Optometry bill continues to stir debate
March 8, 2010 ·
The second Senate bill to prompt a public hearing in the House in the last three days is SB230. It would allow optometrists to do limited laser surgery.
West Virginia surgeons in general and ophthalmologists in particular vehemently oppose it.
Both made their case to House members.
Huntington optometrist Bill Ratcliff, president of the West Virginia Optometric Association, led off by explaining the purpose of the legislation.
The first opponent was not an ophthalmologist but rather Gaylene Miller, state director of the American Association of Retired Persons.
The first of two out-of-state advocates was Dr. Richard Phillips, president of a Memphis, Tennessee optometry college.
He said their graduates get adequate training for this work.
Morgantown physician Steve Powell described the extra medical training required for ophthalmologists in his argument against the bill.
Oklahoma is the only state with such a law now.
Dr. David Cockrell, a trustee of the American Optometric Association who practices in that state, said it has been a success.
Nancy Tonkin, representing the West Virginia Academy of Ophthalmology, emphasized the fact that only one state has such a law and ended with a reminder of her organization’s rally cry of “surgery by surgeons”.
Chairman Don Perdue of the House Health and Human Resources Committee indicated his committee would be taking up the bill and that a compromise unsatisfactory to either side might emerge on the House floor Tuesday.