Through a bill now awaiting vote in the state Senate, House Bill 838, all Pennsylvania physicians have a rare opportunity to help determine the definition of surgery to protect the future quality and safety of care.
Contact your state senators now to urge a yes vote on HB 838.
If this bill is successful, the Pennsylvania Medical Society’s (PAMED) long-standing efforts to advocate for appropriate legislation clarifying what constitutes surgery in other medical specialties will be strengthened.
The Pennsylvania Academy of Ophthalmology (PAO) is vigorously fighting to protect Pennsylvanians and was instrumental in getting HB 838 introduced and passed in the House. If enacted, this would serve as a broader template for definitions of surgery that would benefit all specialties.
While physicians fully acknowledge and appreciate the role of physician extenders in the health care team, the quality and safety of patient care is being threatened by some attempts by allied health professionals to expand state law to allow them to offer care beyond that appropriate for their training.
HB 838, the Ophthalmic Surgical Patient Protection Act, simply places a definition of ophthalmic surgery into the Optometric Practice Act, where none previously existed. This definition will prevent legislation similar to that enacted in Oklahoma and Kentucky from granting medical privileges to optometrists in Pennsylvania. It takes nothing away from the current scope of practice of optometry.
Read more from PAMED’s head lobbyist Scot Chadwick in his Weekly Capitol Update blog.