News from the AOA's Blog

 The AOA’s first comprehensive five-year financial plan is already yielding results, according to AOA Executive Director Barry J. Barresi, O.D., Ph.D.

Implemented during the association’s 2009-2010 administrative year, the AOA Five-Year Plan for Profitable Growth centers around the development of critical new products and services to add membership value, continued expansion of advocacy efforts, and operations efficiencies to control costs, Dr. Barresi said.

The finanical plan also outlines long-term goals for association membership growth, new revenue streams, and prudent cost containment, Dr. Barresi said.

However, the plan has already helped to improve operating efficiency, Dr. Barresi added.  It thereby helped to secure a budget surplus for the association’s 2009 fiscal year (see related story).

Dr. Barresi reviewed the financial plans goals and recent operations improvements in his annual report to the AOA House of Delegates at Optometry’s Meeting®.

In conjunction with the financial  plan, the AOA has placed increasing emphasis on mutual efforts with state optometric associations to address to the issues facing practicing optometrists, Dr. Barresi said.

The first year of the plan has already seen:

• A new system of AOA Third Party Center (TPC) state coordinators
• A new state government affairs senior staff person to assist with issues related to the implementation of health care reform at the state level,
• Healthy Eyes Healthy People® community grant expansion, and
• A new electronic health records continuing education program.

Under the plan, the AOA has undertaken a major staff reorganization and “team building” effort to create the entrepreneurial environment necessary for  product development and cost control, Dr. Barresi said. “We have strengthened the association’s executive team to oversee clinical care and practice management programs, association meetings, information technology, and third-party advocacy,” he said.

An ongoing overhaul of the association’s information technology (IT) infrastructure will be another key element necessary to support both new services and cost containment, Dr. Barresi said. 

The new AOA TPC, which was established last year to advocate for improved insurance coverage for optometric services, offers good examples of the types of products and services now being emphasized under the financial plan, Dr. Barresi said.

Charged with “mainstreaming” eye examination coverage as a standard component of preventive care and wellness benefit packages, the center is partnering with state affiliates in educating major insurance plans around the country to ensure coverage and fair reimbursement for optometric services, Dr. Barresi said.

The center will also oversee the new system of Third Party Center state coordinators, which will assist optometrists at the state and regional levels in working with smaller insurance plans to resolve coverage and claim filing issues.

To help individual optometrists at the practice level, the AOA is offering new services such as AOACodingToday.com (a Web-based coding and coverage rule guide) and AskTheCodingExperts@aoa.org (which allows optometrists to e-mail coding questions directly to an expert) free of charge as AOA member benefits.

In a related development, the AOA Clinical and Practice Advancement Group (AOA-CPAG) recently introduced the “Enhancing Patient Care through the Implementation of Electronic Health Records” continuing education course. The course is designed to help ready AOA members for the planned launch of a national health records network in 2014.
 In the past year, the association has already adopted a number of IT advancements to improve day-to-day operating efficiency, he added.

Planning has begun to acquire a new core IT platform for the AOA. This Association Management System software will be implemented over the next two years to improve the AOA’s core business operations and the quality of member services, Dr. Barresi said.

IT changes in early 2010 include the new Basecamp Project Management system that allows AOA staff and volunteers in various departments to better coordinate projects.

A new Helpdesk ticketing system provides a way to ensure AOA staff requests for assistance are handled promptly and efficiently, Dr. Barresi said.

The AOA is also is also using electronic technology – including emerging social media – to better communicate with members, Dr. Barresi said.

The association’s social media initiative takes advantage of a wide range of new technologies. Most notably, the AOA launched AOAConnect (http://connect.aoa.org), a custom-designed Web site that allows members to build profiles, discuss a wide range of topics, suggest ideas or programs to the AOA and to otherwise build an online community. 

In addition, the association is emphasizing video, with an active YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/aoaweb) and a monthly video newsmagazine, AOA-TV (www.iwantmyaoatv.com).

At the same time, the association is active in public social media, with more than 3,600 fans on Facebook, and hundreds of Twitter followers.

And finally, the AOA’s flagship publication, AOA News, is now available in a convenient, interactive format that allows searching and sharing of the News with ease, Dr. Barresi noted.