22 TAC §279.2
The Texas Optometry Board proposes amendments to rule §279.2
in order to clarify that charges assigned or presented to insurance or managed
care entities and not paid are not the type of unpaid charges that would permit
the optometrist or therapeutic optometrist to refuse to release a contact
lens prescription.
Chris Kloeris, executive director of the Texas Optometry Board, has determined
that for the first five-year period the amendments are in effect, there will
be no fiscal implications for state and local governments as a result of enforcing
or administering the amendments.
Chris Kloeris also has determined that for each of the first five years
the amendments are in effect, the public benefit anticipated as a result of
enforcing the amendments is that licensees and patients will have a clear
understanding as to which circumstances a licensee may refuse to release a
prescription. It has also been determined that the amendments will not impose
any additional costs to the persons affected by the rule. No additional costs
are foreseen for small or micro business.
Comments on the proposal may be submitted to Chris Kloeris, Executive Director,
Texas Optometry Board, 333 Guadalupe Street, Suite 2-420, Austin, Texas 78701-3942.
The deadline for furnishing comments is thirty days after publication in the Texas Register.
The amendment is proposed under the Texas Optometry Act, Texas
Occupations Code, §351.151 and the Contact Lens Prescription Act, §353.157
of the Occupations Code. No other sections are affected by the amendments.
The Texas Optometry Board interprets §351.151 as authorizing the adoption
of procedural and substantive rules for the regulation of the optometric profession.
The Board interprets §353.157 as defining what unpaid charges authorize
the refusal to release a prescription by an optometrist or therapeutic optometrist.
§279.2.Contact Lens Prescriptions.
(a) - (g)
(No change)
(h)
The Contact Lens Prescription Act (Act), prohibits an optometrist
or therapeutic optometrist from charging the patient a fee in addition to
the examination fee and the fitting fee as a condition for giving a contact
lens prescription to the patient.
An optometrist or therapeutic optometrist
may not refuse to release a prescription solely because charges assigned or
presented for payment to an insurance carrier, health maintenance organization,
managed care entity, or similar entity have not been paid by that entity.
(i)
(No change.)
This agency hereby certifies that the proposal has been reviewed
by legal counsel and found to be within the agency's legal authority to adopt.
Filed with the Office of the
Secretary of State, on December 28, 2001.
TRD-200108293
Chris Kloeris
Executive Director
Texas Optometry Board
Earliest possible date of adoption: February 10, 2002
For further information, please call: (512) 305-8500