Headlines:
Medicare Crisis Averted for Now, ODs Expected to See 2012 Pay Increase
At the urging of the AOA and others, U.S. House and Senate leaders came together late last year to strike an eleventh-hour deal to avert a more than 27 percent cut to Medicare payments to doctors of optometry and other physicians scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, 2012.
This latest action to forestall scheduled pay cuts means that most physicians will continue to receive 2011 rates for Medicare services they provide through February. Though, as a result of AOA’s ongoing federal advocacy, many optometrists are on track to see even higher payments in 2012.
AOA tells White House and VSP: Our Profession must be Defined by Optometry
November 22, 2011
Friday I was once again at the White House to continue our push to make comprehensive eye exams the basis of the new health care law's essential pediatric vision benefit. As I left, I received an e-mail from VSP that served as a fresh reminder that optometry's future is not only threatened by organized medicine but also by other outside forces that want to define and control us.
I am surprised at both the tone and the not-so-subtle threats it contained to practicing optometrists, the AOA and the "leadership" of the AOA, i.e., me. Perhaps they wanted to distract doctors from the many other issues of concern between them and VSP, but the personal attack was a bit of a surprise. A large portion of the comments made by Dr. Mannen were not correct.
Current Health Care Reform News
- Two-Month Medicare Fee Fix Signed into Law, ODs Expected to See Pay Increase
- AOA Seizes Every Opportunity to Shape Pediatric Vision Care Essential Benefit
- AOA Partners with State Leaders to Help Illinois ODs Win Medicaid Physician Recognition
- DC Think Tank Joins with AOA to Expose Organized Medicine’s Hidden Agenda
- AOA’s School Readiness Summit Receives National Award for Efforts to Challenge Status Quo
- AOA Remains Engaged and Vigilant as Obama Administration Issues Health Overhaul Regulations
- AMA Commits to Renewed Attacks on AOA-Backed Provider Non-Discrimination Law
AOA Sees Early Gains as HHS Releases Essential Health Benefits Proposal
In the closing days of 2011, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released much-anticipated details of a substantial regulatory step which the agency is planning to take toward implementing a key optometry-backed provision of the 2010 health care overhaul law.
After months of determined advocacy in the nation’s capital and in cities and towns across the nation, HHS ultimately acknowledged in its recent essential health benefits proposal that the “pediatric vision care” essential health benefit would be centered on a comprehensive eye examination and not a screening offered alone or as part of a “well child” office visit.
Health Care Reform Resources
- AOA Members Only Summary of "Sunshine Act" Proposed Rule
- The Value of Optometry’s Participation in Health Insurance Exchanges
- AOA Comments on CMS Proposed Rule on Insurance Exchanges 2011
- School-Based Health Center Action Alert
- ODs Urged to Consider Increasing Use of E-prescribing, Participation in PQRS Program
- Administration Releases Guidance for New Small Business Health Care Tax Credit
- AOA Wins Historic Patient Access Victory
- AOA Advocacy Group Outline of National Health Care Overhaul Legislation
- All Health Care Reform Resources