BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 684 (Alejo) - Healing arts: licensees: disciplinary actions
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|Version: June 30, 2015 |Policy Vote: B., P. & E.D. 7 - |
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|Urgency: Yes |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: August 24, 2015 |Consultant: Brendan McCarthy |
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This bill does not meet the criteria for referral to the
Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: AB 684 would prohibit the enforcement of an existing
prohibition on financial relationships between licensed
optometrists and dispensing opticians until January 1, 2017.
Fiscal
Impact: No significant fiscal impact is anticipated by the
Medical Board or the State Board of Optometry.
Background: Current law generally prohibits financial relationships
between licensed optometrists and dispensing opticians (which
can be an individual or a corporation that fills prescription
lenses). While this prohibition has existing in law for decades,
it has been subject to ongoing legal challenges. In practice,
those prohibited financial relationships have existed while
state law was under challenge. For example, one-stop shop chains
for eyeglasses have either employed optometrists directly or
AB 684 (Alejo) Page 1 of
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contracted with optometrists to provide co-located space. Those
opticians fill resulting prescriptions on site. Recently, the
federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld state law in this
area.
Proposed Law:
AB 684 would prohibit the enforcement of an existing
prohibition on financial relationships between licensed
optometrists and dispensing opticians until January 1, 2017.
The bill's provisions would only provide protection from
enforcement for business relationships that existed before
enactment of the bill.
This bill is an urgency measure.
Related
Legislation: AB 595 (Alejo) would authorize in law existing
business models under which a registered dispensing optician is
located next to an optometrist. That bill is pending in the
Assembly Business and Professions Committee.
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