Optometry's Meeting® 2023 News

Advocate, collaborate, elevate: Optometry’s Meeting® 2023 kicks off

June 21, 2023

Nearly 5,000 doctors of optometry, optometric students, paraoptometrics and others are expected to attend the profession’s premier annual event, aligning four days of networking and leadership opportunities alongside a slate of progressive continuing education and professional development, an expansive Eye Care Square exhibit hall, impactful networking and a unique focus on professional advocacy in the nation’s capital. Stay in the know by following Optometry’s Meeting on Facebook and Twitter and watch for daily news updates from the profession’s premier meeting, posted at aoa.org/news. Get the latest by following the official hashtag, #OM2023, on the meeting’s dedicated live-running social wall.

Optometry’s advocates prep for Capitol Hill meetings

June 21, 2023

Over 650 doctors of optometry, students, staff and advocacy experts convened for the first of two AOA on Capitol Hill issues briefings held during Optometry’s Meeting. Only blocks away from the U.S. Capitol, the briefing sessions in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center provided a forum opportunity for optometry’s advocates to dive deeper into the four priority issues they will champion across 430 individual meetings with members of Congress this week. Follow optometry’s advocacy during AOA on Capitol Hill using the hashtag #EyesontheHill23 or on the Optometry’s Meeting live-running social wall and keep reading to learn more about these four priorities.  

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Stopping health, vision plan abuses at federal level

June 21, 2023

Optometry’s advocates received a briefing on the Dental and Optometric Care (DOC) Access Act, H.R. 1385 / S. 1424, key federal legislation to push back against anti-patient, anti-doctor policies implemented by health insurers and vision plans. Jointly championed by the AOA and the American Dental Association, the DOC Access Act would complement state laws to prohibit plans from (1) limiting patients’ and doctors’ choice of labs, and (2) price fixing for noncovered services and materials.

“The vision coverage system is broken,” says Tracy Sepich, O.D., AOA Federal Relations Committee member.

Right now, Congress is talking about lack of competition, insurer consolidation, lack of plan benefit transparency, rising costs and vertical integration, Dr. Sepich says, so the DOC Access Act comes at a pertinent time.

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Related stories: DOC Access Act gains Senate companion 

Resources: DOC Access Act Fact Sheet 

Protecting seniors’ access to critical eye, vision care

June 21, 2023

Stability in Medicare reimbursements also remains a crucial policy point as optometry’s advocates look to garner congressional support for legislation that would reform current payment policies. The Strengthening Medicare for Patients and Providers Act, H.R. 2474, would apply an inflationary update to help bring budgetary stability as doctors still contend with a range of economic factors.

“The system by which Medicare physicians are reimbursed is broken and unsustainable,” says Charles Fitzpatrick, O.D., AOA FRC member. “We’re here to adopt commonsense fixes that can address payment uncertainty by changing the current law and providing a modest physician payment update tied to the Medicare Economic Index.”

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Related stories:Congress heeds AOA’s call to stop Medicare pay cuts, but lawmakers’ plan falls short

Resources: Reforming Medicare Payment System Fact Sheet

Modernizing the contact lens prescription verification system

June 21, 2023

Additionally, optometry’s advocates will build support behind the Contact Lens Prescription Verification Modernization Act, H.R. 2748, federal legislation that would ban problematic robocalls and restore commonsense health and safety precautions. The legislation would require retailers to use direct communication to confirm prescription accuracy and require a HIPAA-compliant method for allowing patients to upload digital prescription copies. “As a result of the lack of FTC enforcement, some online sellers have figured out how to game the current system, specifically through the ‘passive verification’ system,” Stephen Montaquila, O.D., AOA FRC member. “The FTC has recognized that robocalls pose a serious threat to patient health and safety but their inaction is why we must take action.”

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Related stories: Contact lens safety legislation proposes banning robocalls

Resources: Contact Lens Prescription Verification Modernization Act Fact Sheet

Countering ‘not-a-doctor’ legislation

June 21, 2023

Katie Gilbert-Spear, O.D., J.D., AOA FRC member, provided an update on current ‘not a doctor’ legislation in several states, including the recently defeated effort in Florida. Only weeks earlier, Gov. Ron DeSantis tendered an eleventh-hour veto on a bill that would have required health care practitioners to identify themselves in a specific manner, i.e., disclosing the type of license under which they provide care. Breach of this law would have resulted in a felony charge, punishable by a $10,00 fine and denial of licensure.

Dr. Spear noted that proliferation of these bills represents optometry’s opponents best efforts to derail scope advancement efforts in recent years.

“This is a direct result of all the legislative successes that we’ve had,” Dr. Spear says.

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Related stories:  DeSantis decision delivers historic win for Florida optometrists and patients

Ensuring veterans’ access to essential care provided by optometry

June 21, 2023

In the same way not-a-doctor legislation seeks to muddle full recognition of doctors of optometry, Dr. Spear offered an update on advocacy efforts with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). On the one hand, the VA continues to concretize national standards of practice (NSP) for doctors of optometry—“think of it as a national scope of practice,” Dr. Spear says—that have elicited a strong response from optometry’s opponents seeking the most restrictive scope for VA optometrists. However, the AOA and Armed Forces and Federal Optometric Services (AFOS) are advocating for the most advanced scope.

“The fight over NSP is intensifying and how it is ultimately decided will have a big impact on state scope battles for years to come,” Dr. Spear says.

Additionally, the AOA and AFOS support efforts to grow and retain optometrists within the VA, including recognizing optometrists as physicians, raising pay and opening up higher-level supervisory positions.

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Related stories: Bill seeks-physician level recognition, competitive pay and opportunities for VA optometry

Resources: VA CAREERS Act and National Standards of Practice Fact Sheet