Committee advances Sen. Brenner bill to expand access to eye care

AUGUSTA – Last week, the Health Coverage, Insurance and Financial Services Committee advanced a bill from Sen. Stacy Brenner, D-Scarborough, to address barriers to eye care in Maine, particularly for rural and underserved communities. LD 1803, “An Act to Amend the Laws Governing Optometric Practice,” would modernize Maine’s scope-of-practice laws to reflect the education, training and capabilities of optometrists, subsequently enabling them to respond more comprehensively and efficiently to the eye-care needs of communities statewide.

“Maine is wrestling with a shortage of health care professionals, resulting in inordinately long wait times for critical care. Eye care is no exception,” said Sen. Brenner. “Particularly in rural communities, many patients must wait more than six months to see an ophthalmologist to receive care an optometrist is well-equipped to provide safely on a far shorter timeline. Empowering optometrists to practice to the full extent of their education is a common-sense opportunity to build up our health care workforce and, thus, take better care of our people.”

When patients are diagnosed with certain vision problems, current Maine law requires them to seek care through an ophthalmologist. Though optometrists have the training to deliver care quickly and safely in many of these instances – and are held to the same standard of care as ophthalmologists under Maine law – many patients must instead wait months for a consult with an ophthalmologist. Those in rural areas face even starker barriers to accessing care, compounded by the declining number of practicing ophthalmologists both in Maine and nationally.

LD 1803 aims to reduce these barriers to critical care by expanding the definition of optometric practice, allowing optometrists in Maine to provide a limited set of in-office procedures that they are already trained to perform. Procedures included under this expanded definition are safe, outpatient interventions currently performed by optometrists in 14 other states. In addition to the four rigorous years of training at an accredited institution that prospective optometrists already complete, providers would need to meet additional credentialing requirements, including exams and proctored procedural practice, before operating under this expanded scope of practice.

“If you ask any of my classmates why they got into optometry, at some level, the answer is ‘to help people see,’” reflected Peter Kemble, a fourth-year optometry student from Bangor, in testimony on the bill. “There’s no better way to do so than by practicing to the full extent of our education, and to do that in Maine requires scope expansion. Passing LD 1803 will make our home more enticing both to students from Maine and those from away to live and work in Maine where they can practice as they were trained.”

Last year, Sen. Brenner co-authored an opinion piece advocating for passage of LD 1803, which you can read here.

The bill now awaits votes in the full Senate and House.

Sen. Brenner is serving her third term in the Maine Senate, representing Gorham and most of Scarborough. She sits on the Environment and Natural Resources Committee.

###