Regulatory/Legislative News

The Contact Lens Consumer Protection Act was signed into law last week in Utah, making the state the first in the U.S. to ban unilateral pricing policies for contact lenses, according to a press release issued by 1-800-CONTACTS.

The president of Mexico modified Article 79 of the country’s Health Act, including optometry as a health profession that requires a university degree to practice, according to a press release from Optometry Giving Sight and the World Council of Optometry.

As I write this today, I am enjoying a sunny St. Patrick’s Day here in Philadelphia. As an Irishman, I am wearing my green and thinking about that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Nightstar has received orphan drug designation from the FDA and the European Medicines Agency for a gene therapy to treat choroideremia, according to a press release.

ATLANTA – Many optometrists are concerned about meeting the requirements of stage 2 meaningful use, according to a speaker here at SECO.

ATLANTA – Knowing and following your local and national coverage determinations and the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s Preferred Practice Patterns could help your practice successfully survive an audit from a CMS recovery audit contractor, according to a speaker here at SECO.

As one of the leading advocates for optometry providing primary health care in addition to traditional eye care, I am often asked how we will be paid for the additional services and administrative support that are required.

Amid concerns about study data and labeling, a joint panel of the FDA’s Dermatologic and Ophthalmic Drugs Advisory Committee and Ophthalmic Devices Panel recommended approval of Avedro’s combined riboflavin ophthalmic solutions and ultraviolet light irradiation for corneal collagen cross-linking.

Beginning this year, physicians and other qualified health care professionals will be able to separately bill Medicare for providing non-face-to-face chronic care management, or CCM, services, by billing CPT code 99490. In recognizing and paying for these non-face-to-face services, CMS has taken an important step toward recognizing that care coordination is an essential feature of providing high-quality primary care and that important aspects of this care occur when the patient is not in the office. We have described the scope of service in Part I and health information technology requirements in Part II. In Part III we discussed uncertainties surrounding patient eligibility, scope of services and patient consent. This article addresses implementation issues that physicians should keep in mind as they develop their capabilities to bill for CCM, particularly if they consider using third-party contract employees to provide CCM services.

“Primary care” is common term in the health care arena. It is considered to be the lynch pin of a better health care system for America.