Healio
Healio
February 23, 2011
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Kentucky legislature passes bill to expand OD privileges

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The Kentucky General Assembly passed legislation Feb. 18 that would allow optometrists in the state to perform certain injections and laser procedures and remove chalazion and lesions.

At press time, the legislation awaited the governor's signature. If Gov. Steven L. Beshear does not sign or veto it within 10 days, Senate Bill 110 becomes law without his signature, Kentucky Optometric Association (KOA) executive director Darlene Eakin told Primary Care Optometry News.

The bill addresses four primary areas, according to I. Ben Gaddie, OD, KOA president-elect and PCON Editorial Board member.

In the first area, the legislation would grant privileges for "all routes of administration of pharmaceutical agents," Dr. Gaddie told PCON in an interview. "In Kentucky we enjoy broad pharmacological privileges and can use all topicals and orals except Schedule I and II narcotics," he said. "This really addresses new technology. If a new delivery system becomes available, we'll be able to provide that."

Such technologies may include drug-eluting contact lenses or slow-dissolving depots.

"The second area is being able to perform 'lumps and bumps' procedures around the eyelid and the eye," Dr. Gaddie said. This would include injecting anesthetic and biopsying, if necessary, skin tags, moles, lesions or chalazion, he said.

"If there's suspicion for malignancy, we would still turn to our oculoplastic surgeon to take care of it," Dr. Gaddie added.

The third area grants therapeutic laser privileges, excluding PRK, LASIK and retinal procedures. "That leaves Nd:YAG capsulotomy, laser trabeculoplasty (argon or selective), peripheral iridotomy and iridoplasty," Dr. Gaddie said. "Again, we left the door open so if a new technology becomes available for a condition we already manage, the board could decide if it is within the parameters set by the legislature."

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

"Organized ophthalmology and medicine were completely opposed to any aspect of scope expansion or the expansion of the authority of the optometric board," Dr. Gaddie added.

The legislation was intended to improve access to quality eye care for the state's residents, the KOA said in a press release.

"Kentucky legislators overwhelmingly recognize that Kentucky has a shortage of doctors and a population that is aging," Joe Ellis, OD, a practitioner in Benton, Ky., and president of the American Optometric Association, said in the KOA press release.

While optometrists are located in 106 Kentucky counties, ophthalmologists are located in only one-third of the state's counties, according to the KOA press release.

The press release also stated that since 1998, optometrists in Oklahoma have successfully performed the same procedures allowed in SB 110 "with zero complaints to the Oklahoma Board of Medical Licensure."

SB 110 passed the Senate with a vote of 33 to 3 and the House with a vote of 81 to 14. - Nancy Hemphill, ELS

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