Optometrists in Arkansas hope to expand their scope of practice by gaining the right to perform certain surgeries.
Ophthalmologists oppose the idea. The issue is likely to be one of the most contentious in the upcoming state legislative session, Talk Business & Politics reports.
Dr. Belinda Starkey, president of the Arkansas Optometric Association, was quoted saying the proposed legislation “would make narrow changes to the law, allowing doctors of optometry to provide a few additional minor in-office procedures.”
But Dr. Scott Lowery, president of the Arkansas Ophthalmological Society, said optometrists being allowed to perform surgeries “is a bad idea because they are simply not trained to do them.”
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Optometrists in Arkansas want to be allowed to perform “procedures that could include injections, cutting, burning, freezing, sutures, vaporizing, coagulating or photodisrupting,” according to Talk Business & Politics.
Some other states, such as Tennessee, Louisiana and Oklahoma, allow optometrists to perform procedures that were previously limited to MDs.
Read more at the Talk Business & Politics
