2020–2021 BCSC Basic and Clinical Science Course™
3 Clinical Optics
Chapter 5: Contact Lenses
Federal Law and Contact Lenses
The Federal Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act (PL 108-164) “increases consumers’ ability to shop around when buying contact lenses.” The patient must be given, without having to ask, a copy of the prescription. If the patient calls in contact lens parameters to a seller, and the seller leaves a message for the prescriber, it is considered “verified” if the prescriber doesn’t reply within 8 business hours, Monday – Friday, except federal holidays. Although the fit of a rigid lens may depend on the laboratory’s machinery, and modifications the practitioner may have made, these lenses are not excluded from this law, which also forbids the prescriber from asking the patient to sign a waiver of responsibility for the prescription. State laws may also address these issues.
Excerpted from BCSC 2020-2021 series : Section 3 - Clinical Optics. For more information and to purchase the entire series, please visit https://www.aao.org/bcsc.