Veterans Eye Care

AOA Federal Priority: Expanding Veterans’ Access to Optometry-Provided Care

America's veterans deserve access to quality eye health and vision care, when and where they need it. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) doctors of optometry provide the vast majority of essential primary and medical eye care services. In fact, eye and vision care is the third-most requested service by vetern patients, behind only primary care and mental health care.

• VA optometrists provide roughly three-quarters of the essential primary and medical eye care services that veterans receive each year
• VA optometrists practice at 95% of VA sites where eye care is offered and are often the only licensed independent eye care practitioner available. 
• VA optometrists provide 73% of the 2.5 million selected ophthalmic procedures and nearly 99% of services in low vision clinics and blind rehabilitation centers.

The AOA urges Congress and the VA to ensure veterans have guaranteed access to the full range of care optometrists are educated, trained and licensed to provide. As the VA updates its Eye Care Directive and issues new Optometry National Standards of Practice, it is critical that VA policy reflect the real-world needs of veterans and the proven role optometry plays in delivering timely, high-quality care.

ISSUE BRIEF    ACTION CENTER

The Case for Access: Why It Matters

• Growing demand for care: Vision and eye health care is one of the most requested services by veterans, and demand continues to grow as veterans require timely access to primary, medical and rehabilitative eye care.
  
  
• Access where veterans live: Doctors of optometry practice in more than 10,000 communities and counties that account for 99% of the U.S. population. In 39% of U.S. counties or county-equivalents, patients have access to a doctor of optometry but not an ophthalmologist.
  
  
• Aligning VA care with other programs: VA Community Care, Medicare, Medicaid, the Indian Health Service and major private payers already defer to state laws recognizing the care doctors of optometry are licensed to provide. VA in-house care should do the same.
  
  
• Reducing delays and travel burdens: Allowing VA doctors of optometry to provide the full range of care permitted under state law can help reduce wait times, avoid unnecessary referrals, limit multiple Community Care encounters and keep veterans closer to the provider of their choice.
  
  
• Protecting veterans’ choice: Veterans should have at least the same access to optometry-provided care as other patients in their states, including those covered by federal programs and private insurance.

WATCH: VA Subcommittee on Health Oversight hearing makes failed attempt to undermine Optometry

Federal Action: What AOA is Doing

The AOA is working with Members of Congress, leading Veterans Service Organizations (VSOs) and other advocates to ensure the VA fully recognizes the role of doctors of optometry in meeting veterans' eye health and vision care needs.

• The AOA urges congress to make clear to the VA that veterans need and deserve gauranteed access to the full range of care optometrists are trained and licensed to provide as the department updates its Eye Care Directive and issues new Optometry National Standards of Practice.
  
  
• The AOA supports efforts to ensure recent Congressional action to boost VA optometry recruitment and retention—including physician-level recognition and market-based pay—translates into stronger access to care for veterans across the country.

America’s veterans have earned access to the care they need. The AOA will continue fighting to ensure VA policy recognizes doctors of optometry as essential providers of primary, medical and advanced eye care for the veterans they serve.

Questions? Please direct questions regarding the AOA's federal priorities to our Federal Advocacy Team.

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