Jesse SchecknerOctober 11, 2023
8min0
More than half his gains came from a business and interest group with ties to billionaire Jeffrey Soffer.
Tag: Florida Optometric AssociationA nice warm evening in Tallahassee on a very busy street while taking this shot.
Jesse SchecknerOctober 11, 2023
Drew WilsonMay 30, 2018
3min336
Ramba Consulting Group posted one of the 25 best legislative lobbying compensation reports last quarter, marking its second consecutive reporting period on the short list. The firm collected an estimated $360,000 in lobbying fees during the 90-day span, almost all of it reported as pay for its efforts in the Legislature. Ramba Consulting Group’s total […]
Drew WilsonMay 30, 2018
4min446
The Rubin Group was one of seven firms to crack $1 million in legislative lobbying pay during the first three quarters of the year according to newly filed lobbying compensation reports. The estimated $1 million haul on the legislative side was matched with another $1 million in executive branch earnings for a total of $2.1 […]
Phil AmmannMarch 23, 2017
8min701
Florida’s “Eyeball Wars” between ophthalmologists and optometrists could soon be spilling onto the House floor. On Monday, Speaker Richard Corcoran removed HB 1037 — a controversial bill to allow optometrists to perform surgery, among other things — off the agenda of the House Health Care Appropriations Subcommittee. A representative for Corcoran told POLITICO Florida that […]
Phil AmmannMarch 15, 2017
5min374
Optometrists enjoyed a narrow victory Wednesday in Florida’s renewed Eyeball Wars when a House committee advanced a bill to allow optometrists to perform certain types of eye surgery. After a two-hour hearing, the House Health Quality Subcommittee approved HB 1037, sponsored by Rep. Manny Diaz and opposed by both the Florida Society of Ophthalmology and […]
Peter SchorschMarch 15, 2017
5min537
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
6min633
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, 20176min1124
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 SchorschNovember 18, 20165min564
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, 20166min599
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 […]