House, Senate pass bill to include VA optometrists in physician pay scale
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On Dec. 16, the House passed S141, a reform bill that would include optometry in the physician pay scale, according to an American Optometric Association press release.
The Senator Elizabeth Dole 21st Century Veterans Healthcare and Benefits Improvement Act, which the Senate had passed on Dec. 12, was presented to President Joe Biden Dec. 23 for his signature.
“Moving optometrists to the physician pay scale appropriately recognizes the essential role optometrists play as frontline providers of eye and vision care within the VA health care system,” H. Lindsay Wright, OD, executive director of the Association of Armed Forces and Federal Optometric Services (AFOS), said in the release. “This legislation ensures that we can continue to recruit and retain highly skilled doctors of optometry to deliver the quality care our veterans deserve, while elevating the profession to where it belongs — alongside our physician colleagues.”
Both AFOS and the AOA have advocated in favor of the bipartisan bill, arguing that this legislation will help meet veteran demand for eye care.
According to the release, vision and eye care services are the third most requested service by veterans. VA optometrists currently practice at 95% of VA sites with eye care services, provide 73% of ophthalmic procedures at VA clinics and provide 99% of services in low vision clinics and blind rehabilitation centers.
VA optometrists have been included in the general schedule pay scale, which the AOA said has remained essentially the same since 1976.
“Despite their integral role in providing essential eye care services to veterans, VA optometrists are the only independently licensed practitioners not included on the VA physician pay scales,” Bill Clark, national commander of American Veterans, said in his testimony before the Joint Hearing of House and Senate Committees on Veterans’ Affairs in March 2024. “This oversight has led to a significant and troubling trend: a mass exodus of highly qualified optometrists from the VA and considerable challenges in recruiting top-tier talent.”
Reference:
- S.141 — 118th Congress (2023-2024). https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/141/text/es. Published Dec. 23, 2024. Accessed Dec. 26, 2024.
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