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Wis. optometrists now permitted to dispense medicated contact lenses
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Assembly Bill 591, signed into law on March 15, will allow Wisconsin optometrists to dispense therapeutic contact lenses when the technology has been FDA-approved.
Peter Theo, executive vice president of the Wisconsin Optometric Association (WOA), led the drafting and lobbying for this legislation. To garner support, Mr. Theo said he spoke to the Wisconsin Medical Society, a representative from the Pharmacy Society of Wisconsin and the Academy of Ophthalmology before making the bill public.
 Wis. Governor Jim Doyle signs Assembly Bill 591 into law. Standing from left to right: Doug Stine, OD (Wausau, Wis.); Rep. Donna Seidel (lead assembly author); Sen. Kathleen Vinehout (lead Senate author); Peter Theo (WOA executive vice president) and Ryan Natzke (lobbyist, Johnson & Johnson). Image: Peter Theo |
“We decided to do a lot of work up-front, before the bill was even introduced,” Mr. Theo told Primary Care Optometry News. “I told them this is what we want to do and this is what the language will look like. I think all of that work in the beginning helped make the legislative process a lot easier.”
Assembly Bill 591 was created in expectation of the release of drug-eluting contact lenses nationwide. To ensure Wisconsin law allowed optometrists to dispense these medical devices, the WOA had to change their statute.
“Under current law, Wisconsin optometrists have the ability to prescribe pharmaceutical products as they have been approved by the FDA for ocular therapeutic use,” Mr. Theo said. “Wisconsin has a very restrictive pharmaceutical dispensing law that prohibits optometrists and many other providers from dispensing pharmaceutical products. This new law will allow doctors of optometry to not only prescribe contact lenses with medication embedded into the lens, but also dispense those medicated lenses to patients.”
The bill passed through the entire legislative process without a single vote of opposition, Mr. Theo said. He attributes this accomplishment to the strong solitary focus of the bill, as well as the association’s selection of key legislators to author the bill and gather the right support.
“By limiting this to medicated contact lenses, legislators had a sense of assurance that this would not cause problems with other providers or interested parties,” he told PCON. “We also worked hard to secure several key legislators to author the bill.
“For example, on the assembly side, the lead author of the bill is the assembly assistant majority leader, Donna Seidel (D-Wausau),” he continued. “Once we had her on board, things moved along rather well.”
The new law is in effect immediately.
For more information:
- Peter Theo, executive vice president of the Wisconsin Optometric Association, can be reached at 6510 Grand Teton Plaza, Suite 312, Madison, WI 53719; (608) 824-2200; fax: (608) 824-2205; petertheo@tds.net.