- Minnesota passes long-awaited scope expansion bill
- Texas unanimously passes groundbreaking VBM access bill
- 650+ reasons why these powerhouse state sessions are advancing optometry
- Study: ‘Unprecedented’ optometry scope of practice expansion benefits patients
- Major victory for West Virginia patients, optometrists
- North Dakota secures telemedicine provisions, ignites grassroots advocacy
- How to build productive relationships with legislators
- Why you should fight for scope expansion
- Committee spotlight: AOA’s State Government Relations Committee
- How Arkansas’ major VBM law delivers on calls to promote fairness, doctor-patient relationships
- Texas optometrists mount defense in court and legislature of landmark law on vision plan abuses
- The case for expanding scope of optometry
- In rural America, opportunity for optometry amid shortfall of ophthalmologists
- Destination: Scope expansion
- Double duty: Doctors of optometry bring their vision to state legislatures
- 'High value' strategy sessions prep states’ advocacy
- VBM abuses scrutinized by state policy think tank, U.S. Senate opens new investigation
- AOA, affiliates’ foundational advocacy work advancing optometry
- South Carolina judge overrules Visibly challenge to consumer protection law
- Oklahoma secures optometry’s latest win over vision plan abuses
- What kind of impact is optometry making on the nation’s eye health?
- ‘Profits over patients cannot continue’ with VBMs; Texas testifies at health insurance hearing
- Kentucky attorney general holds Warby Parker accountable for its online vision test
- New York assembly bill potentially sows division in health care
- California warily watches ‘not-a-doctor’ wording in Senate bill
- Latest: Texas defends landmark vision plan law
- West Virginia adds optometric surgical procedures
- Florida optometrists quash effort—again—to pass ‘not-a-doctor’ bill
- South Dakota secures scope expansion for injections, optometric laser procedures
- Affiliates, AOA preparing for fresh attacks on optometry: 'Not-a-doctor' bills are back
- Texas vision plan law, now in effect, sees favorable development in federal lawsuit
- Proposal in Utah would restrict contact lens patient choice, disrupt doctor-patient relationship
- Affiliates, AOA share forward-thinking strategies for optometry’s advocates
- Texas’ vision plan law takes effect, court challenge continues
- Doctors of optometry in New Hampshire earn authorization to provide vaccines to public
- New Texas law halts vision plans’ anti-competitive, monopolistic behaviors
- YAG procedures by doctors of optometry, after cataract surgery, better for patients’ care and convenience, AOA survey says
- Affiliates’ advocacy teams prepare to convene for meeting of the minds
- Doctors of optometry in Texas and Nevada build bulwark against vision plan abuses
- DeSantis decision delivers historic win for Florida optometrists and patients
- AOA and state affiliates rally to decry and defeat discriminatory ‘not-a-doctor’ bills
- Optometry’s scope wins draw new attacks from medical and ophthalmology groups
- Regional Advocacy Meetings prime states’ advocates for 2023 battles and beyond
- Hubble Contacts fined for deceptive trade practices in Texas
- Scope victory for Colorado
- Regional Advocacy Meetings strengthen states advocacy
- Virginia scope advancement
- 1-800 Contacts’ attempt to undermine law thwarted by Georgia doctors yet again
- MOA rebuff insurers reprisals against Mississippi eye care providers
- New York gains oral medication prescribing authority
- California amends optometry’s approved treatments, medications and testing
- Kansas Insurance Department puts vision plans on notice
- State advocates fighting to defend and advance our profession
- The scope of success
- State Advocacy Summit amplifies lessons from year of historic scope victories
- Texas scope expansion gains doctors oral meds, glaucoma authority
- Wyoming expands scope to include contemporary laser-excision procedures
- Mississippi scope progresses, other states seeing early successes
- 7 states authorize doctors of optometry for COVID-19 vaccinations
- Massachusetts scope win adds glaucoma authority
- Going further-expanding advocacy efforts and educational and professional development efforts
- Pennsylvania and Iowa earn big victories to expand scope of practice
- Optometry patients win in Arkansas as ballot challenge to expanded practice law is invalidated
- VSP policy change may violate states patient protection laws
- Court-appointed official deems signatures at heart of Arkansas scope saga invalid
- Arkansas scope saga necessitates urgent action
- Scope expansion to save Americans billions annually
- State Government Relations Center presenting at Republican Attorneys General Association
- Arkansas secures expanded scope of practice
- Maryland expands scope of practice
- AOA state affiliates blaze path for optometry’s future
- Optometry can contribute high-quality health care at affordable prices
- AOA president Driving change
- NJ Vision Plan Bill 2018
- Massachusetts seeks glaucoma care expansion
- Alaska-Georgia legislative victories
- South Carolina legislators override veto safeguard patients vision health
- Indiana navigates telehealth bill exempts ophthalmic devices
- FTC DOJ weigh in on Massachusetts glaucoma care expansion
- Arizona No on contact lens prescription extension
- Kentucky heralds third party triumph in new law
- State association challenges mobile refractive service
- Texas doctor successfully challenges Aetna’s policy on panels
- Proposed state legislation doesnt address patient safety
- AOA steps up fight against 1 800 Contacts anti patient legislation
- Louisiana Governor Jindal signs expanded scope of practice bill
Georgia, Nebraska advance patient-centered legislation
May 5, 2016
Affiliates continue to safeguard patients against misleading online “vision tests,” inferior care.
Tag(s): Advocacy, State Advocacy
Personalized, quality eye care is critical for the sake of patient health and safety when delivering prescriptions for contact lenses or eyeglasses, say legislators in a pair of states.
Georgia reinforces importance of comprehensive eye exams
Signed into law by Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal on Tuesday, H.B. 775 amends the Georgia Contact Lens Act to solidify the essential link between in-person, comprehensive eye examinations provided by an eye doctor and prescriptions for ophthalmic devices. Additionally, the law holds accountable violators attempting to issue prescriptions based solely on objective refractive data.
Judd Briggs, O.D., Georgia Optometric Association (GOA) president, acknowledged the bill is a significant victory and an essential step in keeping the best interest of patients' eye health in mind.
"There is no substitute for an in-person, comprehensive eye exam that provides qualified and competent refractive measurements, as well as ensuring vision health by diagnosing systemic diseases at their earliest stages," Dr. Briggs says. "However, emergent online 'vision tests' attempt to separate refraction from the other components of an eye exam, sometimes leaving their customers with inaccurate prescriptions and a mistaken belief that their eye health needs have been 'properly' evaluated."
Simply put this new and much-needed law requires an in-person, comprehensive eye exam performed by a qualified eye care professional prior to a contact lens or eyeglasses prescription and makes a distinction between telemedicine and online "vision tests" that attempt to lower the bar on standard of care.
This new law comes only weeks after the Michigan Optometric Association (MOA) filed a complaint against Opternative, noting that the company's "prescriptions" were invalid under Michigan's Eye Care Consumer Protection Act. Consequently, the state's attorney general issued a cease and desist order against the company on March 2, prohibiting further "exams" within the state.
Nebraska passes kiosk legislation
A new law recently signed by Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts places common-sense limits on kiosks and subpar devices used to evaluate the eye.
Signed into law April 19, LB 235, the Consumer Protection in Eye Care Act, updates regulations on eyeglasses kiosks and automated equipment, including phones, computers or internet-based devices used either in-person or remotely for an eye examination, to protect patients against misleading and inferior care.
Among other stipulations, the new law would require kiosks and automated devices to:
- Be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
- Comply with HIPPA.
- Have a recognized Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) code.
- Display the name and state license number of the provider who reads and interprets the diagnostic data produced by the device.
Chris Wolfe, O.D., AOA State Government Relations Committee member, says the new law "allows for patients to have access to eye care technologies that can be administered safely via telehealth while still affording them the same protections—state board accountability—that they receive when seeking care in person."
Read about Indiana's recent legislation regarding telehealth and online "vision tests."