After an unsuccessful earlier attempt, a bill allowing optometrists to perform a broader range of eye surgeries received just enough votes to clear the House public health committee Tuesday.
House Bill 1251 would allow optometrists to administer injections around the eye, remove bumps and lesions from the eyelids, and perform certain types of laser surgery.
Supporters say the measure would allow optometrists to use more of their training and provide easier access to eye care for patients in rural areas of the state.
Opponents, including groups representing ophthalmologists and other physicians, say it would put patients at risk by allowing optometrists to perform procedures currently performed by ophthalmologists.
The bill on Feb. 19 fell two votes short of the 11 it needed to advance out of the House Committee on Public Health, Welfare and Labor.
[RELATED: Complete Democrat-Gazette coverage of the Arkansas Legislature]
On Tuesday, it cleared the committee, without a vote to spare, after Reps. Jeff Wardlaw, R-Hermitage, and Austin McCollum, R-Bentonville -- who previously voted against it -- changed their positions.
Also chairman Jack Ladyman, R-Jonesboro, who didn't vote on Feb. 19, voted in favor of it Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Rep. John Payton, R-Wilburn, who previously voted for the measure, voted against it Tuesday.
As chairman, Ladyman said he generally avoids voting during committee meetings unless it will affect the outcome. He said he's supported HB1251 "for a long time" because it will extend care to rural areas and lower costs by reducing the need for patients to see multiple providers.
Expanding the access would come with risks, but "the good outweighs the perfect in this situation," he said.
Since the earlier meeting, the bill's sponsor -- Rep. Jon Eubanks, R-Paris -- said he had pared the language and attempted to clarify the types of procedures optometrists would be allowed to perform.
He also added a section requiring optometrists to report the results of laser surgeries to the Board of Optometry. The reports would also go to the state Board of Health.
A few months ago, after his own eye became irritated, he said his optometrist removed a piece of metal from his eye. By contrast, he said, his wife had to travel to Conway to see a specialist for a different type of health issue because the one she usually sees wasn't available for six or eight weeks.
Allowing optometrists to handle more procedures will "not only increase health care accessibility for these individuals, but we can also give them some piece of mind," he said.
Optometrists complete a four-year program on eye care after graduating from college and are licensed by the Arkansas Board of Optometry.
Ophthalmologists, who are physicians licensed by the state Medical Board, are medical school graduates who complete a yearlong hospital internship and at least three years of residency.
Arkansas law currently allows optometrists to remove foreign objects from the surface of the eye, but bars them from performing other surgical procedures.
Rep. Stephen Magie, an ophthalmologist, said ophthalmologists already deal with the effects of legislation passed decades ago that increased optometrists' scope of practice.
He said he saw one patient recently who needed immediate surgery but had been sent home with eye drops by an optometrist four days earlier. Another, who had been seen by an optometrist for dry eyes for five years, turned out to have "end stage glaucoma that was missed," he said.
Optometrists "don't have the clinical skills and the judgment and the training to do even some of the medical issues, and now we're talking about letting them do surgery," Magie, D-Conway, said.
The bill next goes to the full House.
Metro on 03/06/2019