Senate committee hears testimony on S.64 to expand optometrists’ scope to include lasers, eyelid procedures

The Senate Committee on Government Operations took public testimony Feb. 25 on S.64, a bill that would amend the scope of practice for optometrists to authorize certain laser procedures and minor eyelid treatments.

Dr. Guy Timothy Petito, a practitioner in St. Petersburg, Florida, and chair of the Accreditation Council on Optometric Education, told the committee that accreditation and licensure systems ensure educational programs teach the skills underlying contemporary optometric practice. "The process that ensures the educational content supports the clinical practice for every provider in every specialty in the United States is the accreditation process," Petito said.

Petito said the Accreditation Council on Optometric Education (the programmatic accreditor for optometry) adopted a definition of "contemporary optometry" that takes effect in the current standards cycle and that the new standard references procedures allowable in at least 10% of states' scopes of practice. "This definition includes evaluation, diagnosis, treatment and management of refractive conditions, diseases of the eye and associated systems,…