This letter is also part of the private conversations in the State of Optometry Forum, the topic "HR 3473,the Vets Act".
It should be made public as well. Long time member and contributor, Dr.Peter Dodge wrote me this e mail...
"Colleagues:
For what it's worth here is a draft of a letter I'm preparing for my Congressman. I will send the letter with any changes tomorrow. You may feel free to use any parts of it you find useful, to give me any suggestions before Wednesday, April 21, 2004 by 11:30 AM, or to ignore this e-mail.
Paul: you have my permission to post it to seniordoc.com.
Walt Mayo: You have my permission to post it to the optcom list.
I hope this is of some interest to those who receive it.
Fraternally,
Peter Dodge "
He went on to attach it the following letter...
"BARBARIANS AT THE GATE
I am an optometrist. Please help me. And please help my colleagues. Tomorrow ophthalmologists will be visiting Capitol Hill in an attempt to convince you to curtail professional duties and responsibilities of optometrists. As I understand it, this stems from the fact that a few properly trained and credentialed optometrists in the Veteran’s Administration have been performing laser procedures to help their patients. A few ophthalmologists saw this as a threat to their monopoly of these procedures and have convinced all MDs whom they could enlist to support curtailing this “expansion” of optometric duties.
But not content to stop there, they figured they might as well roll the dice and see whatever else they could stop optometrist’s from doing. So they have asked that we not be permitted to perform a number of procedures that my profession does as well or better than they. After all, the smaller the supply of able providers, the bigger the money pot for whomever is left standing.
This kind of ophthalmologic rhetoric is not new to me. I have been providing care to my patients in Harrisburg, PA for 28 years. I have been doing many of the procedures that these self-proclaimed protectors of the public have asked you and your fellow representatives to curtail for much of that time. Some of these procedures include procedures such as plugging of tear ducts for dry eye, removal of corneal foreign bodies (visits for which have a propensity for turning up on Friday evenings at 5:30 PM or on weekends), treatment of eye diseases such as microbial corneal infections and of ocular inflammation such as anterior eye iritis, management of patients who have suffered retinal insults from blocked retinal veins and arterioles; I could go on.
None of this progress was achieved without hours of training and certification, continuous updating of skills, and a quest to do the very best work possible for our patients.
And now this bill comes along to take all that away. And in my case the financial consequences almost do not matter. Why? Because despite the past advances my profession has worked so hard to achieve, financially I have lost out to the greed of these colleagues who have managed for the majority of my productive practice years to keep me subjugated to their monetary might, there scare tactics and their use of highly selective and self-serving views. A pox on their house. They call me and my peers “colleagues” on the one hand to win our referrals for those procedures they do that I don’t, and then go behind my back to put us out of practice because they think we’re not smart enough to notice.
I plead for your help. This bill is a disgrace to those in the medical profession-ophthalmologist and other MDs who support it alike-who know that I do what I have been doing for so long so well. And it’s a disgrace to those ophthalmologists who not content to have a loaf of bread under each arm would deny me a half loaf under one arm.
Soon the Barbarians will be at your gates. Don’t be fooled. Your constituents-my patients- as well as my entire profession will pay the price should their assault be even the least bit successful. This is no time for compromise. This is a time for resolve. And unlike my ophthalmologist competitors who do this kind of legislative scheming behind my back, you have my permission to distribute this letter to each and every ophthalmologist in the country because in the long run the truth will out.
May I count on your help in stopping this onslaught? I deserve it.
Sincerely,
Peter Dodge, O. D."
Private comments from members, as always, are best said in our Private Forums, for members only.
It should be made public as well. Long time member and contributor, Dr.Peter Dodge wrote me this e mail...
"Colleagues:
For what it's worth here is a draft of a letter I'm preparing for my Congressman. I will send the letter with any changes tomorrow. You may feel free to use any parts of it you find useful, to give me any suggestions before Wednesday, April 21, 2004 by 11:30 AM, or to ignore this e-mail.
Paul: you have my permission to post it to seniordoc.com.
Walt Mayo: You have my permission to post it to the optcom list.
I hope this is of some interest to those who receive it.
Fraternally,
Peter Dodge "
He went on to attach it the following letter...
"BARBARIANS AT THE GATE
I am an optometrist. Please help me. And please help my colleagues. Tomorrow ophthalmologists will be visiting Capitol Hill in an attempt to convince you to curtail professional duties and responsibilities of optometrists. As I understand it, this stems from the fact that a few properly trained and credentialed optometrists in the Veteran’s Administration have been performing laser procedures to help their patients. A few ophthalmologists saw this as a threat to their monopoly of these procedures and have convinced all MDs whom they could enlist to support curtailing this “expansion” of optometric duties.
But not content to stop there, they figured they might as well roll the dice and see whatever else they could stop optometrist’s from doing. So they have asked that we not be permitted to perform a number of procedures that my profession does as well or better than they. After all, the smaller the supply of able providers, the bigger the money pot for whomever is left standing.
This kind of ophthalmologic rhetoric is not new to me. I have been providing care to my patients in Harrisburg, PA for 28 years. I have been doing many of the procedures that these self-proclaimed protectors of the public have asked you and your fellow representatives to curtail for much of that time. Some of these procedures include procedures such as plugging of tear ducts for dry eye, removal of corneal foreign bodies (visits for which have a propensity for turning up on Friday evenings at 5:30 PM or on weekends), treatment of eye diseases such as microbial corneal infections and of ocular inflammation such as anterior eye iritis, management of patients who have suffered retinal insults from blocked retinal veins and arterioles; I could go on.
None of this progress was achieved without hours of training and certification, continuous updating of skills, and a quest to do the very best work possible for our patients.
And now this bill comes along to take all that away. And in my case the financial consequences almost do not matter. Why? Because despite the past advances my profession has worked so hard to achieve, financially I have lost out to the greed of these colleagues who have managed for the majority of my productive practice years to keep me subjugated to their monetary might, there scare tactics and their use of highly selective and self-serving views. A pox on their house. They call me and my peers “colleagues” on the one hand to win our referrals for those procedures they do that I don’t, and then go behind my back to put us out of practice because they think we’re not smart enough to notice.
I plead for your help. This bill is a disgrace to those in the medical profession-ophthalmologist and other MDs who support it alike-who know that I do what I have been doing for so long so well. And it’s a disgrace to those ophthalmologists who not content to have a loaf of bread under each arm would deny me a half loaf under one arm.
Soon the Barbarians will be at your gates. Don’t be fooled. Your constituents-my patients- as well as my entire profession will pay the price should their assault be even the least bit successful. This is no time for compromise. This is a time for resolve. And unlike my ophthalmologist competitors who do this kind of legislative scheming behind my back, you have my permission to distribute this letter to each and every ophthalmologist in the country because in the long run the truth will out.
May I count on your help in stopping this onslaught? I deserve it.
Sincerely,
Peter Dodge, O. D."
Private comments from members, as always, are best said in our Private Forums, for members only.