Membership Benefits

Membership Benefits

WAEPS is your voice in state legislation and regulatory affairs. We proactively protect your practice, engaging two lobbying firms that monitor all health-related legislation. This is an ongoing effort, with lobbyists helping us strategically defend against regulations that could be harmful to our members’ ophthalmic practices and patient safety.

Significant recent advocacy efforts include:

• Ongoing work to confront efforts by the Optometric Physicians of Washington (OPW) to expand their scope of practice and endanger patient safety.
• 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 nonphysician health care providers (“unlike licensees”).
• Supporting tort reform legislation.

Education

As a WAEPS member, you and your staff receive special discount pricing on educational programs.

Opportunities include:

• WAEPS annual meeting: Features nationally renowned faculty at this physician CME program, one of the country’s best state meetings.
• Monthly scientific meetings: Runs from October through April, featuring speakers from across the country at no charge to members.
• Ophthalmic technician meeting: Helps your technicians get their JCAHPO credits.
• Practice management seminar: Offers the latest and greatest training for your management staff.
• Coding conference: Assists you and your staff in coding more accurately, getting paid promptly and avoiding unnecessary audits and legal pitfalls.
• Annual scientific program: Held in conjunction with WSMA’s annual meeting, this five-hour CME activity is free of charge to WSMA members.

Additional Benefits

• Health plan relations: WAEPS represents you with payers. Member volunteers sit as liaisons on the Medicare Advisory Committee and the WSMA Interspecialty Council, sharing any changes.
• Member communications: WAEPS members receive the quarterly e-newsletter, In-Focus, plus as-needed e-broadcasts to provide updates 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.
• Referrals: The WAEPS website maintains a robust membership database, accessible by patients to help them find you, with a members-only area to make consults easy. WAEPS also handles referral calls generated by yellow-page ads.
• EyePAC: WAEPS maintains the most successful physician specialty political action committee in the state. Your voluntary, personal contribution to the EyePAC helps ensure ophthalmologists have a strong voice in our state legislature.
• Safe Surgery WA: WAEPS supports safe, accessible, expert eye care and surgery performed by eye surgeons, or ophthalmologists. If you’d like to help, please donate to the Safe Surgery Fund.

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.

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, 100% of your 2024 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 corporation. 100% of your donations to the WEF are tax deductible.

WAEPS Refund Policy

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.