1:30min
(L-R) Tony Lord, Genevieve Quilty and Minister for Veterans’ Affairs Dan Tehan
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By Helen Carter
Journalist
No new government funding is currently available to offset the increasing costs of seeing Department of Veterans’ Affairs patients, Federal Minister for Veterans’ Affairs Dan Tehan told Optometry Australia this week.
Optometry Australia CEO Genevieve Quilty and West Wyalong optometrist Tony Lord met Mr Tehan on Wednesday to raise three major issues: the rising costs of DVA patient care in the face of the indexation freeze; the delay in the update of the Optical Appliance Schedule and the administration time for DVA to process urgent requests for appliances on the schedule.
Ms Quilty said Optometry Australia had been asked to review its list of issues raised at the meeting and extract options that would be budget neutral until the 2017-2018 budget period.
‘Optometry Australia appreciates that budgetary circumstances are difficult. Optometry Australia will review its list of issues but feels it would be almost impossible to meet the request for cost-neutral options, given the rising costs of optometric care and optical appliances,’ Ms Quilty said.