- Study: ‘Unprecedented’ optometry scope of practice expansion benefits patients
- Major victory for West Virginia patients, optometrists
- North Dakota secures telemedicine provisions, ignites grassroots advocacy
- How to build productive relationships with legislators
- Why you should fight for scope expansion
- Committee spotlight: AOA’s State Government Relations Committee
- How Arkansas’ major VBM law delivers on calls to promote fairness, doctor-patient relationships
- Texas optometrists mount defense in court and legislature of landmark law on vision plan abuses
- The case for expanding scope of optometry
- In rural America, opportunity for optometry amid shortfall of ophthalmologists
- Destination: Scope expansion
- Double duty: Doctors of optometry bring their vision to state legislatures
- 'High value' strategy sessions prep states’ advocacy
- VBM abuses scrutinized by state policy think tank, U.S. Senate opens new investigation
- AOA, affiliates’ foundational advocacy work advancing optometry
- South Carolina judge overrules Visibly challenge to consumer protection law
- Oklahoma secures optometry’s latest win over vision plan abuses
- ‘Profits over patients cannot continue’ with VBMs; Texas testifies at health insurance hearing
- Kentucky attorney general holds Warby Parker accountable for its online vision test
- New York assembly bill potentially sows division in health care
- California warily watches ‘not-a-doctor’ wording in Senate bill
- Latest: Texas defends landmark vision plan law
- West Virginia adds optometric surgical procedures
- Florida optometrists quash effort—again—to pass ‘not-a-doctor’ bill
- South Dakota secures scope expansion for injections, optometric laser procedures
- Affiliates, AOA preparing for fresh attacks on optometry: 'Not-a-doctor' bills are back
- Texas vision plan law, now in effect, sees favorable development in federal lawsuit
- Proposal in Utah would restrict contact lens patient choice, disrupt doctor-patient relationship
- Affiliates, AOA share forward-thinking strategies for optometry’s advocates
- Texas’ vision plan law takes effect, court challenge continues
- Doctors of optometry in New Hampshire earn authorization to provide vaccines to public
- New Texas law halts vision plans’ anti-competitive, monopolistic behaviors
- YAG procedures by doctors of optometry, after cataract surgery, better for patients’ care and convenience, AOA survey says
- Affiliates’ advocacy teams prepare to convene for meeting of the minds
- Doctors of optometry in Texas and Nevada build bulwark against vision plan abuses
- DeSantis decision delivers historic win for Florida optometrists and patients
- AOA and state affiliates rally to decry and defeat discriminatory ‘not-a-doctor’ bills
- Optometry’s scope wins draw new attacks from medical and ophthalmology groups
- Regional Advocacy Meetings prime states’ advocates for 2023 battles and beyond
- Hubble Contacts fined for deceptive trade practices in Texas
- Scope victory for Colorado
- Regional Advocacy Meetings strengthen states advocacy
- Virginia scope advancement
- 1-800 Contacts’ attempt to undermine law thwarted by Georgia doctors yet again
- MOA rebuff insurers reprisals against Mississippi eye care providers
- New York gains oral medication prescribing authority
- California amends optometry’s approved treatments, medications and testing
- Kansas Insurance Department puts vision plans on notice
- State advocates fighting to defend and advance our profession
- The scope of success
- State Advocacy Summit amplifies lessons from year of historic scope victories
- Texas scope expansion gains doctors oral meds, glaucoma authority
- Wyoming expands scope to include contemporary laser-excision procedures
- Mississippi scope progresses, other states seeing early successes
- 7 states authorize doctors of optometry for COVID-19 vaccinations
- Massachusetts scope win adds glaucoma authority
- Going further-expanding advocacy efforts and educational and professional development efforts
- Pennsylvania and Iowa earn big victories to expand scope of practice
- Optometry patients win in Arkansas as ballot challenge to expanded practice law is invalidated
- VSP policy change may violate states patient protection laws
- Court-appointed official deems signatures at heart of Arkansas scope saga invalid
- Arkansas scope saga necessitates urgent action
- Scope expansion to save Americans billions annually
- State Government Relations Center presenting at Republican Attorneys General Association
- Arkansas secures expanded scope of practice
- Maryland expands scope of practice
- AOA state affiliates blaze path for optometry’s future
- Optometry can contribute high-quality health care at affordable prices
- AOA president Driving change
- NJ Vision Plan Bill 2018
- Massachusetts seeks glaucoma care expansion
- Alaska-Georgia legislative victories
- South Carolina legislators override veto safeguard patients vision health
- Georgia Nebraska advance patient centered legislation
- Indiana navigates telehealth bill exempts ophthalmic devices
- FTC DOJ weigh in on Massachusetts glaucoma care expansion
- Arizona No on contact lens prescription extension
- Kentucky heralds third party triumph in new law
- State association challenges mobile refractive service
- Texas doctor successfully challenges Aetna’s policy on panels
- Proposed state legislation doesnt address patient safety
- AOA steps up fight against 1 800 Contacts anti patient legislation
- Louisiana Governor Jindal signs expanded scope of practice bill
What kind of impact is optometry making on the nation’s eye health?
May 30, 2024
New study by economists underscores the role of optometry and how scope of practice expansion bodes well for patients and doctors.
Tag(s): Advocacy, State Advocacy
Eye health rose in the U.S., commensurate with the state-by-state granting of prescription authority to doctors of optometry starting in the 1970s, three economists write in an article recently published in Contemporary Economic Policy.
In “Seeing is believing: The effect of optometrist scope of practice expansion,” researchers cite three important milestones: prescription authority, for diagnostic purposes in the 1970s and then later therapeutic pharmaceutical agents; the growth in their numbers from 11.06 per 100,000 to 16.11 per 100,000 between 1990 and 2017; and in 1986, when Medicare classified optometrists as medical doctors, making them eligible for reimbursement for their care.
Key takeaways, according to co-authors and West Virginia University economists Kihwan Bae, Ph.D., and Edward Timmons, Ph.D., and University of Minnesota Duluth economist Protik Nandy, Ph.D., are:
- Health care providers should be permitted to do the work they are trained to perform.
- Their work suggests that allowing optometrists to treat patients is associated with a decline in vision impairment of 12%.
- There is evidence of larger declines in vision impairment for non-white patients. As a result, permitting optometrists to treat patients narrowed historical disparities in vision outcomes.
“Vision impairment declined (despite a lag) by 12% on average over a 15‐year period after the policy change,” the researchers write. “The effect was not instant but emerged 6 years after the policy change. Moreover, the policy brought a larger decline in vision impairment among the non‐white population, who might have more limited access to medical care than whites. Also, TPA prescription authority is associated with about a 13% increase in hourly wages among optometrists who are not self‐employed.”
This is especially consequential as the number of ophthalmologists is on the decline.
Study reinforces AOA messages
As more AOA state affiliates pursue scope expansion legislation, this analysis confirms the AOA’s position that doctors of optometry are trained, educated and certified to safely perform these advanced procedures. Recent years have brought historic gains across the country with a growing number of states (12) now permitting doctors of optometry to perform office-based ophthalmic laser procedures.
The study conclusions come as no surprise to doctors of optometry, nevertheless the results underscore the value of the profession and the need for greater scope expansion.
“We are obviously pleased about this study,” says Johndra McNeely, O.D., chair of the AOA State Government Relations Committee. “We are a huge asset to the health care community.”
What might the study say about future modernization efforts?
“Each and every scope advancement in optometry has been a win for the patient, and laser adoption will be no different,” Dr. McNeely says. “Especially looking at the treatment of glaucoma-SLT laser therapy sometimes now considered for some patients.
“First-line treatment of glaucoma adoption of laser privileges will only increase the decrease in disparities (better health outcomes, less vision impairment), especially in Black and Hispanic populations that are at higher risk for glaucoma,” she says.
Say the researchers: “These findings have important implications on ongoing policy debates on scope of practice expansions of optometrists and other health care practitioners to meet the rapidly growing demand for medical services given the limited supply of physicians.”
Expansions in provider scope of practice may help alleviate disparities in health care outcomes for Black and Hispanic individuals, they add.
Attend regional advocacy meetings
The AOA’s State Government Relations Committee (SGRC) Regional Advocacy Meetings are pivotal opportunities for grassroots advocates, affiliate leaders and volunteers to compare playbooks for successful statehouse strategies. Save the date for the 2024 SGRC Regional Advocacy Meetings:
- SGRC Regional Advocacy Meeting Eastern
Aug. 9-10 | Charlotte, North Carolina
- SGRC Regional Advocacy Meeting Central
Sept. 13-14 | Dallas, Texas
- SGRC Regional Advocacy Meeting Western
Oct. 4-5 | Seattle, Washington
Affiliate advocacy teams are encouraged to join any of the three regional meetings. Visit the event pages above for more information about these highly interactive meetings.