News from the AOA's Blog

The Obama administration released hundreds of pages of proposed regulations in July seeking to put in place more of the provisions of the 2010 health care overhaul law, officially known as the “Affordable Care Act.” 

The AOA, which is as fully engaged in tracking the law’s implementation process as it was when the legislation was being developed on Capitol Hill, is especially interested in the new guidelines for states to observe as they establish their own health insurance marketplace, or “exchange,” through which the uninsured and employees of small businesses can purchase health coverage.   

The Affordable Care Act calls for the creation of an individual and small business exchange or a combination of the two in each state that would achieve federal certification by January 1, 2013. For any state choosing not to create an exchange, the federal government will step-in and set up an exchange on behalf of that state.

Throughout the two-year period health care legislation was under consideration on Capitol Hill, there was considerable support for federal preemption and the possible expansion of ERISA-type health plans.  However, the AOA worked to ensure that state patient access and provider choice laws would be protected under the state exchange system.   Read the rest of this entry ?

Responding to increased pressure from hundreds of doctors of optometry seeking to better protect patients in communities across the nation, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has taken decisive action aimed at putting a stop to the illegal activities of a leading Internet marketer’s practice of selling cosmetic contact lenses directly to consumers without a prescription.

The enforcement action against Scott Smiledge-Ferragamo and Jokeshop USA, LLC is a major step forward in the FTC’s efforts to better protect American consumers from the health risks posed by illegally-dispensed contact lenses. The FTC’s enforcement of the Contact Lens Rule was made possible by AOA-backed legislation championed by then Representative John Boozman, O.D.  (R-Ark) – now a leading pro-optometry voice in the U.S. Senate. Read the rest of this entry ?

After being dealt another serious defeat on Capitol Hill by optometry, the leadership of the American Medical Association (AMA) has just announced that it will launch a renewed and more focused attack on the landmark AOA-backed federal provider non-discrimination law enacted in 2010 known as the “Harkin amendment.”   

AOA Washington Office Director Jon Hymes and Sponsor of the AOA-Backed Provider Non-Discrimination Law Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa

During a meeting of the AMA House of Delegates last month in Chicago, the national medical lobby’s governing body overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling for “repeal of the non-physician provider non-discrimination provision.” The AMA claims to be doing so in order to “protect the primacy of the physician-patient relationship.”

Through a full mobilization of its advocacy resources, the AOA has turned back similar AMA-led declarations and schemes opposing the hard-won non-discrimination safeguards that seek to assure full recognition of optometrists by health plans. 

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