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Optometry is a field in the United States dedicated to analyzing the health of eyes and offering corrective lenses and/or treatments to improve a patient’s ocular health and vision. Since its origin in the U.S. in the late 19th century, the field of optometry has been met with strong opposition from the medical community, ophthalmologists in particular. This ongoing feud between optometrists and ophthalmologists, medical doctors who also specialize in eye health and perform eye surgeries, continues today as ophthalmologists push back against optometrists’ attempts to expand their scope of practice. With this expansion to include certain eye surgeries, it would save patients both time and money. This is just one factor impacting patients, with another being the widely varied state laws surrounding eye health. Procedures optometrists are able to perform is decided by state laws, which leads to vast discrepancies. Optometrists in one state can perform laser eye surgeries, while optometrists in a nearby state cannot even provide simple treatments for ocular diseases they diagnosis. In this study, three states were analyzed to showcase these variations in possible treatment and demonstrate both the positive and negative impacts they are having on patients. First was Massachusetts which has one of the best medical care systems in the U.S., but one of the worst vision care. As the only state to not allow optometrists to treat glaucoma and one of two states to not allow optometrists to prescribe medications for patients, these limitations have caused patients the inconvenience of having to then visit an ophthalmologist for treatment which adds additional costs and delay in treatment which can cause the conditions to possibly worsen. Second was Oklahoma which was the first U.S. state to allow optometrists to perform laser eye surgeries in 1998. This legislation expanded Oklahoma residents access to treatment as before patients would have to travel to other cities or counties to visit one of the few ophthalmologists in the state. Lastly was Maine which in 2015 passed legislation to allow optometrists to regain control of their field from vision insurance companies who can no longer dictate fees patients are charged if the insurance companies will not cover it. This study concluded that there needs to be a universal vision care system across the U.S. that includes expansion of practice for optometrists and allow them to be in control of their own field, not the state government or vision insurance companies.
ContributorsFoskit, Nevada Anaid (Author) / Gaughan, Monica (Thesis director) / Chung, Sonia (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05