The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

Today's Front Page

March 9, 2010

House panel cuts out laser surgery by optometrists

By Mannix Porterfield Register-Herald Reporter

CHARLESTON — A House panel Tuesday night stripped laser surgery by optometrists from the most controversial and divisive bill this winter, setting up an inevitable clash with the Senate in the final four days of the 2010 session.

In a near three-hour meeting, split over two sessions, the House Health and Human Resources Committee sent to the floor its version of SB230, cutting away the right of optometrists to perform three lines of laser surgery.

The vote was 17-7 and came after a flurry of amendments, including one that cleared on a voice vote by Delegate Barbara Fleischauer, D-Monongalia.

Her amendment denies optometrists the right to advertise and market themselves as “optometric physicians,” although those doing so now would be grandfathered in.

Even with the drastic rewrite of the bill, which does allow optometrists to perform certain injections, one of them, Dr. Greg Moore of South Charleston, suggested all is not lost with regard to surgery.

Ophthalmologists have insisted only they possess the needed and extensive training to use lasers for surgery and have emphasized only the state of Oklahoma allows the devices to be used by optometrists.

“It (revised bill) allows us to go through rules to promulgate changes, which doesn’t delete the legislative oversight but takes us through this from going through the whole legislative process,” Moore said during a committee break.

“The problem with that language is that it delays for years, even decades, access to care for West Virginia citizens.”

Fleischauer defended her amendment as a means of clarifying “confusion” she said abounds with West Virginians distinguishing between optometrists and ophthalmologists.

“There’s no intent to be punitive,” she said after committee Chairman Don Perdue, D-Wayne, described it as such.

“The only intent is to clear up some confusion.”

Moore, however, told the committee the term “optometric physician” was merely one needed for billing purposes so patients can get reimbursed by insurance companies.

An extensive debate erupted over a failed amendment by Delegate Charlene Marshall, D-Monongalia, seeking to force an optometrist to stop treating glaucoma once a patient’s vision worsens.

Moore said this would halt a phase of practice that West Virginia optometrists have done for 34 years.

But Dr. Stephen Powell of Morgantown insisted this amendment is vital as a means of instilling some patient protection.

“I believe it’s a safety issue,” Marshall told the committee, noting 16 members of her family suffer from glaucoma. “It’s a personal issue to me.”

Several amendments were offered, then withdrawn, before the bill was approved on a 17-7 tally. With nearly each one, Powell and Moore were called to the podium to explain certain procedures and terms of their respective practices.

About the only thing the two agreed on is that half of the people in West Virginia can’t tell the  difference between an optometrist and ophthalmologist.

Panelists in this region all voted for the bill: Delegates Bill Wooton, Rick Moye and Sally Susman, all D-Raleigh; Tom Campbell, D-Greenbrier; and Margaret Staggers and Dave Perry, both D-Fayette.

In an interview, Moore voiced frustrations over not getting laser surgery permission outright, as prescribed in the Senate bill.

“It’s very frustrating when you’re sitting in your office and can easily do in your office just like a primary physician would do,” he said.

“Yet our law says we can’t, even though the training is out there.”

Moore said the optometry law hasn’t been reformed since 1997, and many technological advances have occurred.

“The last time we had a law, you never heard of a flat-screen TV,” he said.

“And if you had a cell phone, it didn’t fit in your pocket. Do you really think optometry hasn’t changed in all those years? We’re just trying to find a way to expedite the process.”

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com

Text Only
Today's Front Page
  • Classic stars Bon Jovi, Toby Keith, Rod Stewart, Lionel Richie headline 2012 Greenbrier Classic concert series

    Just two years into a six-year contract, The Greenbrier Classic took the coveted “Best in Class Tournament on the PGA TOUR” award in 2011, a distinction given by the PGA TOUR itself.

    February 11, 2012 1 Photo

  • Bill would crack down on ‘sexting’ by minors

    Texting is one area of major concern for West Virginia legislators.
    Now comes another one in the burgeoning cyber world that is gaining its share of attention: sexting.

    February 11, 2012

  • Protection sought for Scouts’ tax-exempt status

    As the Boy Scouts of America move closer to a national festival, a southern West Virginia lawmaker is moving to protect the organization’s tax-exempt status.

    February 11, 2012

  • Snow Plow NWS issues winter weather warnings, advisories through Sunday

    Winter weather is here at last, bringing with it up to 8 inches of snow this weekend in some parts of southern West Virginia, according to the National Weather Service.

    February 11, 2012 1 Photo

  • Snow Plow NWS issues winter weather warnings, advisories

    Winter weather is here at last, bringing with it up to 8 inches of snow in some parts of southern West Virginia, according to the National Weather Service.

    February 10, 2012 1 Photo

  • Bon Jovi, Rod Stewart, Lionel Richie, Toby Keith music headliners for The Greenbrier Classic

    Bon Jovi, Rod Stewart with special guest Lionel Richie, and Toby Keith will headline the musical entertainment card for the 2012 Greenbrier Classic.
    Keith will perform on Wednesday, July 4 while Stewart and Richie are scheduled for Friday, July 6. Bon Jovi will wrap up the concert series on Saturday, July 7.
    For more information see Saturday’s edition of The Register-Herald.

    February 10, 2012

  • act Hundreds of students attend ACT career fair

    The Academy of Careers and Technology celebrated National Career Technical Education Month this week with a career fair ending today.
    Academy Principal Charles Pack explained that more than 600 Raleigh County students were scheduled to visit the facility between Feb. 6 and Feb. 10 to view interactive displays and learn about the educational opportunities available through career and technical training.

    February 10, 2012 1 Photo

  • Support grows for texting ban

    You can count House Judiciary Chairman Tim Miley among lawmakers who favor making texting while driving a primary offense.
    And his committee now holds the key to a Senate bill that would outlaw the practice, deemed universally dangerous by professional drivers, and by those who make and enforce the laws.

    February 10, 2012

  • Bill looks to revamp teacher evaluations

    West Virginia is considering expanding a teacher evaluation pilot program in order to seek a waiver from the constraints of a federal education law.
    The House Education Committee advanced a bill Thursday that would require all schools in the state to use the new teacher evaluation system by the 2013-2014 school year.
    The pilot program is in its first year and just 25 schools are participating, prompting questions whether it is too soon to take the program statewide.

    February 10, 2012

  • Pugh puts trust in trustees

    From the vantage point of his office across the street from the Mountain State University campus, Beckley Mayor Emmett Pugh said he has seen the school grow over the years.
    In the early 1990s, he said, it was a small two-year junior college and was nearly bankrupt.
    “Today they are a prime part of our economic development puzzle here in the city. They provide a lot of jobs and a very needed product — higher education — and I think they do a great job,” Pugh said.

    February 10, 2012