They have gotten behind Capuano's Medicare Vision Rehabilitation Coverage Act, which would pay for low-vision therapy services for people 65 and older. The measure could help more than 300,000 people in the District, Virginia and Maryland who are visually impaired. The bill is supported by the National Vision Rehabilitation Cooperative of 17 organizations working with the vision-impaired, including Lighthouse International. This is a very important set of skills for someone to acquire if they've lost vision and want to remain independent and safe. Most older people don't want guide dogs.
Guide dogs take a lot of care.
What this means is there is nothing more the physician or surgeon can do, but there's lots that can be done through rehabilitation. Patients also can be helped by low-vision devices, including computers and voice adapters, that can be prescribed by eye doctors, she says. Services are the first step, she says, with devices being the next step in getting coverage, although the cooperative is trying to get them covered under Medicare's durable medical equipment benefit. Medicare doesn't cover training in the use of these devices, either, although a Lighthouse study found training was critical in their successful use. Organizations such as Lighthouse are embracing problems once seen as hopeless.