Seeing is Believing: The Effects of Optometrist Scope of Practice Expansion

Kihwan Bae (West Virginia University), Edward Timmons (West Virginia University), Protik Nandy (University of Minnesota), Seeing is Believing: The Effects of Optometrist Scope of Practice Expansion (2023):

We examine how the emergence of optometrists as new “eye doctors” due to a scope of practice expansion affected population eye health outcomes and optometrist earnings in the United States. Using the staggered adoption of optometrist prescription authority across states, we find suggestive evidence that optometrist scope of practice expansion reduced vision impairment and mitigated racial and ethnic disparities in eye health. We also find that the policy change is associated with an increase in hourly wages among optometrists who are not self-employed. These findings imply that allowing optometrists to use medications for eye treatments effectively expanded the primary eye care workforce and therefore improved public eye health.