The Academy, along with many other physician specialty organizations, continues to faces increasing challenges to its scope of practice on both the state and federal levels. To protect patient safety and ensure the highest level of quality eye care, the Academy is engaged in an ongoing battle against non-physicians who do not have the education or training to diagnose eye diseases or perform eye surgery.

As problems emerge in states across the country, the frontline for defending ophthalmology’s scope of practice remains in Oklahoma, where the Academy is on the offensive to reverse a rule recently passed that allows optometrist to perform over 100 surgical procedures with a scalpel.

On the federal level, non-physicians are using various federal agencies in an attempt to expand their scope of practice. In 2003, the Academy successfully overcame a threat by optometrists to expand their practice within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Following efforts by the Veterans Eye Treatment Safety Coalition and congressional leaders, the VA rescinded a directive that allowed optometrists to perform laser eye surgery on our nation’s veterans and Surgery by Surgery was reinstated throughout the VA. While this battle was won, the Academy continues to monitor and work with other federal agencies, including the Indian Health Service and the Department of Defense, to ensure the highest level of quality eye care is maintained for every patient.