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AOA supports patient health, safety in contact lens rule
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The American Optometric Association submitted formal comments to the Federal Trade Commission responding to the commission’s 10-year review of the Contact Lens Rule and the Ophthalmic Practice (Eyeglasses) Rule, advocating fairness to patients, doctors and retailers.
The Contact Lens Rule went into effect in 2004, and the Eyeglasses Rule was issued in 1978. Both require eye care professionals to provide patients with a copy of their prescription.
“This process is our opportunity to advocate for patients and begin to address serious problems with the existing Contact Lens Rule, such as the deeply flawed passive verification process,” AOA President Steven A. Loomis, PD, said in a press release from the organization.
The AOA said it submitted formal comments to FTC officials, state affiliate associations, individual optometrists and the Coalition for Patient Vision Care Safety (PVSC) covering the following issues:
- improve the passive verification system;
- ensure retailers cannot sell lenses based on expired prescriptions;
- stop “robocalls;” and
- shut down online retailers who allow patients to purchase lenses without a prescription.
The PVSC coalition, which comprises the AOA, Alcon, Bausch + Lomb, CooperVision and Johnson & Johnson, is continuing to enlist congressional support on implementing the comments, according to the press release.
As for the Eyeglasses Rule, the AOA’s comments encouraged the FTC to take action by:
- ensuring state laws regarding prescription requirements are followed and not contradicted by federal regulations that are not supported by federal statute and
- clarifying what the rule currently indicates regarding eyeglasses prescriptions.
The FTC plans to review all feedback from the public comment period, which ended Oct. 26, before deciding whether to propose specific changes to the rules.