• Access to Spectacle Prescription
• Health Care
• Health Programs
• Insurance Plans and Managed Care Plans
• Licensing of New Groups
• Political Parties
• Provincial Health Care Funding
• Service Provider / Health Care Reimbursement
• Third Party Contractual Agreements

Access to Spectacle Prescription

It is the right of the patient to request and receive a written copy of his/her spectacle prescription.

Health Care

The Canadian Association of Optometrists (CAO) affirms that it will, at all appropriate times, encourage government agencies to use the terms health care practitioners in place of terms such as medical care and medical practitioners. CAO encourages all provincial Associations to do this at the provincial level.

Health Programs

1. It is policy of the Canadian Association of Optometrists (CAO) to seek the inclusion of vision care in all health programmes, to ensure that the fees for services under these programmes be fair and reasonable, and that access to optometric services under these programmes be no more restricted than any other health care professions.
2. CAO declares that any legislation relating to health care should incorporate the following principles:
   1. CAO declares that any legislation relating to health care should incorporate the following principles:
   2. patients should have the right to avail themselves of the professional services of optometrists without prior approval of a member of any other health care profession;
   3. the patients’ rights of confidentiality should be maintained;
   4. patients should have a right of portability of benefits for services;
   5. health care facilities should be accessible to and staffed by all health care practitioners;
   6. the full range of optometric services should be included in any health care insurance plan;
   7. federal funding should include provincially covered health care services;
   8. assistance should be provided to Schools of Optometry comparable to that provided to schools of other health care professions;
   9. representatives of the optometric profession should be included on Boards or Councils established by such legislation.

Insurance Plans

The Canadian Association of Optometrists (CAO) encourages all provincial Associations to take steps to ensure that all non-government vision care insurance plans permit the utilization of, and payment for, a full range of optometric services.

Under any insurance plan, or managed care plan, the patient should have reasonable access to the health care professional without the loss of benefit.

Any insurance plan, or managed care plan should allow for preventive optometric care as needed.

A full range of optometric treatment options should be included in any insurance plan or managed care plan.

Licensing of New Groups

The Canadian Association of Optometrists (CAO) will support and recommend the licensing of any new groups in the visual care field provided that such licensing will clearly enhance and contribute to the improvement of vision care services to the Canadian public.

Political Parties

It is the policy of the Canadian Association of Optometrists (CAO) not to support any one political party. Furthermore, it is the policy of CAO not to contribute funds to any political party. CAO does encourage each optometrist to support the political party of his/her choice.

Provincial Health Care Funding

The Canadian Association of Optometrists recommends that provincial health programs provide equal access to insured eye care services for patients of optometrists and ophthalmologists.

This recommendation is consistent with a desire for equity and fair treatment for patients in choosing their eye care practitioner. It is also consistent with the provisions of the Canada Health Act, which makes reference to other services insured at provincial discretion under “comprehensiveness” in section 9 of the CHA as follows:

“In order to satisfy the criterion respecting comprehensiveness, the health care insurance plan of a province must insure all insured health services provided by hospitals, medical practitioners or dentists, and where law of the province so permits, similar or additional services rendered by other health care practitioners” [emphasis ours].

The Canadian Association of Optometrists has studied provincial health programs and confirmed that some are not in compliance with the provisions of the Canada Health Act. In these cases, provincial health plans do not insure eye care services by optometrists when provincial law permits optometrists to provide “similar or additional services” to those insured for patients of ophthalmologists.

The Canadian Association of Optometrists applauds those jurisdictions, which have complied with the principal of patient equity and the provisions of the Canada Health Act. The CAO encourages other jurisdictions to implement these changes by consulting with their provincial Association of Optometrists.

Service Provider / Health Care Reimbursement

The Canadian Association of Optometrists (CAO) believes that Medicare payment differentials are not justifiable and supports the concept of equal payment for services of equal value.

Third Party Contractual Agreements

The Canadian Association of Optometrists (CAO) supports the following principles:

1. The public shall have free access to the optometrists and optometric services of their choosing;
2. The optometrist shall have the right to recommend and provide appropriate diagnostic and treatment services;
3. Patients shall have the right to choose prescribed treatment services as advised by their optometrists based on a complete assessment of their needs;
4. Patients or patient advocate groups shall have the right to negotiate contractual agreements with corporate members of CAO or their regional counterparts;
5. The provincial Associations of optometrists or their regional counterparts shall have the responsibility to negotiate contracts that ensure the rights of the consumer are protected, that negotiated agreements restrict neither access to all optometrist equally nor the provision of an appropriate range of optometric services, and that such agreements be negotiated in accordance with optometric regulations in the jurisdiction where the agreements apply.

CAO therefore recommends that optometrists participate only in third party contractual agreements which meet all of the forgoing criteria.

Contractual agreements which incorporate any of the following features are judged to affect the optometrist adversely and, therefore, are not endorsed by CAO:

1. those contracts in which services by selected optometrists only are honoured;
2. those contracts in which optometrists are restricted in providing all necessary diagnostic and treatment procedures;
3. those contracts which deny consumers the freedom of choice as to where their ophthalmic prescriptions are to be filled;
4. those contracts which include only optometrists who have accepted a schedule of fees lower than that recommended by their professional associations;
5. those private third party agreements which contract for profit or gain with individual optometrists or suppliers;
6. those contracts which encourage the use of materials which do not meet CSA or ANSI standards.