Volume 6, Issue 37│September 16, 2022
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Courses are Filling Up Quickly!
Register ASAP for the
2022 Annual Meeting in Springfield
Less than 10 Spots Remain in Dr. McGreal's "Ophthalmic Innovations" Course!
We hope you will be able to join us for the 2022 Annual Meeting in Springfield, IL, taking place September 29 - October 2, 2022.
Optometrists can earn up to 18 hours of CE at the Annual Meeting. All courses except the workshops are available tested, so attendees can complete all tested hours in one weekend. Paraoptometrics can earn ten hours of AOA & ABO CE over two days.
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Attendees can browse the Exhibit Hall on Saturday and Sunday to explore all the latest in the ophthalmic world. On Saturday night, IOA will host Illinois Optometry's Celebration where attendees can meet and network with colleagues, the 2022 award winners will be recognized, and Howl at the Moon dueling pianos will play into the night.
You will not want to miss this year's Annual Meeting!
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Keyperson Training at Annual Meeting
Keyperson Training event is open to all IOA member ODs. If you already volunteer as a Keyperson or are interested in becoming involved, this 1-hour session is a great way to learn how to build or grow a relationship with legislators.
The Keyperson Training session will be held on Friday, September 30 at 4:45pm and will take no more than an hour. Please note: this course will not count for CE credit.
What is a Keyperson?
A Keyperson is an individual OD who serves as a contact to their local senator and/or representative. The relationship with a legislator can be made and maintained by attending their political fundraisers, calling their office, writing letters to the legislator, and/or inviting the legislator for an optometry office tour.
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September is Paraoptometric Appreciation Month
Spotlight on:
Jenna Suydam, Clinical Team Lead,
Kehoe Eye Care
Nominated by: Brian Plattner, O.D.
Our paraoptometrics are critical components of our teams as they care for patients of all ages. They deserve to be honored this month for their dedication to delivering quality services and supporting our practices.
Jenna Suydam embodies what it truly means to be a paraoptometric. She serves Kehoe Eye Care as our Clinical Team Lead, and is celebrating her sixteenth year with us.
She is constantly making sure that each patient has an amazing exam experience and receives the highest level of medical care. She keeps our clinic organized and running smoothly. When she is in the exam lane with our optometrists, our doctors can focus 100% of their attention on the patient and be confident that every little detail is being accurately recorded in the electronic health record.
She is always anticipating and makes sure the doctor has everything they need without even asking. She is brilliant in every way, and we can’t imagine practicing without her!
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We are celebrating the contributions of paraoptometrics’ all month long. Share your stories of how they help your practice succeed and be sure to send us a photo. You appreciate them, and we know they’ll be grateful for the recognition this month in Insight. |
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#AskAOA: Best Practices for Addressing Payer Clawbacks, Denials and Records Requests!
Doctors of optometry can learn best practices for addressing common payer challenges with new resources and expert-led training stemming from an organization-wide prioritization on optometric practice success.
Clawbacks, denials, credentialing requirements, downcoding and stagnant reimbursement levels all fuel doctors’ frustrations with health and vision plans and can feel like daunting tasks to appeal or challenge. However, the AOA is prepared to help doctors understand these undesirable policies and actions and learn what it takes to better advocate for their practices.
Toward that end, an upcoming #AskAOA webinar will help educate doctors on claims denials and clawbacks, as well as share best practices for helping practices resolve such situations. Additionally, the AOA offers two new template letters for doctors to use to assist in payer denials and patient communication.
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Report illegal and unsafe contact lens sales to the FDA & FTC
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2022 Medicare Fee Schedules
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1-year Review: Ocular Complications Possible After COVID-19 Vaccination
Although relatively few, reports of adverse ocular events following COVID-19 vaccination may warrant caution or delay of boosters in lower-risk groups with active ophthalmic complications, according to research in Vaccines.
“A vital component of understanding the optimal clinical use of these vaccines is a thorough investigation of adverse events following vaccination,” Abid A. Haseeb, MD, of the department of ophthalmology and visual sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and colleagues wrote. “To date, some limited reports and reviews have discussed ocular adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination, but a systematic review detailing these reports with manifestations and clinical courses as well as proposed mechanisms has yet to be published.”
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Macular Vessel and Perfusion Density Are Reduced in Patients With Migraine
Patients with migraine are more likely to have reduced macular vessel and perfusion density, according to research published in Photodiagnosis and Photodynamic Therapy.
Researchers enrolled 86 participants including individuals with migraine with aura ([MWA]; n=23), migraine without aura ([MWOA]; n=31) and healthy controls (n=32) in the analysis. Participants underwent comprehensive ophthalmic examinations consisting of optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) imaging, macular angiography, and optic disc angiography scans. The retinal vessel and perfusion densities of the macula and optic nerve head were compared between groups.
According to the report, patients with migraine tended to have larger foveal avascular zone (FAZ) area (P =.001) and perimeter (P =.009), while exhibiting reduced macular center vessel density ([cVD]; P =.005), center perfusion density ([cPD]; P =0.000), and temporal macular outer ring (or) VD compared with control individuals.
FAZ circularity was reduced among participants in the MWA group compared with participants in both other cohorts and average inner ring (ir) VD was lower among MWA group individuals compared with control individuals.
Patients in the MWA group also tended to have reduced inferior irVD and temporal orVD compared with participants in the other groups.
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FEEL GOOD STORY OF THE WEEK |
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Canadian Family Taking World Tour Before Children Lose Their Vision
(CNN) — Their daughter Mia was just three years old when Canadian couple Edith Lemay and Sebastien Pelletier first noticed that she was having vision problems.
A few years after they first took her to see a specialist, Mia, the eldest of their four children, was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a rare genetic condition that causes a loss or decline in vision over time.
By this point, Lemay and Pelletier, who've been married for 12 years, had noticed that two of their sons, Colin, now seven, and Laurent, now five, were experiencing the same symptoms.
Their fears were confirmed when in 2019 the boys were diagnosed with the same genetic disorder; their other son Leo, now nine, was given the all clear.
"There's nothing you can really do," says Lemay, explaining that there is currently no cure or effective treatment to slow down the progression of retinitis pigmentosa. "We don't know how fast it's going to go, but we expect them to be completely blind by mid-life."
Once they came to terms with the news, the couple focused their attentions on helping their children build the skills they'd need to navigate their way through life.
When Mia's specialist suggested that they engross her with "visual memories," Lemay realized that there was one truly incredible way that they could do just that for her and the rest of the children.
"I thought, 'I'm not going to show her an elephant in a book, I'm going to take her to see a real elephant," she explains. "And I'm going to fill her visual memory with the best, most beautiful images I can."
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CE & UPCOMING EVENTS:
Blackberry Oaks Golf Course
2245 Kennedy Road
Bristol, IL 60512
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Check out the newest IOA classifieds here!
Optometrist Position - Full Time or Part Time - We are a privately owned family practice with six locations in Chicago suburbs and Northwest Indiana. (Read more)
Recent Graduates and Experienced Optometrists are welcome to apply to join our dynamic team! Chicago Cornea Consultants seeks to hire a highly motivated Doctor of Optometry (O.D.) to join our busy and growing practice (Read more)
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Get a Logo, and use it to develop your brand. |
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So, why is a logo important? Because it separates you from the competition, grabs attention, makes a strong first impression, is the foundation of your brand identity, is memorable, and fosters brand loyalty. Use your logo when posting on social media and writing on stationery. Use it on your company sign, website, and name tags. |
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Lack of Dental, Oral, and Vision Care Harms Older Adults, Experts Say
A lack of affordability, access and health literacy is preventing older Americans from getting dental, oral and vision care, experts say.
Nicholas Reed, associate professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said at a recent panel hosted by the Health Care Council of Chicago that affordability was the biggest barrier he saw while working as a clinic physician.
“It’s really hard to present to people something that is not covered by insurance and costs thousands of dollars and seeing that people want care, but simply can’t get to it,” Reed said.
Many Medicare packages include limited or no coverage for dental, oral and vision care, he said.
But even if coverage is there, access to care can be a problem. Dr. Michele Mitchell, executive medical director for Oak Street Health, said transportation issues also prevent access to care, especially because many older Americans can’t drive.
“It doesn’t always matter if you’ve got specialists there," she said. "If I, as a patient, can’t get there, it’s just like you didn't have it."
Knowledge can also be a hurdle, especially with vision and hearing loss as people don’t often notice it early on since there’s no associated pain.
These services aren’t considered essential for many older adults, but Mitchell said if people can’t access dental, oral and vision care, there is a trickle down effect that impacts overall health. Malnutrition, mental health issues and dementia all become greater risks.
“All of us have parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles who have gone through the aging process, as we are doing ourselves, and (are) hard pressed to think about a family member who didn’t have one of these problems, " said Julie Frantsve-Hawley, executive director at The Aspen Group Oral Care Center.
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Prenatal Cannabis Exposure Associated with Mental Disorders in Children that Persist into Early Adolescence
NIH-funded results add to growing scientific evidence of negative health effects of cannabis use during pregnancy
Prenatal cannabis exposure following the middle of the first trimester—generally after five to six weeks of fetal development—is associated with attention, social, and behavioral problems that persist as the affected children progress into early adolescence (11 and 12 years of age), according to new research supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health. These conditions may put these children at a greater risk of mental health disorders and substance use in late adolescence, when youth are typically most vulnerable to these disorders and behaviors.
Published today in JAMA Pediatrics, this study analyzed data from the ongoing Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, the largest long-term study of brain development and health in children and teens in the United States, which is supported by NIDA and nine other Institutes, Centers, and Offices of the NIH. The study was conducted by scientists at Washington University in St. Louis.
These findings add to an expanding body of research on the effects of cannabis use during pregnancy. A previous analysis using baseline data from the ABCD Study found an association between prenatal cannabis exposure and behavioral problems in these children at 9 to 10 years of age. Preclinical studies have shown that delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive substance in cannabis, can cross the placenta and potentially affect brain development.
Cannabis use among pregnant women increased from 3% in 2002 to 7% in 2017. In 2018, 4.7% of pregnant women reported cannabis use and 5.4% did in 2019, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. The results of this new analysis further support caution against using cannabis during pregnancy, the authors say.
The ABCD Study tracks nearly 12,000 youth as they grow into young adults. Investigators regularly measure participants’ brain structure and activity using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and collect psychological, environmental, and cognitive information, as well as biological samples. The ABCD Study seeks to understand the factors that influence brain, cognitive, and social-emotional development, with the ultimate goal of providing actionable information to help educators, health professionals, and policymakers improve the lives of all children, today and for generations to come.
The Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study and ABCD Study are registered trademarks and service marks, respectively, of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
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New Survey Reveals What Americans Really Think About The U.S. Healthcare System
According to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), 31 million Americans had healthcare through the Affordable Care Act in 2021. To discover how Americans felt about how the government is handling healthcare, The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research conducted a poll of 1,500 people across the U.S., and what they discovered may surprise you.
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THANK YOU TO OUR INDUSTRY PARTNERS! |
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