- Optometry gets results and more work to do in Washington, DC
- Bolstered by courts, AOA demands VBM cease anti-doctor policies
- FTC issues new warnings on Contact Lens, Eyeglass rules
- Understanding the impact of Total Vision vs. VSP settlement for optometrists
- AOA priorities advance as U.S. House approves sweeping legislation
- U.S. senators introduce VBM reform bill amid growing plan scrutiny
- DOC Access Act reintroduced amid growing Capitol Hill vigor for VBM reform
- U.S. House, Senate approve VA OD physician-level recognition legislation
- Citing array of concerns and complaints, Congress ramps up scrutiny of vision benefit manager industry
- AOA-PAC Election Report: Optometry Has Outsized Impact on 2024 Elections
- How the AOA and affiliates are fighting for reimbursement and coverage fairness
- Are you ready for the Eyeglass Rule of 2024?
- NIH, NEI consolidation plan ‘jeopardizes’ vision research, draws AOA opposition
- Bill seeks better fix to Medicare Physician Fee Schedule cuts
- How Chevron ruling could impact optometry
- Takeaways from CMS’ proposed 2025 Physician Fee Schedule
- FTC issues 10-year Eyeglass Rule update as AOA renews demand for crackdown on medical device scammers
- AOA joins other groups seeking Supreme Court reversal of decision favoring ERISA authority
- AOA sees positives in federal children’s eye health legislation
- CMS heeds AOA recommendations on Medicare supplemental benefits
- 'All the advocacy firepower’ called up at AOA on Capitol Hill
- What optometry’s advocates are championing at AOA on Capitol Hill
- Capitol Hill inquiries into plan abuses are expanding
- Vision plan abuses top of mind? Register for AOA’s town hall on reimbursement, coverage fairness advocacy
- 15 advocacy highlights of 2023
- CMS takes aim at Medicare Advantage plans misrepresenting vision benefits
- Fighting for veterans, fighting for optometry
- AOA: No letting up on Eyeglass Rule advocacy
- AOA and AFOS: ‘Cut through the noise’ and empower licensed doctors of optometry to provide greater access to care to veterans
- A force to reckon with
- U.S. House investigative committee calls for scrutiny of vision plans
- Retail optical lobbying group name change allays AOA, affiliate concerns
- Doctors of optometry challenge reasoning behind proposed Eyeglass Rule changes at FTC workshop
- Contact lens safety legislation proposes banning robocalls
- Help voice optometry’s priorities at AOA on Capitol Hill: Here’s how
- Part of the solution: Optometry groups join AOA in submitting actionable solutions for workforce shortages
- Hatch Act permits issue advocacy by doctors of optometry
- AOA makes robust rebuttal to FTC over proposed changes to Eyeglass Rule
- DOC Access Act introduced amid growing patient calls for Congress to act
- bill seeks advancement for VA doctors of optometry
- Are you adhering to the Contact Lens Rule
- AOA decries misleading Medicare Advantage advertising
- Gaining access A win for veterans and doctors of optometry
- Congress heeds AOA’s call to stop Medicare pay cuts, but lawmakers’ plan falls short
- Proactive advocacy gets early eyeglass rule gains, notice of potential new burden
- AOA PAC plays outsized role in 2022 midterm elections
- Veterans notch win as VA rescinds restrictive language governing community ODs
- Supporting Medicare Providers Act
- Federal student loan forgiveness: What to know
- Medicare Pay Cuts 2022
- 2022 Capitol Hill Recap
- AOA and South Carolina doctors expose and defeat retail lobby group’s influence scheme
- Medicare Pay Cuts March 2022
- Hold Medicare Advantage plans accountable
- Hubble Contacts slapped with 3.5 million penalties restrictions and supervision
- Medicare pay cuts, once delayed, looming without Congressional action
- Bipartisan AOA-backed bill targeting abusive discount plans gets boost from policy-expert report delivered to Congress
- Advocacy in optometry
- U.S. House, consumer groups mull federal action against DTC contact lens sales schemes
- Medicare Cuts Averted
- Medicare vision efforts fizzle 10 percent pay cuts still loom
- Optometry’s advocates going FAR beyond the call
- Lawmakers host AOA, patient and consumer advocates for VBM abuse briefing as Congress expands probes
- AOA-AFOS make case to Department of Veterans Affairs for access-boosting national practice standards
- Medicare expansion: The long road to here and now
- House pens Medicare vision benefits
- Congress sets deadline to ink Medicare vision expansion language
- White House extends student loan relief, AOA continues push for NHSC inclusion
- 4 questions about Medicare vision expansion answered
- AOA, AFOS work to ensure optometry well represented in formation of national practice standards by Veterans Affairs
- Medicare expansion
- Congress urges administration to fully implement provider nondiscrimination law
- Medicare Vision Expansion
- AOA-backed DOC Access Act reintroduced to combat anti-competitive vision plans
- 2021 Virtual AOA on Capitol Hill Wrap-up
- Contact lens prescription verification failings targeted by new legislation
- Advocacy Bootcamp
- Medicare Telehealth Expansion
- 2 percent Medicare sequester delayed
- Doctors of optometry obtain 2.1 billion in federal relief
- CL rule takes effect
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- Expanded COVID-19 vaccinator workforce includes doctors and students of optometry
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- Congress’ COVID-19 relief package HHS funds-ERC extension
- Why staff involvement is critical
- 2021 Virtual AOA on Capitol Hill
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- Congress President Biden asked to activate optometry for COVID-19 vaccination response
- AOA- AOSA-backed federal student loan relief extended through September
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- AOA-backed DOC Access Act gains U.S. Senate companion
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- AOA address increased cost personal protective equipment
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- AOA mobilizes for doctors in national response to pandemic
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- DOC Access Act fights harmful vision plan abuses
- AOA on Capitol Hill 2019
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- 2018 AOA on Capitol Hill makes history
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- FTC contact lens paperwork proposal update
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- Californias congressional delegation joins bi-partisan call to stop FTC paperwork proposal
- Every doc has their day—on the Hill
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- FTC Contact Lens Rule Workshop
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- Medicare pay cuts loom without Congress action
New era ahead for Department of Veterans Affairs Optometry Service and doctors of optometry
July 8, 2021
With the recent retirement of John Townsend, O.D., as head of the VA’s Optometry Service, the Armed Forces Optometric Society and the AOA look forward to working together on continuing to build up access and care for veterans and their families.
Tag(s): Advocacy, Federal Advocacy
Before adjourning, the AOA House of Delegates at the 2021 Optometry’s Meeting ® was asked to acknowledge the service of John Townsend, O.D., who headed the Optometry Service for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for over two decades.
The Armed Forces Optometric Society (AFOS) saluted Townsend’s service with a letter read to all delegates and the AOA Board of Trustees. The letter congratulated Townsend on his service to the profession, including:
- Serving as director of the Optometric Service for the VA for the past 21 years. His retirement was effective June 30.
- Leading efforts to improve veterans’ access to quality optometric care.
- Teaching future doctors of optometry at the West Los Angeles VA Healthcare System and at Southern California College of Optometry.
Dr. Townsend previously served as chair of the Clinical Guidelines Coordinating Committee for the AOA, representative to the American National Standards Institute Committee Z80 for Ophthalmic Standards affiliate member of the Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry, as well as affiliations with the National Eye Health Education Program, National Eye Institute, and National Institutes of Health. Further, he was inducted as a Distinguished Practitioner into the National Academy of Practice in Optometry within the National Academies of Practice.
“Dr. Townsend has worked tirelessly to grow the profession of optometry within the VA over his 20+ years as director of VA optometry services,” says Carla Engelke, O.D., past AFOS president. “Through the years, he has fostered a vital relationship with AFOS and the AOA that is a reflection of his dedication to the advancement of federal-service optometry. His wisdom will be missed, and I wish him well on his deserved retirement.
“AFOS looks forward to working with his successor on issues affecting the care of veterans and their families,” Dr. Engelke says.
Leading the way
AFOS, working with the AOA, has worked to advance the profession by pushing for doctors of optometry to practice at the fullest scope of their education and training and fighting for recognition of their role in the eye health and vision care of the country’s veterans.
Among their most recent achievements:
- In August 2020, the VA rescinded restrictive language in a 15-year-old directive that effectively limited veteran access to therapeutic laser eye procedures at VA medical facilities by prohibiting these procedures by doctors of optometry.
- Prior to eliminating the laser ban, the VA put forth a new policy in April 2020 underscoring that veterans are best served when all VA doctors of optometry and other essential care providers deliver care with full practice authority. These aforementioned changes to language in the VA Eye Care Handbook represent a significant pathway to seek full recognition of care for doctors of optometry who are licensed and trained to provide this level of care—and an opportunity that has been over a decade in the making.
During the scope battles of the 1970s through the 1990s over the use of therapeutic drugs and ophthalmic drugs for diagnostic purposes, AFOS and military services worked with the Pennsylvania College of Optometry to train and certify doctors of optometry in diagnostic and therapeutic pharmaceuticals. Doctors in the military had gotten those drug privileges before civilian doctors and worked on behalf of the entire profession to gain the same for all.
And during those not-so-distant scope battles, AFOS and the AOA successfully fought to remove optometry from under the supervision of ophthalmology and establish a separate service within military medical departments. Many states later utilized this new structure to ward off attempts to have optometry be under ophthalmology in state licensing laws.
Continuing advocacy
Dr. Townsend continued fighting for increased veteran access to doctors of optometry up to and including the day he retired. He continued working hard to position optometry for the forthcoming VA National Practice Standards, which are being created to aid implementation of the new VA-Department of Defense electronic health records system. The new practice standards will outline the services a VA doctor of optometry may or may not perform and could have an outsized impact on future state scope of practice battles.
The American Medical Association and ophthalmology, recognizing the impact the new standards could have on state scope battles, are calling on VA officials to align the new standards with the most restrictive state scope of practice for optometry. However, lawmakers and veteran advocates know what is at stake for veterans and are pushing back against organized medicine. So far, leading members of the U.S. House Veterans Affairs Committee and the House Appropriations VA Subcommittee have joined with one of the oldest and most respected national veteran service organizations, AMVETS, in demanding that VA make the new standards as broad and inclusive as possible for doctors of optometry.
The AOA expects the practice standards to be finalized in the coming months. To learn more and to find out how you can help, including by connecting with your members of Congress and urging that they join the AOA and their state’s veterans in this fight, please contact advocacy@aoa.org. Learn more on how you can help expand access to needed care.