Optometry's Meeting 2027: June 16-19, Boston
The AOA holds Optometry's Meeting on June 16-19, 2027 in Boston. It leans further toward advocacy, scope, and profession-level policy than the trade shows do, and those are the things that change what an optometry practice can bill for. Sorso is not an exhibitor, sponsor, or speaker at this event. This is an independent prep guide for optometry practice owners.
The CFO read
The recurring pattern in optometry is a practice billing routine vision for visits that were medical, because the routine code is the habit and the plan pays without argument. It is usually worth more than any vendor negotiation on the exhibit floor, and you can measure it yourself with a coding audit on one month of charts. Do that before Boston. The policy sessions will read very differently once you know what your own mix looks like.
— Stanislav Sukhinin, CFA · Founder, Sorso
Why this matters for your bottom line
Scope of practice is decided state by state, and it directly sets what an optometrist can perform and bill. A scope change is a revenue change, which makes the policy track a financial session whether it is labelled one or not.
Vision plan contracting terms shape the exam side of the business more than fee schedules do. Owners who have never modelled the practice without their largest vision plan do not know what that contract is really worth.
The medical side of optometry pays better than routine vision and is systematically under-billed by practices that default to a routine code. That gap is measurable in your own data before anyone teaches you about it.
Independent practice economics are the through-line of the association programme, particularly as private equity and corporate optometry expand. Knowing your own valuation drivers makes those sessions concrete.
What to look for
State scope of practice updates and what each newly permitted procedure reimburses
Vision plan contracting sessions, including what leaving a plan actually does to volume
Medical optometry billing: coding for medical eye visits rather than routine vision
Practice transition, valuation, and succession sessions for independent owners
Staffing and delegation models that free doctor time for billable care
Advocacy updates with a direct line to reimbursement
Financial prep checklist
Review these before you go.
Split revenue between routine vision and medical eye care and compare the two per visit
Model your practice without your largest vision plan: volume lost against margin gained
Audit coding on medical eye visits to see how often a routine code is used where a medical one applies
Calculate revenue per doctor hour and how much of that hour is spent on delegable work
Review your optical capture rate alongside exam volume, since the two move together
Note which scope changes in your state would let you bill for care you currently refer out
What it costs to send someone
Registration is the line everyone budgets first. It is rarely the one that decides whether the trip was worth it.
Registration
The AOA has published dates and city and opened a priority registration alert rather than rates. Budget from your last attendance, and check whether membership status changes the fee before you assume it.
Coverage and lost production
Four days in June is four days of closed lanes for a single-doctor practice. Exam revenue lost to the trip is the dominant cost, well ahead of travel to Boston.
Who else travels
Owners often travel with a spouse who also works in the practice, or with the office manager. Either way the coverage gap widens along with the bill.
What comes back as a deduction
IRS Publication 463 allows the travel deduction for a convention where “your attendance benefits your trade or business,” on the ordinary rules for travel away from home. Meals are generally limited to 50% of the unreimbursed cost. Keep the agenda with the receipts, and confirm the treatment with whoever signs your return.
No rates are quoted here. The organizer had published none when we last checked this page against their site on 10 August 2026, and travel is yours to price for your own dates anyway. The point of the list is that the two lines owners leave out, coverage and headcount, are the ones that decide the real number.
Before Optometry's Meeting 2027, get your own numbers straight
Walk in able to check every benchmark on the slides against your own numbers. Three ways owners start with us:
Fractional CFO
Strategic CFO for $3M–$50M clinics
Forecasts, location-level P&L, and exit prep. Starts at $4,000/mo.
Explore Fractional CFO →Accounting
Healthcare-specialist accounting
Books done right by people who understand clinic finance. Starts at $2,000/mo.
Explore Accounting →Free Assessment
A financial checkup before you go
Four minutes. See where your practice stands so every session is measured against your own numbers.
Take the assessment →Going to Optometry's Meeting 2027?
Tell us, and we will look at coming to meet you.
Stan does not have a ticket booked for this one yet. If enough clinic owners want to sit down there, that is what decides it. Register interest and we will confirm either way well before the dates — no obligation, and we will not add you to a mailing list.
Register interest in meeting →
Founder of Sorso and a CFA charterholder. Before Sorso, Stan spent 19 years in corporate finance at institutions including UniCredit and Société Générale — managing a $450M loan portfolio and making senior partner at a major mezzanine lender by 29 — then built a fractional CFO firm exclusively for outpatient healthcare clinics.