The US Department of Veterans Affairs now has the authority to offer increased pay awards, bonuses and annual evaluations to the over 1,000 optometrists practicing within the VA healthcare system.

Despite providing roughly 70% of essential primary and medical eyecare services to veterans in the United States, the nearly 1,000 optometrists in the Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare system have been included in the federal general schedule pay scale for many decades, limiting salary increases and capping pay for even the most seasoned physicians. The lack of competitiveness between VA wages and those of the private sector has led to numerous vacancies and recruitment challenges, exacerbated by the aging workforce, many of whom have reached the pay cap.

After years of advocacy work steered by the American Optometric Association (AOA) and the Association of Armed Forces and Federal Optometric Services (AFOS)—including more than 300 meetings with members of Congress—a reform bill passed by the US House and Senate three weeks ago will finally move optometrists within the VA healthcare system to a physician pay scale, authorizing the department to offer greater pay awards, bonuses and annual evaluations. The bill was signed into law by President Biden on January 2.

“The pay adjustments will result in more competitive salaries, hopefully attracting staff entering federal service and helping to retain existing optometrists,” comments Marc Myers, OD, who has been practicing optometry within the VA system for nearly two decades. The new law will also “include a compensation adjustment based on regional market pay for optometrists,” Dr. Myers points out. 

Allopathic and osteopathic physicians were added to the physician pay scale in 2004, eventually followed by dentists and podiatrists; this meant that, before the recent legislation was passed, VA optometrists were the only independently licensed practitioners without physician-level recognition.

“This legislation ensures that we can continue to recruit and retain highly skilled doctors of optometry to deliver the quality care our veterans deserve while elevating the profession to where it belongs—alongside our physician colleagues,” commented H. Lindsay Wright, OD, AFOS executive director, in a recent article on AOA’s website about the news.

While increasing wages and earning potential of career VA optometrists will help attract more top-tier optometrists to the VA, limited practice scopes within the healthcare system remain a deterrent. In a separate advocacy scope battle, the AOA and AFOS have been pushing to establish national optometry standards of practice, though no significant updates have been announced since the fall of 2023.