OOA Executive Director and OSU College of Optometry students met with key U.S. Congressmen on March 27 at an event Congressman Pat Tiberi hosted in honor of Congressman Bill Johnson.

Congressman Johnson is a co-sponsor on H.R. 920 and H.R. 855.

H.R. 920: National Health Service Corps Improvement Act of 2013 aims to bring doctors of optometry into more underserved urban and rural communities by ending the misguided exclusion of optometrists from the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) student loan repayment and scholarship programs.

H.R. 855: Optometric Equity in Medicaid Act seeks to avert a potential crisis in access to primary eye care for Medicaid patients by amending the federal Medicaid statute to fully recognize optometrists.

These bills are continuations of bills that have been introduced in previous congressional sessions.