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Patient Assistance Programs

posted by: Janet Swartz, EdD

During an NGS webinar on patient compliance, Dr. Elizabeth Muckley shared information about patient assistance programs for Allergan and Novartis products. Click on these links for the patient assistance websites: Allergan Patient Assistance and Novartis Foundation Patient Assistance. Applications for each program can be downloaded below.

January 19, 2025

Four Hours of Intense Glaucoma Education on a Sunday morning from the comfort of your own home.  Join the All Stars for this exceptional program to start off 2025.  Listen to Drs. Rob Noecker, Justin Schweitzer, Jason Bacharach, and Jim Thimons.  

NGS WEBINARS 2025

Webinars will begin in January 2025.  Happy Thanksgiving

NGS PROGRAMS FALL 2023

The NGS Wednesday webinars will begin on September 13 with two webinars a month in September through December. There  also will be an in-person program on October 8 in Malvern, PA with 8 hours of CE.  All programs will be submitted for COPE approval.  (Please Note: There are no NGS programs this summer.)

NGS WEBINARS SPRING 2023

NGS webinars will take place twice a month in March to May, 2023, followed by a break from the webinars over the summer. 

COPE RULES FOR INTERACTIVE WEBINARS 2023

As of January 2023, COPE will include interactive webinars in the same category as in-person lectures, with no post-test required. CE will be categorized as either Synchronous (lecturer and learner are together at the same time, either in-person or virtually, with real-time communication) or Asynchronous (lecturer and learner are not together at same time, no real-time communication). Interactive webinars will be labeled Synchronous Virtual CE for courses and activities submitted after January 1 (interactive webinars approved before January 1 may still be labeled Online Interactive courses or Interactive Distance Learning events). Please Note: State Boards may restrict the number of Synchronous Virtual hours of CE allowed for license renewal; check with your State Board for the latest regulations.

LIVE WEBINARS = LIVE CE IN MASSACHUSETTS

At their December 15, 2021 meeting, the Massachusetts Board of Optometry specified that a live webinar where speakers and attendees can interact in real-time are considered to be live CE. The Board clarified that distance learning CE courses, which are limited to 6 hours per renewal cycle, are those where the licensees are reading content or observing media on their own with no interaction with the instructor. Thus, the COPE-approved interactive NGS webinars count as live CE for MA optometrists.

CE BROKER FOR TEXAS OPTOMETRISTS

The NGS will submit attendance data to CE Broker for Texas optometrists who attend our webinars.  We will continue to mail CE certificates so attendees have a copy for their records and also will send attendance data to ARBO's OE Tracker. 

PENNSYLVANIA CE REGULATIONS

The Pennsylvaia Board of Optometry will allow all CE to be online for the renewal period that ends November 30, 2022. Starting December 1, 2022, revised regulations allow for up to 50% of the CE requirements (15 out of 30 ours) to be online. 

CALIFORNIA ALLOWS LIVE WEBINARS AS LIVE CE

The California Board of Optometry now recognizes interactive courses offered live over internet platforms such as WebEx as Live CE toward the 30 hours of live continuing education required for license renewal. Courses can be live COPE courses offered by COPE's June 30, 2021 deadline or courses approved by the Board.