This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Expert advocates for contact lens prescription verification via email
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
An industry representative participating in a congressional briefing last week on the Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act endorsed the use of email to verify prescriptions presented to contact lens retailers.
“We focused our discussion on health and safety in eye care regarding what we think are critical elements that were not addressed in the proposal by the FTC,” Michele Andrews, OD, senior director of professional affairs, North America, CooperVision, said in an interview with Primary Care Optometry News.
Andrews and other industry experts and advocates participated in the briefing, which followed the 10-year review of the Contact Lens Rule that was put into motion by the FTC.
She advocated that email be utilized in the prescription verification process in lieu of robocalls, which is the industry standard by many contact lens retailers. Through email, the prescription details could be better documented, she said.
The group also spoke about the issue of illegal substitution.
“There is no pathway through the FDA to create a generic contact lens,” she said. That process does not exist. “As such, the prescription, including the brand, is important for patient safety.”
In addition, retailers sometimes push contact lens wearers to buy more product as the prescription is nearing expiration, she said.
“This may send a message to the patient that they don’t need to come back in for a comprehensive eye exam. That interaction — the relationship between patient and provider — is so important,” Andrews said.
She added that a contact lens wearer may have early signs of contact lens intolerance, and only an eye care provider can help determine that in many cases.
The FTC did propose that eye care professionals require patients to sign an acknowledgment indicating they received a copy of their contact lens prescription.
“Over the last 10 years there were 150 complaints to the FTC from consumers about their inability to receive a contact lens prescription from their eye doctor. Given that there are more than 40 million contact lens wearers in the United States, we think emphasis should be placed on health and safety concerns, rather than access to a prescription,” Andrews said.
She said that the focus should be on efforts to ensure patients receive the proper contact lens product, with the seller respecting all parameters of the prescription and the expiration date.
“Passive verification would be a better process if handled by email,” she said. “There’s an opportunity here for the FTC to consider enforcement efforts and ensure the patient gets the prescribed product they are supposed to receive.” – by Abigail Sutton
Disclosure: Andrews is employed by CooperVision.