Risk Management

FTC Updates the Eyeglass Rule

August 7, 2024

Dear OMIC Insureds:

We would like to bring your attention to updates made to the Ophthalmic Practice Rules (Eyeglass Rule) on June 27, 2024, by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

The FTC proposed updating the rule in December 2022 after receiving over 800 public comments regarding ophthalmologists’ and optometrists’ noncompliance with the rule’s longstanding requirement to provide patients with a free copy of their prescription immediately after a refractive eye exam. The updates are intended to increase compliance foremost by requiring certain prescribers to obtain a patient’s signed confirmation of receipt of their prescription. OMIC encourages you to read the FTC announcement here to ensure your practice is in compliance. The announcement lists the following changes, which go into effect September 24, 2024:

“The changes announced today require that prescribers, after providing the prescription, request that their patients sign a statement confirming they received their prescription and keep a record of such confirmation for at least three years. These new confirmation requirements—which mostly mirror those already in place for contact lens prescriptions—only apply to optometrists and ophthalmologists who have a financial interest in selling prescription eyewear.

Other changes to the rule:

• allows prescribers, with a patient’s verifiable affirmative consent, to provide the patient with a digital copy of a prescription in lieu of a paper copy; if the patient refuses the digital copy, the prescriber must provide a paper copy;
• explicitly specifies that, whether the patient consents to digital delivery or opts for a paper copy of their prescription, the prescription must be provided immediately after the examination is completed (not after the patient has been sold glasses, for instance). A patient must have their prescription before any offer to sell them glasses;
• clarifies that presentation of proof of insurance coverage shall be deemed to be a payment for the purpose of determining when a prescription must be provided;
• changes the term “eye examination” to “refractive eye examination” throughout the text and emphasizes the need for prescribers to educate consumers that there can be a difference between an eye health examination and a refractive eye examination. This is because the automatic release of prescriptions is only required following a refractive eye examination.”

If you have questions, contact us for confidential risk management advice at riskmanagement@omic.com or call us at 1-800-562-6642 and enter 4 for Risk Management.

Sincerely,

OMIC Risk Management Department