U.S. House Bill Introduced to Curb Illegal Online Contact Sales

H.R. 6157 was introduced late last month to modernize the prescription verification process, effectively curbing deceptive and illegal contact lens sales tactics by companies.  Authored by Reps. Pete Olson, R-TX, and Kathy Castor, D-FL, the bill complements COA and AOA-supported S. 2777, the Contact Lens Consumer Health Protection Act of 2016, which would:

• Prohibit overfilling of orders
• Strengthen enforcement of prohibitions against filling expired prescriptions
• Hold sellers accountable for illegal sales tactics and false claims
• Ban use by internet sellers of disruptive automated “robocalls” into doctors’ offices as the mechanism for verifying patient prescription information
• Ensure contact lenses must be dispensed exactly as the prescription is written by the doctor
• Increase fines to sellers to $40,000 per infraction.

Help COA and AOA help you. If you have a patient who was able to refill their expired contact lenses prescriptions online, please report the incident to the FTC (select "Other" in the menu to file a complaint). Complaints make our case that this is a significant problem and that the easy availability of online contact lenses can lead to bad patient outcomes.

(See “Online Colored Contact Lens Business Pleads Guilty in Largest-Ever Counterfeit and Misbranded Contact Lenses Investigation” in this edition for more on this topic.)