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Proposed legislation targets health, vision plan abuses
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U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter introduced a bill on July 29 targeting health insurance and patient care abuses, according to a press release from the American Optometric Association.
HR 3323, also known as the Dental and Optometric Care (DOC) Access Act, is receiving joint support from the American Optometric Association (AOA) as well as the American Dental Association.
The DOC Access Act was designed to amend current insurance requirements and provisions within vision and dental plans that are anti-patient and anticompetitive in nature. Such provisions include: unpredictable pricing of services that fall outside of a plan’s coverage, changes to plan coverage without agreement and the restriction of lab choices, according to the release.
These amendments would provide vital protection for doctors while improving general patient care.
Additionally, while both Carter and the AOA continue to urge state affiliates to pursue revisions for plans regulated at the state level, the passing of the DOC Access Act would ensure regulation on a federal level for all plans.
"By prohibiting insurance providers from forcing doctors to participate in restrictive insurance plans or networks, doctors will be able to charge reasonable fees for the care Americans need,” Carter said in the release. “This legislation is a strong and necessary step in bringing free market principles back into health care by removing anticompetitive business practices.”
Carter also stated that the AOA and the Georgia Optometric Association (GOA) had provided invaluable input during the bill’s drafting.
"With the bill now introduced and our efforts to build new support underway, I'll be staying in close touch with Dr. Loomis [Steven A. Loomis, OD, AOA president] and other AOA and GOA leaders in the push to make HR 3323 the patient access priority it needs to be on Capitol Hill,” he said.