Optometrists.

Existing law provides for the regulation and licensure of clinical laboratories and clinical laboratory personnel by the State Department of Public Health. Existing law prohibits the performance of a clinical laboratory test or examination classified as waived under the federal Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 unless the test or examination is performed under the overall operation and administration of a laboratory director, as defined, and is performed by specified persons, including certain health care personnel. Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of optometrists by the State Board of Optometry, and requires certification by the board for a licensed optometrist to use therapeutic pharmaceutical agents. Existing law authorizes a licensed optometrist certified to use therapeutic pharmaceutical agents to diagnose and treat specified conditions. This bill would expand the category of persons who may perform clinical laboratory tests or examinations that are classified as waived to include licensed optometrists, and would provide that a laboratory director may include a licensed optometrist serving as the director of a laboratory which only performs specified clinical laboratory testing, for purposes of waived examinations. The bill would authorize a licensed optometrist certified to use therapeutic pharmaceutical agents to additionally perform specified clinical laboratory tests or examinations classified as waived that are necessary for the diagnosis of conditions and diseases of the eye or adnexa, which the bill would define to mean ocular adnexa. This bill would also incorporate changes to Section 1206.5 of the Business and Professions Code proposed by SB 1481 that would become operative only if SB 1481 and this bill are chaptered and become effective on or before January 1, 2013, and this bill is chaptered last.