CHARLESTON — Optometrists seeking to legalize three lines of laser surgery in West Virginia drew verbal swords Monday with ophthalmologists in a public hearing at the Capitol.

Before the House Health and Human Resources Committee is SB230, a controversial proposal to widen the scope of practice by West Virginia optometrists — one that provoked a rare heated debate in the Senate last month.

Arguments for and against the idea nearly paralleled those voiced in February before the Senate Government Organization Committee.

Dr. Stephen Powell, a practicing ophthalmologist of 35 years, told lawmakers the issue boils down to a question of training, and that his field is superior in that.

Both groups undergo four years of medical school, but once that ends, he reminded Chairman Don Perdue, D-Wayne, and other lawmakers, the ophthalmologist faces another 12,000 hours — or four years — of advanced training.

“Everything we do is supervised,” Powell said.

Only Oklahoma allows laser surgery, he noted, and since it was legalized there, 30 subsequent efforts to duplicate that law have fizzled.

One lawmaker inquired about statistical data in Oklahoma, and Powell quipped, “Trying to get data out of Oklahoma is like trying to milk a pig.”

But Dr. David Cockrell, former president of the Oklahoma Board of Examiners of Optometry, said laser surgery in his state has “a proven track record.”

In a lawsuit brought by ophthalmologists, outcomes of surgery by optometrists were subpoenaed.

“To this date, the Oklahoma Board of Examiners still has had no formal or informal complaints from patients concerning laser procedures or any other medical board or medical physician,” he said.

“Optometrists are well qualified to manage any complaints that might occur. In Oklahoma, we still have the lowest rate of professional liability insurance in the United States.”

Moreover, he said, no patient has ever been blinded by an optometrist.

“You have to ask why 49 other states still have not done what Oklahoma has done,” said Nancy Tonkin, executive director of the West Virginia Academy of Ophthalmology.

Tonkin ran through a list of 27 organizations opposed to SB230 — among them the AARP, the state Medical Association, the American Medical Association and the West Virginia Hospital Association.

“I’ve been lobbying 30 years,” she said. “I’ve never had a list of 27 organizations that are against a bill before.”

Dr. Richard Phillips, president of the Memphis College of Optometry, said he has students from Williamson to Wheeling being trained and willing to return to West Virginia to perform laser surgery.

“Optometry is not a subset of medicine,” he testified.

“It is an accredited, licensed, doctoral level of health care. Optometrists have the background and training to perform these procedures safely and effectively.”

For 35 years, he said, his field of practice has been subjected to false warnings of harm to patients.

“Where are the injured?” he asked.

“Where are the blinded that ophthalmology promised you would see when optometrists started treating disease?”

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com