California State Board of Optometry: optometry: opticianry.

(1) Existing law, the Optometry Practice Act, until January 1, 2022, establishes the California State Board of Optometry within the Department of Consumer Affairs and makes the board responsible for the licensure and regulation of the practice of optometry. Under existing law, the board is also responsible for the licensure and regulation of registered dispensing opticians, spectacle lens dispensers, contact lens dispensers, and nonresident contact lens sellers. Until January 1, 2022, existing law authorizes the board to appoint a person exempt from civil service who shall be designated as an executive officer. This bill would extend the operation of the board to January 1, 2026. The bill would authorize the board to appoint an executive officer until January 1, 2026. (2) Existing law prohibits an optometrist from having any membership, proprietary interest, coownership, or any profit-sharing arrangement, either by stock ownership, interlocking directors, trusteeship, mortgage, or trust deed, with any registered dispensing optician or any optical company. As an exception to this general prohibition, existing law permits an optometrist, a registered dispensing optician, an optical company, or a health plan to execute a lease or other written agreement giving rise to a direct or indirect landlord-tenant relationship with an optometrist if specified conditions are contained in a written agreement establishing the landlord-tenant relationship, including a requirement that the practice be owned by the optometrist and in every phase be under the optometrist's exclusive control. Existing law authorizes the California State Board of Optometry to issue a citation containing an order of abatement, an order to pay an administrative fine, or both, to an optical company, an optometrist, or a registered dispensing optician for a violation of these provisions. Under existing law, a licensed optometrist who violates these provisions and any person who participates with a licensed optometrist in violation of these provisions is guilty of a misdemeanor. This bill would, starting January 1, 2023, authorize a physician and surgeon, as defined, to execute a lease or other written agreement with an optometrist, pursuant to specified conditions contained in a written agreement establishing the landlord-tenant relationship, as described above. The bill would specify that an optometrist, a registered dispensing optician, a physician and surgeon, an optical company, or a health plan may also enter into a sublease with an optometrist. This bill would additionally authorize the Medical Board of California and the Osteopathic Medical Board of California to issue a citation containing an order of abatement, an order to pay an administrative fine, or both, to a physician and surgeon for a violation of these provisions. The bill would require complaints against a physician and surgeon to be referred to that physician and surgeon's licensing board. By expanding the scope of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (3) Existing law prohibits a registered dispensing optician who fits, adjusts, or dispenses contact lenses, including plano contact lenses, to do so without the valid prescription of a physician and surgeon or optometrist, and without acting on the advice, direction, and responsibility of the physician and surgeon or optometrist. Existing law prohibits a registered dispensing optician from fitting contact lenses, including plano contact lenses, unless the prescription specifically refers to and authorizes contact lenses. This bill would delete these prohibitions in regard to fitting and adjusting, and would apply the prohibitions only in connection with dispensing. (4) Existing law prohibits anyone other than a physician and surgeon or optometrist from measuring the powers or range of human vision, determining the accommodative and refractive status of the human eye or the scope of its functions in general, or prescribing ophthalmic devices and regulates the prescription requirements for ophthalmic devices. Under existing law, a violation of these provisions is subject to a fine of not less than $1,000 nor more than $2,500. Existing law assigns various responsibilities, such as adopting regulations and taking disciplinary action against licensees, to the Medical Board of California or the California State Board of Optometry to administer and enforce these and related provisions. This bill would revise the amount of the above-described fine to be not less than $250 nor more than $35,000. The bill would also authorize the Osteopathic Medical Board of California to administer and enforce these and related provisions. (5) Existing law, the Nonresident Contact Lens Seller Registration Act, prohibits a person located outside California from shipping, mailing, or delivering in any manner, contact lenses at retail to a patient at a California address unless the person is registered with the board. The act prescribes the requirements for an application for registration as a nonresident contact lens seller, including that the application contain the name under which the person proposes to do business and the location of the business. The act prohibits a nonresident dispenser from selling contact lenses without receipt of a written prescription and, if a written prescription is unavailable, requires the nonresident dispenser to confirm the prescription by direct communication with the prescriber, as specified. Under existing law, a violation of the act is subject to a fine of not less than $1,000 nor more than $2,500. This bill would rename the act the Nonresident Ophthalmic Lens Dispenser Registration Act and would revise and recast those provisions to, among other things, refer to nonresident ophthalmic lens dispensers instead of nonresident contact lens sellers. The bill would additionally prohibit a person located outside California from furnishing ophthalmic lenses to a patient at a California address, as described above. The bill would require an application for registration as a nonresident ophthalmic lens dispenser to contain a fictitious or assumed name, if applicable, under which the person proposes to do business, and the registration number issued by the board, if applicable. The bill would revise the circumstances under which, if a written prescription is unavailable, the prescription is deemed confirmed. The bill would increase the fine limit for a violation of the act to $35,000. (6) Under existing law, a dispensing optician is an individual, corporation, or firm engaged in the business of filling prescriptions of physicians and surgeons or optometrists for prescription lenses and kindred products, and, as incidental to the filling of those prescriptions, doing specified acts, including taking facial measurements, fitting and adjusting those lenses, and fitting and adjusting spectacle frames. Existing law requires a dispensing optician to be registered with the board in order to be engaged in that business. A violation of these provisions is a crime. This bill would revise the definition of a dispensing optician to mean an individual that is registered with the board as a spectacle lens dispenser, contact lens dispenser, nonresident ophthalmic lens dispenser, or registered dispensing ophthalmic business. The bill would require a dispensing optician to, among other things, post a citation issued for an order of abatement on the front of the registrant's place of business until the violation has been corrected and to prominently post and make available its notice on any website it maintains that provides information about its services. The bill would specify requirements for the renewal of registration with the board. The bill would provide that these provisions do not apply to an individual who is acting under the direct responsibility and supervision of a physician and surgeon or optometrist, as specified, in any setting where optometry or ophthalmology is practiced. By imposing new requirements on dispensing opticians, the violation of which would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law authorizes the board, in its discretion, to suspend or revoke a certificate if an individual certificate holder or persons having any proprietary interest who will engage in dispensing operations have been convicted of a crime substantially related to the qualifications, functions, and duties of a dispensing optician. This bill would authorize the board to take action against any registrant who is charged with unprofessional conduct and deny an application for registration if the applicant has committed unprofessional conduct, including, but not limited to, violating these provisions, gross negligence, incompetence, and fraud. The bill would make it a misdemeanor for any individual, corporation, or firm operating as a registered dispensing optician to demonstrate a willful disregard for these provisions. By creating a new crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (7) Existing law requires a registered dispensing optician that is selling or transferring ownership of their place of business to comply with certain requirements, including returning the certificate of registration to the board no later than 10 calendar days after the change of ownership is completed. This bill would revise and recast various provisions in connection with the licensure and regulation of dispensing opticians to, among other things, refer instead to a registered dispensing ophthalmic business. The bill would define a registered dispensing ophthalmic business as an individual, corporation, or firm engaged in the business of filling prescriptions of physicians and surgeons or optometrists for prescription lenses and kindred products, and would require a dispensing ophthalmic business to be registered with the board in order to be engaged in that business. The bill would apply the above-described provisions regulating the selling or transferring of ownership to a registered dispensing ophthalmic business and would require a registered dispensing ophthalmic business assuming ownership to apply for a new certificate of registration from the board no later than 10 calendar days after the change of ownership is completed. (8) Existing law defines "mobile optometric clinic" to mean a trailer, van, or other means of transportation in which the practice of optometry is performed and which is not affiliated with an approved optometry school in California. Existing law requires the board, by January 1, 2022, to adopt regulations establishing a registry for mobile optometric clinics and to set a registration fee at an amount not to exceed the costs of administration. This bill would prohibit the owner and operator of a mobile optometric office from operating more than 12 mobile optometric offices within the first renewal period of 2 years, as specified. The bill would require an owner and operator who has obtained approval from the board and wishes to operate a mobile optometric office to apply for a permit before beginning operation of each mobile optometric office and would prescribe a permit fee. The bill would authorize an owner and operator to apply for renewal of the mobile optometric office permit by attesting to compliance with specified requirements and paying a biennial renewal fee. By expanding the crime of perjury, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (9) Existing law, the Optometry Practice Act, authorizes the board to take action against all persons guilty of violating the act or any of the regulations adopted by the board pursuant thereto and makes a violation of the act a crime. The act authorizes the board to set fees and penalties in accordance with a specified schedule. This bill would prohibit an optometrist from knowingly providing optometric services to any patient who scheduled their appointment through an individual, corporation, or firm engaged in the business of filling prescriptions that is not properly registered. The bill would also prohibit an optometrist from knowingly entering into a lease or other written agreement giving rise to a direct or indirect landlord-tenant relationship with an individual, corporation, or firm engaged in the business of filling prescriptions that is not properly registered. The bill would authorize the board to set an endorsement fee of $40 and to increase the fee as provided. (10) This bill would make other conforming and nonsubstantive changes, including replacing gendered terms with nongendered terms, updating cross-references, and deleting obsolete provisions. (11) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. (12) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Sections 27 and 144 of the Business and Professions Code proposed by SB 826 to be operative only if this bill and SB 826 are enacted and this bill is enacted last, Section 2544 of the Business and Professions Code proposed by AB 407 to be operative only if this bill and AB 407 are enacted and this bill is enacted last, and Section 4170 of the Business and Professions Code proposed by AB 852 to be operative only if this bill and AB 852 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.