Patrick Leahy: “the Contact Lens Prescription Release Act of 2002 will rectify a troubling anomaly in competition and health care law…”

“the Contact Lens Prescription Release Act of 2002 will rectify a troubling anomaly in competition and health care law: Eye doctors have long been required to provide patients with the prescriptions for their eyeglasses, but not for contact lenses. This bill will require ophthalmologists and optometrists to release contact lens prescriptions to their patients, just as they have long been required to do for eyeglass wearers. Since 1973, when the Federal Trade Commission issued a regulation requiring the automatic release of eyeglass prescriptions, the millions of citizens who wear glasses have had access to, and the use of, their own prescriptions. They have long been able to 'shop around' for the best provider of eyeglasses for themselves, but contact lens wearers are often forced to purchase their contacts from their eye doctors, because they have been denied possession of their own prescriptions. The contact lens industry was in its infancy in 1973, and thus was excluded from the FTC's regulation. Now that 35 million Americans wear contact lenses, the industry is profoundly different. Thirty years ago, it made sense that the FTC did not extend its rule to cover contact lenses, but now that so many patients wear contacts, it seems the time is ripe for the law to reflect this growing health care trend.”