Optometry Is Leading the Charge on Red Tape. We Need to Keep It That Way.
Affiliate Executive Directors learned during this week’s AOA monthly Zoom call that optometry is currently leading the way in contacting federal officials about burdensome regulatory requirements, and the FTC’s prescription acknowledgment rule is at the top of that list.
That is encouraging news. It also means we cannot let up.
The FTC requires patients to sign an acknowledgment confirming that they received their eyeglass or contact lens prescription. On paper, the requirement may appear simple. In practice, optometrists across the country are reporting added staff time, additional paperwork, patient questions, document retention requirements, and other administrative work that provides little meaningful value to either the doctor or the patient.
The FTC has estimated that the acknowledgment process takes approximately 20 seconds per patient. The AOA’s experience with practicing optometrists suggests the real-world burden can be considerably greater, often one to three minutes per patient, particularly when staff must explain the requirement, address questions or refusals, print or scan documents, and maintain records for three years.
Multiply those minutes across hundreds or thousands of patient encounters and the impact becomes much more significant. This is precisely the type of regulatory burden policymakers need to understand when evaluating whether a requirement is accomplishing enough to justify the time and expense it creates.
Optometry has their attention right now. We need to remain at the top of the conversation.
If this requirement has created additional work in your practice, the AOA is asking you to share your experience through the SBA Office of Advocacy’s Red Tape Hotline. Specific examples are especially valuable, including staff time, doctor time, administrative costs, recordkeeping responsibilities, and situations in which the requirement has created confusion or frustration for patients.
When identifying the regulation, specify:
“FTC requirement for signed patient acknowledgement for every eyeglass prescription and every contact lens prescription.”
The more real-world information optometrists provide, the stronger the case becomes that regulatory requirements should be measured not only by their intent, but by their actual value to patients and the burden they place on those providing their care.
| 
