OHIO LEGISLATIVE SERVICE COMMISSION
Office of Research Legislative Budget
www.lsc.ohio.gov and Drafting Office
S.B. 129 Bill Analysis
135th General Assembly
Click here for S.B. 129’s Fiscal Note
Version: As Introduced
Primary Sponsor: Sen. Cirino
Effective date:
Elizabeth Molnar, Attorney
SUMMARY
Authorizes an optometrist who meets the bill’s eligibility requirements to perform
specified invasive procedures, including certain laser surgeries.
Eliminates the current law limits on the types of therapeutic pharmaceutical agents that
may be used in the practice of optometry, thereby broadening the drugs that an
optometrist may prescribe or administer.
Repeals the law prohibiting an optometrist from personally furnishing therapeutic
pharmaceutical agents and grants the optometrist specific authority to do so.
Revises the law governing optometrist authority to prescribe a drug delivery device,
including by eliminating the existing law limitation that such a device have vision
correction as its primary purpose.
Makes technical corrections to optometrist licensure provisions amended by H.B. 509 of
the 134th General Assembly, an act revising occupational regulations.
DETAILED ANALYSIS
Optometrist authority to perform invasive procedures
The bill revises the law that generally prohibits an optometrist from performing invasive
procedures, by specifically authorizing an optometrist who meets the bill’s eligibility
requirements to perform the following:1
Any injection, other than an intravenous or intraocular injection, of a drug, including a
prescription drug;
1 R.C. 4725.01(A)(2) and 4725.012.
February 26, 2024
Office of Research and Drafting LSC Legislative Budget Office
The incision and curettage, or surgical scraping, of a chalazion, a small eyelid tumor;
The removal and biopsy of a skin lesion if the lesion has a low risk of malignancy and
does not involve the eyelid margin;
The excision or drainage, or both, of a cyst or concretion (lesion) on the conjunctiva, the
thin, clear membrane that protects the white of the eye;
Any suturing other than suturing of the cornea (the clear outer layer at the front of the
eye) or sclera (the white outer layer of the eye);
A laser surgery consisting of capsulotomy, a procedure to clear cloudy vision after
cataract surgery, trabeculoplasty, a type of glaucoma surgery that creates a new
pathway for fluid inside the eye to be drained, or peripheral iridotomy, a treatment for
angle-closure glaucoma that involves creating a hole in the iris.2
Training requirements
To be eligible to perform such a procedure, an optometrist must demonstrate to the
State Vision Professionals Board that the optometrist satisfies the training requirements for
that procedure established by the Board in rule.
With respect to a laser surgery consisting of capsulotomy, trabeculoplasty, or peripheral
iridotomy, an optometrist may demonstrate satisfaction of training requirements by providing
to the Board evidence of successfully completing such training while enrolled in a
Board-approved school of optometry.3 The bill also specifies that, for such a surgery, the
training must consist of at least 32 hours of instruction.4
Rulemaking
The State Vision Professionals Board is to adopt rules, as necessary, governing the
performance of procedures authorized by the bill. The rules must be adopted in accordance
with Ohio’s Administrative Procedure Act and specify the following:
The infection control practices to be followed by an optometrist when performing each
of the procedures;
The training requirements to be satisfied in order to be eligible to perform each
procedure.5
Other than training for a laser surgery permitted under the bill, which must consist of at
least 32 hours of instruction, the Board must determine in rule the minimum number of hours
of instruction for each procedure.
2 R.C. 4725.012(A).
3 R.C. 4725.012(C).
4 R.C. 4725.012(B).
5 R.C. 4725.012(B) and R.C. Chapter 119, not in the bill.
P a g e |2 S.B. 129
As Introduced
Office of Research and Drafting LSC Legislative Budget Office
Invasive procedure definition
Current law maintained by the bill defines an invasive procedure as one that involves
cutting or otherwise infiltrating human tissue by mechanical means, including surgery, laser
surgery, ionizing radiation, therapeutic ultrasound, administering medication by injection, or
the removal of intraocular foreign bodies.6
Note on epinephrine administration
The bill maintains the existing authority of an optometrist to administer epinephrine by
injection to individuals in emergency situations to counteract anaphylaxis or anaphylactic
shock. It clarifies that the bill’s training requirements for performing certain invasive
procedures do not extend to injections of epinephrine.7
Optometrist authority to prescribe and administer
pharmaceutical agents and devices
The bill revises in the following ways the law governing the authority of an optometrist
to prescribe and administer pharmaceutical agents and devices.8 Some of the revisions serve as
corresponding changes to provisions enacted at the close of the 134 th General Assembly as part
of H.B. 509.
Prohibition on furnishing pharmaceutical agents
The bill eliminates the general prohibition on an optometrist personally furnishing a
therapeutic pharmaceutical agent to any person.9 It then specifically authorizes such an activity
and further describes the activity as providing a complete or partial supply.10 As a result, the
existing limit of providing only a 72-hour supply, and without charge, no longer applies under
the bill.
Types of pharmaceutical agents
The bill removes the current law limits on the types of therapeutic pharmaceutical
agents that may be used in the practice of optometry, thereby broadening the drugs that an
optometrist may prescribe or administer.11 At present, an optometrist may use only those
specified by the Board in rule or classified in one of the following categories: anti-infectives,
such antibiotics, antivirals, antimicrobials, and antifungals; anti-allergy agents; antiglaucoma
agents; certain prescription and nonprescription analgesics; and anti-inflammatories, excluding
oral steroids other than methylpredisolone, which may be used if prescribed under certain
conditions.
6 R.C. 4725.01(E).
7 R.C. 4725.01(A) and 4725.012(A)(1).
8 R.C. 4725.01, 4725.011, and 4725.131.
9 R.C. 4725.02.
10 R.C. 4725.01(A)(3).
11 R.C. 4725.01(B).
P a g e |3 S.B. 129
As Introduced
Office of Research and Drafting LSC Legislative Budget Office
As part of the foregoing change, the bill eliminates the requirement that the Board
adopt rules specifying the drugs that an optometrist may prescribe and administer.12
Note on controlled substances
The bill maintains an existing law provision specifying that a therapeutic pharmaceutical
agent does not include a controlled substance, except for an analgesic controlled substance
authorized by the Vision Professionals Board in rule.13
Drug delivery devices
Current law authorizes an optometrist to prescribe and dispense any device that has
vision correction as its primary purpose but also combines with that purpose the delivery of a
drug, if the drug would otherwise be a topical or oral pharmaceutical agent.14 The bill
eliminates the condition that the device have vision correction as its primary purpose. It also
specifies the types of devices that an optometrist may prescribe and dispense. These include,
but are not limited to, contact lenses, punctal plugs, and medical devices that the Board has
determined are appropriate for use in the practice of optometry.
Conditions of the visual system
Regarding the conditions of the visual system that may be treated by an optometrist,
the bill specifies that any condition of the visual system may be involved, rather than only a
condition that is abnormal.15 Further, the visual system is designated by the bill as including the
human eye’s associated structures, rather than only the eye and its accessory or subordinate
parts.16
Additional consolidation of optometry licensure process
H.B. 509 of the 134th General Assembly eliminated the following issued by the Vision
Professionals Board: the topical ocular pharmaceutical agents certificate and therapeutic
pharmaceutical agents certificate. If held by an optometrist, a topical ocular pharmaceutical
agents certificate authorized the optometrist to administer to patients topical drugs for
evaluative purposes.17 A therapeutic pharmaceutical agents certificate allowed its holder to
administer and prescribe drugs, including topicals, and certain devices. Following H.B. 509’s
enactment, a licensed optometrist may prescribe and administer such drugs and devices
without having to hold either certificate.
Under S.B. 129, an optometrist’s certificate of licensure remains the document that
identifies the optometrist’s authority to practice in Ohio.
12 R.C. 4725.09(B).
13 See R.C. 4725.091, not in the bill.
14 R.C. 4725.011.
15 R.C. 4725.01(A)(2) and (B)
16 R.C. 4726.01(F).
17 R.C. 4725.01(A).
P a g e |4 S.B. 129
As Introduced
Office of Research and Drafting LSC Legislative Budget Office
Certificate conversion; scope of practice unchanged
S.B. 129 also repeals codified provisions of H.B. 509 that authorize an individual who,
before April 6, 2023, held a certificate of licensure or topical ocular pharmaceutical agents
certificate to do the following: (1) continue to practice optometry within that prior certificate’s
scope and (2) complete additional education in order to engage in the practice of optometry.18
S.B. 129 replaces the foregoing provisions with uncodified provisions allowing the Vision
Professionals Board to take any action it considers necessary to convert each valid certificate of
licensure, topical ocular pharmaceutical agents certificate, and therapeutic pharmaceutical
agents certificate issued to an optometrist before April 6, 2023, into a certificate to practice
optometry.19 S.B. 129 further specifies that such a conversion does not expand or alter the
optometrist’s prior scope of practice.
Corresponding and technical changes
S.B 129 makes several additional revisions to the law governing the practice of
optometry that follow from the changes enacted under H.B. 509. For instance, it eliminates the
definition of a topical ocular pharmaceutical agent and references to such an agent. 20 Note also
that under S.B. 129, a therapeutic pharmaceutical agent includes any drug used for evaluative
purposes.
A number of other changes are made by S.B. 129 throughout the optometry law to
account for statutory cross-reference corrections and to consistently identify Ohio’s license to
practice optometry as a certificate of licensure.
HISTORY
Action Date
Introduced 06-27-23
ANSB0129IN-135/sb
18 R.C. 4725.131.
19 Section 6.
20 R.C. 4725.01(B) and 4725.31.
P a g e |5 S.B. 129
As Introduced
Statutes affected: As Introduced: 4725.01, 4725.011, 4725.02, 4725.09, 4725.11, 4725.12, 4725.121, 4725.13, 4725.15, 4725.16, 4725.18, 4725.19, 4725.20, 4725.21, 4725.23, 4725.231, 4725.24, 4725.25, 4725.26, 4725.27, 4725.31, 4725.34, 4725.35, 4725.501, 4725.531, 4725.59, 4725.131