Dispensing Optometrists

Florida Statutes, Section 463.0055, permits certified optometrists to administer and prescribe ocular pharmaceutical agents for the diagnosis and treatment of ocular conditions of the eye and its appendages.

Florida Statutes, Section 465.0276, permits registered practitioners authorized by law to prescribe drugs, including optometrists, to dispense such drugs to their patients in the regular course of their practice. This means that optometrists, as part of their practice, are allowed to sell the drugs they are permitted by law to prescribe. However, optometrists may not dispense any controlled substance listed in Schedule II or Schedule III, as provided in Florida Statutes, Section 893.03.

However, before an optometrist is permitted to dispense drugs, the optometrist must first register with the Board of Optometry as a dispensing practitioner and pay a fee. Board of Optometry Rule 64B13-4.009 requires that for an optometrist to become a dispensing practitioner, he/she must submit to the Board Dispensing Practitioner Registration Form DH-MQA, and an initial fee of $100. The form can be obtained either from the Board office or on the Board’s website. The initial fee is set by Board Rule 64B13-6.001, and requires a renewal fee of $100 biennially.

Once an optometrist becomes a dispensing practitioner, he/she must comply with all laws and rules applicable to pharmacists and pharmacies, including but not limited to, Florida Statutes, Chapters 465, 499, and 893, and all federal laws and regulations. Before dispensing any drug, the dispensing practitioner must give the patient a written prescription, and orally or in writing, advise the patient that the prescription may be filled in the practitioner’s office or at any pharmacy. Also, before dispensing a controlled substance to a person not known by the dispenser, the practitioner must require the person purchasing, receiving, or otherwise acquiring the controlled substance to present a valid photographic identification or other verification of his/her identity.

A practitioner who only dispenses complimentary packages of medicinal drugs, which are labeled as drug samples, to the practitioners’ own patients in the regular course of his/her practice without the payment of fee is not required to register as a dispensing practitioner. However, the dispensed drug must contain the manufacture’s label with the practitioner’s name, patient’s name, and date dispensed. If the manufacturer’s label is not contained on the drug, then the drug must also contain the name and strength of the drug and directions for its use.