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It's Not Do or Die

Rich Kirkner

I owe you all an apology. You see, last year I quoted Dr. John A. McCall Jr. as saying that the American Board of Optometric Practice (known as ABOP, for better or worse) would enable an O.D. to “check that box” on an insurance plan application.

There was much more to Dr. McCall’s argument than these three words. Even when I used these three words, I said board certification had to be about more than that. Nonetheless, they’re the words I happened to write in my notebook. They’re the words I happened to print on this very page. They’re the words that made a good quote.

They’re the words that a lot of people have picked up on to point out what’s wrong with ABOP.

I can see some good things behind the idea of board certification— moving toward a national standard, for example. The ABOP model may need work, and maybe this isn’t a good time to hit you and your colleagues with the idea of more testing—not when it seems that only yesterday you took your TMOD, maybe for the second or third time in a few years.

A fence is never a comfortable place to sit, however, so let me move off it a little and challenge you to think about a couple things before the AOA House of Delegates acts (or not) this month to reaffirm last year’s vote establishing ABOP:

ABOP is purely voluntary. Of course, so was getting your TMOD—until Vision Service Plan decided to drop doctors who didn’t have their therapeutic licenses.
Board certification won’t go away. So it must evolve. The profession must sort out if ABOP is where it wants the board certification debate to begin.
The AOA House of Delegates is optometry’s legislative body. It’s comprised of your colleagues from all walks of practice. They’ve already voted last year to set up ABOP. A vote not to reaffirm ABOP could cast doubt on the House of Delegates’ credibility when it comes to setting policy for the profession.
ABOP, whether it flies or crashes, won’t tear the profession apart. Give yourself and your colleagues some credit. States aren’t going to revoke therapeutic laws, Medicare isn’t going to exclude optometry, VA medical centers aren’t going to give O.D.s the ax, hospitals aren’t going to kick you off staff, and insurers aren’t going to shun optometrists in droves.

The debate over ABOP represents many things to optometry. A do-or-die proposition isn’t one of them.

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