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Laws set sights on kids, drivers, contact lenses
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Three states – Iowa, West Virginia and Kentucky – have new laws on the books that bolster the practice of optometry.
Iowa passed a law that propelled an existing program encouraging parents to have their children’s eyes examined before entering school. Kentucky became the second state – after Ohio – to allow optometrists to dispense contact lenses that deliver medical therapy directly to the eye and added new language to a bill to make it easier and faster for optometrists there to get credentialed on insurance plans. West Virginia mandated that all citizens get vision screenings before renewing their driver’s licenses.
Vision cards in Iowa
Senate Bill 2251 began as a mandate for a comprehensive eye examination for Iowa children entering preschool and kindergarten, according to Gary Ellis, Iowa Optometric Association’s executive director. Mr. Ellis said he worked with lawmakers to “tone down” the original law.
“We knew going into this session that a full-blown mandate was not a viable option,” he told Primary Care Optometry News in an interview. Instead, the law latches onto an existing program in which parents are given a student vision card and encouraged to take their child in for a complete eye health examination.
“What is required in the bill is that these student vision cards be distributed in every kindergarten and preschool packet,” Mr. Ellis said.
A second section of the law states that an eye exam should be encouraged for those children who are already being tested for special education services.
Mr. Ellis said the law is a “good start.” “It’s a reasonable step and that’s all we’re looking at it as,” he said. “It’s not ideal. It’s not perfect. First and foremost, our goal is to increase awareness among parents.”
Mr. Ellis said they plan to track results of the law, which will go into effect in the 2009 school year.
Contact lenses, credentials
In Kentucky, optometrists will be able to dispense contact lenses that deliver medications directly to the eye – as soon as such lenses come on the market.
“This was a proactive piece,” state executive director Darlene Eakin told PCON in an interview. “We anticipate that such lenses will be approved by the Food and Drug Administration some time in 2009.”
Currently, Kentucky ODs are not permitted to dispense drugs.
“On the assumption that these are going to be classified as a drug, it would mean that an optometrist could prescribe these lenses and then not be able to give them to their patients,” Ms. Eakin explained.
Instead, Senate Bill 21 says optometrists may dispense “ocular devices approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration as a drug, including but not limited to contact lenses …”
The new wording benefits both optometrists and patients, Ms. Eakin said. “This way our citizens will have instant access to this new technology all over the state wherever optometrists practice,” she said.
Kentucky also amended HB 440 to expedite credentialing on insurance plans, as well as providing transparency in contract provisions and restricting insurers from changing the terms of a contract without notice, Ms. Eakin said.
Under the new law, insurers have to respond to credentialing requests within 90 days.
“This will certainly make the credentialing process much easier,” Ms. Eakin said. “We had problems where it would take a year to a year and a half for people to get credentialed on an insurance plan. [The new law] also allows for you to be paid as if you are in network, even before your credentialing is finalized, so that patients do not have to pay the out-of-network costs to you.”
Vision screenings for licenses
In West Virginia, drivers are now required to get their vision screened every time they renew their driver’s licenses, according to West Virginia Optometric Association executive director Chad D. Robinson.
The bill – HB 4069 – goes against a national shift of allowing drivers to renew their licenses online, sometimes with 5 years between vision screenings, Mr. Robinson said. “When you are driving your vehicle in West Virginia, you should have the proper vision while on the roads,” Mr. Robinson told PCON in an interview. “This is nowhere near a comprehensive eye exam, but it will show you if you don’t have proper vision that you have to go see an optometrist to have that corrected.”
Mr. Robinson said the new law will go into effect once the rules and regulations for what types of machines will be used in the screenings are decided.
For more information:
- Gary Ellis can be reached at the Iowa Optometric Assocation, 1454 30th Street, Suite 204, West DesMoines, IA 50266; (515) 222-5679; fax: (515) 22-9073; e-mail garye@iowaoptometry.org.
- Darlene Eakin can be reached at the Kentucky Optometric Association, P.O. Box 572, Frankfort, KY 40601; (502) 875-3516; fax: (502) 875-3782; e-mail: darleneeakin@kyeyes.org.
- Chad D. Robinson can be reached at the West Virginia Optometric Association, 2210 Washington Street, East Charleston, WV 25311; (304) 720-8262; fax: (304) 343-4251; e-mail: exec@wvoa.com.