Editor, Times-Union: As of July 1, 2011, the state of Indiana further cut reimbursements to doctors of optometry (eye doctors) on exams and glasses for services provided to patients enrolled in Medicaid (Hoosier Healthwise, Mdwise, etc). This does not only include vision exams but also medical and problem focused eye exams. This is the second reduction to eye care in as many years and is an unequal cut not given to other medical provider types.
As a Medicaid provider this has been a slap in the face. Regardless of political affiliation I think most of us can agree that our state’s children, who are the primary recipients of Medicaid, deserve compassionate and quality care. The children are not at fault for their family’s economic, social or other health-related realities.
As one of only a few eye doctors in the state of Indiana with post doctoral fellowship training in pediatric eye care and binocular vision I see a lot of great kids on Medicaid with more advanced visual problems such as amblyopia (lazy eye), eye turns, eye alignment issues, headaches, eye diseases and vision-related learning issues. These issues not only affect their vision but also their ability to succeed in school, get a job, or have a healthy social life.
It is much less expensive for taxpayers to cover the diagnosis and treatment of a visual disorder than have them repeat a grade in school. Many kids are requiring extra years of school and other educational services due to untreated vision or eye health problems. The better these children learn, the better opportunities and careers will be available to them to give back to society in knowledge, innovation and future taxes. Fully 80 percent of learning happens through vision.
I take pride in being a local provider that spends quality time with my patients addressing their needs. These further cuts are jeopardizing the way doctors like myself are able to provide care to the state’s children, poor, elderly and disabled. With continued cuts we will be forced to spend less quality time with patients, accept fewer patients on Medicaid, or not accept the plan altogether leaving these children to suffer with no options. A recent report in a medical journal showed that many offices already offer reduced appointments to Medicaid patients.
I know the economic times are tough for the state (and no taxpayer wants to pay more) but these cuts amount to a drop in the bucket compared to other programs. I am asking for those on Medicaid, educators and other concerned citizens to contact the governor’s office and their local state representatives and ask them to repeal the drop in payments to optometrists. I have only discussed children but eye doctors like myself also treat vision threatening eye diseases like glaucoma in the elderly and disabled through Medicaid.
If doctors like myself cannot see these patients, would the little girl I diagnosed last year with a brain tumor after it had been missed previously still be alive? Would the young boy who just finished vision therapy with me and passed his ISTEP this year after failing it poorly last year have gotten any help? I don’t know, and with your help I’d like to not have to think about it.
Dr. Scott Caughell, O.D., FAAO Pediatric and Primary Care Optometrist Warsaw, via e-mail
