Optometrist refuses to give contact lenses prescription

[acurael]

Originally Posted by Traum

Just briefly discussed this with my optometrist contact (pun intended), and it turned out I was 100% wrong in the above statements.

At the end of the day, it is all about liability though as I have mentioned. On any given prescription that an optometrist provides to his patient, he is profesionally liable for its accuracy. That much has always been clear. However, what I have overlooked in my previous post was, our eyes are two living and gradually changing organs. What has worked for you in the past may or may not continue to work the same way. (That is why we go get new prescriptions anyway!) And without spending time to medically examine your eyes and how the contact lenses interact with your eyes (even if you have already been wearing those contacts for a while), the optometrist cannot determine the suitiability. And if you have astigmatism, that'll further add some additional procedures to the evaluation. All of these are additional steps to your standard prescription eye exam.

Now, an optometrist can certainly choose to provide these additional services for free, and some do. Alternatively, some optometrists may already account for this service charge in their fee schedule, meaning that for anyone who do not require contact lenses, they are making a bigger profit on them. But in the OP's case, that is clearly not how his optometrist operates, and IMO, the OP can't really put the blame on the optometrist. It becomes a matter of prior to receiving the optometric services, what services has the OP been promised to perform? It could be a case of misunderstanding, with the OP expecting a prescriptions for both regular glasses and contact lenses, while the optometrist only promising to provide the regular glasses prescription and retaining the contact lens prescription as an additional service through a contact lens fitting procedure.

Given how this is supposed to be the standard practice for working optometrists, I don't think the OP will get very far should he choose to report the incident to the College of Optometrists. The College takes these kinds of allegations on their members very seriously, and they will conduct a thorough investigation to find out what has transpired. But given the situation at hand, I think the filing of a complain will only lead to a big waste of time for everyone involved. The College will determine that the optometrist in question has simply acted according to the standard practices endorsed by the College.


Pricing is volatile, and as you have mentioned, there is no consistently cheaper place to buy your contact lenses from.

Great post. The only thing I would say is if there is an extra fee for the contact lens service I wouldn't say there is more profit involved. It takes more chair time at the end of the day. Samples have to be ordered once they are used and that takes staff time to order/receive etc. If the person is fit with a new lens or new prescription often a no-charge contact lens follow-up is performed so that is two visits for the price of one. It usually just balances out as the additional contact lens fee is minimal in most cases.

[twitchyzero]

miscommunication or not

any medical personnel practising here bounded by the Canada Health Act cannot withhold documents when requested by the first party

the OP is not asking the doctor for his equipment so he/she can perform his/her own exam so spare me the 'liability' BS

if he wants to charge a fee for releasing it, so be it, but I get a good feeling this is what we call an in-house black-hole practice

[acurael]

Originally Posted by twitchyzero

miscommunication or not

any medical personnel practising here bounded by the Canada Health Act cannot withhold documents when requested by the first party

the OP is not asking the doctor for his equipment so he/she can perform his/her own exam so spare me the 'liability' BS

He is not withholding documents though. If he was not fit with the contact lens then no contact lens prescription can be given. There is no document to give.

It is not liability BS. If the patient goes blind because the contact lens causes damage to the eye the doctor can be sued. So to give a contact lens prescription the contact lens has to be fit and the vision checked. Also curvature measurements are taken of the eye. These are all additional testing and that's why there is an extra fee.

It's like going for an oil change and then demanding the alignment report but your car never went through the alignment.

That is why most offices have two separate exam fees. It makes it easier to understand and is clear for both parties. Reading the post again it seems the doctor definitely did not word it correctly by saying "you are not buying your contacts from here..etc". Poor communication it seems.

[twitchyzero]

i got a standard eye exam
the opticians had no issues giving me suitable contact lenses during fitting
are opticians not able to make professional judgement off a rx from a standard eye exam to dispense contact lenses?
I understand OP's wants to buy off the Internet which is why his/her optometrist is hesitant...i'm still inclined to believe it was dollars over ethics

[acurael]

Originally Posted by SSM_DC5

A registrant must provide, free of charge, a legible written or electronic copy of the following to the named individual, whether or not requested by the named individual, and to another person specified by the named individual, if requested by the named individual:

(a) the prescription for a corrective eyeglass lens, if any, on completion of the eye health examination, and

(b) the contact lens record, on completion of the fitting.




Source: Optometrists Regulation

Exactly. "Upon completion of the fitting". So if no fitting was done then no contact lens prescription given. Again most offices will charge extra for contact lens exam/contact lens fitting.

The Optometrist cannot legally write you a prescription for contacts without a fitting and follow-up (if necessary)

[acurael]

Originally Posted by twitchyzero

i got a standard eye exam
the opticians had no issues giving me suitable contact lenses during fitting
are opticians not able to make professional judgement off a rx from a standard eye exam to dispense contact lenses?
I understand OP's wants to buy off the Internet which is why his/her optometrist is hesitant...i'm still inclined to believe it was dollars over ethics

Yes the optician can fit you. They are regulated and are trained to convert "eyeglass" prescriptions to contacts as well as fit them if they complete a contact lens fitting program.

Optometrists/eye doctors can also do the contact lens fit. It depends on the office whether the optician or Optometrist does the fit.

Again most offices charge for a fitting (which makes sense) as its a service as I explained before. You may find the odd place that doesn't charge and fits you but that will usually be an Optician - they will not release an actual contact lens prescription and will do the fit free of charge in the hopes that you will purchase contacts from them.

Personally I'd rather have an Optometrist (who goes to school for 8 years and is a doctor) do a contact lens fitting rather than an Optician (non doctor goes to school for 1-2 years).

[acurael]

Originally Posted by Rallydrv

Has ur prescription changed?
If you already wear contacts, why do you need fitting again?

Also it's been over 2 years since I bought, but, clearly contacts has never asked for official prescription.

Usually it's.25 difference between glasses and contact as they sit directly on ur eyes . Dia will be same as before

Report him to college of optometrist. I see a lot of this bullshit, they send u for useless test etc or specialists in some cases as they get kickbacks

Just to clear things up.

1. You require another fitting after 1-2 years because your cornea can change shape. And your current lens may not fit you properly as time goes on which can cause damage to your eye (sometimes without you knowing or feeling any irritation). Contact lenses are medical devices.

2. the reason clearly contacts does not ask for a prescription is because they just want your money. They won't be liable if anything goes wrong with your eyes due to poor fitting. More work for them to verify prescriptions. Unregulated online. read the small print on their website.

3. Usually the contact lens prescription is different that the glasses prescription at a certain power. So that's not true in all cases

4. No optometrist gets kickbacks by sending to a specialist. That is definitely false.

[twitchyzero]

Originally Posted by acurael

Personally I'd rather have an Optometrist (who goes to school for 8 years and is a doctor) do a contact lens fitting rather than an Optician (non doctor goes to school for 1-2 years).

do you also ask your family physician to draw your blood when they give you a lab req because he/she went to school longer than the phlebotomists

[acurael]

Originally Posted by twitchyzero

do you also ask your family physician to draw your blood when they give you a lab req because he/she went to school longer than the phlebotomists

Optometrists go to school and train and learn about the eye for four years after doing a bachelor of science. I assume your family physician did not train for four years and learn only about blood vessels.

Likely the phlebotomist has more experience/training as that is their specialty. And Optometrists specialize in the eye and do more contact lens training than Opticians do.

End of the day as long as you get an Optometrist or Optician to do your contact lens fittings, you will be better off than the person who is doing guess work and ordering online to save 20-30 bucks for a contact lens fit.

And no family doctor draws blood anyways. lol. I assume there is not enough money in that for them to want to do it.