CLE Contact Lenses

Unless you live under a rock you’ve surely heard the phrase “Obama Care,” which has also been referred to as “health care reform” and “national health care.” Regardless of your political affiliation, proposed legislation as far reaching as the health care reform act would undoubtedly effect every person & every aspect of health care. So how would the proposed health care reform affect your vision care?

One of the most commonly asked questions in our practice and for the thousands of folks we correspond with each month has been “precisely how will the proposed health care reform affect my vision care, my flexible spending account and my annual visit to the eye doctor?”

While, unfortunately we’re not privy to what the actual proposed bill(s) will and will not cover – we have read a summary of both the latest proposed House & Senate bills. Each bill has its nuances and neither clearly or directly outlines how vision care will be impacted.

Both the House & Senate bills will theoretically bring tens of millions of new insured folks into the health care system. Initially, what sounds like a boon for health care providers like eye doctor’s may end up costing them hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars because of the new proposed caps on reimbursements to the medical professionals. Capping reimbursements even further will undoubtedly drive the profession to find new ways to “expedite” and “streamline” procedures – which is not always in the patients long term best interest.

Unfortunately, while we would like to have given a more “informed” answer to the pointed question of how proposed health care reform will impact your vision care, visits to your eye doctor, contact lenses, prescription glasses, medical procedures like Lasik and corrective eye surgeries – we will need to see more in the way of detail in the proposed plans. And, until our elected officials decide it is in our best interest to see and participate in these discussions – we remain skeptical.

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We again find ourselves in a wonderful yet “scary” place, the New Year ! It’s so cliché to say, “time flies by…” but it really does. With all of the New Year resolutions that you may or may not have made, I’d propose a simple but very important one.

Take Better Care of Your Eyes in 2010.

In a recent poll taken of college age men and women, only 13% of the students polled could spell the name of their eye doctor. An even more disturbing statistic was that more than 67% of the men polled didn’t know what their vision was. The number was slightly better for the female students but still more than 54% didn’t know what their vision was.

Your eyes are not just the portals to your soul but also an incredibly important sensory organ, that all too often is completely taken for granted. Degenerative eye diseases can permenantly harm and even take away your vision if not diagnosed and treated in a proactive manner.

Let this serve as a simple and hopefully pointed reminder that taking your vision for granted is a mistake. An annual eye exam with your eye doctor is not mandatory but highly advisable. The ocular nerve is one of the most complex aspects of the human anatomy and thankfully there are some fantastic diagnostic tools which can serve to work as an early warning indicator of potential problems.

So in 2010, take a minute to look at yourself in the mirror and when you do, tell those eyes looking back at you that you’ll be taking better care of them in 2010 – because you really appreciate all that they do for you.

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