NASHVILLE—Held here in 'Music City,' the third annual Specialty Health Summit held jointly by the National Association of Vision Care Plans and the National Association of Specialty Health Organizations featured the musically related theme "Specialty Health: Creating Harmony in a Discordant Market." Almost 200 specialty health and managed vision care executives, optical retailers, and other vision industry leaders tackled topics ranging from the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, disruptive refraction technologies, online retailing and other trends affecting specialty health in general and managed vision care specifically. View VM's Specialty Health Summit slideshow here to see who was in attendance and some of the presenters.
NASHO/NAVCP 2014 Specialty Health Summit »
(L to R) Among the NASHO/NAVCP leaders at the Specialty Health Summit were NASHO/NAVCP executive director Julian Roberts with NAVCP chair Aspasia Shappet and NASHO chair Andrew Alcorn.
NASHO/NAVCP 2014 Specialty Health Summit »
The event launched with "Southern Nights: An Evening with Nashville's Rising Stars," an opening reception featuring country music singer/songwriters.
NASHO/NAVCP 2014 Specialty Health Summit »
Stating that the Affordable Care Act is "very confusing for providers and insurance companies," U.S. Congressman Diane Black (R) of the Sixth District of Tennessee told the audience about some bills she's supporting to help improve it.
NASHO/NAVCP 2014 Specialty Health Summit »
Lovejoy Eyecare Consulting's Wally Lovejoy met with Vision Source's president/CEO Jim Greenwood.
NASHO/NAVCP 2014 Specialty Health Summit »
VSP Vision Care's president Jim McGrann (l) and National Vision's CEO Reade Fahs.
NASHO/NAVCP 2014 Specialty Health Summit »
Carol Misso, Superior Vision's VP of marketing, with Al Bernstein, president/CEO of Nationwide Optical Group, recently acquired by Refac Optical Group.
NASHO/NAVCP 2014 Specialty Health Summit »
(L to R) United Healthcare's Linda Chous, OD, and Philip Kaufman with the American Optometric Center Third Party Center's Lendy Pridgen.
NASHO/NAVCP 2014 Specialty Health Summit »
Prevent Blindness's president/CEO Hugh Parry with PFO Global's EVP Steve Brewer.
NASHO/NAVCP 2014 Specialty Health Summit »
Wilson Eye Center's Steven Wilson, OD, (l) with EyeMed's VP John Lahr, OD, FAAO.
NASHO/NAVCP 2014 Specialty Health Summit »
Ocuco's Janet Johnson, RO, and VisionWeb's Julia Crawford.
NASHO/NAVCP 2014 Specialty Health Summit »
Transition Optical's Cory Lawson and Smith Wyckoff.
NASHO/NAVCP 2014 Specialty Health Summit »
Opternative's CEO/co-founder Aaron Dallek presented an online refraction technique that generated much discussion from the audience.