By Chris Versace –
The year of 2003 was a time of revolutionary change in the contact lens industry.
Since the Republican-controlled Congress enacted the Fairness to Contact Lens Consumer Act, consumers have enjoyed the freedom to choose their own contact lens supplier and shop for the best prices available.
This overhaul of the industry allowed a number of new online providers and retail stores, such as Walmart and Costco, to enter the contact lens industry. The influx of suppliers has allowed competition to flourish, making contact lenses more affordable and easily attainable for the average American.
By 2014, the lower costs that came as a result of this free market competition allowed over 41 million people to purchase contact lenses within the newly-opened $4.5 billion market.
Unfortunately, however, this laissez-faire policy has come under threat by proposed legislation that would strip Americans of their right to decide where they can purchase lenses. The Contact Lens Consumer Health Protection Act, introduced by Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), would essentially empower eye doctors to artificially increase their market share by mandating where patients can shop for lenses.
Under current law, there are already adequate checks and balances between contact lens vendors and doctors’ offices. Online sellers are required to verify an order with the prescribing doctor. The doctor has eight hours to reply; if no reply is made, the prescription is considered valid and the order is filled.
Cassidy’s new act plans to stymie this reasonable process by requiring that all contact lens sellers provide their phone number, fax, and e-mail address to the eye doctors. The new mandates will give doctors an indefinite amount of time to approve requests and ask vendors questions, allowing them to inundate sellers with inquiries and ignore their responses. The eye doctors’ isolationistic communications strategy could potentially cause indefinite ordering delays from online and wholesale stores, forcing patients to purchase their lenses directly from the price-jacking eye doctors themselves.
Senator Cassidy’s co-author, Senator John Boozman (R-Ark), has also hidden a related measure in the Financial Services Appropriations bill. The measure would dedicate funds for the study of health problems related to the use of contact lenses that are purchased from online sellers as compared to those purchased from the prescribing provider. The biased research results could then be used to ban wholesale contact lens vendors from competing with eye doctors on the market.