Optometrists in Virginia recently dodged a bullet that would have made it illegal for O.D.s in the state to perform minor surgical procedures.
More than 300 optometrists made phone calls, wrote their legislators and got ready to visit the Virginia capital.
At the request of the Medical Society of Virginia, state legislators introduced a bill in early January to amend the state’s definition of surgery and who could perform it.
“As originally introduced, the bill could have removed a number of procedures from Virginia optometrists’ current scope of practice and set the profession back by a number of years,” says Bo Keeney, associate director and legislative counsel of the Virginia Optometric Association.
The bill defined surgery as, “the incision, destruction or excision of tissue for the purpose of diagnostic or therapeutic treatment of conditions or disease processes by any instrument causing localized alteration or transposition of live human tissue.”
Also, it specified that only doctors of medicine, osteopathy and podiatry, as well as dentists and nurse practitioners, could legally perform surgery. There was no mention of optometrists.
“We do not believe that the original bill as introduced was done with any malicious intent towards optometry. Unfortunately, intent does not always reflect all of the unintended consequences of a bill,” Mr. Keeney says.
However, he added, “through a strong lobbying effort and a flood of over 300 optometrists who made phone calls, wrote their legislators and prepared to visit the capital, the bill was amended.”
Passed by both the state Senate and House in mid-February, the bill now clarifies that the definition of surgery does not include certain procedures: removal of superficial foreign bodies, punctures, injections, dry needling, acupuncture and removal of dead tissue.
“We are happy to report that the substitute version of the bill … is a version that adequately protects Virginia’s optometrists,” Mr. Keeney says.
The governor is expected to sign the bill later this year.
