NOCE Laws, Regulations, and Standards 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), an optical dispensary open to the public must:
- Provide free eyewear to disabled patients
- Ensure physical accessibility and reasonable accommodations (Correct answer)
- Hire a minimum number of disabled employees
- Offer discounted pricing for disabled individuals
Correct answer: Ensure physical accessibility and reasonable accommodations
Title III of the ADA requires places of public accommodation, including optical shops, to be physically accessible and provide reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities.
Question 2: Which organization publishes the voluntary standards most commonly referenced for ophthalmic lens tolerances in the United States?
- ISO alone
- ANSI, often adopted by state boards (Correct answer)
- FDA directly
- American Optometric Association
Correct answer: ANSI, often adopted by state boards
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) publishes the Z80 series of voluntary ophthalmic standards, which are widely adopted by state boards and the industry.
Question 3: A patient's eyeglass prescription reads: OD -2.00 -1.00 x 090. The optician measures the finished lens and finds -2.00 -1.25 x 090. Under ANSI Z80.1, this lens:
- Passes because sphere power is correct
- Fails because cylinder power exceeds the ±0.13 D tolerance for this power range (Correct answer)
- Passes because the axis is correct
- Fails because any deviation from prescription is prohibited
Correct answer: Fails because cylinder power exceeds the ±0.13 D tolerance for this power range
ANSI Z80.1 allows a cylinder power tolerance of ±0.13 D for powers up to 2.00 D; a 0.25 D deviation exceeds this tolerance, so the lens fails.
Question 4: Which of the following actions by an optician would constitute practicing outside their scope of practice in most US states?
- Adjusting frame temples for patient comfort
- Measuring pupillary distance
- Diagnosing a patient's refractive error (Correct answer)
- Verifying lens power with a lensometer
Correct answer: Diagnosing a patient's refractive error
Diagnosing refractive errors constitutes the practice of optometry or ophthalmology; opticians are licensed to dispense and fit but not to examine or diagnose.
Question 5: The Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act (FCLCA) requires contact lens prescribers to do which of the following?
- Sell contact lenses directly to the patient
- Verify or deny third-party seller requests within 8 business hours (Correct answer)
- Provide a 1-year supply of lenses with every new prescription
- Require annual examinations before releasing a prescription copy
Correct answer: Verify or deny third-party seller requests within 8 business hours
The FCLCA requires prescribers to verify or deny a contact lens seller's verification request within 8 business hours, after which passive verification (no response = confirmed) applies.
Question 6: When a contact lens prescription expires and the patient requests a supply to last until their next appointment, what should the optician do?
- Dispense up to a 3-month supply as a professional courtesy
- Refuse to dispense and direct the patient to obtain a current prescription (Correct answer)
- Call the prescriber and verbally confirm the old prescription is still valid
- Dispense one box and document it as an emergency supply
Correct answer: Refuse to dispense and direct the patient to obtain a current prescription
Dispensing contact lenses on an expired prescription is prohibited under federal law; the optician must direct the patient to obtain a valid, current prescription.
Question 7: A patient brings a handwritten prescription on plain paper with no letterhead. Under the FTC Eyeglass Rule, the optician should:
- Refuse to fill it because letterhead is mandatory
- Fill it if it contains all required elements: patient name, prescriber info, issue date, power, and prescriber signature (Correct answer)
- Contact the FTC for guidance before dispensing
- Require the patient to get a printed prescription from the prescriber's office
Correct answer: Fill it if it contains all required elements: patient name, prescriber info, issue date, power, and prescriber signature
The FTC Eyeglass Rule does not require letterhead; it requires the prescription to contain specific data elements, and a handwritten version meeting those requirements is valid.
NOCE Laws, Regulations, and Standards 4
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), an optical dispensary open to the public must: