Ohio Opticianry independence at risk

[drk]

AGAIN! This affects both my profession and yours.

Get this:

November 17, 2016
LEGISLATURE PROPOSES ELIMINATION OF OPTOMETRY BOARD! ACT NOW TO PRESERVE A SELF-REGULATED PROFESSION
Dear DRK
On November 15, two identical bills (Senate Bill 366 and House Bill 617) were introduced into the Ohio General Assembly which would dramatically alter the way many medical professionals are regulated in Ohio, including optometrists. The bills would eliminate several licensing boards, including the State Board of Optometry, and consolidate regulation in newly-created, multi-disciplinary boards. Composition of the boards governing medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, chiropractic and others are not changed by the bills. A second part of the bills outlines a process for the state to handle antitrust allegations levied against a board for anti-competitive activity. The two parts of the bills are unrelated.


Under the bills, the State Boards of Optometry, Optical Dispensers, Audiologists and Speech-language Pathologists would be combined under a new Vision and Hearing Professionals Board. This new board would be comprised of: 2 optometrists, 2 opticians, 1 ophthalmologist, 2 speech-language pathologists, 1 audiologist and 1 public member. All current responsibilities and authority of the Board of Optometry would transfer to this new board.


We must act immediately to preserve optometry’s self-regulation! Please call the following legislators today to urge them to oppose the elimination of the State Board of Optometry and oppose the creation of the Vision and Hearing Professionals Board as contained in Senate Bill 366 and House Bill 617:


Kris Jordan
Senate Building
1 Capitol Square, Ground Floor
Columbus, Oh 43215
614-466-8086
Website


Margaret Ann Ruhl
77 S. High St
11th Floor
Columbus, Oh 43215
614-466-1431
Website


Hey, Ohio Opticians, unless you want to be represented with only two opticians amongst all sorts of other professional interests, I'd call or write the state representatives/senators. (Those listed here are for my location, only. Call your Optician's Association for details.)

[Chris Ryser]

Goud job drk, can not even been found in the news yet

[Lelarep]

Sweet, merciful lord. What could they possibly be thinking? Is this to save a few bucks or something?

[Robert Martellaro]

Sweet, merciful lord. What could they possibly be thinking? Is this to save a few bucks or something?

Yup, probably to satisfy a campaign pledge/ideology. Unfortunately, smaller government isn't necessarily better government.

[optical24/7]

Welcome to the wonderful world of tea party politics. I authored a bill about 5 years ago to move our voluntary registration to mandatory licensensure which made it to legislative council ( the last step before going to the floor for a vote). It got killed there when a large retailer's lobbyist made a large contribution. ( last year they got rid of our voluntary registration, partly due to optician apathy/lack of participation... a whopping 43 opticians bothered to be registered).

I know politics are taboo here, but politics do effect our profession. Warning to Ohio ECP's..... Do not sit idle. Let your voices be heard. Votes trump money. That state has already tried to end your licensure status. This bill is bad for the public, you're profession and the future of advancement of opticianry. Drk, let us know if any of us out of staters can do anything to assist.

[Chris Ryser]

Sweet, merciful lord. What could they possibly be thinking? Is this to save a few bucks or something?

.............or some lobbyist has successfully worked on them.

[Lelarep]

This is why they shot all the lawyer's and proceeded to the lobbyists next!

[drk]

What Chris said.

[Robert Martellaro]

IMO, probably not on the take like the New York Senator, at least in this area. My political nose smells poor governance, driven by ignorance and power tripping. Give the man an education, and if his hand reaches for your wallet, a check in the low to mid five figures.

Sweeten the pot with...http://www.valtrousa.com/handguns.html

Oops, pass on the pistol and try a case of 30 year old single malt.

Oops, make that 30 free hours with a really good psychiatrist.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kris_Jordan

[obxeyeguy]

Just went thru this in NC, still going on. Higher powers getting to key people, opticians, poof! All gone.

[Chris Ryser]

Just went thru this in NC, still going on. Higher powers getting to key people, opticians, poof! All gone.

Just use your thinking process by starting at point A.

a) Which higher power wants to reduce those key people ? (opticians) ?

b) Who and what is the fastest growing optical retail way of doing business, not only in North America, but the world
over ?

c) Who is hammering away on every corner of the internet selling Rx glasses, day in and day out ?

d) Which is the basic geographic learning territory for those online eyeglass sellers.

e) Who owns those most aggressive internet businesses ?

Every pair of glasses sold on the internet has not been sold by a professional optical retailer, nor by their suppliers of frames and lenses or other supplies.

The online optical retail industry had projected sales of 37,000,000 pairs of glasses in 2016.

[obxeyeguy]

Not sure on that Chris. We all know the elephants in the room, well a lot of us do. That big white one already has such a hold on opticians, they still make big bucks off them because they took the cool-aid, tasted, and now follow like lemmings. Doesn't seem to matter, your other thread "explains" how their online is a "good" thing for independents , right? Drink up, follow us to the promised land, and they still have the longest line.

My guess, a little off the record collusion in the large and mid sized chains, money dropped in the right state races. We could blame it on the OD's like we would have 30+ years ago.

[Chris Ryser]

We could blame it on the OD's like we would have 30+ years ago.

obxeyeguy, .................I don't see it that way, because OD s are still needed to do the refraction, at least until there is an automated, well working way to refract at the tobacco store or gas station around the corner.

That device will also have to take a picture of the placement
of the eyes and give all the physical measurements needed for a lab to process the on-line glasses.

Only then ODs can be placed on the back burner and become a less needed species for special cases.

The computer savvy young folks that have purchased on line glasses over the last 10 years years are soon hitting middle age and will soon need reading glasses, and the APP crowd is learning even faster how to save money by purchasing on-line.

[obxeyeguy]

You must have missed the emoticon , a bit of sarcasm . .....

[CNG]

In all legislated professions this is what is going to happen. The fact remains that you are still under the authority of a board. Not a bad thing that it is combined since the optometrists have an equal board members as the opticians. Now you can cry all you want but it really is not that bad.

[fjpod]

NYS is not changing the law to combine state boards into one....ala Ohio. BUT NYS now assigns each Board Secretary (a paid state employee, not necessarily a member of the chosen profession) 2 or 3 other boards to take care of. So, for example in NYS the State Board Secretary administers Optometry, dentistry, and Chiropractic. The actual boards are still separate as required by law.

This action in Ohio does seem disconcerting...

[CNG]

The problem with this from the OD view is that they are losing control of their board sharing it with opticians with equal footing in decision making. I'll bet the ophthalmologist on the board is a bigger thorn. Am I right? But I agree there should be different boards.

[fjpod]

The problem with this from the OD view is that they are losing control of their board sharing it with opticians with equal footing in decision making. I'll bet the ophthalmologist on the board is a bigger thorn. Am I right? But I agree there should be different boards.

I don't think any licensed profession should accept board members from other professions. Period.

[tmorse]

I don't think any licensed profession should accept board members from other professions. Period.

+1

[Chris Ryser]

I don't think any licensed profession should accept board members from other professions. Period.

+ 1

You are both right but ......................

It seems to be a general trend in regulated states, as reported right here on OptiBoard periodically.

I had a friend, who before retirement was a lobbyist for one of the more powerful organizations in the USA for over 20 years, and whenever we met gave me stories relating to his previous career of lobbying.

Right here in "Quebec the Canadian Snowbelt" we have a new law for the last few 4 to 5, years that every car has to have 4 snow tires on its wheels by December 6, or if caught without it you get a $ 300.00 fine.

The last count I could find is back to 2010, where there was 5,913,950 cars. That would have made an increase of
12 million tires just to upgrade to 4 tires for existing cars.

Some industry convinced lawmakers to double the sales of winter tires on every car.

In the optical industry most probably, lobbyists have been at work to reduce the boards to a less powerful state.

Furthermore the latest Internet predictions for this Christmas Season have already started, here is Fortune Magazine:

Total Internet sales are expected to hit almost $95 billion.

The Internet is set to continue its inexorable march upward thisholiday season: digital sales are expected to hit $94.71 billion this Christmasperiod, according to research firm eMarketer.

Thatwould take e-commerce’s share of total holiday season sales past the 10% markfor the first time, a major new milestone for online retailers. Last holidayseason,more shoppers went online than to stores over Thanksgiving Weekend, which is the kickoff to the busiest shopping period of the year.

(source: http://fortune.com/2016/09/27/ecomme...holiday-season )

It all seems to fit together in the puzzle of liberating optical online sales, and by reducing professional board controlled influence.

[wmcdonald]

There is a strong movement to the right that puts this into perspective. It is summarized, and a link to the full study here:
https://www.mercatus.org/publication...-united-states.

Some will read this like it is new material, and it appears to be forgotten here. Who funded it? Many feel the corporate folks funded this study, and if that is the case I don't blame them. Their goal is profitability. Reducing personnel costs is their job, not protecting this "profession." A Google search will provide some rebuttal articles, due to the obvious flaws inherent in this study, but there is some truth here. Opticians must improve if they are to remain a relevant, licensed profession, but as is typically the case, many within the field see no real need in licensing. It is designed to protect the public, not Opticians income, and the political right wing feels they are doing good work when eliminating unnecessary licenses. Taking a PD and measuring a seg height does not a profession make, and unfortunately most Opticians have little understanding of the very tasks they should be doing daily. Rx analysis is not telling Ms. Jones to wear that new Rx for a couple of weeks and it will get better! The person with the highest sales total is not the best Optician. Many here are well trained and educated, but in reality, most are ill-equipped to function beyond those rudimentary duties that clearly do not demand a license. This statement is supported by the fact that folks working in OD and MD practices do not require a license, and there is little evidence that we do it any better. ABO/NCLE has published a good, well-designed study with data to support the value of certification, but there has been little publicity in the journals, and they did not address licensing. There will always be someone called an "optician", but I fear they will be far less than the learned professional in my vision for the field. I think most will agree we have declined over the decades in many ways, and technology now is making us less necessary. Early on we allowed others to define us, and now we are at a crossroads. Will it be market forces that define us in the future? Can we improve, or is the end near for the professional side of this journey? For many years it was in our hands, but is it too late? Only time will tell.

[Chris Ryser]

.

Will it be market forces that define us in the future? Can we improve, or is the end near for the professional side of this journey?

For many years it was in our hands, but is it too late? Only time will tell.

I believe that time is telling us that "now" is here, and the " but is it too late" is just around the corner.

The grace period seems to be over, since the two worlds largest optical manufacturers, one in frames and the other in lenses have purchased and now operate the largest on-line optical retailers on the internet.

Furthermore the worldwide economic situation has played into the hands of these companies. The Economic forecasts
are now, that they will be hitting a full 10% of all sales in the next few weeks, which is a first ever.

The older, non computer savvy generation is faster and faster dying off, leaving the world to the younger generations that are used to instant information and communications and access to the internet.

[Chris Ryser]

Early on we allowed others to define us, and now we are at a crossroads. Will it be market forces that define us in the future?

Here are the latest reports on the markets in general at the start of the biggest selling season of the year.

Last Updated: November 26, 2016, at 9:00AM MT
Black Friday Totals

Adobe Digital Insights has totaled Black Friday performance, which resulted in an incredible $3.34B in online sales with a 21.6% year-over-year growth rate (Up $290M over the predicted $3.05B and 11.3% year-over-year growth).
Black Friday has made history as the first day to ever generate over a billion dollars in online sales from mobile devices ($1.2B total, 36% of total sales for the day and an increase of 33% YoY).

Conversion rates spiked in the late hours of Black Friday as consumers took advantage of the great online deals.
Desktop averaged 5.5%, tablets averaged 4.6%, and smartphones averaged 2.4%. Email also surged as a key contributor of sales (17.8%, up 2.8% pct points from the holiday average) as retailers sent messages urging consumers to not miss out on Black Friday deals before it was too late.

Final out of stock rates surged to 10.5% (up 1.9% over Thanksgiving) but were still 1.5% percent lower than last year (12%).


See all of it at: ========è
http://www.cmo.com/adobe-digital-ins...tml#gs.0986HdQ

[CNG]

Licensure is required in any job that deals with health. Would you buy eyeglasses for your toddler online? If you are an adult you will take the risk. Vision is an adaptable sense because your brain can get use to some degree of blurryness with less than perfect lenses. Optometry is really weighting the fact that prescription eyeglasses and refractions will not be part of their profession...opticianry cant afford to do that. Even if opticianry expands to refraction we are at a loss until it is viewed as health.

[Chris Ryser]

Licensure is required in any job that deals with health. Would you buy eyeglasses for your toddler online? If you are an adult you will take the risk.

There is a strong movement to the right that puts this into perspective. It is summarized, and a link to the full study here:
https://www.mercatus.org/publication...-united-states.

CNG, According to the post and link supplied by wmcdonald, (whose efforts I admire) :

The largest part of US citizens are purchasing their glasses in states that require no licensing. How do you explain that ?