New bill in Congress targets contact lens prescription robocalls
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A proposed bill to make ordering contact lenses online safer by banning sellers from verifying prescriptions through robocalls has earned the praise of the Health Care Alliance for Patient Safety.
According to a press release from the nonprofit organization, the Contact Lens Prescription Verification Modernization Act would prohibit online contact lens sellers from using automated phone calls to verify customers’ prescription details. Sellers are required by law to contact prescribers for confirmation, but the Health Care Alliance for Patient Safety (HCAPS) said that robocalls have led to inaccurate prescriptions, which could cause permanent eye damage or blindness.
Robocalls can make it “difficult, or even impossible, to correctly identify the patient and proper prescription” within the 8-hour passive verification window, HCAPS stated. After that 8-hour window elapses, an unverified prescription is verified by default, according to the American Optometric Association.
The bill would also require sellers to provide a HIPAA-compliant method for customers to submit an encrypted copy of their own contact lens prescription, according to its full text. HCAPS chair David Cockrell, OD, in the HCAPS press release, called the bill “a major step to protect contact lens patients from potentially harmful practices.”
The group said the bill would improve the safety of more than 45 million Americans who rely on contact lenses by avoiding the use of incorrect lenses or an outdated prescription, which could lead to infections and sight-threatening conditions, including ulcers, microbial keratitis, corneal edema and neovascularization.
U.S. Reps. Michael Burgess, R-TX, and Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-DE, introduced the bill in the House on April 20. It was referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
purchase contact lenses without the risk of receiving the incorrect prescription,” Burgess said. “This bill will maintain consumers’ freedom while ensuring that physicians can safely verify their patients’ prescriptions.”
The bill was also introduced in the previous two sessions of Congress but has never passed in the House or Senate.
References:
- Contact Lens Prescription Verification Modernization Act, HR 2748, 118th Cong (2023). Accessed May 11, 2023. https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/2748.
- Contact lens safety legislation proposes banning robocalls. https://www.aoa.org/news/advocacy/federal-advocacy/contact-lens-safety-legislation-proposes-banning-robocalls. Published April 27, 2023. Accessed May 11, 2023.
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