Many private insurance plans and health maintenance organizations utilize optometrists to provide primary eye care services and to assist he need for and coordinate secondary and tertiary care. Optometrists are reimbursed in the same manner as other health care providers in government programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Workers Compensation. Optometric care is also utilized to render opinions in driver's license vision screenings and certification of legal blindness in cases involving Social Security and the Internal Revenue Service. Doctors of optometry are held to the same standards of care as medical doctors and are subject to the same types of regulation and over-sight to assure quality care. They are subject to the same requirements as other health care practitioners regarding fee disclosures, records release, informed consent, and confidentiality.
Optometrists carry professional liability insurance as do other health care professionals.
Due to the outstanding record of optometrists in caring for their patients, Missouri Optometrists can purchase malpractice insurance for less than five hundred dollars annual premium for three million dollars coverage.