What can COA and AOA do for me?

Your association represents you on many levels. Here’s a quick breakdown of all the benefits and services provided by COA and AOA.

At the most basic level, your membership is about ensuring your ability to practice optometry. You have made a significant financial investment in making optometry your profession and livelihood, and the one most valuable benefit of membership — regardless of your mode of practice — is the ongoing effort to protect your license to practice and advocacy for your ability to practice to the full extent of your education and training.

Because optometry is a legislated profession, many issues at the federal and state level can potentially affect how, when, where and what you practice. The profession you have studied and trained to practice was not always the way it is now. Through the efforts of organized optometrists, just like you, doctors of optometry have gained the right to dilate their patients, treat many ocular disease conditions, and treat patients with Medicare insurance. All of these expansions of the optometric profession happened because individual optometrists were members of the COA and AOA and were willing to give their time and effort to see their profession grow. Unfortunately, these laws can change at any moment. New laws can benefit optometry — such as the ability to treat glaucoma — or new laws may limit or take away some of your practice rights and the ways you make a living. Therefore, the work is never done.

Beyond protecting and expanding your profession, membership offers many additional benefits, services and resources to the practicing optometrist. COA is a conduit of information on all things pertaining to the profession of optometry, distributed through its website, e-newsletters, social media and the California Optometry magazine — so that you know what’s going on with optometric issues. COA also offers cutting-edge continuing education to its members through the upcoming Monterey Symposium, OptoWest regional conferences and local society education programs.

As a member of COA, AOA and your local society, you are entitled to many resources and benefits:

• Three memberships in one. Tripartite membership providing you with local, state and national representation and resources to grow your practice.
• Protecting and promoting your profession. Legislative and regulatory advocacy at the state and national levels dedicated to maximizing patient access and advancing scope of practice.
• Resources to grow your practice.

• COA: Online “Find An Eye Doc” locator service, online resources and expert assistance on all facets of the business and practice of optometry through COA Member Resource Center, practice fact sheets, and the COA Member Media Center.
• AOA: Online “Doctor Locator Search” directory, business and career success webinars, customizable kits for practice promotion, practice-branded marketing materials, and patient education materials available in the AOA Marketplace.
• Complimentary AOA & COA paraoptometic membership for your staff included with your membership.

• Information on your association and the optometric profession.

• COA: California Optometry magazine, COA Member News and Government Affairs Weekly, local society meetings; optional membership in the Low Vision Rehabilitation Section.
• AOA: AOA Focus magazine, e-AOA Focus newsletter, daily e-AOA First Look; optional membership in the Contact Lens & Cornea, Sports Vision and Vision Rehabilitation sections. 

• Cutting-edge knowledge and skills.

• COA: Member-only registration discounts for COA and local society education seminars and conferences.
• AOA: Member-only registration discounts for AOA education seminars and annual Optometry’s Meeting®; 24/7 access to EyeLearn online learning resource.