Sec. 351.005. APPLICATION OF CHAPTER; EXEMPTIONS

(a) This chapter does not:

(1) apply to an officer or agent of the United States or this state in performing official duties;

(2) prevent or interfere with the right of a physician licensed by the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners to:

(A) treat or prescribe for a patient; or

(B) direct or instruct a person under the physician's control, supervision, or direction to aid or attend to the needs of a patient according to the physician's specific direction, instruction, or prescription;

(3) prevent a person from selling ready-to-wear eyeglasses as merchandise at retail;

(4) prevent an unlicensed person from making simple repairs to eyeglasses;

(5) prevent or interfere with the right of a dispensing optician registered under Chapter 352 to engage in spectacle or contact lens dispensing under that chapter;

(6) prevent an ophthalmic dispenser who does not practice optometry or therapeutic optometry from measuring interpupillary distances or making facial measurements to dispense or adapt an ophthalmic prescription, lens, product, or accessory in accordance with the specific directions of a written prescription signed by an optometrist, therapeutic optometrist, or licensed physician;

(7) prevent the administrator or executor of the estate of a deceased optometrist or therapeutic optometrist from employing an optometrist or therapeutic optometrist to continue the practice of the deceased during estate administration; or

(8) prevent an optometrist or therapeutic optometrist from working for the administrator or executor of the estate of a deceased optometrist or therapeutic optometrist to continue the practice of the deceased during estate administration.

(b) A direction, instruction, or prescription described by Subsection (a)(2)(B) must be in writing if it is to be followed, performed, or filled outside the physician's office.

(c) Subsection (a)(5) does not prohibit the board from acting under this chapter to restrict the unauthorized practice of optometry.

(d) Continuation of the practice of a deceased optometrist or therapeutic optometrist by an estate under Subsections (a)(7) and (8) must:

(1) be authorized by the county judge; and

(2) terminate before the first anniversary of the date of death of the optometrist or therapeutic optometrist.

Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 388, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1999.