Advocacy News

In a letter to Secretary Denis McDonough, the Academy and 29 other physician groups called out inconsistencies in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ development of national standards of practice and urged more transparency and physician involvement in the process.

Your support helps OPHTHPAC work for physician-friendly candidates to replace them.

Companion legislation introduced in the state’s House and Senate would allow optometrists to perform a variety of surgeries and grant the Kansas State Board of Examiners in Optometry power to add more procedures in the future.

The Utah legislature is seeking to expand optometric scope to include two laser surgeries, YAG capsulotomy and selective laser trabeculoplasty, in a bill introduced in the state Senate on Feb. 7.

Military veterans’ eye care, physician payment reform, reducing practice burdens, ensuring patients’ timely access to needed treatments, and increasing member engagement will drive the Academy’s 2024 advocacy efforts on behalf of ophthalmology patients and practices.

State legislatures are already moving to consider optometric scope of practice expansion in three states, including two where ophthalmology successfully defended patient safety last year.

The state’s House Committee on Health and Human Resources advanced a bill which allows optometrists to perform surgical procedures taught at a single accredited optometry school, without clarifying standards of education or training.

Despite successfully defending patient safety in these two states last year, lawmakers have introduced bills to allow optometrists to perform laser and scalpel surgery.

A bill authorizing optometrists to perform surgical procedures cleared the California State Legislature's Assembly Business and Professions Committee in an 11-7 vote Tuesday.

Recent letters from members of Congress and physician groups to Department of Veterans Affairs health officials highlight growing concerns that a potential new national standard of practice could allow VA-employed optometrists to perform laser eye surgery — significantly lowering the quality of surgical eye care in VA health facilities.