Concluding a comprehensive multi-year review, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced final updates to its Ophthalmic Practice Rules, known as the Eyeglass Rule, aimed at promoting competition and consumer choice. According to the FTC, the updates are designed to increase compliance with the rule’s long-standing requirement that ophthalmologists and optometrists provide patients with a free copy of their prescription immediately following a refractive eye exam. The changes announced on June 27^th, 2024, require that prescribers, after providing the prescription, request that their patients sign a statement confirming they received their prescription and keep a record of such confirmation for at least three years.
These new requirements mirror those already in place for contact lens prescriptions.

Additional changes to the Eyeglass Rule include:

• Allows prescribers, with a patient’s verifiable affirmative consent, to provide the patient with a digital copy of a prescription. If the patient refuses the digital copy, the prescriber must provide a paper copy.
  
• Explicitly specifies that, whether the patient consents to digital delivery or opts for a paper copy of their prescription, the prescription must be provided immediately after the examination is completed (not after the patient has been sold glasses, for example). A patient must have their prescription before any offer to sell them glasses.
  
• Clarifies that presentation of proof of insurance coverage shall be deemed to be a payment for the purpose of determining when a prescription must be provided.
  
• Changes the term “eye examination” to “refractive eye examination” throughout the text and emphasizes the need for prescribers to educate consumers that there can be a difference between an eye health examination and a refractive eye examination. This is because the automatic release of prescriptions is only required following a refractive eye examination.

These new requirements will become effective 60 days after publication.