We hope you will oppose A-743 this Thursday if it is called to a vote. Although we're certain that you know the Medical Society's position on this matter, we would be shirking our responsibility to you and the public you serve if we didn't let you know once more of the bill's clear dangers to health care in New Jersey. A-743 has no limitations of any real consequence. By empowering optometrists to diagnose all diseases of the eye, it also permits them to use an immense variety of drugs. With some patients, beta blockers can affect the heart and cause acute asthma.
Steroids can cause glaucoma, cataracts and diabetes.
This bill even acknowledges this last fact by permitting the optometrist to inject drugs to counter such reactions. If the reaction is severe enough, the optometrist had better be prepared to administer an I.V. on the spot. The point is, diagnosing disease and prescribing drugs is a complex process. It is the practice of medicine. And because optometrists receive no medical training, a law which empowers them to diagnose inevitably will result in misdiagnosis and erroneous prescriptions.