While the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has been hard at work, the AOA has been closely monitoring the federal agency’s moves as top officials seek to implement major provisions of the new health care reform law.
At every step of the way, the AOA has seized the opportunity to convey how important comprehensive eye and vision care is for America’s kids, particularly as health policy staffers work toward defining pediatric vision care within the essential benefits package.
Through all-out advocacy efforts in 2009 and 2010, OD and student volunteers helped make children’s eye and vision care a top national health care priority as health reform legislation was first conceptualized, then drafted, and finally debated on Capitol Hill.
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and AOA President Dori Carlson, OD at HHS headquarters in Washington, DC
As the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was eventually signed into law after a nearly two-year political and legislative battle, it was clear that the AOA had secured a key patient access victory through the specific designation of children’s vision care as an “essential health benefit.”
As outlined under the ACA, all health plans participating within the new state-based health insurance exchanges, those operating in the individual and small group markets, as well as Medicaid benchmark and benchmark-equivalent plans will be required to provide essential health benefits, starting in 2014.
Listed among the 10 statutory categories, Congress specifically recognized the importance of comprehensive eye and vision care for kids when it included pediatric vision care as an essential health insurance benefit. However, how “pediatric vision care” will ultimately be defined has yet to be determined.
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