The Academy continues to support efforts that provide our nation’s veterans with better access to quality eye care. This includes championing programs that effectively use tele-health to serve eye care’s hard-to-reach patients in communities nationwide. One such program is the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) Technology-based Eye Care Services (TECS) program, which the VA is now expanding.
In 2020, the VA extended its long-standing policy that only ophthalmologists may perform therapeutic laser eye procedures in its medical facilities. Before the policy was extended, optometrists tried but failed to expand their scope. The VA instead reaffirmed its stand-alone directive on therapeutic laser eye procedures. The VA subsequently acted to incorporate that directive into a broader eye care policy directive.
Changes to the Contact Lens Rule & Prescription Verification
Supporting Advocacy: OPHTHPAC and Engaging Congress
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