Finances

AOAExcel: Your Partner in Practice Management Profitability & Growth

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By Joe Ellis, OD

With health care reform and greater competition from big box retailers and online sellers, independent optometry is growing more challenging. Fortunately, AOAExcel, available to members of the American Optometric Association, offers products and services to enhance patient care and profitability, enabling you to grow your practice.
AOAExcel is Your Business Advantage, and was launched by the AOA four years ago to help address independent optometry’s most common business challenges. AOAExcel sources and endorses only the best products and services to help optometrists manage the business of optometry with confidence.

The advantage, and what makes AOAExcel offerings special, is that all products have been vetted to ensure they are best in class. In a busy practice, like mine, in which we are juggling health insurance companies, vision plans, increasing regulatory issues and patient care, it is reassuring to know all AOAExcel products have been thoroughly researched and vetted.

AOAExcel is Your Business Advantage.

AOAExcel offers products and services to help you practice the business of optometry with confidence. Make sure you are taking advantage of our endorsed solutions for:

Greater Regulation, Greater Challenges

Regulatory requirements are more stringent today than in the past. Mandates like the Meaningful Use of EHR, HIPAA compliance, cyber liability and the requirements of the Affordable Care Act, can make staying in independent practice daunting. In my practice, we meet these challenges by using services provided by AOAExcel partners, including Cyber Liability protection from Lockton Affinity and help with meeting HIPAA compliance laws from The Compliancy Group. These are just two of AOAExcel’s endorsed business partners that are helping many optometrists tackle these growing concerns.

Smoother, More Efficient Operations, Primed for Growth

The Compliancy Grouphas made our operations smoother in achieving, implementing and maintaining compliance. Before we began using the services of The Compliancy Group, meeting the requirements of HIPAA compliancy created stress and slower operations in our office.

The Compliancy Group has been a blessing in keeping operations flowing, and in helping my partners and I sleep better at night. We know we have an advocate and expert when HIPAA questions or challenges arise. We have peace of mind because we receive one-on-one compliancy coaching through The Compliancy Group to ensure that we are fully compliant with all of the changing regulations in the health care field.

Meanwhile, another AOAExcel partner,Chase, has brought us the latest technology in microchip credit card processing to meet new banking requirements to protect patients and our practice from fraud. OcuHub, our Health IT partner, can protect and grow your practice by enabling the electronic sharing of patient clinical information and images with other providers involved in a patient’s care.
AOAExcel’s partners can help members save on a variety of insurance products. Lockton Affinity’s malpractice insurance guarantees coverage for the full scope of each member’s practice as legally allowed by their state. If the laws change, Lockton automatically updates the optometrist’s coverage.AOAExcel also offers very competitive life and disability insurance that every member should have, and its partnership withAXA allows members to maximize their earnings with a tailor-made retirement plan that can also be utilized by their employees.
AOAExcel also has business partners that can assist with business planning, including financing expansions. For example, if your practice is expanding to a second location, you may qualify to receive a loan from AOAExcel partner Bank of America. And you can complete all of the staff hires necessary for the expansion through postings on AOAExcel’s Optometry’s Career Center.

Ongoing Access to Best-in-Class Products & Services

With ever-increasing regulation and change in health care delivery, it is comforting to know as an AOA member that AOAExcel is continually looking for new tools to help us navigate these challenges, and those we will face in the future.

AOAExcel has delivered many products to my practice over the last few years just when we most needed them. This has allowed me to successfully adapt to the many changes in U.S. health care. AOAExcel is in the forefront of anticipating the move to value-based health care purchasing, enabling AOA members to deliver high-quality and cost-effective health care.

AOAExcel is the partner I need to continue delivering superior patient care while remaining profitable and ready for growth. To view all of the products and services offered, visit ExcelOD.com

Joe Ellis, OD, is the AOAExcel chairman and past president of the AOA. He also is a partner of Eyecare Associates of Kentucky in Benton, Ky. He can be reached at: jeellis@aoa.org

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