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Lynda Jones- President
Brandi Bilyeu- President-Elect
Joe Maycock- Treasurer
Scott Neuman-Secretary
Nate Edwards-Director
Chris Jons-Director
Jonathan Hartley- Director
Dana Day- Past President

The CMS Medicare Attestation for 2015 EHR Submission is January 4- February 29, 2016. 



Don't forget to enroll in the AOA More Registry.  This is a free member benefit and takes only a few minutes to enroll.  By signing up for AOA MORE, even if your vendor is not yet integrated, you will satsfy the criteria of “engagement.” That allows you to claim “Specialized Registries” on MU2016.
 

To avoid 2017 Medicare Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program penalties, AOA members who might not meet the 2015 meaningful use requirements should immediately apply for a hardship exception because there was no time to plan for the delayed program requirements.

Doctors—both attesting and not attesting to 2015 meaningful use—should consider applying for this exception in the event they fail attestation to avoid the 3 percent penalty on all Medicare medical eye care claims.

To read full article

The 2016 Wyoming Legislative Session began on Monday, February 8th.  It has been a busy two weeks! 

The WOA was working on SF55 Licensure Board Powers.  The bill as it came out had some language of concern that could have potentially impacted your prescribing authority for drugs.  We were able to work with Chairman Scott to amend that out.  There were a couple of other amendments that have made the bill one that we felt could be lived with.  One of those amendments puts a sunset date of July 1, 2019.  The other changed the supervising official from the state health officer to the attorney generals office.  So as it stands now we will just continue to monitor the bill as it makes its way from the Senate to the House.

Our consumer protection bill has had some excitement and quite a few amendments.  After a couple of days of working with ophthalmology, we were unable to come to an agreement on the bill and agreed to their request to be taken completely out of the bill.  We had a lot of support for the bill and would not have retained all that support had we tried to force them to stay in.  There were several other amendments made in the Corporations Committee, some proposed by us and some proposed by the committee.  As the bill stands amended we are supportive of it and have high hopes for its passage in the Senate this week.  As of today, it has passed the Senate Committee of the Whole (first reading) and now has to pass twice more before crossing over to the House.

The Legislative Service Office offers a lot of valuable information for all aspects of the session.  You can look at bills, hear live audio streams, and contact your legislators.  It is the most up to the minute location for information during the session.

Please contact me directly if you have questions or want to visit during the session.
Kari- 307-640-6157
 

At the recent WOA General Membership Meeting Jonathan Hartley was voted in as the new WOA Board member.  Here is a little about Jonathan, in his words....

I was born and grew up in Worland (moved to CO for most of elementary and middle school) and went to UW. My first day of my Junior yr I met my now wife on her first day of college (she was a freshman). I learned that the good ones go fast:)  After I graduated, we were married and then moved to Southern California to go to  SCCO. After graduation I took a associate position with the current WOA optometrist of the year, Dr. James Bell (What What) in Cody and have been here ever since and absolutely love it. 
 
I have always wanted to be a doctor and wanted to have a family life and felt like God was leading me to Optometry. I also love physics and optics so it was a perfect fit. Dr Sam Hoffman is the one who originally put the optometry bug in my ear. (Thanks Sam). 
 
I have 3 wonderful kids. Easton (7), Amethyst (5), and Sterling (3). 
 
I just completed building our home and started just about a year ago so I have no hobbies or at least I forgot what they were. 
 
Other interesting facts: I go to the Cody CMA church and I am married to the best wife in the universe so that is pretty cool.