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You are invited! Free, on-line conversation on vision professionals June 12, 2018

Dona Sauerburger

Thu, May 31, 2018 11:45 PM

Wrestling with Realities, Realigning Priorities:
Strengthening our profession while increasing sustainability for Vision Rehab Professionals

Including Hot Topic Discussion on Medicare Reimbursement for Vision Rehab Professionals

An AER-Led National Conversation

Tuesday, June 12, 2018, 3pm Eastern

To join the conversation by phone:
Dial: 1-669-900-6833 or 1-646-558-8656; Use Meeting ID: 384-128-997
or
Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: https://zoom.us/j/384128997

At the 2016 Biennial International Conference of the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER), the AER membership adopted a resolution calling for the establishment of a task force to consider and implement strategies to achieve third-party funding, such as Medicare, for the specialized services provided by vision rehabilitation professionals.

The task force has completed its work and has generated a brief report, which is included below.

You are invited to join in a national conversation about this important report which reflects a field-wide consensus about the field's need to focus our advocacy efforts in directions other than Medicare/third-party reimbursement for vision rehabilitation services at this time. Key task force leaders and participants will share their perspectives and walk us through the study which yielded the task force's conclusion that we should suspend our pursuit of third-party reimbursement while we prepare to be more accountable to funding sources, and pursue initiatives to promote and strengthen our professions and provide our service to all those who need it.

After an interactive dialogue with task force participants sharing their points of view, we will open the floor for your reactions, questions, comments and alternative perspectives.

To join the conversation, please call in a few minutes prior to the start time at 3pm Eastern Tuesday afternoon, June 12.

Dial: 1-669-900-6833 or 1-646-558-8656; Use Meeting ID: 384-128-997

Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: https://zoom.us/j/384128997

The conversation will also be recorded and transcribed and made available via AER's and AFB's websites for those who may not be able to join the call at its scheduled time.

We look forward to your participation, please share this open invitation with your networks, and we invite you to review the task force report below.

Task Force on Third-Party Coverage for Specialized Services

Report

This task force considered what would be involved to achieve third-party funding for the specialized services provided by the following vision rehabilitation professionals: Orientation and Mobility Specialist, Vision Rehabilitation Therapist and Low Vision Therapist. It was hoped that Third-Party Reimbursement would provide the funding and facilitate referrals to enable us to reach all those who need our services, and help ensure that only qualified professionals would provide that service. This would strengthen our professions and the universities that prepare them, increasing recognition that our professions are the ones which are qualified to provide vision-related services.

Our discussions revealed that third-party reimbursement isn’t what many of us had imagined it would be, and accessing it has a cost and risks. It won’t solve the funding problems that we hoped it would – it would only fill in some gaps, and it would require us to change the way that we provide service. For example, we would need to have evidence-based assessments and outcome measurements, which have not yet been developed.

Therefore, the consensus of the Task Force is that we should suspend our pursuit of third-party reimbursement for now, and instead put our resources into initiatives that we are more confident can promote and strengthen our professions and provide our service to all those who need it. In the meantime, we should become better prepared to show evidence of the value of our services in such a way as to be accountable to funding sources.

To that end, we plan to organize a teleconference to share these results and start the conversation and invite ideas to consider other strategies for achieving our goals.

Third Party Reimbursement Task Force

Members:

Co-Chairs:

Cathy Holden (Senior VP of Rehabilitation/Clinical Operations, NewView Oklahoma)

Dona Sauerburger (Certified O&M Specialist, Maryland)

Members:

Bill Boules (Chair, AER Vision Rehabilitation Therapists Division)

Lauren Branch (President, NewView, Oklahoma)

Joe Catavero (President, AER)

Kim Charlson (President, ACB)

Anisio Corriea (New York Vision Rehabilitation Association)

Neva Fairchild (Chair, AER Aging Division)

Justin Kaiser (Chair, AER O&M Division)

Kelly Lusk (Chair, AER Low Vision Division)

Lester Marks (Administrator, New York Lighthouse Guild) 

Roxann Mayros (CEO & President, VisionServe Alliance)

Nancy Miller (President, New York Vision Rehabilitation Association)

Mark Richert (Governmental Relations, AFB)

Tony Stevens (Governmental Relations, ACB)

Lou Tutt (Executive Director, AER) 

Kathy Zeider (President/CEO, ACVREP)

Wrestling with Realities, Realigning Priorities: Strengthening our profession while increasing sustainability for Vision Rehab Professionals Including Hot Topic Discussion on Medicare Reimbursement for Vision Rehab Professionals An AER-Led National Conversation Tuesday, June 12, 2018, 3pm Eastern To join the conversation by phone: Dial: 1-669-900-6833 or 1-646-558-8656; Use Meeting ID: 384-128-997 or Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: https://zoom.us/j/384128997 At the 2016 Biennial International Conference of the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER), the AER membership adopted a resolution calling for the establishment of a task force to consider and implement strategies to achieve third-party funding, such as Medicare, for the specialized services provided by vision rehabilitation professionals. The task force has completed its work and has generated a brief report, which is included below. You are invited to join in a national conversation about this important report which reflects a field-wide consensus about the field's need to focus our advocacy efforts in directions other than Medicare/third-party reimbursement for vision rehabilitation services at this time. Key task force leaders and participants will share their perspectives and walk us through the study which yielded the task force's conclusion that we should suspend our pursuit of third-party reimbursement while we prepare to be more accountable to funding sources, and pursue initiatives to promote and strengthen our professions and provide our service to all those who need it. After an interactive dialogue with task force participants sharing their points of view, we will open the floor for your reactions, questions, comments and alternative perspectives. To join the conversation, please call in a few minutes prior to the start time at 3pm Eastern Tuesday afternoon, June 12. Dial: 1-669-900-6833 or 1-646-558-8656; Use Meeting ID: 384-128-997 or Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: https://zoom.us/j/384128997 The conversation will also be recorded and transcribed and made available via AER's and AFB's websites for those who may not be able to join the call at its scheduled time. We look forward to your participation, please share this open invitation with your networks, and we invite you to review the task force report below. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Task Force on Third-Party Coverage for Specialized Services Report This task force considered what would be involved to achieve third-party funding for the specialized services provided by the following vision rehabilitation professionals: Orientation and Mobility Specialist, Vision Rehabilitation Therapist and Low Vision Therapist. It was hoped that Third-Party Reimbursement would provide the funding and facilitate referrals to enable us to reach all those who need our services, and help ensure that only qualified professionals would provide that service. This would strengthen our professions and the universities that prepare them, increasing recognition that our professions are the ones which are qualified to provide vision-related services. Our discussions revealed that third-party reimbursement isn’t what many of us had imagined it would be, and accessing it has a cost and risks. It won’t solve the funding problems that we hoped it would – it would only fill in some gaps, and it would require us to change the way that we provide service. For example, we would need to have evidence-based assessments and outcome measurements, which have not yet been developed. Therefore, the consensus of the Task Force is that we should suspend our pursuit of third-party reimbursement for now, and instead put our resources into initiatives that we are more confident can promote and strengthen our professions and provide our service to all those who need it. In the meantime, we should become better prepared to show evidence of the value of our services in such a way as to be accountable to funding sources. To that end, we plan to organize a teleconference to share these results and start the conversation and invite ideas to consider other strategies for achieving our goals. Third Party Reimbursement Task Force Members: Co-Chairs: Cathy Holden (Senior VP of Rehabilitation/Clinical Operations, NewView Oklahoma) Dona Sauerburger (Certified O&M Specialist, Maryland) Members: Bill Boules (Chair, AER Vision Rehabilitation Therapists Division) Lauren Branch (President, NewView, Oklahoma) Joe Catavero (President, AER) Kim Charlson (President, ACB) Anisio Corriea (New York Vision Rehabilitation Association) Neva Fairchild (Chair, AER Aging Division) Justin Kaiser (Chair, AER O&M Division) Kelly Lusk (Chair, AER Low Vision Division) Lester Marks (Administrator, New York Lighthouse Guild) Roxann Mayros (CEO & President, VisionServe Alliance) Nancy Miller (President, New York Vision Rehabilitation Association) Mark Richert (Governmental Relations, AFB) Tony Stevens (Governmental Relations, ACB) Lou Tutt (Executive Director, AER) Kathy Zeider (President/CEO, ACVREP)