Latest News Utah Optometric Association, AOA Lead Effort to Defeat Online Prescribing Bill By Staff Monday, March 14, 2016 12:24 AM SALT LAKE CITY—The Utah Optometric Association and the American Optometric Association rallied supporters last week to defeat state legislation aimed at deregulating contact lens sales and establishing new authority for internet mass retailers to sell and dispense medical devices.In a recent message to AOA members, AOA president Steven A. Loomis, OD, said Utah House Bill 304 would have established “an array of unsafe contact lens sales loopholes and allow for the online prescribing and dispensing of contact lenses.” According to the AOA, the legislation would have allowed contact lens prescriptions to be obtained based on an online questionnaire, with no requirement of regular, in-person care by an eye doctor. The effort would have also shifted oversight of the safety and appropriateness of online vision care diagnostic and prescribing tools away from eye and vision health care professionals and toward a general online prescriber, the organization said.