Industry News | 02.06.26
Court Voids Rule Letting Optometrists Do Eyelid Surgery
By NAMSS Staff
American Medical Association (01/15/26) O’Reilly, Kevin B.
The West Virginia Board of Optometry went beyond its rulemaking authority when it sought to expand optometrists’ scope of practice to include some eyelid surgeries, according to a recent circuit court ruling in the Mountaineer State. Out of concern for patient safety, the West Virginia State Medical Association and the West Virginia Academy of Eye Physicians & Surgeons Inc. sued the state optometry board in Kanawha County Circuit Court. The court decreed that optometrists do not have the proper level of education and clinical training required to safely perform such surgical procedures.
Read the full story by the American Medical Association.