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Board discusses out-of-state reciprocity; DPH cites Public Act 22-47 and 4-year experience rule
Summary
Board members added discussion of New Jersey reciprocity to the agenda and questioned whether licenses granted by New Jersey, which may not include contact-lens fitting, should qualify for Connecticut licensure. DPH staff cited Public Act 22-47, which allows licensing based on an out-of-state license plus four years' licensed experience.
The licensing board voted to add discussion of out-of-state reciprocity for New Jersey licensees to its meeting agenda and then discussed how the state's reciprocity statute applies.
Alden Mead moved to add the item and the board approved the motion. "K. Motion passed," the chair said after the voice vote.
Steve Carriger of the Department of Public Health said departmental practice is to review each out-of-state application individually. "The statute allows us for the department to issue a license to an applicant who is licensed in another state and has at least 4 years of licensed work experience regardless of what the qualifications they completed in order to obtain the out of state license," Carriger said. He identified the change as public act 22 dash 47, enacted during the pandemic.
Some board members and participants expressed concern that New Jersey opticians who were licensed there may not hold the same scope-of-practice credentials as Connecticut licensees, specifically for contact-lens fitting. One participant said, "I'm very concerned personally, about the contact lens aspect of licensure, which we fight very hard to maintain that anyone coming to the state has to have the credibility or credentialing of contact lenses to be licensed in Connecticut."
Carriger said the department will review applications under the statute and examine applicants' experience and credentials on a case-by-case basis. He also said applicants from nonlicensed states would not qualify under the statute because it requires an out-of-state license plus at least four years of licensed experience.
No policy change or formal rulemaking occurred at the meeting; the board's action was limited to adding the reciprocity issue to the agenda and asking DPH staff to continue reviewing applications individually.
