Contact your senators and ask them to oppose S 4613!
Consumers have the right to use their contact lens prescriptions to shop around for the best prices and service. When you want to buy lenses online but don't have your prescription handy, you can ask the lens vendor to verify your prescription with your eye doctor. However, some eye doctors ignore the vendor's outreach. If the contact lens vendor has waited eight hours and has not received a response from your eye doctor, it can go ahead and fill your prescription.
Consumer Action has worked hard to protect the rights of contact lens and glasses consumers. We support the Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act (FCLCA) and the FTC’s Contact Lens and Eyeglass Rules. We have fought for the right of consumers to get a copy of their prescription when they get their eyes examined and to have the ability and choice to shop for lenses and glasses at the outlet of their choosing.
The FTC recently updated the Contact Lens Rule during a careful process that took five years and which passed the Commission unanimously this year. Twenty-seven state attorneys general support the rule.
However, the American Optometric Association (AOA) has worked relentlessly to stop this rule update and undercut the rights of 45 million contact lens consumers because they want patients to buy the lenses from optometrists instead of from online vendors that can save consumers money. S 4613 is the AOA's latest attempt to undercut the Contact Lens Rule and its consumer protections. Introduced by Senator John Boozman (who is also an optometrist), this bill seeks to make it more difficult for contact lens wearers to buy lenses from the vendors of their choice, as permitted by the Contact Lens Rule. In our view, Congress has more important things to do than carry water for one industry that opposes the consumer's right to choose where they want to buy their lenses.
Please consider our request to ask your senators to vote No on S 4613.
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