Performing normal household tasks around an apartment. They're all daily routines that may be overwhelming for 508,000 visually impaired individuals living in New York state. The Medicare Vision Rehabilitation Coverage Act could change that by covering mobility training for visually impaired and blind seniors. Under the proposed legislation, which has 72 co-sponsors in the House, including Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, Medicare benefits would be extended to the visually impaired to assist them to live safely and independently. Vision impairment can isolate and limit an individual's mobility.
Impaired vision is a major contributing factor to falls among older adults.
Other studies have estimated that vision impairments leads to 63,000 hip fractures annually. Despite a need, few people actually receive vision rehabilitative services. Currently no more than 2 percent of the persons age 45 and older with a vision impairment receive any vision rehabilitation, according to The Lighthouse National Survey on Vision Loss. Vision rehabilitation services parallel physical, speech and occupational therapies that are provided to rehabitate individuals after a stroke, loss of limb, or other serious illness or injury. Medicare covers those restorative therapy costs.