California governor vetoes optometric laser bill
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed Assembly Bill 2236, which would have allowed optometrists in the state to use therapeutic lasers, remove eyelid lesions and perform corneal crosslinking.
Newsom shared the news in his Sept. 28 legislative update, saying, “This bill would authorize optometrists to perform ocular surgical procedures currently performed by ophthalmologists after completing specified education and training. I am not convinced that the education and training required is sufficient to prepare optometrists to perform the surgical procedures identified.”
As previously reported in Healio, if AB 2236 were signed into law, California optometrists would have been permitted to perform selective laser trabeculoplasty and laser peripheral iridotomy, drain lesions, administer local anesthesia, inject chalazia and perform corneal crosslinking.
In a letter to members of the California State Assembly, Newsom said, “This bill would allow optometrists to perform advanced surgical procedures with less than 1 year of training. In comparison, physicians who perform these procedures must complete at least a 3-year residency program. For this reason, I cannot sign this bill.”
The American Optometric Association provided this statement to Healio: “In the past 3 years, legislators in five states have underscored the ‘safe and sensible’ solution to expanding critical patient access to care by furthering advanced surgical procedures and board authority provisions for doctors of optometry in legislation. With a total of 10 states where doctors of optometry practice contemporary optometry, the AOA will work tirelessly with all states to ensure that this progress continues.
“We applaud and stand with all of the California doctors and the California Optometric Association (COA), who made significant strides in working to advance patient care with AB 2236,” the AOA continued. “AOA will continue to work hand in hand with them as they press forward in this important fight.”
COA executive director Kristine Shultz previously told Healio that the law would have ensured patients have access to the care they need.
“In some counties, Medi-Cal patients must wait months to get in with an ophthalmologist,” she told Healio when the legislation was passed by the California Assembly and Senate in early September. “Optometrists already provide 81% of the eye care under Medi-Cal and are located in almost every county in California. [They] are well-situated to bridge the provider gap for these eye conditions that are becoming more common as our population ages.”
The California Academy of Eye Physicians and Surgeons, the California Medical Association and several other medical associations posed strong opposition to this legislation, according to Shultz.
“They argued that optometrists should be allowed to perform the procedures but disagreed on the training that should be required,” she said.
Reference:
- AB 2236. Fast Democracy. https://fastdemocracy.com/bill-search/ca/20212022/bills/CAB00024692/. Updated Aug. 31, 2022. Accessed Sept. 6, 2022.
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