IN THE NEWS

Professional Eye Care Associates of America (PECAA), one of the nation’s largest communities of independent eyecare professionals, and VSP Vision have announced the extension of the VSP Vision Exam Rebate through 2025, offering doctors the opportunity to receive up to $10 per VSP commercial eye exam, and as much as $60,000 in total incremental revenue next year.

^{September 9, 2024}

As part of Professional Eye Care Associates of America’s (PECAA) commitment to helping independent eyecare professionals build profitable practices, the group announced that registration is now open for a suite of fall 2024 education programs designed to expand doctor and staff knowledge in a variety of essential practice areas.

^{August 1, 2024}

In keeping with a tradition to empower positive change in the communities that host the Professional Eye Care Associates of America (PECAA) Annual Meeting, attendees at this year’s April 29-May 1 event in Las Vegas donated more than $38,000 to local nonprofit Goodie Two Shoes Foundation.

^{June 10, 2024}

Professional Eye Care Associates of America (PECAA) welcomed nearly 900 independent eye care professionals, strategic vendor partners and industry leaders for a celebration of the PECAA community during its 2024 Annual Meeting on April 29 – May 1 in Las Vegas.

^{May 20, 2024}

Professional Eye Care Associates of America (PECAA) and VSP Vision have announced two high-impact initiatives to fuel success for private practice optometry. Beginning March 1, the VSP Vision Exam Rebate will be enhanced to enable PECAA Max members to double the rebate amount earned for VSP commercial eye exams.

^{February 13, 2024}

Professional Eye Care Associates of America (PECAA) has announced that registration is now open for the 2024 PECAA Annual Meeting taking place on April 29–May 1, 2024 at the Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas.

^{January 29, 2024}

As part of Professional Eye Care Associates of America’s (PECAA) commitment to helping private practice prosper, the alliance has welcomed two new members to its Member Business Advisory team of subject matter experts who support PECAA Max members in a variety of critical practice areas at no additional cost.

^{January 19, 2024}

Professional Eye Care Associates of America is celebrating the one year anniversary of its collaboration with VSP Vision by announcing record PECAA Max membership, a new lineup of community-based events and virtual CE opportunities, as well as expanded investment in private practice.

^{September 27, 2023}

Professional Eye Care Associates of America together with VSP Vision is announcing new programs aimed at addressing two of the great challenges facing independent eyecare professionals: the financial strain of owning and operating a private practice in today’s environment, and hiring and training staff.

^{June 27, 2023}

Professional Eye Care Associates of America (PECAA) welcomed close to 800 members, strategic vendor partners and industry leaders for three days of connection, education and idea exchange during its Annual Meeting April 20–22, 2023, in Nashville, Tennessee.

^{May 3, 2023}

When VSP Vision announced the aquisition of Professional Eyecare Associates of America last fall, it was independent eye care professionals who benefitted the most, according to Jonathan Worrall, who took over as president of PECAA in January of this year. PECAA continues to operate independently from VSP Vision, and executives noted, from VSP Vision's Premier Program.

^{May 3, 2023}

After a three-year hiatus and for the first time since combining with Healthy Eyes Advantage (HEA), Professional Eye Care Associates of America (PECAA) welcomed more than 900 members, strategic vendor partners and industry thought leaders to reconnect in person for three days of camaraderie, education and idea exchange during its annual meeting, held from May 19-21 in Palm Springs, Calif.

^{May 24, 2022}

PECAA announces that it has expanded its support of independent optometry by entering into new partnership arrangements with the Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska and South Dakota Optometric Associations, as well as enhancing its partnership with the Vermont Optometric Association.

^{April 22, 2022}

When opening a cold-start practice, there are many concerns and anxieties–and tremendous opportunity. Eyes Inc. launched their practice a little over a year before the pandemic hit. A young practice was especially vulnerable to the negative impact of the shutdown. Fortunately, they had help from PECAA’s Cold Start Program.

^{February 1, 2022}

Riya Paranthan, OD, of Optometric Physicians Northwest in Bellingham, Washington, talks about the changes that her practice is growing through after a recent merger and the support she gets from HEA + PECAA to help the independent practice remain competitive and profitable.

^{November 15, 2021}

Fortunately, I had partnered with an industry resource, PECAA, and its Member Business Advisor (MBA) program, which is a free resource to members of the organization. This resource has become a lifeline for my practice and the patients we have been able to continue successfully serving. Here is the difference PECAA’s MBA Program is making to keep us a profitable and growing practice.

^{October 8, 2021}

Members of PECAA have access to exclusive discounts and rebate offers from our trusted partners that independent practices could not otherwise earn individually. As a collective group, ECPs can begin taking advantage of tools, resources, and partnerships that assist them in attracting more patients, improving their bottom line and maintaining a flourishing business.

^{April 22, 2021}

PECAA has launched a three-part educational event series to their membership that focuses on practice transitions and the overall private equity landscape. The event is hosted by PECAA co-founder Lance Anderson, OD, and Bryan Hoban, Member Business Manager.

^{February 19, 2021}

PECAA has launched a new classifieds resource section on their website. While posting an ad is an exclusive member benefit, the ads are public and viewable to the entire industry, an announcement said. Ads are categorized into the areas of equipment, practices for sale, job postings and other. Individuals interested in a listing will find relevant contact information, images and a description of the item or opportunity.

^{December 15, 2020}

A cold start practice is a challenging undertaking in which the odds are stacked against you. With so much competition from online eyewear retailers and corporate-owned chains, the owners of practices started from scratch need as much help as they can get. Fortunately, we found just the help we needed to successfully launch our cold start practice. The Cold Start Program from PECAA has bolstered us to thrive in our first year, despite an ongoing pandemic.

^{October 20, 2020}

PECAA has relaunched their Association Health Plan on the Cigna and MultiPlan networks. The relaunch of PECAAHP builds upon earlier success and coincides with seasonal open enrollment opportunities. The Association Health Plan, which originally launched in 2019 on an Aetna network, allows eyecare practices to purchase competitive health insurance for their employees and families by leveraging the size of the PECAA organization to reduce employer premiums.

^{October 16, 2020}

PECAA announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with Optometry Practice Valuations to offer a personalized and discounted valuation service to members of the organization. The newly formed partnership grants members of PECAA up to a 30 percent discount on valuation services with an average turnaround time of five to seven business days.

^{September 21, 2020}

Telemedicine gained tremendous traction during recent practice shutdowns, in which only emergency eyecare was permitted to be provided in-person. Now, many patients, who had never experienced this new way of visiting the doctor, may be open to continuing to do so, and may even expect its continuation. Teri Thurston, PECAA's Billing & Coding Advisor, lists key points to keep in mind to ensure you receive maximum reimbursement for services delivered via telemedicine.

^{July 21, 2020}

While the majority of eye care practices are now reopen, the lasting ramifications of COVID-19 on independent eye care practices will continue to be seen and felt for quite some time. PECAA has been working hard to compile a COVID-19 Resource Center for IECP's to help their practices prosper.

^{June 25, 2020}

It's a dilemma independent ECPs face: Independence gives you the freedom to offer great service, but makes competing on cost hard. As a remedy, a growing number of them are joining one of the numerous alliances of doctors and ECPs that have sprung up in recent years. INVISION spoke with a Colorado practice whose positive experience with one such group has helped it thrive and serves as a testament to the benefits of collaboration, rather than consolidation.

^{May 29, 2020}

Don’t face our industry's changes alone—let your PECAA advisor team, vendor partners, and peer community help you prepare for what lies ahead. Let us help you thrive while we work together to build a sustainable future for the independent optometrist.

^{March 16, 2020}

90 Days to Dry Eye is an all-encompassing, comprehensive learning experience that walks participants through the process of building a dry eye profit center in just 90 days. The program will utilize live events, online module courses and interactive coaching to help provide participating practices with customized implementation strategies to help build their thriving dry eye service.

^{November 22, 2019}

PECAAHP, as the plan is being called, is a private, non-profit, level-funded benefits plan offered through the Aetna network. PECAAHP will offer multiple medical plans to choose from, including PPO and HSA options.

^{October 9, 2019}

PECAA has entered into a strategic partnership with Medical Eyeglass Center (MEC), a leading optical dispensary development company. MEC will provide PECAA members with unfettered access to its full suite of both dispensary development and turnkey dispensary management solutions.

^{September 17, 2019}

 PECAA announced the return of one of the organization’s co-founders, who has accepted a newly developed role on the company’s executive team. Lance Anderson, OD, will now be serving as the organization’s vice president of strategic initiatives.

^{August 29, 2019}

Opening a practice involves making so many important and expensive decisions—here's how Meg Richardson, OD found help and support from PECAA.

^{July 17, 2019}

Although Professional Eye Care Associates of America (PECAA) began as an organization “right in my backyard,” Joan Ploem Miller, OD, of Baseline Vision Clinic in Hillsboro, Oregon, says that she didn’t pay too much attention to the group at first. Only after deciding to leave another network did she begin to look at it more seriously. “After talking with the PECAA staff, I felt like this would be a good fit,” she says.

^{June 27, 2019}

PECAA's proactive approach to helping members, which now consists of over 3,500 independent eye care doctors, build high-performing practices.

^{June 11, 2019}

The member-only event drew a record 900+ individuals from the PECAA community to the live music capital of the world for a mix of business and medical education, camaraderie and economic opportunities.

^{June 3, 2019}

PECAA has launched the Integrated Eye Care Initiative, a new initiative that is designed to drive informed decision making for the next wave of health care reform.

^{May 15, 2019}

PECAA announced in March that through its Growing Through Giving Program, $116,000 had been raised in 2018 for the organization’s charity of choice, Optometry Giving Sight.

^{April 11, 2019}

This marks the first time PECAA has sold out the meeting in the company’s history, according to an announcement. The meeting, which is free to attend for PECAA members, is scheduled to run May 16-18 in Austin, Texas, and it is expected to draw a record 900-plus attendees.

^{March 29, 2019}

Jamie Hughes, general manager of the Professional Eye Care Associates of America (PECAA), has been promoted to senior vice president and will retain the general manager title and responsibilities, according to an announcement.

^{March 8, 2019}

The 2018 Best in Training title was awarded to Professional Eye Care Associates of America (PECAA) for their commitment to providing education in photochromic lenses and the Transitions brand.

^{March 4, 2019}

The roles were filled by member doctors who will work to connect PECAA members in their local communities by helping foster doctor camaraderie, peer sharing of best practices and member engagement at regional events.

^{February 10, 2019}

The invitation-only event brought together senior leadership from integral industry vendor partners to discuss the inevitable changes impacting the industry and to explore solutions on how the group, collectively, could best serve their mutual customers.

^{November 8, 2018}

The deal was effective July 9. The newly merged group will be headquartered in Portland, OR, and will retain leadership and staff from both PECAA and ODX.

^{July 12, 2018}

The organization hosted its 10th annual meeting from April 19 through April 21 at the JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort & Spa. The event drew more than 700 members, vendors, staff and guests to the area for a mix of education, economic and community-building opportunities.

^{May 11, 2018}

Many Optometric Alliance Groups were initially designed to allow for more competitive cost of goods, but services have now evolved to include business development programs, doctor and staff education, and marketing tools that IECPs can take advantage of.

^{May 13, 2018}

From its founding in 2006 by three independent ODs in Portland, Ore., PECAA has grown from a small regional base in the northwest U.S. to having roots in 48 states today.

^{April 16, 2018}

PECAA has “deepened its relationship” with strategic partner AmeriBen that will enable the alliance to offer an “expanded human resource support service” to its members.

^{February 21, 2018}

The organization has launched “Growing Through Giving,” a member marketing and charitable giving program that will support PECAA’s charity of choice, Optometry Giving Sight (OGS), according to an announcement.

^{June 16, 2017}

PECAA held its 9th annual meeting from May 18 to 20 at the OMNI Hotel. The event hosted over 600 members, vendors, staff and guests.

^{May 31, 2017}

PECAA Member Business Manager Bryan Hoban answers Members most commonly asked questions regarding practice growth.

^{May 4, 2017}

PECAA held its meeting here, a blend of business and networking opportunities against the backdrop of the unique atmosphere, sights and sounds of New Orleans.

^{June 20, 2016}