This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Pennsylvania becomes 49th state to grant optometrists TPA privileges
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania has become the 49th state to grant optometrists therapeutic pharmaceutical agent (TPA) privileges.
Gov. Tom Ridge signed House Bill 1166 on Oct. 30. The bill allows optometrists to prescribe oral and topical drugs for treatment of ocular disease with the exclusion of steroids, glaucoma medications and Schedule I and II controlled substances.
The bill, which was introduced last year, breezed through the state legislature. It passed the House, Senate and various committees by a total vote of 303-0, including a 48-0 Senate vote on Oct. 8 that propelled it to Ridge's desk.
While the bill was effective upon Ridge's signing, Ted Mowatt, government affairs director for the Pennsylvania Optometric Association, said it will take a while for optometrists in the state to be trained. "The next step is to get everybody certified," he said.
Mowatt also said the bill requires the state's Secretary of Health to approve the drugs that can be used, although he does not anticipate any problems there.
With the passage of Pennsylvania's bill, Massachusetts remains the only state in the United States without an optometric TPA law. Washington, D.C., optometrists also have no TPA privileges.
Cooperation from MDs
Unlike other states where TPA bills underwent fierce, last-minute wrangling, Mowatt said the Pennsylvania bill's passage went smoothly because a middle ground had been struck with ophthalmology. "We had an agreement with ophthalmology on the language in there — and that's the first time that's happened in Pennsylvania history," he said.
While ODs did not get everything they requested in the first draft of the bill, Mowatt said, when it came out of the first committee "both sides agreed to what the Professional Licensure Committee and its chairman had come up with."
Joseph P. Shovlin, OD, in group practice in Scranton, Pa., said the "obstacles and impediments" to getting the bill passed "were almost insurmountable." He added that the bill sets the stage for future expansions of optometry's scope of practice in the state.
"I'm very pleased," Shovlin said. "The people who worked on the bill should be commended."
Six-week treatment limit
The bill also requires that if patients being treated with TPAs do not improve in 6 weeks, optometrists must seek consultation with an ophthalmologist.
The bill was sponsored by Rep. Jeff Piccola. His move to the Senate, as the result of a special election in the middle of the term, gave him the opportunity to vote for the bill in both the House and Senate, Mowatt said.
For Your Information:
- The Pennsylvania Optometric Association can be contacted at 218 North Street, P.O. Box 3312, Harrisburg, PA 17105; (717) 233-6455; fax: (717) 233-6833.