Kentucky governor signs bill to expand optometric privileges

Late Thursday, Kentucky Gov. Steven L. Beshear signed Senate Bill 110, which allows optometrists in the state to perform certain injections and laser procedures and remove chalazion and lesions. It also gives the optometric board of examiners the authority to determine scope of practice.

Gov. Beshear said in a written statement: "Access to quality health care is a critical issue for families across the commonwealth...This bill passed overwhelmingly in both legislative chambers (81 to 14 in the House and 33 to 3 in the Senate), showing broad bipartisan support.

"To ensure the highest degree of oversight, I will be meeting with the Kentucky Board of Optometric Examiners to make sure that providers of these services undergo extensive training," he continued.

The American Optometric Association issued a statement congratulating the Kentucky Optometric Association.

"They planned, implemented and perfectly executed a multi-year strategy to educate legislators on the need for this legislation," Sherry L. Cooper, associate director for the AOA's State Government Relations, said in a statement.

"Kentucky follows Oklahoma where the first laser law was enacted in 1998, codifying the interpretation of the law by the Oklahoma Board of Examiners in Optometry in 1988 that 'when medically necessary, a qualified optometrist may utilize lasers...'" she said.

Richard L. Abbott, MD, president of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, also issued a statement.

"In almost every state in the country, eye surgery is performed by medical doctors with years of extensive medical and surgical training and experience," he said. "Optometrists simply do not have the training necessary to perform these procedures or manage the kinds of serious complications that can arise during surgery.... For the sake of patient safety across the commonwealth, Gov. Beshear and the legislature need to take another look at the complications and impact of this dangerous law before it's too late."

In a previous interview, Kentucky Optometric Association I. Ben Gaddie, OD, told PRIMARY CARE OPTOMETRY NEWS the four specific areas the legislation addressed.

In the first area, the legislation would grant privileges for "all routes of administration of pharmaceutical agents," he said. "The second area is being able to perform 'lumps and bumps' procedures around the eyelid and eye."

The third area grants therapeutic laser privileges, excluding PRK, LASIK and retinal procedures.

In the fourth area, "No other agency or board in the state of Kentucky has authority to determine the scope of practice but the optometric board of examiners," Dr. Gaddie said.

An adjunct faculty member in Oklahoma, Dr. Gaddie trains other optometrists how to perform these procedures but had been unable to perform them in Kentucky.

"I routinely performed these procedures in Oklahoma," Dr. Gaddie said in a statement recently issued by the Kentucky Optometric Association. "When I decided to return home to Kentucky, I soon realized that the Kentucky optometry law was not up-to-date here, so my patients were denied access to the care I could safely provide to them."

The legislation is intended to improve access to quality eye care for the state's residents, the Kentucky Optometric Association said in an earlier press release. Ophthalmologists are located in only one-third of the state's counties, while optometrists are located in 106 counties.