State Advocacy
State Advocacy Summit amplifies lessons from year of historic scope victories
Advancing Optometry: State Advocacy Summit 2021, Aug. 30-31, is a virtual opportunity for state advocacy volunteers and leaders, and optometry’s advocates, to collaborate on best practices.
Texas scope expansion gains doctors of optometry oral meds, glaucoma authority
Texas becomes the latest state to achieve a significant scope expansion in 2021, earning doctors’ authority to prescribe oral eye medications and independently manage glaucoma.
History made: Wyoming expands scope to include contemporary laser, excision procedures
Wyoming’s approval of contemporary optometric procedures, including laser and excision authorities, goes down in history as the first time in a single year that two states accomplished the scope expansion.
Mississippi scope progresses, other states seeing early successes
Mississippi zeros in on becoming the latest state to authorize certain laser procedures while other state affiliates report positive progress with their own legislation.
Equip to Expand Scope
8 states authorize doctors of optometry to give COVID-19 vaccinations: The latest
Congresswoman encourages federal recognition of optometry’s utility in COVID-19 vaccinations nationwide as more states activate doctors of optometry alongside new vaccine developments.
Massachusetts scope win adds glaucoma authority
A scope expansion years in the making was signed into law with a comprehensive health care and telehealth bill on New Year’s Day.
Going further
The practice of optometry cannot move forward without expanding advocacy efforts and educational and professional development efforts. Are you ready to take your practice—and your profession—to the next level?
Big scope expansion victories earned in Pennsylvania, Iowa, despite a turbulent year
While 2020 will be remembered for the COVID-19 crisis, AOA affiliates, including Arkansas, managed to successfully navigate the pandemic and opposition from ophthalmology to expand care for treating patients.
BREAKING: Optometry, patients win in Arkansas as ballot challenge to expanded practice law is invalidated
The high court’s ruling ends the current bid by an ophthalmology-backed effort to place the state’s new optometric scope of practice act on the ballot for November.
Court-appointed official deems signatures at heart of Arkansas scope saga invalid
The development comes as Arkansans for Healthy Eyes fights a well-funded, ophthalmologist-led group vying to dismantle the state’s scope of practice law in November’s election.