To Our Valued Patients,
Recently, you may have seen or heard news about optometrists in Ontario and wondered how this impacts you and your family members. At LMC Optometry, your eye health and vision continue to be our number one priority. We want you to know we have a plan to protect access to quality eye care and we are committed to ensuring you get the quality eye care you deserve.
What’s the problem?
For more than 30 years, the Ontario government has failed to adequately fund eye care. For more than 30 years, the Ontario government has refused to formally negotiate with optometrists.
How will this affect you?
Unfortunately, those who will be impacted the most are the groups OHIP is supposed to protect; our children, seniors and those with existing eye diseases. Ontario optometrists have been left with no choice but to stop providing OHIP services starting September 1st, 2021.
This means that any person who is OHIP-insured for their eye exam will not be able to see an optometrist, including those 19 years of age and under, 65 years of age and over, and adults with eye diseases related to diabetes, glaucoma and cataracts.
Ontario law makes it illegal for optometrists to accept direct payment or alternate health insurance from OHIP-insured patients for the OHIP-covered portion of their eye care. As a result, these patients will simply not be able to book an appointment with Ontario optometrists starting September 1st.
What’s our plan?
At LMC Optometry, we are fighting for your continued access to quality eye care. For those of you who may have existing appointments after September 1st we understand this is a difficult situation. There is nothing you need to do; our staff will be calling two days prior to your scheduled appointment to cancel and reschedule your appointment for a later date. We will also keep you on a priority waiting list should there be any earlier availability. We plan to keep you updated on our efforts and we are available to answer any questions you may have.
How You Can Help
If you or your family members use and depend on OHIP-insured eye care services, and/or you want to help us ensure access to eye care for OHIP -covered Ontarians is not at risk, please visit www.SaveEyeCare.ca and take one minute to sign an electronic letter to tell our elected government officials that eye care matters to you!
Sincerely,
The LMC Optometry Team of doctors and staff
