Membership

Benefits of Membership

Representation

WAEPS is a member-driven organization with a very active team of physicians who volunteer a considerable amount of time to help ensure you can concentrate on patient care. 

NEW! Monthly Town Hall Meetings

WAEPS will host monthly Town Hall Meetings via Zoom to help keep our members up to date on things impacting ophthalmologists around our State and country. All members are welcome to join the conversation and ask questions of the ophthalmology panel.

June 2020 Town Hall 

Advocacy

The Washington Academy is your voice in state legislation and regulatory affairs. We proactively protect your practice in Olympia. We engage two lobbying firms that monitor all health-related legislation and regulation which could remotely affect ophthalmologists in the state. They help us strategically defend against legislation that could be harmful to our members’ ophthalmic practices.

Recent successful advocacy efforts include:

• Confronting efforts by the Optometric Physicians of Washington (OPW) to expand their scope of practice and endanger patient safety. (Sunrise Review 2009)
• Stopping legislation to restrict contact lens dispensing rules.
• Stopping legislation that would tax cosmetic services (which could have included LASIK and oculoplastic procedures).
• Supporting legislation that expanded vision screening in the state.
• Contributing to the legal defense of a suit that could potentially prohibit physicians from employing other non-physician health care providers (“unlike licensees”).
• Supporting tort reform legislation.

Education

As a member, you and your staff receive special discount pricing on the following educational programs offered by WAEPS:

WAEPS Annual Meeting

This physician CME program is one of the country’s best state meetings, featuring nationally renowned faculty.

Also held annually in conjunction with the WAEPS Annual Meeting:

• Ophthalmic Technician Meeting: an outstanding program to help your technicians get their much needed JCAHPO credits and develop their skills.
• Practice Management Seminar: offering the latest and greatest training for your management staff in the areas of human resources, finance, malpractice prevention and much more.
• Coding Conference: a much anticipated specialty coding conference to assist you and your staff in coding more accurately, getting paid for your services promptly, and avoiding unnecessary audits and legal pitfalls.

Monthly Meetings

Free of charge to members, this meeting series runs from October through May.  It features speakers from across the country lecturing on a variety of clinical topics and offers AMA PRA Category 1 CME Credits. WAEPS members may attend in person (at Harborview Hospital’s training auditorium in Seattle) or via webinar.  For more information about our Monthly Meeting Series, please visit our monthly meeting page.

Health Plan Relations

WAEPS represents you with payers. Member volunteers sit as liaisons on the Medicare Advisory Committee and the WSMA Interspecialty Council. Information on payer updates and alerts are shared with members in the In-Focus newsletter and special e-broadcasts. A WAEPS board member attends these meetings to monitor for changes important to all ophthalmologists in the state.

Member Communications

WAEPS members receive the e-newsletter, In-Focus, plus as-needed e-broadcasts to help you and your staff keep up-to-date on educational opportunities and practice alerts.

Public Education & Awareness

WAEPS hosts a consumer-driven website that provides empowering resources and information for the public to take charge of their eye health.

OMIC Discount

WAEPS members are eligible for up to 8% off their annual malpractice rates through OMIC (Ophthalmic Mutual Insurance Company) by attending risk management seminars, phone conferences, or webinars.

Referrals

The WAEPS website maintains a robust membership database, accessible by consumers to help them find a physician. In addition, the WAEPS office handles referral requests generated by Google Ad Words and other WAEPS social media initiatives.  

Physicians EyePAC

EyePAC is the most successful physician specialty political action committee in the state.
Your voluntary, personal contribution to the EyePAC will help ensure ophthalmologists have a strong voice in our state legislature. By joining forces with your fellow WAEPS members through the EyePAC, you can maximize our specialty’s political clout and help ensure that what is being legislated is productive to your practice interests and best for patient care. Contributions go directly to helping pro-ophthalmology candidates win election to the state legislature.

Ready to Join?

Click here to view our membership categories and pricing

WAEPS Dues Tax Deductibility Information:

WAEPS Dues and other contributions to WAEPS and/or EyePAC are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes.  

 In most cases, a portion of the WAEPS dues may be deductible for tax purposes as professional or business expenses. For your records, please note that the Revenue Reconciliation Act of 1993 states that association dues used for lobbying activities are not deductible as a business expense. As a result, 45% of your WAEPS dues for cannot be deducted as a business expense for federal income tax purposes.

In addition, no portion of any dues paid to the EyePAC can be deducted as a business expense on your federal income tax return. Note: the WAEPS-affiliated Washington Eye Foundation (WEF) is a 501c3 charity. 100% of your donations to the WEF are tax deductible.

WAEPS Refund Policy

Membership dues do not renew automatically. When a member wishes to terminate membership, no refund of the prepaid dues will be provided.