As some of you may know, VSP has merged with Marchon. This in and of itself isn’t a bad thing, but it further shuts out the private opticals. Please refer to the OAA response to this. There is no reason for VSP to continue to maintain their current position. I would urge everyone who has Marchon in their office to make the necessary decisions to remove their merchandise from your offices until VSP changes their position.

Contact VSP

My submission is below:

As a licensed optician, I resent being excluded from your insurance plans. The merger doesn’t benefit licensed opticians at all. As someone who has used Marchon extensively, I will gladly replace all Marchon lines with other frame lines. It’s time to be fair. Eyemed, Cole Managed Care and others do not impose any rules similar to VSP. I urge you to consider a change in policy.

I will never be getting another Linksys product again. A router failed in an office that I work at. That router happened to be a linksys. I replaced it with an 8 port switch. When connecting all the computers to the switch, no network. The computers were all set up to accept DHCP IP assignments etc… Nothing. The switch would refuse to assign any computers an IP address except for one computer. I called up Linksys and got an exceptionally average tech support person. The person kept indicating that I needed to call Microsoft since there was internet connectivity on one machine DESPITE the fact that there was no Intranet. The Intranet aspect was more important since I needed several rooms to access the same information which was located on one machine. I happen to be a techie myself and the support person clearly refused to listen to what was happening or to what I was saying. I am returning the product. I know the difference between the different layers of networking. I needed an ethernet layer that was connected to a switch so it would support the Microsoft’s filesharing network.

As some of you may know, PA and TX are unlicensed states. There is a petition that is accepting signatures. This petition will eventually be brought up to their corresponding State Legislature. I think it is time that all states become licensed. I truly hope that this will start a nationwide trend. Also, the NCSORB has a survey that will help supply national exams with an understanding of opticians’ priorities in order to test them.

National Committee Of State Opticianry Regulatory Boards (NCSORB) survey.

You don’t have to be a resident of that state to sign the petition.

PA Opticians Licensure Petition

TX Opticians Licensure Petition

There is something really strange happening in the major news outlets. It’s getting harder and harder to find news sources that actually try to report news.

The surge in opinion media has affected the way we as regular citizens get our information. A notorious example is the use of weasel words as used by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. The use of weasel words needs to be eliminated because it presents a story as having two sides which is clearly NOT the case. These faux debates have added an element of uncertainty to public discourse. (more…)

A Refraction Course will be offered by the ROATx in our area for NY, NJ, PA and CT. This course is meant to be an introduction. It would be held on Saturday and Sunday. The course would be 10 hours and would cost $100. The course is to gauge interest in the certification of refraction. Of course, in NJ this wouldn’t hold any water as opticians in NJ can’t refract. Still, it would be something interesting and more importantly further opticianry through knowledge. The place will be determined by the participants. Please email me if you are interested.

The forum has been cleaned. My apologies ahead of time to anyone I may have accidentally deleted. I deleted aged accounts and emails I suspect of being bots.

Thanks again,

Al

Registered Opticians Association of Texas site

This organization has got it right. Education is the key to success. They understand that any legislative action has to have some qualification to be enacted. By creating the classification of “Registered Optician,” they created a way (more…)

I passed the ABO Advanced Certification exam and am on my way to getting the ABOM status. I took the test at the Vision Expo on April 13th.  I just got my letter saying I passed. It’s not a particularly difficult test, but a necessary step in gaining ABOM status. I plan to take the NCLE- AC next and let all of you know how it is.

Article

I don’t think Bill Gates is being honest. There is no shortage of IT workers at any level. This boils down to money. Why hire an American worker, when I can get cheap labor imported into the country. I would refer those who are interested to Norman Matloff’s work on the subject of offshoring and H1-B visas. I believe the IT industry will go the way of electronics. I would also urge people who are considering Computer Science (CS) related fields to consider other fields. As someone who has experienced the heart wrenching experience of trying to find decent work after graduation, I can tell you that the writing is already on the wall for the industry. (more…)