Row in US over contact lens choice for patients

More than 135,000 people in the US have signed a Coalition for Contact Lens Consumer Choice (CCLCC) petition urging Congress to reject legislation that it said would lead to reduced choice and increased costs for the country’s contact lens wearers.

CL patients in the US have been able to buy CLs at discounted prices from alternative retailers, whether online, in stores or over the phone since 2003, when the Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act (FCLCA) was introduced.

Updated legislation introduced in April, the Contact Lens Consumer Health Protection Act (CLCHPA), tightened prescription verification, which the CCLCC group said would limit the consumers’ ability to access affordable CLs and allow optometrists to simply ignore verification requests from alternative retailers.