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By: Hunter H.B. No. 3057
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the voluntary regulation of persons providing certain
ophthalmic goods and services.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 352.002, Occupations Code, is amended to
read as follows:
Sec. 352.002 DEFINITIONS. In this chapter:
(1) "Board" means the Texas Board of Health.
(2) "Contact lens dispensing" means fabricating,
ordering, mechanically adjusting, dispensing, selling, and
delivering to a consumer contact lenses in accordance with a
prescription from a physician, optometrist, or therapeutic
optometrist, along with appropriate instructions for the care and
handling of the lenses. The term does not include, unless directed
or approved by a physician:
(A) taking any measurements of the eye or the
cornea; or
(B) evaluating the physical fit of contact
lenses.
(3) "Contact lens prescription" means a written
specification from a physician, optometrist, or therapeutic
optometrist for therapeutic, corrective, or cosmetic contact
lenses that states the refractive power of the product and other
information required to be in the specification by the physician,
optometrist, therapeutic optometrist, Texas State Board of Medical
Examiners, or Texas Optometry Board.
(4) "Department" means the Texas Department of Health.
(5) "Dispensing optician" or "ophthalmic dispenser"
means a person who is not a registered optician, registered contact
lens technician, physician, optometrist, therapeutic optometrist,
or pharmacist, who provides or offers to provide spectacle or
contact lens dispensing services or products to the public.
(6) "Spectacle dispensing" means designing,
verifying, fitting, adjusting, selling, or delivering to a consumer
fabricated and finished ophthalmic devices, including spectacle
lenses and frames but excluding contact lenses, in accordance with
a prescription from a physician, therapeutic optometrist, or
optometrist. The term includes:
(A) prescription analysis and interpretation;
(B) the measurement of the face, including
interpupillary distances, to determine the size, shape, and
specifications of the spectacle lenses or frames best suited to the
wearer's needs;
(c) the preparation and delivery of a work order
to a laboratory technician engaged in grinding lenses and
fabricating spectacles;
(D) the verification of the quality of finished
spectacle lenses;
(E) the adjustment of spectacle lenses or frames
to the wearer's face; and
(F) the adjustment, repair, replacement, or
reproduction of a previously prepared, specially fabricated
ophthalmic device.
(7) "Spectacle prescription" means a written
specification by a physician, therapeutic optometrist, or
optometrist for therapeutic or corrective lenses that states the
refractive power of the lenses and other information included in
the specification by the physician, therapeutic optometrist, or
optometrist.
(8) "Registered contact lens technician" means a
person registered under this act as a contact lens technician who
performs contact lens dispensing.
(9) "Registered optician" means a person registered
under this Act as a registered optician performs spectacle
dispensing.
SECTION 2. 352.101, Occupations Code, is amended to read as
follows:
Section 352.101. REPRESENTATION TO PUBLIC. (a) A person
may not represent to the public that the person is a "Registered
Optician" ["Registered Dispensing Optician" or "Registered
Spectacle Dispenser"] unless the person is registered as an
[spectacle dispensing] optician and complies with this chapter.
(b) A person may not represent to the public that the person
is a ["Registered Contact Lens Dispenser" or] "Registered Contact
Lens Technician" unless the person is registered as a contact lens
technicians [dispenser] and complies with this chapter.
(c) A person may not use abbreviations or other letters to
represent that the person is registered.
(d) A person properly registered under this chapter may
represent to the public that the person is a "Registered Dispensing
Optician[,]" ["Registered Spectacle Dispenser,"] or a "Registered
Contact Lens Technician[,]." or "Registered Contact Lens
Dispenser."
(e) A person registered under this Chapter as a contact lens
technician shall not be required to obtain a contact lens
dispensing permit under Chapter 353.
SECTION 3. Section 352.102. Occupations Code, is amended
to read as follows:
Sec. 352.102. ISSUANCE OF CERTIFICATE; QUALIFICATIONS. (a)
The department shall issue a certificate of registration to an
applicant who:
(1) applies and pays a registration fee;
(2) presents evidence satisfactory to the department
that the applicant has successfully completed the number of
classroom hours of training required by the board; and
(3) passes the appropriate examination required under
Section 352.103.
(b) The board may not require more than 30 classroom hours
of training as a prerequisite to registration.
(c) A person may qualify and be registered as an optician
[spectacle dispenser], contact lens technician [dispenser], or
both.
SECTION 4. Section 352.201. Occupations Code, is amended
to read as follows:
352.201. DIRECTIONS FOR REGISTERED [DISPENSING] OR
REGISTERED CONTACT LENS TECHNICIAN. A physician's directions,
instructions, or orders may be performed or a physician's
prescription may be filled by a registered [dispensing] optician or
registered contact lens technician who is separate from and
independent of the physician's office only if the directions,
instructions, orders, or prescription is:
(1) in writing; except that a physician's directions,
instructions, or orders may be communicated by telephone provided
that the registered optician or registered contact lens technician
sends a written acknowledgment of the physician's directions,
instructions, or orders within 10 business days.
(2) of a scope and content and communicated to the
dispensing optician in a form and manner that, in the physician's
professional judgment, best serves the health, safety, and welfare
of the physician's patient; and
(3) in a form and detail consistent with the
particular dispensing optician's skill and knowledge.
SECTION 5. Section 352.203, Occupations Code, is amended to
read as follows:
Sec. 352.203. DELEGATION BY PHYSICIAN. A registered
contact lens technician [dispenser] may take measurements of the
eye or cornea and evaluate the physical fit of lenses for a patient
of a physician if the physician has delegated in writing to the
technician [dispenser] those responsibilities for that specific
patient in accordance with Sections 351.005 and 352.201.
SECTION 6. Section 351.005 (a) (5), Occupations Code,
(Texas Optometry Act), is amended to read as follows:
Sec. 351.005 (a) (5). APPLICATION OF CHAPTER; EXEMPTIONS.
(5) prevent or interfere with the right of an optician
or a contact lens technician [dispensing optician] registered under
Chapter 352 to engage in spectacle or contact lens dispensing under
that chapter;
SECTION 7. This Act takes effect September 1, 2003.