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Puerto Rico ODs will try again to introduce practice scope bill
Optometrists in Puerto Rico plan to reintroduce legislation that would improve their scope of practice, despite strong opposition from ophthalmology.
Jose Lugo, OD, past president of the Puerto Rico Board of Optometry, said they plan on introducing legislation in January. “We are going to have a new government in January,” he said. “So it will be a new governor and new legislation.”
“Inaccurate, irresponsible” news report
Bill PC 4476 would have allowed optometrists to prescribe any ocular diagnostic, topical or oral drug and would have enabled them to perform injection procedures.
According to a press release disseminated by the American Academy of Ophthalmology, PC 4476 would have “provided a ‘blank check’ to the optometry board to authorize ODs to perform any surgery, including laser or cataract.”
According to Dr. Lugo, the information in this press release was greatly exaggerated. “Ophthalmologists have made a fright campaign to the public, and to the media, about this legislation,” he said. “It is not accurate, and it is irresponsible for them to publish something like that.
“The bill clearly states in one of the articles that optometrists would not be allowed to do surgery,” Dr. Lugo continued.
Dr. Lugo said the bill does not give carte blanche surgical privileges to optometrists and is actually quite restrictive. “The legislators tried to copy the California law, with more restrictions than the California law,” he said. “For example, if you have a patient with glaucoma, the optometrist has 2 weeks to consult with an ophthalmologist.”
Dr. Lugo said similar restrictions were imposed throughout the bill. He said that he believes procedures such as punctal occlusion and epilation of lashes were construed by ophthalmology as “surgery.”
“That is their excuse to say we want to do surgery,” he said. “They made all the arguments, but they have no argument to refuse what we’re asking for.”
Failure of the bill
Dr. Lugo said the legislation passed in the Puerto Rican House of Delegates, but began to have problems in the Senate. “They didn’t even put the bill forward to a vote,” he said. “They blocked the bill and didn’t take it into consideration.”
Dr. Lugo said Puerto Rican optometrists then appealed to the governor. “We asked the governor to put the bill into an extraordinary session, but she didn’t,” he said.
Despite the opposition from ophthalmology, Dr. Lugo said optometrists plan to have help from some ophthalmologists when reintroducing the bill in the upcoming session. “Some ophthalmologists are going to sponsor us,” he said. “They are willing to do that.”
For Your Information:
- Jose Lugo, OD, is the past president of the Puerto Rico Board of Optometrists. He can be reached at PO Box 8852, Carolina, PR 00988; (787) 750-6705; fax: (787) 257-0950.