Professional society co-management guidelines: Where do they disagree?

From international law firm Arnold & Porter LLP comes a timely column that provides views on current regulatory and legislative topics that weigh on the minds of today’s physicians and health care executives.For many years, co-management has been the source of discussion and disagreement within the ophthalmology community. In September 2015, the American Academy of Ophthalmology and American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery issued an update to the joint position paper on postoperative co-management issued in 2000. The update appeared to reflect a general consensus among all ophthalmology groups concerning proper guidelines for legal and ethical co-management. Just 2 months later, however, in November 2015, the Academy convened a new task force to review co-management and provide further refinement from the guidelines issued jointly with ASCRS. And, on Sept. 7 of this year, AAO issued a new version of these guidelines, which appears to retreat from standards articulated in the joint position paper issued last year. Apparently, ASCRS did not agree to join the Academy; on Aug. 26, ASCRS issued its own update. While both versions generally follow the language in the joint paper issued last year, there are some subtle difference that are worth noting.