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AOAExcel continues to develop products to help ODs stay connected
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SAN DIEGO – The AOAExcel program was created as a multipronged approach to helping the optometrist grow and succeed in the changing era of health care reform, Joe E. Ellis, OD, AOAExcel chairman of the board, told Primary Care Optometry News here at Optometry’s Meeting.
AOAExcel, which was formed a year ago, follows the American Optometric Association mission of advocacy for optometry, Ellis said.
The AOA’s website describes this wholly owned subsidiary of the AOA as providing “on-demand access to education, practice insights and best-in-class digital resources that support health care reform and patient care and maximize practice success. Our purpose is to promote standards of excellence and encourage and support innovation and success.”
“We realize doctors need to be connected to the information highway,” Ellis said. “We don’t want optometrists to be left out.”
Practitioners connected with OcuHub, which was launched at this meeting, can exchange information with other providers, health information exchanges and payers and have access to clinical support and practice management tools as well as reporting and benchmarking programs, all by subscription and through a cloud.
AOAExcel formed a partnership for OcuHub with AT&T Healthcare Community Online, Ellis said.
“You need not be in a cloud-based EHR, because it works with any EHR, but to get the full performance you will,” he added.
Optometry’s Career Center, another component of AOAExcel, receives 9,000 hits per month, Ellis said, and 150 jobs are posted each month.
AOAExcel also offers discounted professional legal liability insurance for new graduates and life insurance at no charge for members.
“We’re working on a disability plan,” Ellis added.
AOAExcel has partnered with Wells Fargo on consolidation of student loans.
The program is continuing to be developed.
“An imaging product will be released in October,” Ellis said. “In January we will have a product to provide evidence-based medicine, working with the AOA on the content. We’re also developing a cyber liability policy.”
Ellis told PCON that AOAExcel is a for-profit business entity that receives no funding from the AOA. He is the only eye care practitioner on the board; the other three board members have experience in Internet technology, with associations and the investment world.