I'm afraid you have been misled, fraggle. Some other professions that require a doctorate and who aren't traditionally referred to as "Dr." include: Physical Therapists (DPT) Pharmacists (Pharm. D) Lawyers (JD) Nurse Practitioners (DNP) And many more. These professionals typically don't insist on being called "Dr." although they technically are. Optometrists are considered to be lesser "doctors" as compared to opthamologists, who are actual physicians (doctors in a realer sense).
Optometrists are classified by the federal government as "Optometric Physicians". Optometry is listed along with other specialties traditionally referred to as doctor ( or physician), whereas most of the other practitioners you listed would fall under " Other Healthcare Professional. As to the difference between an Optometrist and an Ophthalmologist, an Ophthalmologist is an MD and a surgeon. An Optometrist is not an MD, but an OD and is not a surgeon. Both can provide general eyecare, diagnose and treat diseases of the eye, and prescribe glasses, contact lenses, etc. In general, if you need surgery, see an Ophthalmologist. If you need general eyecare, see an Optometrist.
Manthony: the scope of practice of an opthamalogist is both wider and deeper than that of an optometrist. They are licensed to perform surgery and prescribe general meds for people because they are medical doctors. Optometrists however are not on the same level as the doctors listed in the above link, most of which are MDs (endocrinologist, urologist, psychiatrist). Furthermore, in addition to prescribing meds, even physician assistants and nurse practitioners are able to at least assist with surgeries. For example, both of those professionals can be trained to suture incisions. Yours is a rather limited and superficial scope of practice in comparison. It isn't a doctor in as real of a sense as a medical doctor is. When we talk about there being a new, prospective physician visiting our hospital, we aren't talking about "optometric physicians."
As far as I'm concerned, nobody is a "real doctor" unless they've published in peer-reviewed academic journals and gotten a thesis past a defense committee. But I'll settle for people refraining from referring to postgraduate programs that lack a serious research component as "grad school." That's "professional school" or, as we Real Doctors call it: "white collar trade school."
As I understand it, optometry was not addressed in the Healthcare Reform bill. So the optmetric industry remains untouched by the healthcare reform law. And I have never had a medical insurance policy cover optometry services. A seperate policy was always required for optometry benefits.
Your conception of an Optometrist is out of date by a few decades. Again. An Optometrist (in most states, certainly in mine) can provide virtually any medical service an Ophthalmologist can short of surgery. The fact that you have never received medical services from an Optometrist is irrelevant. Have you ever received any medical eyecare? Have you had a piece of metal removed from your eye? Been treated for a severe case of conjunctivitis, iritis, or keratitis? Been diagnosed with glaucoma? Suffered a hyphema? A hypopion? Or hypertrichiasis? Any of those conditions could have been easily handled by an Optometrist or an Ophthalmologist. I handle those sort of problems every day and bill medical insurance plans for the service. What you are thinking of is vision plans (such as VSP or Eyemed) which cover only routine care. Of course medical plans do not cover routine vision services. They are a completely separate category of services. But Optometrists do, in fact, provide medical services and are reimbursed by medical insurance plans for said services. So they are most definitely affected by Obamacare. I never denied that. But when speaking specifically of eyecare, the primary difference is that an Opthalmologist can perform surgery.
How does any of that relate to the fact that optometric care is not included in the healthcare reform package passed by Congress last year? And how does any of that relate to the fact that optometric care requires a seperate insurance policy...seperate and apart from a normal healthcare policy? This is not about what you are allowed to do under state law but what insurance claims companies will pay. Ironically most health insurance policies cover some chiropractic care but not care by an optometrist. Optometrists in my view are better trainned professionals that chiropractors. In my book chiropractors are a bunch of quacks and a complete waste of money and most likely dangerous.
There are not seperate insurance policies for Optometrists. I (an Optometrist) am a provider under Medicare, Medicaid, BC/BS, Aetna, and other medical insurance plans. I can and do provide the same medical services as an Opthalmologist (except for surgery, which I co-manage) and am paid by insurance companies for doing so. What you are thinking of is vision plans (such as VSP or Eyemed). Vision plans cover routine eye care (primarily the fitting of glasses and contact lenses). Both Ophthalmologists and Optometrists can and do serve as providers for vision plans, although it is mostly Optometrists who accept them. But if the patient has a medical complaint, the exam should be billed to the patient's medical insurance. This is true whether the provider is an Optometrist or an Ophthalmologist. As a provider of medical services, one who is paid by insurance companies for said services, I am most definitely affected by the healthcare reform law.
