§1165.3. Contact lens prescription; contents; expiration; restrictions on filling; release; penalties

A. Every contact lens prescription written by a licensed physician or licensed optometrist for use in correcting errors of refraction and restoring, as near as possible, normal human vision shall be signed by the physician or optometrist and shall contain information specifying the physical design, material type, curvatures, diameters, pertinent measurements, and refractive power and an expiration date not to exceed eighteen months.

B. No owner, employer, or agent of any business establishment that buys, sells, offers to sell, dispenses, or gives away prescription contact lenses may fill a contact lens prescription unless the information provided in Subsection A of this Section is included on the prescription or after the expiration date of the prescription.

C. No person other than the prescribing physician, optometrist, or his designated employee may release to a patient a copy of his contact lens prescription. However, no such physician, optometrist, or his designated employee may deny, withhold, attempt to deny or withhold, or refuse to release to any patient his prescription, or a copy of his prescription, if requested by the patient.

D. Any person who violates the provisions of this Section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, shall be fined not more than five hundred dollars. For each subsequent offense, the violator shall be fined not more than one thousand dollars.

E. For purposes of this Section, a spectacle prescription shall not be construed to be or substituted for a contact lens prescription.

Acts 1995, No. 949, §1; Redesignated from R.S. 40:1299.97 by HCR 84 of 2015 R.S; Acts 2018, No. 206, §4.