Mandatory Eye Exams For Kids

As a pediatric eye doctor and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, I was disappointed with a Sept. 21 article about legislative consideration of a mandate for comprehensive eye exams for children (“A close look at kids’ eye exams.”) Since the article was published, I have heard similar disappointment from other physicians and from nurses. 

The current strategy of screening works. The article suggested that it is odd for Minnesota ophthalmologists to have voiced concern about a mandate. Optometrists and ophthalmologists both applaud the fact that the Affordable Care Act pays for a child with conditions warranting an annual eye exam to get one.

Mandatory eye exam in children as a good thing. Yet many organizations in health care and public health are unified in the belief that the best investment to catch kids with eye problems is through building up evidence-based screening programs.

For more details you can read the original article by ERICK BOTHUN on StarTribune.

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