Online services help more of NM see clearly

Telemedicine, computer renewals help rural, low-income residents

Access to vision care is one of the biggest challenges facing lawmakers and consumers today, especially in the Hispanic community. But thanks to new technological innovations, you can now get your contact lens or eyeglass prescription renewed and your vision checked online from the convenience of your own home or place of work.

Here’s how it works. You must have an existing contact lens or eyeglass prescription from your provider to use these services. You go online, take the vision test, answer some important health screening questions and your online prescription renewals are reviewed and approved by ophthalmologists — medical eye doctors specifically licensed to practice medicine in the state where you take your exam. They send back your prescription renewal and you can use it wherever you want to get your prescription fulfilled.

These new innovations have the potential to help improve the vision of millions of Hispanics because while we are one of the fastest-growing demographics in the marketplace, we are also a community that has traditionally put off getting important preventative procedures due to high costs, language barriers and lack of access to doctors. According to an April 2017 study on Hispanic Health by the Kaiser Family Foundation, among non-elderly adults, 30 percent of Hispanics did not visit a doctor in the past 12 months, a quarter of Hispanics have no usual source of care and 22 percent of Hispanics delayed care due to cost.

The situation is even worse when it comes to vision care. A 2016 study in the medical journal JAMA Ophthalmology found that only 59 percent of the Hispanics/Latinos in their study received an eye examination in the past two years and 12 percent had difficulty obtaining needed eye care in the past year.

The best way to improve vision and eye care use among Hispanics/Latinos? Decrease the cost of care, increase awareness of the need for preventive eye health care, and improve access to facilities and health care professionals.

Online exams are more convenient, accessible and affordable than getting your vision checked or your prescription at the mall or your local doctor’s office. Many Hispanics live in communities that don’t have optometrists or ophthalmologists conveniently located in their neighborhood, or they work hours or jobs which make it impossible to get to an in-person appointment in at the eye doctor’s office. Yet a July 2016 Pew Poll found more than 94 percent of Hispanics/ Latinos do have access to the internet via a smartphone or tablet. With these new technologies, Hispanic and Latinos can check their vision, and renew their prescription wherever and whenever they want.

These online prescription renewal services also have the potential to save money and bring down costs for consumers. For most Americans between the ages of 18-50, once you get your first prescription and your glasses or contacts fitted, your prescription changes very little between the ages of 18-50. So you don’t need to go to the doctor for a full and comprehensive eye exam every time you want your prescription renewed and refilled.

Using these online services can also help consumers practice better eye health, and may help catch and flag some vision conditions before they get serious. Medical research shows that stretching one’s contact lenses beyond the manufacturer-recommended wear schedule is one of the leading causes of eye infections.

Unfortunately for Hispanic families, there are bad new laws and amendments to existing telemedicine laws being proposed in multiple states across the country by the American Association of Optometrists to prevent online prescription renewal. They want to keep consumers trapped in a burdensome system that discriminates against communities like ours.

We are proud to announce that our organizations have joined a new bipartisan coalition called Americans for Vision Care Innovation, working to ensure consumers across the country have access to the latest costsaving and time-saving eye care technologies. The opportunity to help improve eye health and vision care in the Hispanic community is literally before our eyes. Working together, we must seize this opportunity and help every American get access to the services and care they need.