THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 20, 1996 TAG: 9602200310
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LISE OLSEN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
Optometrists vs. ophthalmologists. Nurse anesthetists vs. anesthesiologists. Specialists whose names many folks can't even pronounce have spawned endless medical turf battles in Virginia - struggles over patients' dollars and authorization to practice that often end up in the Virginia General Assembly.
Optometrists - eye doctors who do not go to medical school, as opposed to ophthalmologists who do - won a 10-year-fight Monday to expand the scope of their practices to include dispensing more types of medication and providing additional treatment.
Both the House and Senate passed similar bills that allow optometrists with special training to offer more services, instead of referring them to others.
The two similar versions of the bill passed both houses with hefty majorities Monday, and are almost assured of becoming law.
It's the kind of technical medical battle that troubles folks like Sen. Mark Earley, R-Chesapeake, one of only four senators to oppose the change.
``It's not a good practice to have the General Assembly deciding these matters,'' Early said. ``We don't have a real expertise in medicine or the practice of medicine.''
But other lawmakers, like Del Bill Barlow, D-Smithfield, said optometrists made a convincing argument that consumers would benefit from the change, and that Virginia lagged behind other states in its regulations.
Ophthalmologists are still the only ones who can provide the most advanced kinds of care, such as laser surgery, under both bills.
But under the changes, an optometrist seeing a patient with an eye infection, for example, would be able to prescribe more kinds of medicine - instead of referring the patient to another doctor, which can add delay and expense to treatment.
The bills also transfer oversight of optometrists to the Board of Optometry instead of the Board of Medicine, which now sets many of the rules.
About half of all the optometrists in the state were involved in an intense two-year lobbying effort to change the laws, which were among the most restrictive in the country, according to Bruce Keeney, executive director of the Virginia Optometric Association.
A team of 20 optometrists provided material and training to practitioners in their region, who visited legislators and lobbied for the change. That effort - along with more than $100,000 in campaign contributions - helped inspire more than 70 lawmakers to co-sponsor the bills and ensured easy passage in both houses. by CNB