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Do you have a Gmail email address?
As you may know, Gmail recently rolled out a newly designed inbox. If you've been using the new design, you also know your emails are now being sorted into three tabs - Primary, Social, and Promotions - with two additional tabs, Updates and Forums, available from the Configure inbox section of your Gmail Settings.
You may also have noticed that our emails, maybe even this one, now appear in your Promotions or Updates tab. If you'd rather the emails we send end up in your Primary tab it's simple to tell Gmail where these emails should go.
Here's how:
*Drag and drop this email into your Primary tab and click "yes" when Gmail asks if you'd like future messages from this email address to go to your Primary tab.
That's it!
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A note from the President
IOA President
Fall weather has officially rolled into the state of Iowa and unfortunately golf days are nearing extinction. With people spending more time outside doing yard work, we have to make space in our busy schedule to fit in all those red eye appointments. I can see my optometrist for that!
There was much discussion on the impact of the Affordable Care Act in Cedar Rapids for the Hawkeye meetings and continuing education. It continues to be very apparent in the state of Iowa that optometry will be needed to fill the eye care needs far into the future. The key to being involved will certainly fall on our ability to showcase the vast array of care we can provide. We will need to be in contact with local physician groups, hospital administrators, and insurance plans. We will need to educate them on our availability and skills. How we feel about the ACA does not change the fact that we need to be involved or risk letting other groups limit us.
The IOA is continually monitoring current groups that have been formed and any new ones that pop up. They are all involving optometry to this point but we need to make sure that it is to the full level of our scope and not limited to routine eye care. This really falls on all of us to communicate with each other and with the IOA so that any issues can be handled early on.
We have a chance to grow our profession and help future generations gain access to care that just wasn't available not that long ago. AOA has a good online information handbook for the ACA. Take some time to check it out.
Thank you to Drs. Roelfs, Chadderdon, Hansen, and Korthals for their assistance in September as we attended the AOA Advocacy Meeting in Washington DC. We met with our legislator's offices and actually with a couple of legislators themselves. The meetings were very informative and all legislators value what optometry does for eye health in the state of Iowa. Remember we need to continue to foster these relationships especially at the local level. Put the IOA Legislative Steak Fry on your calendar, Tuesday, January 28 - 6 PM at the Embassy Suites in Des Moines. This is designed to let you meet with your local legislator and is not used to push an agenda.
Please use the IOA video to educate your patients, staff, colleagues, and other health professionals. Continue to take time to educate your patients while they are sitting right in front of you. Let's all continue to help grow the profession.
Wishing you all a safe and wonderful holiday season,
Scott |
AOA Congressional Advocacy Conference and State Legislative and Third Party National Conference
Members from Iowa attended the AOA Congressional Advocacy Conference and State Legislative and Third Party National Conference in Washington, D.C. While attending the conference, attendees met with lawmakers. Below is a photo of some of the Iowa delegation at a constituent breakfast with Senator Tom Harkin on September 11, 2013.
Pictured left to right: IOA Executive Director, Gary Ellis, Dr. Mark Hansen (Muscatine), Senator Tom Harkin, Dr. Abie Chadderdon (Marshalltown) and optometry students, Kevin Hart (SCO) and Christina DalPorto (PCO)
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2013 Hawkeye meeting
There was a great turnout for the Hawkeye meeting this year in Cedar Rapids. 285 ODs attended 12 hours of education provided by Jerome Sherman, OD, Chris Haupert, MD, James Thimons, OD and Jill Maher. Thank you to Education Committee Chairs, Drs. Shawn Beilby and Elizabeth Zingula for lining up great speakers! There were over 40 exhibitors providing information about their products and services to attendees in the Exhibit Hall. The Tailgate after education on Thursday was a success with many attendees stopping by to grab something to eat and network with their colleagues.
Also - thank you to those who stopped by the fundraiser for Governor Branstad on Friday during lunch. Governor Branstad has been a supporter of Optometry through the years and we appreciate your attendance!
Drs. Chad Gidel, Jon Judisch, Robb Schmidt and Justin Schulte enjoying the Tailgate. |
Child and dependent adult abuse mandatory reporter training
Just a reminder that child and dependent adult abuse mandatory reporter training needs to be renewed every five (5) years.
Please click here to access curricula and presenters for mandatory abuse reporting. |
IOA member golf outing
It was a great day for the 19 golfers that played in the IOA golfing outing at the Fort Dodge Country Club on September 12th. Congratulations to Dr. Jon Judisch from Lake City who was the winner!
Dr. Jon Judisch with his trophy.
 
Drs. Tom Hayden, Mark Mentzer and Jim Tesdahl enjoying the nice day.
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Looking for awards nominations
We are looking for nominations for OD of the Year, Young OD of the Year and Distinguished Service Award. If you know someone deserving of one of these awards, please contact Dr. Mike Korthals, Nominating Committee Chairperson or Gary Ellis at the IOA office. |
Does your practice have a website?
Don't miss this opportunity to have additional traffic directed to your website. The IOA website will provide links to your website from the "Find a Doctor" section if you provide us with your website address. Please direct your emails to Grace at the IOA office.
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Please welcome these new members to the IOA!
Dr. Molly Camerer
Practice location: Cedar Rapids
Optometry School: SCO
Dr. Robyn Christenson
Practice location: Council Bluffs
Optometry School: SCO
Dr. Solomon Gould
Practice Location: Waterloo
Optometry School: NECO
Dr. Jesse Kahnk
Practice location: Ankeny
Optometry school: OSU
Dr. Lindsay Wiebers
Practice location: Ankeny
Optometry school: ICO
With Sympathy
Dr. Daniel D. Hinson, 82, passed away August 24, 2013 in Des Moines, Iowa. Dan was born in Fairfield, Iowa, June 6, 1931 to Ruth and Dr. Roy W. Hinson. Dr. Dan (as many of his child patients called him) practiced Optometry 41 years in pediatric care. He was a partner in Vision Park Family Eye Care of Urbandale and West Des Moines.
A graduate of Fairfield High School, he took his pre-graduate work at Cornell College, Mt. Vernon, Iowa, and Parsons College, formerly in Fairfield, Iowa. He graduated from Northern Illinois College of Optometry in Chicago in 1955, then served in the Medical Service Corps of the U.S. Army at Brooke Army Medical Hospital in San Antonio, Texas. Returning to Iowa in 1957, he joined in partnership with Dr. Paul W. Thielking in Des Moines.
Dr. Hinson enjoyed helping children and students through the practice of Vision Therapy, lenses and prisms, receiving many referrals from around the state. Dan was a life-long fan of the St. Louis Cardinals and the Green Bay Packers, and loved to watch games and visit about the teams with friends. He also loved automobiles, driving and other vacations and anything related to military history.
Dr. Hinson was united in marriage April 5, 1953 to Ann L. Peterson of Ottumwa, Iowa. They enjoyed 53 years of marriage and were blessed with five daughters and one son, John, who died in infancy. He is survived by daughters Valerie (Randy) Moffatt, of West Des Moines, Julie (Brian) Wright-Kile of Breckenridge, CO, Melissa Slaikeu of Adel, Kristine (Mitchell) Thielbert of Bettendorf, and Carrie (Thomas) Cummings of Urbandale; ten grandchildren, three step-grandchildren; five great grandchildren; and two stepsons Michael Wynne of West Des Moines and John Wynne of Austria. He married Nicky Wynne of West Des Moines on July 26, 2008. Besides his parents and infant son, he was preceded in death by his wife Ann, and brothers Dr. Rex W. Hinson of Marshalltown and Philip Hinson of Washington, D.C.
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The IOA Education Committee is always looking for great speakers to bring to our meetings. If you have been to another meeting and sat in on an interesting class or heard someone raving about a great speaker, please let one of our Education Committee Chairs know. Click on their names below to send them an email.
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IOAA information to share with your assistants
The Iowa Optometric Assistants Association is holding their educational convention March 28th & 29th. Please share this link with your office staff if they are interested in attending their education.
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Mark your calendars - important dates
2014
- January 28th - Legislative Steak Fry, Embassy Suites Downtown, Des Moines
- February 14th - 16th - Heart of America Contact Lens Society. Sheraton Kansas City Hotel at Crown Center in Kansas City, MO
- March 28th - 30th - Annual Congress. Embassy Suites Downtown, Des Moines
- July 18th - 20th - Okoboji meeting. The Inn, Okoboji
- October 16th - 18th - Hawkeye Institute. Cedar Rapids Marriott, Cedar Rapids
2015
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The IOA offers free advertising to its' members. Click on IOA Classifieds to access equipment for sale, practice(s) for sale and practice opportunities. If you would like to place an ad, please email the information to jillg@iowaoptometry.org. In addition, the IOA Classifieds are also placed in the IOA ECBC E-Updates which are sent out on a monthly basis.
If you have placed an ad previously and you no longer want it posted, please let us know so that we can remove the ad. Thank you! |
Have you donated to IOA PAC? Your personal support makes a difference! Click here to donate today!
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Heart of America Contact Lens Society Meeting
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MSG Payment Systems, the IOA-endorsed payment solutions provider, is dedicated to providing IOA members with targeted education about the payment industry's most current and up-to-date topics so that business owners can make informed decisions. Here is a popular topic trending in the payments industry right now:
EMV Smart Cards are credit and debit payment cards embedded with a chip that is encrypted with data. These chip cards are considerably more secure against credit card fraud than traditional magnetic stripe cards because during the transction authorization process, strong cryptographic functions are used to validate the authenticity of the card and cardholder. By using chips as an active part of the payment transaction, smart cards and devices help prevent fraud such as stolen account numbers and cloned cards. Banks recognize the value of chip cards and EMV technology is already the standard in many other countries, and U.S. implementation is accelerating rapidly.
Effective October 1, 2015, merchants who haven't upgraded to EMV chip-enabled technology may be held financially liable for card-present fraud that could have been prevented by using the more secure EMV system.
For more information about these topics or to request a free competitive analysis of your current credit card processing program today, contact MSG Payment Systems at (888) 697-8831 or email hello@msgpay.com.
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Stay Connected
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Iowa Optometric Association | | jillg@iowaoptometry.org | http://www.iowaoptometry.org 6150 Village View Drive Suite 105 West Des Moines, IA 50266 1800-444-1772
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