Jeff Gelles
Consumer Watch
By Jeff Gelles
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Had any trouble lately getting a copy of your contact-lens prescription?
You shouldn't. Congress tried to make sure of that more than a year ago when it passed the Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act.
It acted under prodding by online sellers and other discounters, who said would-be customers were hamstrung by competitors with a conflict of interest: eye doctors who sold the lenses they prescribed.
That kind of conflict has vanished elsewhere in U.S. medicine. Aside from oncologists who administer cancer drugs, virtually no doctors sell the medicines they prescribe.
Eye doctors were among the last exceptions. Though federal rules have required them since 1978 to provide eyeglass prescriptions to patients, contact-lens prescriptions were exempted as "emerging technology." With custom-made hard lenses predominant back then, eye doctors made a reasonable case that follow-up care and monitoring were essential.
That changed with the spread of standardized, soft lenses. Before Congress acted, more than 30 states - including New Jersey and Delaware, but not Pennsylvania - required doctors to provide a prescription, at least to a patient who asked.
As always, it was easier said than done.
Has the new law worked?
Clearly, not all doctors are following the law, as Rachel Schmidt learned recently when she had to argue to get her prescription from her optometrist.
"He didn't refuse. He just gave me a hard time," says Schmidt, of Mayfair, Pa.
But few complaints have surfaced, perhaps because patients either know their rights or don't know enough to gripe.
That's the view of Kevin McCallum, a top executive at 1-800-CONTACTS, a lens retailer that now does about half its business online.
"What we've noticed is, there's a lack of understanding among contact-lens wearers about their rights, as well as among providers," McCallum says.
Many callers to the company still ask what to do about the lack of a written prescription, he says. "They still don't know they're entitled to it."
Not that the company is suffering. Through the first three-quarters of its fiscal year, its sales are up about 20 percent - consistent with its growth rate since it was founded in 1995.
But McCallum still sees some worrisome trends, especially in the spread of so-called private-label contacts - brands sold only by practitioners.
If you get a prescription for one of those, a replacement-lens retailer may seem - perhaps wrongly - to be out of the running.
A competitive edge?
One ad for such a brand that ran recently in three journals for optometrists touted it this way:
"Let's see. You'll make more money. Your patients will no longer experience discomfort from their contact lenses. Boy, this is one risky proposition."
That edge relies on a misconception. The new law permits retailers to fill a private-label prescription with an equivalent national brand or private label, according to a report issued this week by the Federal Trade Commission.
The FTC, by the way, found that private-label lenses don't appear to be boosting prices, which would be a clear sign of an anticompetitive effect. And it said online retailers, on average, charged about $15 less per prescription than their off-line counterparts.
Does that make shopping online the right choice? Not necessarily. The FTC found the lowest prices at wholesale buying clubs such as BJ's and Costco, where lenses that averaged $91.14 from online merchants sold for an average price of $83.18.
Don't leave your doctor completely out of the loop. Even if contact lenses are more of a commodity than they once were, it's important to get periodic exams, especially if you experience irritation or discomfort.
While you're there, check out the prices - they may be more competitive than you expect, or the difference may not matter to you.
But remember: You're entitled to that prescription when you leave.
Under the law, you shouldn't even have to ask.
Jeff Gelles writes the ConsumerWatch column for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Comment by clicking here.
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