State Board of Optometry: optometrists: dispensing opticians.

Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of the practice of optometry by the State Board of Optometry, which is within the Department of Consumer Affairs, and also makes the board responsible for the regulation of registered dispensing opticians. Under existing law, a dispensing optician is an individual, corporation, or firm engaged in the business of filling prescriptions of physicians and surgeons licensed by the Medical Board of California or optometrists licensed by the State Board of Optometry for prescription lenses and kindred products, and, as incidental to the filling of those prescriptions, doing any or all of the following acts, either singly or in combination with others, taking facial measurements, fitting and adjusting those lenses, and fitting and adjusting spectacle frames. 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, except as specified, and makes a violation of this provision punishable by a fine. Existing law defines a "registered dispensing optician," for these purposes, as a person licensed by the board. Under existing law, any person who participates with a licensed optometrist in violation of these provisions is guilty of a misdemeanor. This bill would instead prohibit an optometrist from having any of those above-described arrangements with a dispensing optician or optical company, except as specified, and would define "dispensing optician" as an individual, corporation, or firm engaged in the business of filling prescriptions of physicians and surgeons licensed by the Medical Board of California or optometrists licensed by the State Board of Optometry for prescription lenses and kindred products, and, as incidental to the filling of those prescriptions, doing any or all of the following acts, either singly or in combination with others, taking facial measurements, fitting and adjusting those lenses, and fitting and adjusting spectacle frames, regardless of whether the individual, corporation, or firm is registered by the State Board of Optometry. By changing the definition of an existing crime, this bill would result in a state-mandated local program. 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.