You may have an opportunity to better serve the needs of children patients, the results of The Vision Council VisionWatch 2012 Parent Child Vision Care Report suggest. Of 4,961 children under age 18 living at home, 75.3 percent have parents who report that their child uses no vision correction at all. Some 19.6 percent have children who wear prescription eyeglasses and 5.1 percent have children who use prescription contact lenses. Some 1.8 percent use protective eyewear or sports goggles and 1.7 percent use plano sunwear.
The Affordable Care Act begins coverage of children January 1, 2014. It starts with children of employees working for companies with 50 employees or less and ends in 2016 with all children. It is key that you keep up with how this law impacts the children coming through your practice.
Here are five questions you should answer before January 1, 2014.
1. How can you tell which children are covered by the Affordable Care Act and which ones are not?
2. Covered children get an exam and either a pair of eyeglasses or contacts every year. How are you going to make that happen in your practice (e.g: which frames and lenses are covered and which are not)?
3. How are you going to handle the questions of different co-pays and different deductibles when mom has one plan, dad has another plan and the child has yet another plan?
4. How will Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) impact the delivery of care to patients in your practice including children?
5. How many ACOs will you join?
Even though the answers to all five of these questions are not yet known, you had better keep them on your radar screen. By October of this year, you should not only know these answers but have an implementation plan under way.
Keep reading Review of Optometric Business. We will help you discover the answers that will move your practice forward in the best ways.
