Optometry in the respect that they view advancement of the profession in the same way as Capitalists view exponential growth to venture capitalism. The problem with Capitalism is that we live in a finite world with finite resources and there comes a point where growth cannot be sustained. Same goes with optometry. The amount of knowledge about eyes is limited. What? We've gone as far as we can go in our knowledge of optometry and now we must venture into territory now occupied by primary care?

It's evil and greedy! Stop already!!! Optometry does not need to transform anymore!

I mean ... seriously ... the National Board of Optometry was created out of thin air by the AOA after OD's threw a fit about their "board certification." Someone else said it ... we're licensed on a state level. I mean, look at the revenues this is drawing in for the AOA.

If you withdraw your support of this organization, it will cease to exist. And maybe it'll be replaced with something better such as the AOS.

Oh yeah, the OD's who opposed board certification withdrew from AOA and formed AOS and AOA sued them and won. Nice. Solve a problem by hiding behind a lawyers instead of looking inward to the real source of the problem.

I will admit, the AOA used to support OD's and be a very helpful organization, but those days have been over for a long, long time.

 

[fjpod]

My, there is a lot of anger out there. And a lot of misinformation as well.

Sure, I am a dues paying member of the AOA, and I will support it for as long as I can.

Optometry is a minority profession and we need all the advocacy we can get. Advocacy costs money.

In response to a few statements made:

1. "Many" people did not drop out of the AOA over Board Certification. A small handful did. Look, you either believe in the concept or you don't. Nothing I say will change your mind about it.
2. The AOA does not control whether ODs practice in stores or offices. Individual state boards do...yet no one criticizes them.
3. The AOA does not control whether to open or close new schools. Doing so has been determined to be an anti-trust issue.
4. There is advocacy for the profession on a state level, and then there is the national level. Optometry needs both.
5. The profession has made great strides over the past 100 years due to the AOA, and more work than ever needs to be done.
6. The fact is that the CL fairness to consumers act became law because the AOA DID TRY to prevent the online sale of contacts. The AOA DID stand up for its members in this case, but wound up getting slapped for it as it was deemed to be an anti-trust activity.

Sure the AOA has made some mistakes over the years, but there is no other organization that makes a presence on a federal level. The AOA is OUR organization which depends on a volunteer structure to direct it's activities. Get involved.

 

[Commando303]

5. The profession has made great strides over the past 100 years due to the AOA, and more work than ever needs to be done.

Like what?

 

[fjpod]

Those who fail to study history are doomed to repeat it.

 

[hello07]

Dr. fjpod, since you support the AOA and will continue to support it since you are so passionate about them and believe in the cause can you please tell us what is your stance about board certification and why?
Are you board certified?

 

[fjpod]

Dr. fjpod, since you support the AOA and will continue to support it since you are so passionate about them and believe in the cause can you please tell us what is your stance about board certification and why?
Are you board certified?

I could write volumes in answer to your questions, and much has been said and written on board certification.

Yes, I am ABO certified. I am for thesame reasons that I am (was) in favor of the OD degree, National Boards, diagnostic and therapeutic privileges, hospital staff privileges, insurance panel parity, and a whole list of other things. All of these things enable us to better utilize and apply or knowledge and skill for better patient care. .. and they allow us to have access.

Could the profession survive without BC? Probably. But to thrive and grow and keep up with the ever expanding knowledge base, and competitionfrom otherprofessions, I think it is important. Important enough that although I do not at the moment get any additional income or practice privilegesfrom it, I paid the fees, studied the material, took the test, and complet my CE.

 

[hello07]

Good for you! If my memory serves me correct every therapeutic law passed for each state was welcomed and supported by each state association and optometrists in each state were united and supportive for each TPA bill to be passed. Great strides have been made in expanding and utilizing our knowledge and skills as optometrists. Everything you supported from the aforementioned was in support of all ODs. For a common cause - Board certification however was not accepted by all optometrists and there was great opposition to this Board. The majority of ODs were against Board certification and rightfully so. If you believe in it and since you are Board certified, good for you. If it means being on a hospital staff or having an academic or clinical position -faculty at an OD school I'm sure it might be looked upon as favorable compared to those who aren't Board certified. I don't know?
I personally look at it as a personal and professional embarrassment to be labeled Board certified when there is no requirement of residency either 1 year or 2 or 3 post graduation.
Optometry is not a subspecialty of a healthcare profession as ophthalmology is to medicine.
No one knows what the future holds especially in healthcare with insurances and Medicare etc......... This issue has divided our profession immensely.
Congratulations on being board certified. You bought into P.Ajamians and et al idea that became reality. I have not nor will I.

Best Wishes !

 

[310]

I'm not an AOA member for a lot of reasons. I dropped out years ago -- like about 15 years ago.

- THEY pushed optometrists into medical optometry and in doing so we lost the very roots of our profession such as vision therapy and pissed off the MD's! Our profession has no identity now and everyone in the medical field hates us. The irony is that VT is lucrative!

You have no clue what you're talking about here. MD's do not hate me. They seek me out and introduce themselves to me and I help them build their practices. If I go through 100 patients in a week and 15 or 20 diabetics, I have lots of value to a retina OMD. Ditto to a cataract guy. These people operate on referrals and earn based on how many surgical procedures they can do. Now if they're struggling, they might want to take patients outright, but ideally they want to be booked full of high earning patients which means putting as many surgical procedures as possible into their schedules and many of the rest can be monitored by ODs. Glaucoma is a lot stickier because of the overlap. If you understand medical billing and high volume, medical optometry is where the money in optometry is as far as I'm concerned. They buy glasses too.

I prefer hard science to bsing parents about how a kid's fusional ranges will help him in school. I've excelled in school and athletics with horrifying binocularity, according to the testing.

 

[fjpod]

Good for you! If my memory serves me correct every therapeutic law passed for each state was welcomed and supported by each state association and optometrists in each state were united and supportive for each TPA bill to be passed. Great strides have been made in expanding and utilizing our knowledge and skills as optometrists. Everything you supported from the aforementioned was in support of all ODs. For a common cause - Board certification however was not accepted by all optometrists and there was great opposition to this Board. The majority of ODs were against Board certification and rightfully so. If you believe in it and since you are Board certified, good for you. If it means being on a hospital staff or having an academic or clinical position -faculty at an OD school I'm sure it might be looked upon as favorable compared to those who aren't Board certified. I don't know?
I personally look at it as a personal and professional embarrassment to be labeled Board certified when there is no requirement of residency either 1 year or 2 or 3 post graduation.
Optometry is not a subspecialty of a healthcare profession as ophthalmology is to medicine.
No one knows what the future holds especially in healthcare with insurances and Medicare etc......... This issue has divided our profession immensely.
Congratulations on being board certified. You bought into P.Ajamians and et al idea that became reality. I have not nor will I.

Best Wishes !

Your second sentence is incorrect. Look at 20doc20s comments about how he resents having been "forced"into medical Optometry. There was never 100% agreement even on optometric drug use. I can remember going to local society meetings where certain (usually older) docs would sit there wringing their handsand predicting the demise of the profession. They were a vocal MINORITY. Thank goodness they were. The same is true about BC. I stand by my comments.

 

[fjpod]

Got caught up with the above, to answer your question leelee do not join the AOA. Save your money. They are NO LONGER looking out for us. They have the audacity to charge 1500 bucks to take their board certification exam plus 300 for initial application and add another 700 for the review course. That adds up to 2500 per applicant. Someone is making a lot of $$$$. You want to guess who?

This is all incorrect information. .. which means it is not really information. Sorry hello07. You are entitled to an opinion, but I am calling BS on your facts.

 

[KHE]

In response to a few statements made:

1. "Many" people did not drop out of the AOA over Board Certification. A small handful did. Look, you either believe in the concept or you don't. Nothing I say will change your mind about it.
2. The AOA does not control whether ODs practice in stores or offices. Individual state boards do...yet no one criticizes them.
3. The AOA does not control whether to open or close new schools. Doing so has been determined to be an anti-trust issue.
4. There is advocacy for the profession on a state level, and then there is the national level. Optometry needs both.
5. The profession has made great strides over the past 100 years due to the AOA, and more work than ever needs to be done.
6. The fact is that the CL fairness to consumers act became law because the AOA DID TRY to prevent the online sale of contacts. The AOA DID stand up for its members in this case, but wound up getting slapped for it as it was deemed to be an anti-trust activity.

.

I generally agree with most comments here except number 3.

The AOA most certainly could play a role in the prevention of new schools opening simply by issuing a statement that current supply and production levels is adequate for the current demand and projected demand into the foreseeable future.

That would NOT in any way shape or form be any sort of anti-trust violation. While it may not stop a hard headed school from opening, it would certainly give investors and schools pause because if they open a new school and their graduates struggle to find work, they could very well find themselves in a situation that many law schools are now finding themselves in.

 

[fjpod]

I suppose we could call in a few attorneys for an opinion (now they could use real jobs), but sure it could be construed as anti-trust...a trade organization trying to exert influence on the supply of practitioners and hence the cost of eyecare to the consumer??? Do you think government would want to deal with or listen to a lobbying group trying to keep eyecare costs up?

You do realize that the AOA was sued for anti-trust when they tried to prevent onliners from selling contact lenses? The AOA met with CL manufacturers to try and dissuade them from doing so and wound up spending about two million dollars defending themselves against onliner attorneys. This was at the time of passage of the Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act.

I hate to repeat myself and use quippy sayings, but "those who fail to study history are doomed to repeat it"

 

[KHE]

There is no reason to bring in any attorneys on that point because it's a non issue.

Stating an opinion is not, has never been and never will be an anti-trust issue. The FTC itself has ruled on that very issue. The AOA could simply issue a press release saying that in their opinion, current and predicted supply is and will be adequate to meet foreseeable demand.