Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Peter SchorschMarch 15, 2017

Tallahassee has once again found itself in the thick of a renewed Eyeball Wars between optometrists and ophthalmologists. And no less than patient safety in Florida is on the line. After a four-year truce, optometrists have gone back on their word, drafting legislation to allow them to perform surgery; it is a proposal that ophthalmologists, […]

Peter SchorschMarch 14, 2017

Do you know who is taking care of your eyes? That question is at the heart of “Joanne’s Story” a video about a Vero Beach woman who nearly lost her eyesight after an ophthalmologist caught a rare diagnosis which was missed by her optometrist. Joanne was previously under the care of an optometrist who diagnosed […]

Peter SchorschFebruary 22, 2017

Don’t say we didn’t warn you. Nearly four years have passed since the truce was called in the decades-long “eyeballs war” between Florida optometrists and ophthalmologists. But with the Legislative Session approaching, that fragile peace seems all but finished. Optometrists are seemingly going back on their word, working behind the scenes to file legislation to […]

Peter SchorschJanuary 24, 2017

As Florida’s “Eyeball Wars” start up again, research in the Journal of the American Medical Association gives new insight on what is at stake in the struggle between ophthalmologists and optometrists. In October 2016, a team of medical professionals, mostly from the University of Michigan, issued a report examining the difference in treatment outcomes between […]

Peter SchorschNovember 18, 2016

As Anton Chekhov once said: If it’s not essential, don’t include it in the story. What would the great Russian novelist and playwright make of recent movements in Florida’s seemingly never-neverending Eyeball Wars between ophthalmologists and optometrists? “If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the […]

Peter SchorschOctober 25, 2016

For nearly two decades, Tallahassee was the front line of an epic battle — the so-called “Eyeball Wars” — between Florida’s optometrists and ophthalmologists. On one side were optometrists — college educated to provide diagnoses and correct vision problems — fighting to perform surgery and prescribe medications beyond topical ointments and creams. Ophthalmologists, supported by […]

Peter SchorschAugust 26, 2016

It’s been several years since the war ended. Many of the veterans who fought the battles of this war are no longer with us. All that’s left are the headlines declaring the end of hostilities. I am referring, of course, to the “Eyeball Wars” that raged through the last decade and the beginning of this […]

Ryan RaySeptember 23, 2015

It’s not exactly the “Eyeball Wars” of yesteryear, but on Wedneday Sen. Jack Latvala waded into the fraught world of vision care. Latvala’s just-filed SB 340 is a move similar to a bill from the 2015 Legislative Session in that it’s designed to prevent the concentration of too much control by insurers over access to eye and vision care. […]

Christine Jordan SextonMarch 23, 2015

The Senate Health Policy Committee on Monday gave the nod to a bill that would restrict contact lens manufacturers from preventing retailers from selling or advertising contact lenses below a set price. The bill, SB 1400 by Sen. Tom Lee, brought lobbyists from Las Vegas, Utah, and Washington, leading former Senate President Don Gaetz to joke that […]

Tag: eyeball wars

American Surgeons warn House against latest salvo in Florida’s resurgent Eyeball Wars

Eyeball Wars: It’s all about knowing who takes care of your eyes

We told you so; Eyeball Wars set to begin anew

JAMA study shows research not on optometrists’ side in Eyeball Wars

Chekhov’s Gun in the Eyeball Wars? Optometrists are lobbied up for 2017

Are optometrists going back on their word in ‘Eyeball War’ truce?

Will Florida’s ‘eyeball wars’ flare up again doing the 2017 Legislative Session?

Jack Latvala seeks to open up vision care market

Eyeball Wars II: Senate OKs bills letting retailers set price for contacts