More Than 300 American Optometric Association Volunteers Converge on Capitol Hill

WASHINGTON, D.C.—More than 300 American Optometric Association (AOA) doctor and student volunteers recently converged on Capitol Hill for optometry's largest gathering of advocacy leaders, AOA's 2014 Congressional Advocacy Conference. Participating in briefings and forums around the nation's capital and visiting the offices of every U.S. Senator and House member, the AOA advocates focused a national spotlight on optometry. The event was led by the AOA board of trustees, its president Mitchell T. Munson, OD, and president-elect David A. Cockrell, OD.   Top priorities about which attendees pressed lawmakers included: full and fair implementation and enforcement of the new Harkin Law that bans health plans, including Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) plans, from discriminating against ODs; safeguarding continued full-physician status for doctors of optometry in Medicare and ensuring full eligibility for new reform-based physician-level payment incentives; securing new Congressional co-sponsors to AOA-backed bills seeking fair treatment for ODs in Federal health programs (H.R. 855, H.R. 920/S. 1445).   See more