Christine Jordan Sexton
It came down to the wire, but the Florida Optometric Association again beat back efforts to ban optometrists from being able to describe themselves as physicians by keeping SB 1112 from being sent to the Governor.
The bill pitted the optometrists against the ophthalmologists, a long-standing battle that was infamously coined the “eyeball wars” by former Senate President Don Gaetz.
“In the (2024) eyeball wars, neither side blinked,” said Jacksonville lawyer and health care lobbyist Christopher Nuland.
Passidomo’s initial bill prevented health care providers from using any titles to advertise themselves that aren’t included in their professional practice act, or in the laws that govern the care and services they are allowed to provide.
Florida Optometric Association lobbyist David Ramba said the legislation “isolates” optometrists and treats them differently than other professions and that there are efforts underway nationwide to restrict the services that optometrists can provide.
The House amended the bill to allow optometrists to use the terms “doctor of optometry” and “optometric physician” in their advertisements. The Senate on Thursday refused to concur with the House’s amendment and sent the bill back to the House for further reconsideration.
But the House never reconsidered the bill Friday before it adjourned Sine Die.
The bill was a top priority for Republican Rep. Ralph Massullo, a physician who is term-limited from office.
“We appreciate Dr. Massullo and his recognition that optometric physicians should be able to advertise and practice in the same manners as they have been for at least 30 years,” Ramba told Florida Politics Friday.
It’s the second time in as many years that Passidomo’s efforts fell short, with the Governor vetoing similar legislation last year. The Senate President came out swinging earlier this week inferring to reporters that optometrists mislead their patients.
“In the information you put out, what you wear, how you talk, you should tell your patients what your degree is. I think it’s wrong to infer or leave it silent that you have a degree you don’t have,” she said.
A harbinger of things to come, perhaps, Passidomo also told reporters that she “wasn’t going to lose sleep” if the bill didn’t pass.
5 comments
My Take
March 8, 2024 at 7:19 pm
Similar antics have gone on for nearly a century with MDs vs. chiropractors and osteopaths, including I believe over educational VA benefits. Osteopaths were a lot less professional in the earlier times. God only knows the quacks who want to be called Doctor now. Naturopaths, Intuitive Medicine, Rolfing, Colonic Irrigation, Herbalists (fka “witch doctors”).
Dont Say FLA
March 9, 2024 at 9:34 am
This is Flee State of Florida, where politicians want to play doctors, so they pass laws intended to make doctors flee the state.
KathrynA
March 9, 2024 at 9:43 am
Isn’t that the truth and we are left with the weird ones?
Michael Lange
March 9, 2024 at 2:51 pm
MDs are not the only doctors. Plenty of Non MDs are licensed to diagnose and treat diseases with medications and surgery including Optometric Physicians / Doctors of Optometry. Optometric Physicians go to 4 years of undergraduate school , 4 years of optometry school and residency and fellowship training if they want to further specialize. Maybe Passidomo is getting opticians confused with optometric physicians?? Glad this ridiculous fiasco is now over .
Ian
March 10, 2024 at 9:19 am
Dr. Lange, have you even read the bill? It does nothing to prevent optometrists from calling themselves doctors.
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