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Contact lens coalition urges Congress to reject legislation
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The Coalition for Contact Lens Consumer Choice announced that more than 135,000 individuals have signed the coalition’s petition urging Congress to reject the Contact Lens Consumer Health Protection Act and a companion bill introduced in the House of Representatives.
S.2777 and H.R.6157 “...restrict the prescription verification process and thereby limit the ability of consumers to access affordable lenses,” according to a press release from the coalition.
Enacted in 2003, the Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act allows consumers the ability to purchase contact lenses at discounted prices from alternative retailers, whether online, in stores or over the phone, and created a process for retailers to verify prescriptions for consumers, according to the release.
“The CLCHPA would threaten this system by adding new barriers to the prescription verification process,” according to the press release. “These new barriers would allow optometrists to simply ignore verification requests from alternative retailers. The new verification procedures would limit the ability of consumers to purchase their contact lenses from alternative retailers, which would reduce choice, increase consumer costs and potentially jeopardize eye health, as consumers are more likely to wear clean, fresh lenses when they are convenient to purchase and affordable,” according to the release.
The first 70,000 petition signatures were delivered to Congress this summer. The additional 65,000 signatures collected since then will be delivered to Congress in the coming weeks, the coalition said.