(1) Existing law, the Optometry Practice Act, until January 1, 2026, establishes the State Board of Optometry within the Department of Consumer Affairs and sets forth its powers and duties relating to the licensure and regulation of the practice of optometry. Under existing law, the board is responsible for the licensure and regulation of registered dispensing opticians, defined to mean spectacle lens dispensers, contact lens dispensers, nonresident ophthalmic lens dispensers, or registered dispensing ophthalmic businesses, as those terms are further defined. Existing law, until January 1, 2026, authorizes the board to appoint an executive officer to perform duties delegated by the board. Existing law establishes the Optometry Fund in the State Treasury and requires all money collected under the act to be paid into that fund and to be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to carry out the provisions of the act. Existing law prohibits the board from maintaining a reserve balance in the fund that is greater than 6 months of the appropriated operating expenses of the board in any fiscal year. Existing law makes a violation of the act, or the above-described provisions governing registered dispensing opticians, a crime.

This bill would extend the operation of the board and the authority to appoint an executive officer to January 1, 2030. The bill would increase the maximum permitted reserve balance in the fund to 24 months of the appropriated operating expenses of the board, as specified.

Existing law prescribes the minimum and maximum amounts of specified fees and penalties described in the act and set by the board, including renewal of an optometric license and delinquency for renewal of an optometric license. Existing law also specifies the minimum and maximum amounts of fees prescribed in connection with the application for registration, registration, and biennial registration renewal of nonresident ophthalmic lens dispensers and dispensing ophthalmic businesses and for certificates for spectacle lens dispensers and certificates for contact lens dispensers, which are deposited into the Optometry Fund and made available to the board upon appropriation.

This bill would increase the minimum and maximum fee described above. The bill would also delete provisions that prescribe the minimum and maximum amounts of fees imposed for a branch office license, the renewal of a branch office license, and the failure to pay the annual fee for renewal of a branch office license.

Existing law establishes under the board a dispensing optician committee to advise and make recommendations to the board regarding the regulation of dispensing opticians, spectacle lens dispensers, and contact lens dispensers. Existing law specifies that the committee shall consist of 5 members and describes the appointment, qualifications, and terms of those individuals.

This bill would reduce the number of members of the committee to 3 and would make other conforming changes regarding the appointment, qualifications, and terms of the members.

(2) Existing law prohibits a person from engaging in the practice of optometry without a valid, unrevoked California optometrist license and prohibits an individual from holding themselves out as a registered dispensing optician without, at that time, having a valid, unrevoked certificate. Existing law requires an applicant for licensure or registration with the board to meet certain requirements, including submitting an application on forms furnished by the board and providing satisfactory proof of having passed certain examinations. Existing law requires the applicant for an optometry license to execute an acknowledgment under penalty of perjury that the information provided is true and correct, as specified.

(3) Existing law prohibits a person located outside California from shipping, mailing, furnishing, or delivering in any manner, ophthalmic lenses at retail to a patient at a California address unless the person is registered with the board. Existing law requires a person subject to registration as described above to ship, mail, furnish, or deliver directly to a patient only spectacle lenses and replacement contact lenses provided pursuant to a valid prescription, as specified.

This bill would specify that the above-described provisions also apply to entities outside California.

(4) Under existing law, registered dispensing opticians are given certain powers and duties, regardless of their specific registration designation. In this regard, existing law authorizes a registered dispensing optician to fit and adjust spectacle lenses and frames or take facial measurements, as specified. Existing law also requires a registered dispensing optician who fits and adjusts spectacle lenses at a health facility or business location to provide to the patient certain written information.

Existing law requires a registered dispensing optician fitting contact lenses to maintain accessible handwashing facilities on the premises, as specified. Existing law also requires a registered dispensing optician to comply with certain requirements related to eye examinations, contact lens fittings, and prescriptions, including a prohibition on conditioning the availability of an eye examination, contact lens fitting, or the release of a contact lens prescription on the patient agreeing to purchase contact lenses from that prescriber.

This bill would revise the above-described provisions applicable to registered dispensing opticians to, instead, only apply to registered contact lens dispensers.

Existing law requires ophthalmic lenses to be sold pursuant to a confirmed, written prescription, as specified. Existing law prohibits a dispenser from altering any of the specifications of an ophthalmic lens prescription, except as specified.

This bill would, instead, apply those requirements to the sale of contact lenses.

(5) Existing law requires individuals, corporations, and firms to submit an application, verified under oath by the signatory, for a certificate of registration from the California State Board of Optometry, as specified, and requires those entities receive that certificate before engaging in the business of a dispensing ophthalmic business. Existing law, for that purpose, defines dispensing ophthalmic business to mean an individual, corporation, or firm engaged in the business of filling prescriptions of physicians and surgeons licensed by the Medical Board of California or the Osteopathic Medical Board of California, or optometrists licensed by the California State Board of Optometry for prescription lenses and kindred products.

(6) Existing law requires, until July 1, 2035, the owner and operator of a mobile optometric office, as defined, to, among other things, register with the board. Existing law requires the owner and operator of a mobile optometric office to file a quarterly report, except as specified, on a form furnished by the board containing certain information, including a summary of all complaints received by each mobile optometric office, the disposition of those complaints, and referral information. Existing law requires the owner and operator of a mobile optometric office to provide each patient, and, if applicable, the patient’s caregiver or guardian, a consumer notice containing, among other things, information on followup care available for the patient, including a list of available Medi-Cal or volunteer optometrists. Existing law requires that list to be subject to inspection by the board. Existing law prohibits 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.

This bill would instead require the owner and operator of a mobile optometric office to file that report annually, on or before January 1, and would delete the requirement for the report to include the above-described complaint and referral information. The bill would require the above-described consumer notice to be provided at the initial time services are rendered. The bill would require the above-described information on followup care for the patient to include, instead, a list of available Medi-Cal or volunteer optometrists in the area of service who may be able to see the patient for comprehensive services and for purposes of continuity of care, and the timeframe for which the mobile optometric office will be back in the area of service, if available. The bill would require that list to be provided annually to each location of service for a period of 2 years following the initial date of service. The bill would, instead, subject that information to inspection by the board. The bill would delete the above-described limitation on number of mobile optometric offices operated within the first renewal period of 2 years.

(7) Existing law required the board to issue a temporary license to practice optometry to a person who, among other things, applied for and was eligible for licensure, as specified, but who was unable to immediately take the Part III - Clinical Skills Examination due to the state of emergency, proclaimed by the Governor on March 4, 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In connection with that temporary license, existing law imposed various requirements and restrictions on a temporary licensee and provided that a temporary license would expire upon the date the temporary licensee completed all requirements for licensure, as specified, or 6 months after the end of the state of emergency, whichever occurred first.

The act also requires the board to issue, upon application and payment of a specified fee, a retired license to an optometrist who holds a license that is current and active and, among other things, exempts a retired licensee from continuing education requirements, as specified.

This bill would require the board to issue, upon application and payment of a specified fee, a retired license to an optometrist who holds a license that is current.

This bill would also make a nonsubstantive change to update the name of the above examination.

(8) Existing law requires a prescriber or a registered dispensing optician, upon completion of an eye examination or, if applicable, a contact lens fitting process for a patient, to provide the patient with a signed copy of the patient’s contact lens prescription, unless that prescription meets specified standards. In this regard, existing law grants a prescriber professional discretion regarding the release of the contact lens prescription for patients who wear certain types of contact lenses.

This bill would delete the above-described exception to the requirement to provide a patient with a signed copy of the patient’s contact lens prescription. The bill would require a prescriber to abide by specified federal regulations pertaining to contact lens prescriptions and eye examinations.

(9) Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest.

This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.