Arizona legislation expands optometrists’ prescribing privileges

Issue: June 2014

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 nonsteroidal 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 packaged 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.

Arizona State Board of Optometry executive director Margaret Whelan told Primary Care Optometry News that as a regulatory board whose sole mission is to protect the public, the board of optometry considers this change in scope of practice to be beneficial to Arizona’s citizens and that it fully meets the board’s responsibility to protect the public.

“This bill allows optometrists to be given the authority to use the scope for which they are already qualified and to practice optometry to the fullest extent of their competencies,” she said.

HB 2380 also brings the board current with the industry standards for optometry as well as with member optometry boards around the country, Whelan added – by Chelsea Frajerman

For more information:

Margaret Whelan is the executive director of the Arizona State Board of Optometry. She can be reached at (602) 542-8155; Margaret.Whelan@optometry.az.gov.

Disclosure: Whelan has no relevant financial disclosures.