Dear all Malaysian Optometrists,
The Association of Malaysian Optometrists (AMO), in the continuous journey to enhance the professionalism of Optometrists in providing the best eye and vision care to the public will be introducing a general guideline of consultation charges. This guideline shall provide enormous benefit to consumers as it outlines a list of standardized charges for specialty consultation services. Optometrists can now use this recommendation to standardize their practices and consumers rights will also be protected against rogue practitioners
Reasons for Standardization
The current optometric practices ranges from conventional and often manual methods to utilization of highly sophisticated instrumentation and technologies. The difference is in the level of details each method is able to achieve in providing a better insight into the condition of the patientโs eye. Some of these instruments are simpler to operate while others may require specially trained skills in order to obtain an accurate results for diagnostic and management purposes.
As the community of Optometrist grows, together with the level of sophistication thatโs being constantly upgraded, AMO sees the need to establish a guideline on these special consultation services not only to cover the cost of providing such services but also encourage more practitioners to equip themselves with the latest knowledge and tools to serve better primary eye care.
Industry Benefits
The standardization of charges provides clarity to the public and protects the practitioner from the negative publicity of price abuse. It will also protect consumers from practitioners who charges indiscriminately and provides an easier avenue for the consumer to seek legal remediation.
AMO anticipates some variance in the actual charges in real practice as the cost of instrumentation and patientโs eye condition may differ and requires longer consultation time. However, these variances can be easily accounted for in accordance to the guidelines.
Conclusion
AMO hopes this guideline will be used by all Optometrists to enable us to move forward together in the future.
