Headlines:
Straight Talk on the New National Health Care Law and Vision Plans:
A Message to Optometry from Dr. Mike Kriedler, Optometrist, former Member of Congress, and Washington Insurance Commissioner
Under the new law, stand-alone vision plans, including VSP, may participate in health insurance exchanges in every state, but they must do so by contracting with qualified health plans which must offer coverage that is seamless for patients and doctors. That this means these companies will no longer be able to limit optometric care only to vision services is a major victory for optometry, though I understand these companies are irresponsibly and selfishly claiming otherwise.
Do something that scares you!
February 9, 2012
This time of year I find myself resolving and cleaning. Each year, Mark and I sit down to set our goals for the upcoming year. We started this the year we were married. It might have had something to do with opening our first practice within two years of our wedding, but regardless, we’ve kept up the tradition.
Usually we have five or six goals that we write on a piece of paper and put them in a file for safekeeping. Sometimes the goals are personal: He wants to better his time in a cross-country ski race. Sometimes they are project-related: Remodel the basement bathroom. Sometimes they are financial: Pay off the loan on the lake cabin. And every year something relates to optometry: Switch over to electronic health records. One year we wrote down: “See every baby born in the county for an InfantSEE® exam.”
Current Health Care Reform News
- Medicare Crisis Averted for Now, ODs Expected to See 2012 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