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Vt. amends law to remove prescription limitations
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The optometry law in Vermont was recently amended to dismiss the formulary, thereby allowing ODs greater prescription authority. Optometrists are now able to prescribe any oral or topical medication to treat an eye problem without consultation or limitation.
The recent amendments were passed to update the current law, not change optometrists’ scope of practice, Tim Johnson, OD, legislative chair of the Vermont Optometric Association, told Primary Care Optometry News. Several updates were made, but the most crucial was dismissing the formulary.
“The previous law in 2004 said that we could prescribe any pharmaceutical agent to treat the eye and adnexa, but the specific list of medications was to be determined by a formulary board and a formulary,” Dr. Johnson said. “If something new came along, there was a long drawn-out bureaucracy to get it on the approved formulary list.”
The new law will allow optometrists to use their judgment to prescribe any medication for treating the eye without needing approval for new medications, including drug-eluting contact lenses. According to Sherry L. Cooper, associate director of state government relations for the American Optometric Association, only a handful of states remain that do not yet have the authority to dispense such contact lenses.
Though the law allows optometrists to prescribe a full range of pharmaceuticals, limitations concerning pharmaceuticals by injection in the previous law were not amended.
“Changing the restriction would have expanded our scope of practice, which would have made passage a lot more complicated,” Dr. Johnson said.
As before, all pharmaceuticals by injection, excluding injections to treat anaphylaxis, are prohibited, he clarified.
According to Dr. Johnson, the parties involved were surprisingly amicable. As more ophthalmologists work side-by-side with optometrists, mutual respect is making them more comfortable with optometrists’ ability, he said.
“There were a few unique situations where everything fell into place at one time,” Dr. Johnson said. “The medical society wasn’t aware we were deleting the formulary requirements until the day it was brought up in committee, and by then it was too late for them to rally their troops against it. Besides, it was obvious the committee agreed with our argument that the formulary had outlived its usefulness.”
According to the new law, optometrists in Vermont will now be able to prescribe up to Schedule II narcotics as soon as their Drug Enforcement Administration license is updated.
For more information:
- Tim Johnson, OD, can be reached at Greater Falls Eye Care, Bellows Falls, Vt.; (802) 463-4488; tjbfod@sover.net.