Sec. 352.003. EFFECT OF CHAPTER

(a) This chapter does not:

(1) authorize a dispensing optician to perform an act on the optician's own authority that the optician is not otherwise authorized to perform, including an act that constitutes the practice of medicine, therapeutic optometry, or optometry;

(2) prevent or restrict a person licensed in this state under another law from engaging in the profession or occupation for which the person is licensed without being registered under this chapter;

(3) prevent or restrict an employee of a person licensed in this state from performing an employment duty required by the licensed person without being registered under this chapter;

(4) prevent or restrict an individual, firm, or corporation from employing a person registered under this chapter or from engaging in spectacle or contact lens dispensing through a person registered under this chapter who is employed at the location at which the dispensing occurs;

(5) prevent or restrict an individual, firm, or corporation from employing a person as an assistant, trainee, or apprentice to:

(A) engage in spectacle or contact lens dispensing; or

(B) provide instruction in the care and handling of contact lenses;

(6) prohibit the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners, the Texas Optometry Board, the attorney general, or another person authorized by law from bringing an appropriate action to enforce a state statute relating to the practice of medicine, therapeutic optometry, or optometry without a license; or

(7) require that a person be registered:

(A) under this chapter to sell or dispense contact lenses; or

(B) as a contact lens dispenser to work in a contact lens manufacturing facility that does not sell its finished product directly to the public.

(b) This chapter or another state law relating to a dispensing optician does not prevent or restrict a physician from:

(1) treating or prescribing for a patient; or

(2) directing or instructing a person under the physician's control or supervision to aid or minister to the needs of a patient according to a specific direction, order, instruction, or prescription.

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