More Info from Checkbook | Opticians, optometrists, & buying eyewear More Info from the FTC | Buying prescription glasses or contact lenses: Your rights If you already wear contacts and are replenishing a year’s supply and not changing brands or types, there’s little reason not to grab the savings by buying from a low-cost supplier, such as Costco, Walmart, or an inexpensive online seller. Most of the alleged violations noted in the FTC warning letters involved two issues: Contact lens prescriptions that did not have all the required information, so patients could not shop for their prescribed lenses or identical ones and improper responses to third-party requests for prescription information.įor its evaluations of eyecare companies, Checkbook’s undercover shoppers found huge variations in prices from practice to practice for identical orders of contact lenses.
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If you need another copy of your prescription, or a third-party seller requests a copy or verification (with your permission), the eye care professional has 40 business hours to respond. Under the Contact Lens Rule, a company that sells contact lenses cannot fill an order unless it has a copy of the prescription or verifies specific information with the prescriber. RELATED: FTC charges GoodRx with illegally disclosing customers’ health information You have a right to a paper copy of your contact lens prescription if you’d rather have an electronic copy, you’ll need to agree to that in writing or electronically. You can be a minus two and I can be a minus two, but your contacts would never fit me,” he said. Maus told Checkbook, because lenses come in different shapes, thicknesses, and properties, such as those designed for people with dry eyes. With contact lens prescriptions, the details are critically important, Dr.
If you wear a private label brand or store brand (often sold by optical chains), the prescription must include the brand name, name of the manufacturer, and the name of any identical lens from the same manufacturer, if that applies. Your prescription must include specific details, such as power, material and/or manufacturer of the prescribed lens.
According to the FTC: “If the prescriber is willing to sell you lenses, that means the fitting is complete.”Ī prescriber who has a financial interest (direct or indirect) in the sale of contact lenses must ask patients to confirm they received their prescription by signing a receipt. They are also prohibited from charging additional fees or requiring patients to sign waivers or releases in order to get their prescriptions at the end of the lens fitting. The Contact Lens Rule prohibits eye care prescribers from requiring patients to buy lenses from them. The commission did not disclose the names of the eyecare providers it warned. The FTC’s letters noted that violations of these rules may result in legal action, including civil penalties of up to $50,120 per violation. RELATED: Should you give up your privacy to save on auto insurance?
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Consumer complaints also indicated, the letters said, that patients were required to make full payment at the time of service to get their prescriptions, even though they’d provided proof of insurance. In late February, the FTC sent cease and desist letters to 24 eye care prescribers warning them that, based on customer complaints, they appear to have violated the Contact Lens Rule, and in some cases the Eyeglass Rule, by not providing patients with copies of their prescriptions. “You have to pay for the exam, but you do not have to pay extra to actually get a copy of the prescription.” Marlon Maus, an adjunct professor at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. “You have a right as a patient to own the prescription to your contacts, and that is really the basis for why this rule was created,” said Dr. Having the prescription makes it easy to shop around for the best price, and for eyeglasses, the style you like. The Contact Lens and Eyeglasses rules were designed to enhance consumer choice and encourage competition by making it clear that a patient does not have to buy their glasses or contacts from their eye care professional.
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