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AOA: Proposed health care reform no threat to optometry
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Proposed legislation will not jeopardize coverage of those patients who receive their care from optometrists through vision plans, according to a statement issued by Randolph E. Brooks, OD, president of the American Optometric Association.
“The AOA is convinced that optometrists have the greatest access to patients and the best shot at fair reimbursement if we are integrated into the mainstream health care model, and that may take some time to achieve,” Dr. Brooks said in the statement. “The current model is represented by qualified health plans and, of course, our message is that we want to be included.”
In a separate statement issued a week later, the AOA and Vision Service Plan said they are “committed to expanded access to eye care” and ensuring that “Americans who want to keep their existing coverage and doctor in place will be able to do so.”
Dr. Brooks told Primary Care Optometry News, “The AOA feels that when you increase the integration of comprehensive vision care into full, mainstream health care, it eliminates unnecessary barriers.”
In a follow-up conference call, Dr. Brooks told members of the press, “VSP and AOA have engaged in discussions and found differences in interpretation in the legislation. Dialogue is important until a bill is passed.”
Dr. Brooks stressed that both groups feel provider nondiscrimination is a key element, and that “the ability of the patient to keep their doctor and insurance coverage, whether existing health care or vision care, is crucial and was promised.”
He added that the AOA has fought for the new children’s vision benefit. “That will eliminate confusion as far as what plan pays for what,” Dr. Brooks said in the conference call, “and also helps establish a basic framework for leveling reimbursement.”
AOA Washington office director Jon Hymes noted in the call that legislation “would create a new pediatric vision benefit through health care exchanges set up for uninsured and underinsured children. The benefit would be established under the bill if that provision holds.”
For more information:
- The American Optometric Association can be reached at (314) 991-4100; Web site: www.aoa.org.