Congratulations, Adam with the Texas CE Broker Success!!

Feb 4, 2022
4
9
3
School/Org
University of Missouri-St. Louis College of Optometry
City
Denton
State
TX
Congrats Adam!!

I logged onto the CE Broker in Texas and you are now listed as an official provider for the Texas Optometry Board!!! You are listed as "Proactive Optometric Physicians" under the "Provider" tab with the CE Broker Tracking #50-31610 and an expiration date of 5-16-2025.

The website www.cewire.org is also listed for people to access your CE. Fantastic Job!! You did it!!!

All Texas Optometrists thank you for your dedication and hard work to help us obtain these CE credits! I guess you can post the great news for all Texas attendees that they can now "self-report" their hours and attach the CEwire 2022 individual "Certificate of Attendance" with each "self-reported" class if they have the free, "basic" account.

If they purchase the "professional" or "concierge" account, then the CE Broker customer service agents will enter their CE hours for them after they send their CEwire 2022 transcript/attendance certificates to the CE Broker customer service agents.

Although each doctor can see the individual CE classes posted on their account with the free "basic" account, the paid plans allow the doctor to view their "official transcript" showing their "compliance" status. For questions, doctors can call CE Broker at 1-877-434-6323 from 8:00-8:00 (EST) Monday-Friday.

Thanks again for the excellent CEwire 2022 conference! The speakers/topics were exceptional!! Kudos and Cheers to your success with the Texas CE Broker!!!!
 
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Thanks Jennifer!

The final test will be if it accepts the certificates you're manually uploading. So head on over to the certificate center, save each as a PDF and see what happens when you try to submit (or do they let you submit multiple courses on a single page, in which case you can just print out the transcript page?)

My fingers are crossed!

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Thanks Jennifer!

The final test will be if it accepts the certificates you're manually uploading. So head on over to the certificate center, save each as a PDF and see what happens when you try to submit (or do they let you submit multiple courses on a single page, in which case you can just print out the transcript page?)

My fingers are crossed!

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Hi Adam!

Here is a new update "newsflash" for the Texas CE Broker. This afternoon I spoke to both CE Broker and Vincent Pena at the Texas Optometry Board. More facts to understand for Texas O.D.'s!

So, I have the free basic "Classic" account and manually attached my individual "Certificate of Attendance" for self-reporting my CE classes. The CEWire2022 transcript is not advised for attachment-has to be the individual attendance certificate per course. My CE hours were all submitted successfully and now all of them appear on my CE Broker transcript! Remember for self-reporting: enter the course name exactly as it appears on the certificate, the number of hours earned per course, the type of class either "Diagnostic/Therapeutic"or "General", the provider name has to be "Proactive Optometric Physicians" that is entered in the CE Broker database for CEwire2022, the CE platform for "live interactive" Zoom webinar format for CEwire2022 is designated in two places; select "Live" and "Web-platform" not the other choices (conference, seminar, class). Then, attach your saved "Certificate of Attendance" PDF into the box that says "Drag or Browse". When it is attached, you have an "attestation" box that requires the OD to attest that everything is true/correct. After you confirm and click the attestation statement and press "submit", it is recorded into your transcript and you can then view your completed courses.

IMPORTANT INFO: The TOB will NOT accept the "Human Trafficking" class given Sunday for the required Texas Human Trafficking class. So, TOB said it will only count as a "General" hour. The reason given by TOB: The class was NOT approved by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission first. The class has to get TX HHS Commission stamp of approval before being given to an audience according to the TX legislature law. Apparently, you have to go to TX HHS website or look at the classes on the TOB website under the "Human Trafficking" section to take one of those classes approved by TX HHS.

The TOB will NOT accept the "Prescription of Controlled Substances in Optometry" class given Sunday for the required Opioid class. So, TOB said it will only count as a "Diagnostic/Therapeutic" hour. The reason given by TOB: The opioid class can only be given in Texas, not on a national CE conference platform. Of course, the "Professional Responsibility" class can also only be given in Texas, too.

The TOB is also looking into what the CE Broker just changed on the reporting venue for TX about reporting ARBO Transcript (Live and Online CE hours). CE Broker said you CANNOT upload your ARBO transcript and self-report individual courses on CE Broker also, because it will count twice and they will cancel some. The TOB was not aware of this problem. Also, you CAN self-report CE hours even if the CE provider has not registered with the CE Broker, as long as the CE fits in the "automatic approval" category listed on the TOB website.

Hope this clears up the confusion! The TOB has its first meeting of the year tomorrow : February 24-25. Vincent (Assistant Executive Director) said he would discuss some of these issues with the Board at their meeting to work things out smoother for everybody involved. FYI, the lady handling CE (Diana Montgomery) retired in December 2021. So, CE Broker was supposed to take over her place and do her work now that she has retired.
 
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Jennifer...I'm thinking..I'm not so poor I can't afford the $99. and let them do it all..
Seriously?
Sitting here and dividing up the therapeutic vs general..and the rest of that just does not seem worth it.
 
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Jennifer...I'm thinking..I'm not so poor I can't afford the $99. and let them do it all..
Sounds like a real economy...:rolleyes:

Early sign ups who were previous CEwire fans have paid $129 for 60 credit hours. Now along comes this outside company and is charging $99 for work already done for ARBO by CEwire for Pro Active Optometric Physician LLC.

I hope some investigating interest in Texas is following the money. Someone is making a heap of cash.

A busy OD can afford the $99 shakedown. How about the recent grad with a 200K debt and a young family to support?

Shame on the Texas Optometry Board.:mad:

Adam is way to nice to blast TOB. He got those nice guy genes from his mother's side of the family.
 
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Sounds like a real economy...

Early sign ups who were previous CEwire fans have paid $129 for 60 credit hours. Now along comes this outside company and is charging $99 for work already done for ARBO by CEwire for Pro Active Optometric Physician LLC.

I hope some investigating interest in Texas is following the money. Someone is making a heap of cash.

A busy OD can afford the $99 shakedown. How about the recent grad with a 200K debt and a young family to support?

Shame on the TOA.:mad:

Adam is way to nice to blast TOA. He got those nice guy genes from his mother's side of the family.
So, they can't afford $99....As we say about our patients...let's go to their homes...Let's look at the Iphone 13 etc. It's all about priorities.Mine is not to be hassled for the grief.
Over the years, I've sat there at the last minute worrying about having my i's dotted and t's crossed.

It reminds me of the doctors who do not outsource their medical billing and say they have hundreds of thousands in outstanding payments..It's just not worth it.
 
So, they can't afford $99....As we say about our patients...let's go to their homes...Let's look at the Iphone 13 etc. It's all about priorities.Mine is not to be hassled for the grief.
Over the years, I've sat there at the last minute worrying about having my i's dotted and t's crossed.

It reminds me of the doctors who do not outsource their medical billing and say they have hundreds of thousands in outstanding payments..It's just not worth it.
But Allan, the difference is this is mandatory. In this particular case, a government agency has outsourced one of their critical core functions because ... an employee retired?!

Consider how hard it will be to extricate the state from CEBroker if they want to or need to in the future (and if I'm CEBroker and I now have a captive audience, what is going to stop me from squeezing until my customers pass out? Nothing - they are stuck. They let their internal IT skills atrophy, and have no way to migrate the data back in-house even if they wanted to.)

I'm not from TX so this isn't really my problem other than as a minor administrative headache on the CE provider side, but wow... If I were a licensee, I would 1) want to know the details of how this came to pass, 2) how they plan to _leave_ CEBroker if they need to -- if the service is poor, if the prices escalate. Can they easily migrate the data that they are required to collect by law to another platform? Did they even consider it?

You never go into a "software as a service" platform unless you have at least a vague plan to escape if you need to. CEwire is a prime example, when the cost of the survey platform we used suddenly went up 5x with almost no warning, I bolted. Before I even picked that platform years ago, I had a plan for an "eject button" if I needed it, using different software. And I needed it, so I used it.

Software as a service is like getting married. And in many ways divorcing a software platform is more difficult and complicated than divorcing a human.
 
Amazing and that is without reviewing the course content even!! Is this really in the public or dare I say Optometry's interest?
 
Just for clarification, CE Broker is a Florida-based company now required for use by the Texas Board of Optometry for licensees in TX. Nothing is ever actually free.

The OE Tracker program of ARBO has been around for many years. ARBO is the non-profit federation of regulatory agencies. The tracking program was actually developed for regulatory agency use; licensees can use the service at low cost. A mobile app that allows scanning with a cell phone and course credit verification via email is also available.

I’m personally more interested in CE provider/activity accreditation to improve the CE providers, knowledge, performance in practice, patient outcomes, and the OD learner experience than monitoring attendance or hiring external for-profit companies for tracking.

CE accreditation also requires enforced standards for integrity and independence (SII) (formally called standards for commercial support (SCS)); this means elimination of industry bias, marketing, etc. as CE for relicensure. Such measures are the fact of life now across healthcare; if one seeks to reduce or eliminate industry support, have no enforced standards. That’ll do it down the line and a profession of doctors should know better. Not knowing isn’t an excuse.

The effectiveness of CE appears to have little to do with online versus lecture hall or with 50 minutes versus 15 minutes. The SII, physician learning/education theory, and policies improving effectiveness are where the action lies. There is quite a lot of available research at this point.

We’re about 15-20 years behind in CE evolution.
 
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Just for clarification, CE Broker is a Florida-based company now required for use by the Texas Board of Optometry for licensees in TX. Nothing is ever actually free.

The OE Tracker program of ARBO has been around for many years. ARBO is the non-profit federation of regulatory agencies. The tracking program was actually developed for regulatory agency use; licensees can use the service at low cost. A mobile app that allows scanning with a cell phone and course credit verification via email is also available.

I’m personally more interested in CE provider/activity accreditation to improve the CE providers, knowledge, performance in practice, patient outcomes, and the OD learner experience than monitoring attendance or hiring external for-profit companies for tracking.

CE accreditation also requires enforced standards for integrity and independence (SII) (formally called standards for commercial support (SCS)); this means elimination of industry bias, marketing, etc. as CE for relicensure. Such measures are the fact of life now across healthcare; if one seeks to reduce or eliminate industry support, have no enforced standards. That’ll do it down the line and a profession of doctors should know better. Not knowing isn’t an excuse.

The effectiveness of CE appears to have little to do with online versus lecture hall or with 50 minutes versus 15 minutes. The SII, physician learning/education theory, and policies improving effectiveness are where the action lies. There is quite a lot of available research at this point.

We’re about 15-20 years behind in CE evolution.
Well, I can't disagree -- I don't think the standards have evolved much since you departed ARBO. Which was a long time ago now.

But we're doing what we can within the existing framework, trying to show ARBO and everyone else what is theoretically possible when you are willing to experiment and evolve.

I'm hoping that there is some progress at ARBO's summer meeting that compels everyone to try to reach a little bit higher, or at least has them evolving the rules enough so that "working the ref" becomes more difficult for providers and industry.
 
Well, I can't disagree -- I don't think the standards have evolved much since you departed ARBO. Which was a long time ago now.

But we're doing what we can within the existing framework, trying to show ARBO and everyone else what is theoretically possible when you are willing to experiment and evolve.

I'm hoping that there is some progress at ARBO's summer meeting that compels everyone to try to reach a little bit higher, or at least has them evolving the rules enough so that "working the ref" becomes more difficult for providers and industry.
One of the advantages to CE provider accreditation is the encouragement of innovation. Try something. If it works, use it; if it fails, do something else. So, look at you go.

Next step: I’m uninvolved and can’t say. Traditionally, the ARBO BoD and the strong majority of the ARBO HoD favor progressive (not left v. right progressive, but rather innovative change for the public welfare/mission) concepts. NBEO formation, COPE approval of courses/interstate CE, CELMO, OE Tracker, the SCS after the SFC Report of 2007, the mobile app, COPE accreditation with two models each recognized as equivalent to ACCME CME accreditation and accepted for joint accreditation with medicine, pharmacy, nursing et al… that’s pretty good for a small staff and a small number of OD volunteers. There is usually a small number of those delegates hesitant to change/try.

We take federal dollars. We’ll be held to enforced standards for CE. Competency. Relicensure. State gov’t. No place to hide.

So, where’s the support from optometry?

If we want to be less, do less, not try, encourage cynicism/whining, and demand paths of least resistance for colleges, applicants, candidates for licensure, residents, ODs, state boards, advocacy, and CE providers… okay.

We take federal dollars. We’ll be held to enforced standards for CE. Competency. Relicensure. State gov’t. No place to hide.

I’m an outlier then and unapologetic for it. We can try to live in the past. Go ahead; I’m old. I suspect the future might be difficult for students and young ODs, though.

More importantly, we dx and tx patients. Patients, not customers. Held to medical standards of care. Increasing scope. Exponential growth of information. Information is ubiquitous; cell phones everywhere. Accredited CE is for improved knowledge, performance in practice, and patient outcomes. It just takes a little bit of reading and the ability to think logically.
 
just a wild guess but I'm thinking the op is in some way affiliated with the texas board and/or ce broker. From what I'm reading ce broker is just a pointless layer of bureaucracy. Paying money to keep a tally of ce credits? thats a joke right?
 
just a wild guess but I'm thinking the op is in some way affiliated with the texas board and/or ce broker. From what I'm reading ce broker is just a pointless layer of bureaucracy. Paying money to keep a tally of ce credits? thats a joke right?
The joke is the TOB. It's their job to do this themselves. They started failing at it a decade ago and recently failed miserably. One person retires and it can no longer be done ?

I'm sure tomorrow someone from the TOB will be here to check my signs and make sure my name is properly displayed using the right combination of Dr and OD etc., and that my complaint sign is in place.
 
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The joke is the TOB. It's their job to do this themselves. They started failing at it a decade ago and recently failed miserably. One person retires and it can no longer be done ?

I'm sure tomorrow someone from the TOB will be here to check my signs and make sure my name is properly displayed using the right combination of Dr and OD etc., and that my complaint sign is in place.
ARBO’s OE Tracker was originally designed for state regulatory agency use. It’s been around many years. Member agencies, such as Texas and Florida, can audit 100% of the licensees for CE compliance in a very short time. Just sayin’. :)
 
Hi Adam!

Here is a new update "newsflash" for the Texas CE Broker. This afternoon I spoke to both CE Broker and Vincent Pena at the Texas Optometry Board. More facts to understand for Texas O.D.'s!

So, I have the free basic "Classic" account and manually attached my individual "Certificate of Attendance" for self-reporting my CE classes. The CEWire2022 transcript is not advised for attachment-has to be the individual attendance certificate per course. My CE hours were all submitted successfully and now all of them appear on my CE Broker transcript! Remember for self-reporting: enter the course name exactly as it appears on the certificate, the number of hours earned per course, the type of class either "Diagnostic/Therapeutic"or "General", the provider name has to be "Proactive Optometric Physicians" that is entered in the CE Broker database for CEwire2022, the CE platform for "live interactive" Zoom webinar format for CEwire2022 is designated in two places; select "Live" and "Web-platform" not the other choices (conference, seminar, class). Then, attach your saved "Certificate of Attendance" PDF into the box that says "Drag or Browse". When it is attached, you have an "attestation" box that requires the OD to attest that everything is true/correct. After you confirm and click the attestation statement and press "submit", it is recorded into your transcript and you can then view your completed courses.

IMPORTANT INFO: The TOB will NOT accept the "Human Trafficking" class given Sunday for the required Texas Human Trafficking class. So, TOB said it will only count as a "General" hour. The reason given by TOB: The class was NOT approved by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission first. The class has to get TX HHS Commission stamp of approval before being given to an audience according to the TX legislature law. Apparently, you have to go to TX HHS website or look at the classes on the TOB website under the "Human Trafficking" section to take one of those classes approved by TX HHS.

The TOB will NOT accept the "Prescription of Controlled Substances in Optometry" class given Sunday for the required Opioid class. So, TOB said it will only count as a "Diagnostic/Therapeutic" hour. The reason given by TOB: The opioid class can only be given in Texas, not on a national CE conference platform. Of course, the "Professional Responsibility" class can also only be given in Texas, too.

The TOB is also looking into what the CE Broker just changed on the reporting venue for TX about reporting ARBO Transcript (Live and Online CE hours). CE Broker said you CANNOT upload your ARBO transcript and self-report individual courses on CE Broker also, because it will count twice and they will cancel some. The TOB was not aware of this problem. Also, you CAN self-report CE hours even if the CE provider has not registered with the CE Broker, as long as the CE fits in the "automatic approval" category listed on the TOB website.

Hope this clears up the confusion! The TOB has its first meeting of the year tomorrow : February 24-25. Vincent (Assistant Executive Director) said he would discuss some of these issues with the Board at their meeting to work things out smoother for everybody involved. FYI, the lady handling CE (Diana Montgomery) retired in December 2021. So, CE Broker was supposed to take over her place and do her work now that she has retired.
First time CEwire user here! Where do we find which courses are "Diagnostic/Therapeutic" or "General"?
 
I'm not from TX so this isn't really my problem other than as a minor administrative headache on the CE provider side, but wow... If I were a licensee, I would 1) want to know the details of how this came to pass, 2) how they plan to _leave_ CEBroker if they need to -- if the service is poor, if the prices escalate. Can they easily migrate the data that they are required to collect by law to another platform? Did they even consider it?
Adam I can guarantee you, no one at the TOB cares one iota about anything an Optometrist thinks about anything. We are plebes and they are the Gestapo. Not a democracy. Don't waste your time.
 
What do you Texas folks think of this new C/E credit system instituted by your state board?
 
First time CEwire user here! Where do we find which courses are "Diagnostic/Therapeutic" or "General"?
The terms "Diagnostic/Therapeutic" and "General" are specific Texas Optometry Board CE designations assigned to classify different types of CE for Texas hours. I believe you can check the TOB website to get the accurate descriptions for each of these terms. Unfortunately, the terms are a completely separate description/designation system from COPE hours.

However, by reviewing the COPE description of the course, you can determine whether the course would be considered by the Texas Optometry Board to be either a "Diagnostic/Therapeutic" course or a "General" course. ODWire 2022 should be automatically approved by the Texas Optometry Board because all of the hours are already COPE-Approved.

In a nutshell, basically anything having to do with surgery, glaucoma, cataracts, retinal disorders (posterior segment), corneal disorders (anterior segment), ocular/systemic pharmaceuticals and medications, dry eye, laser, neuro, or ocular/systemic diseases are considered "Diagnostic/Therapeutic" CE hours.

"General" hours are topics related to practice management, contact lenses, vision therapy, low vision, refraction, prism, HIPAA, insurance, etc.

Of course, there is a separate designation for the Professional Responsibility (Ethics), Opioid, and Human Trafficking courses-which all have to be approved by the TOB and/or Texas Legislature and presented in Texas (according to the TOB) in order to fulfill the CE requirements.

In the past years, the Texas Optometry Board assigned either "D/T" or "General" to all of the approved CE courses for the year through their CE committee on the Texas Optometry Board. I don't know if the CE committee on the Board is still doing the assignment or not.?

So, you just have to use the Texas Optometry Board criteria of "D/T" or "General" to classify the type of hours you received from the conference. If you have any questions about the classification of a course, I would just call the Texas Optometry Board and ask (512) 305-8500.
 
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It's remarkable to me that there is a belief that professionals need a course on human trafficking. -Charlie
 
It's remarkable to me that there is a belief that professionals need a course on human trafficking. -Charlie
If you're in a room, with time on your hands, and the mandate to make a Profession better, you come up with crap like this that sounds good but, is just fluff.

A professional should know the basic signs of Trafficking without a course and it certainly should not be mandated. The silliest thing is you have to retake the course every cycle. How much does it change every 2 years???????

Same with Narcotics. Great, take a course, but do really have to retake one every cycle like I have to in NJ?
 
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If you're in a room, with time on your hands, and the mandate to make a Profession better, you come up with crap like this that sounds good but, is just fluff. A professional should know the basic signs of Trafficking without a course and it certainly should not be mandated. The silliest thing is you have to retake the course every cycle. How much does it change every 2 years???????

Same with Narcotics. Great, take a course, but do really have to retake one every cycle like I have to in NJ?
It depends. I think the complexities are problematic.

The target audiences are often quite broad. Their knowledge and development vary. So, old material for one is new for another.

Seat time is a poor measure. A credit makes more sense than fifty minutes. Fifteen minutes might make more sense than 50 minutes. Or maybe two hrs is required for someone else.

Sometimes the learner doesn’t know what they don’t know. Any learner.

Frequency? Beats me. I assume repeated information makes for long-term learning overall, but… there’s always a ‘but.’

Finally, I think we’re distant from much of health care.

I’ve certainly been subjected to CE that made me question my will to live. Hence the desire to make things better.
 
Disclaimer: I am not attacking Texas. I like Texas. I went to school in Texas. I have friends there. Big Bend NP remains one of my favorite places.

Diagnostic and therapeutic terms are archaic. There are no such terms for drugs via FDA. In addition, there are no rx cosmetic drugs. There are drugs.

D/T terminology stems from early scope issues. It’s past time for those to go away.

General is meaningless as well. We use scleral CL for disease. Low vision often involves genetic abnormalities, systemic disease, VF loss central or peripheral, etc. Prism rx might be for stroke, Parkinsonism, etc. We’re systemic.

Is uveitis ocular disease or systemic disease in practice?

What’s pilocarpine now? What’s atropine? :)

Practice mx CE is seldom for the direct public benefit. I can come up with defensible topics, sure, but courses aimed at maximized profit for purposes of health care providers’ relicensure look very bad to external eyes.

State boards, CE providers, speakers, COPE reviewers et al. struggle with this topic. We really need to streamline it. It’s not a Texas problem. It’s just a problem. Fifty-one versions in 51 states, plus other regulatory agencies internationally. Fifty-one scopes.

I’ve been on all sides. I’ve increased complexity when on a board. I’ve also decreased complexity. At this point in time, the 21st century, we really need to step up the game.

Again, I like Texas! Do not attack! This issue is everywhere in optometry rule and law.
 
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In all fairness, the human trafficking requirement, I believe, comes from the State Legislature for ODs, DDS, etc
Yes. Mandatory reporting, human trafficking, opioid education, etc. are often mandated externally to the optometry boards. If we’re health care providers and public welfare advocates, the duties go along for the ride.
 
Yes. Mandatory reporting, human trafficking, opioid education, etc. are often mandated externally to the optometry boards. If we’re health care providers and public welfare advocates, the duties go along for the ride.
That's the way it works in Florida -- any "licensed healthcare provider" has to take the mandatory courses, including HIV, domestic violence, and medical errors.
 
That's the way it works in Florida -- any "licensed healthcare provider" has to take the mandatory courses, including HIV, domestic violence, and medical errors.
Yep, this post relates to others in terms of blame, whining, best practices, poor practices, not knowing better, not knowing at all… I’m about to the, “whatever,” stage.

But, many jurisdictions remain at developmental stages, their fault, another’s fault, no one’s fault… that’s the reality. D/T in 2022? Anti-standards in 2022? Anti-mobility in 2022? Anti-virtual in 2022? Pro-regulatory capture in 2022? Unwise.

There are research areas to discuss. Mistakes to avoid. Coordination to consider. But, much of this has been embarrassing and harmful. Yikes! I’m not sure how to reach folks in academia, advocacy, regulatory, and practice that want to dx disease, rx medications, inject, and laze without meeting the associated rules, standards, and accepted responsibilities.
 
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Congrats Adam!!

I logged onto the CE Broker in Texas and you are now listed as an official provider for the Texas Optometry Board!!! You are listed as "Proactive Optometric Physicians" under the "Provider" tab with the CE Broker Tracking #50-31610 and an expiration date of 5-16-2025.

The website www.cewire.org is also listed for people to access your CE. Fantastic Job!! You did it!!!

All Texas Optometrists thank you for your dedication and hard work to help us obtain these CE credits! I guess you can post the great news for all Texas attendees that they can now "self-report" their hours and attach the CEwire 2022 individual "Certificate of Attendance" with each "self-reported" class if they have the free, "basic" account.

If they purchase the "professional" or "concierge" account, then the CE Broker customer service agents will enter their CE hours for them after they send their CEwire 2022 transcript/attendance certificates to the CE Broker customer service agents.

Although each doctor can see the individual CE classes posted on their account with the free "basic" account, the paid plans allow the doctor to view their "official transcript" showing their "compliance" status. For questions, doctors can call CE Broker at 1-877-434-6323 from 8:00-8:00 (EST) Monday-Friday.

Thanks again for the excellent CEwire 2022 conference! The speakers/topics were exceptional!! Kudos and Cheers to your success with the Texas CE Broker!!!!
I'm not finding the success you talked about. I did 9 hours of CE wire in May and 4 more with local OMDs. None of them have been loaded into CE broker. When I search for courses, all that shows up are UHCO courses-go figure.

So since CE wire is an official provider, does that mean the hours will be sent in like before or do I have to manually put them in? Maybe I'm just stupid.
 
I'm not finding the success you talked about. I did 9 hours of CE wire in May and 4 more with local OMDs. None of them have been loaded into CE broker. When I search for courses, all that shows up are UHCO courses-go figure.

So since CE wire is an official provider, does that mean the hours will be sent in like before or do I have to manually put them in? Maybe I'm just stupid.
No you are not stupid. The Texas Optometry Board created an unnecessary hurdle.Do you have the free or concierge account?

Adam is on vacation this week but is monitoring ODwire.org so you might receive a definitive answer from the creator of CEwire this week. Possibly, other Texas ODs are running into difficulty as well getting their earned credits posted.
 
Yep, this post relates to others in terms of blame, whining, best practices, poor practices, not knowing better, not knowing at all… I’m about to the, “whatever,” stage.

But, many jurisdictions remain at developmental stages, their fault, another’s fault, no one’s fault… that’s the reality. D/T in 2022? Anti-standards in 2022? Anti-mobility in 2022? Anti-virtual in 2022? Pro-regulatory capture in 2022? Unwise.

There are research areas to discuss. Mistakes to avoid. Coordination to consider. But, much of this has been embarrassing and harmful. Yikes! I’m not sure how to reach folks in academia, advocacy, regulatory, and practice that want to dx disease, rx medications, inject, and laze without meeting the associated rules, standards, and accepted responsibilities.
The only way to modernize and expand our rights and privileges is by legislation and commitment.
 
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The TOB does, however, battle to allow ODS to practice as we wish without being pressured by non-ODs and corporations. This is an ongoing battle as everyone knows.

For example, in Texas our legislature made it illegal to require ODs to accept any vision plan as a requirement for acceptance on an insurance medical panel.

Of course, some major medical insurances play games like asking for your zip code and then stating that "Golly, it seems as though we do not need any more docs in that area."

Letters of complaint to the state insurance board do get their attention though.

Persistence is sometimes required, and lots of it.
 
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I'm not finding the success you talked about. I did 9 hours of CE wire in May and 4 more with local OMDs. None of them have been loaded into CE broker. When I search for courses, all that shows up are UHCO courses-go figure.

So since CE wire is an official provider, does that mean the hours will be sent in like before or do I have to manually put them in? Maybe I'm just stupid.
I'm having the same issues. Hopefully Adam can shed some light on this.
 
I'm having the same issues. Hopefully Adam can shed some light on this.
Read Jennifer's post (#3 in the thread), to quote it:

"So, I have the free basic "Classic" account and manually attached my individual "Certificate of Attendance" for self-reporting my CE classes. The CEWire2022 transcript is not advised for attachment-has to be the individual attendance certificate per course. My CE hours were all submitted successfully and now all of them appear on my CE Broker transcript! Remember for self-reporting: enter the course name exactly as it appears on the certificate, the number of hours earned per course, the type of class either "Diagnostic/Therapeutic"or "General", the provider name has to be "Proactive Optometric Physicians" that is entered in the CE Broker database for CEwire2022, the CE platform for "live interactive" Zoom webinar format for CEwire2022 is designated in two places; select "Live" and "Web-platform" not the other choices (conference, seminar, class). Then, attach your saved "Certificate of Attendance" PDF into the box that says "Drag or Browse". When it is attached, you have an "attestation" box that requires the OD to attest that everything is true/correct. After you confirm and click the attestation statement and press "submit", it is recorded into your transcript and you can then view your completed courses."

Remember you can download your individual certificates here:
https://www.odwire.org/community/pages/event-transcripts/

Click on "CEwire2022", you should get a list of certificates for the event, click on each one to download/print. you need to submit those into CEBroker. Sorry there is no more effective way for us to handle this -- I am still annoyed that TX would implement such as system. Imagine if all 50 states added on this extra layer...

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Read Jennifer's post (#3 in the thread), to quote it:

"So, I have the free basic "Classic" account and manually attached my individual "Certificate of Attendance" for self-reporting my CE classes. The CEWire2022 transcript is not advised for attachment-has to be the individual attendance certificate per course. My CE hours were all submitted successfully and now all of them appear on my CE Broker transcript! Remember for self-reporting: enter the course name exactly as it appears on the certificate, the number of hours earned per course, the type of class either "Diagnostic/Therapeutic"or "General", the provider name has to be "Proactive Optometric Physicians" that is entered in the CE Broker database for CEwire2022, the CE platform for "live interactive" Zoom webinar format for CEwire2022 is designated in two places; select "Live" and "Web-platform" not the other choices (conference, seminar, class). Then, attach your saved "Certificate of Attendance" PDF into the box that says "Drag or Browse". When it is attached, you have an "attestation" box that requires the OD to attest that everything is true/correct. After you confirm and click the attestation statement and press "submit", it is recorded into your transcript and you can then view your completed courses."

Remember you can download your individual certificates here:
https://www.odwire.org/community/pages/event-transcripts/

Click on "CEwire2022", you should get a list of certificates for the event, click on each one to download/print. you need to submit those into CEBroker. Sorry there is no more effective way for us to handle this -- I am still annoyed that TX would implement such as system. Imagine if all 50 states added on this extra layer...

ad


....and then you put your left foot in. You put your left foot out and you shake it all about. Then spin around three times, click your heels together, and spit on the floor.
 
....and then you put your left foot in. You put your left foot out and you shake it all about. Then spin around three times, click your heels together, and spit on the floor.
Again, the fact that the OE tracker system already exists and works well makes this infuriating, and should serve as a cautionary tale for any other board who is planning something similar.

I advise everyone to keep closer tabs on their state board -- because once a system like this is implemented, there is no turning back.

And for those who would criticize the OE Tracker and ARBO, let me just say even if there are problems, there is actual accountability. You can reach real human beings at ARBO [many who are your peers], who will listen and attempt to make changes wherever they can to make things smoother.

The alternative is what was implemented in TX and a few other states who have decided OE tracker wasn't enough.
 
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Congrats Adam!!

I logged onto the CE Broker in Texas and you are now listed as an official provider for the Texas Optometry Board!!! You are listed as "Proactive Optometric Physicians" under the "Provider" tab with the CE Broker Tracking #50-31610 and an expiration date of 5-16-2025.

The website www.cewire.org is also listed for people to access your CE. Fantastic Job!! You did it!!!

All Texas Optometrists thank you for your dedication and hard work to help us obtain these CE credits! I guess you can post the great news for all Texas attendees that they can now "self-report" their hours and attach the CEwire 2022 individual "Certificate of Attendance" with each "self-reported" class if they have the free, "basic" account.

If they purchase the "professional" or "concierge" account, then the CE Broker customer service agents will enter their CE hours for them after they send their CEwire 2022 transcript/attendance certificates to the CE Broker customer service agents.

Although each doctor can see the individual CE classes posted on their account with the free "basic" account, the paid plans allow the doctor to view their "official transcript" showing their "compliance" status. For questions, doctors can call CE Broker at 1-877-434-6323 from 8:00-8:00 (EST) Monday-Friday.

Thanks again for the excellent CEwire 2022 conference! The speakers/topics were exceptional!! Kudos and Cheers to your success with the Texas CE Broker!!!!
I'm looking into registering for CEwire2023 and it'd be my first time partaking in the CEwire conference. Do you know for TOB if these would count as live/live webinar or would they be online hours? TIA!

Also, if anyone knows how to change my flairs that'd be great bc I'm not preopt anymore HA.
 
I'm looking into registering for CEwire2023 and it'd be my first time partaking in the CEwire conference. Do you know for TOB if these would count as live/live webinar or would they be online hours? TIA!

Also, if anyone knows how to change my flairs that'd be great bc I'm not preopt anymore HA.
I've changed your flair :)

That's a good question -- any TX person want to give an answer? With COVID, it is hard for us to know what each state is doing in real-time. Some have kept their online CE rules loose, others have reverted to pre-pandemic attitudes towards online CE. :-(

thanks
adam