Shared Vision
Spring 2010
Since President Obama took office, the Lighthouse has been working to secure Medicare reimbursement for certified vision rehabilitation professionals under the President’s health care reform initiative. Vision rehabilitation services are critical to reducing dependence, falls and injuries — and billions of dollars in medical and long-term care costs — for older adults living on limited incomes.
A Long Time Coming
Our efforts to secure Medicare coverage actually pre-date the current administration. They began through advocacy in 2000, with a bill in the House and later another in the Senate, which gained ground. We achieved some measure of success in 2006, when the federal government launched a five-year Medicare Low Vision Rehabilitation Demonstration (Demo) Project to study the impact of coverage for these specialized services. The Demo, ending in 2011, is limited to six sites nationwide.
Making Inroads
We helped develop, and are working with, a US coalition of 180 organizations meeting with key Senate and House members to urge for coverage in the final healthcare reform legislation. Our efforts have resulted in strong support. Most recently, Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), stated on the floor of the Senate, “I am hopeful that this Demo will illuminate the importance of making vision rehabilitation services — and the diagnostic evaluations by optometrists and ophthalmologists that prompt [them] — a guaranteed Medicare benefit. ... I am also supportive of including vision rehabilitation services in the health plans that will be offered in the new exchange set up by the health reform bill.”
We hope that 2010 will be the watershed year! To join the effort and stay informed, sign up for our advocacy newsletter at www.lighthouse.org/advocacy.
