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Arizona legislation expands optometrists' prescribing privileges
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Gov. Jan Brewer has signed a bill that will allow optometrists in Arizona the ability to prescribe specific drugs, according to the state legislature’s website.
HB 2380, which was introduced in January 2014, was signed into law at the end of April.
The law gives Arizona optometrists rights to prescribe "anti-infectives rather than antibiotics and adds fluoroquinolones, antihistamines and nonsteriodal anti-inflammatory agents, agents for the treatment of angle-closure glaucoma including carbonic anhydrase inhibitors, and steroids in an amount that does not exceed the amount packages for a single course of therapy of not more than 7 days."
Optometrists can also prescribe a Schedule III controlled substance as long as it is an analgesic and "any controlled substance only if it is an analgesic that is reclassified from Schedule III to Schedule II after Jan. 1, 2014."
Requirements including consulting with a patient's primary care physician for the purpose of referral and maintaining supportive supplies in connection with treatment of an anaphylactic reaction by optometrists who uses auto-injectors have been removed.
Additionally, the law stipulates that optometrists may not prescribe an oral pharmaceutical or controlled substance to a patient younger than 6 years.
Optometrists are not able to prescribe oral antifungals, oral antimetabolites, oral immunosuppressives, substances administered intravenously or substances administered via injection, not including epinephrine, the law specifies.