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Washington, DC -- Rep. Tom Reed (NY-23) and Rep. Terri Sewell (AL-7) introduced bipartisan legislation to allow people on Medicare to go to their family doctors for diabetic eye disease testing.

"I care about those struggling with diabetes, and want to ensure they have quick and efficient access to care," Reed said. "There is no fair reason for diabetics on Medicare to wait to see a specialist for a simple test their family doctor has the ability to conduct."

"Today's bill is a commonsense fix that will give more constituents living with diabetes access to the eye screenings they need close to home," Rep. Terri Sewell said. "When it comes to our fight to improve outcomes for those living with diabetes, we need to do everything in our power to give patients the tools to stay healthy, whether that's better access to eye testing in primary care settings or transportation services. This is an easy, bipartisan step forward in our fight for the 100 million Americans living with diabetes."

More than 80 percent of people living with diabetes develop diabetic retinopathy – which causes vision loss. However, many people are not getting tested for the disease because Medicare will only reimburse specialty doctors. The Diabetic Vision Loss and Blindness Prevention Act of 2018 reform the reimbursement requirements for Medicare and allow primary care doctor testing reimbursements.

Dr. Robert Berke of Chautauqua Family Health Services has seen first-hand how diabetic retinal eye exams in the primary care setting improve access to critical, vision-saving tests.

"Diabetes is the number one cause of blindness among working age adults, so it is critical patients with diabetes receive an annual retinal eye exam," said Berke. "Yet, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, only around 40% of patients receive the sight-saving exam each year.  We incorporated digital retinal imaging with remote interpretation by an eye care specialist last year and have seen a dramatic improvement in compliance and, most importantly, identified a significant number of patients who had previously undiagnosed eye disease. In our first year, in an exclusively Medicaid population, we increased compliance rates to nearly 80%. This year, for our entire diabetes patient population, we are already at 55% at the half-way mark and expect to be well over 90% this year. By allowing this test to be covered in my office and other primary care settings, we are making access to recommended annual diabetic eye exams more convenient for patients and thereby saving patients' vision. Not only is this technology unquestionably effective, it is relatively straightforward to incorporate into the regular diabetic office visit and presents an ideal opportunity to discuss eye health with the patient."

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