Health law in 1985--implications for the optometric profession

In conclusion, I believe that you should seek to expand the scope of optometry into areas now regarded as exclusively medical practice, and devote less time and effort to protecting your rear from the encroachment of the opticians. I suggest this because it follows a seemingly natural process of expanding upward that one finds in other professions and occupations in the health field. Second, I have suggested that, to achieve an expanded scope of optometry, there may have to be some sacrifice of the concept of the independent, entrepreneurial practitioner in optometry. Even the medical profession is recognizing that the individual entrepreneurial physician is becoming less of a factor than he was before, and the future is not particularly bright for him further down the road. Third, to the extent you can influence the forum where the struggle over the expanded practice of optometry takes place, you may increase the likelihood that the expanded role will be recognized by law sooner. I have already alluded to the idea that costs of health services and funding mechanisms are intimately tied to the law related to optometric practice in the future. As you know from the legislative struggles in many states over inclusion of optometric services within state Medicaid programs, and freedom of choice legislation that required an insurer to pay any legally recognized practitioner who could provide the service, rather than physicians exclusively, the optometric profession is well aware how closely the success of a profession is linked to access to third party payment.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)